PHANTOM BRIDE

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 79, Issue 18, 22 January 1935, Page 10

PHANTOM BRIDE

GHOST IN COUNTRY HOUSE

STREAKS OF MISCHIEF I “AUBURN-HAIRED BEAUTY.” | Just off the main road to the parish of Rayleigh, Essex, stands Whitbreds, a very old house, part of which dates I back to the days of Oliver Cromwell. | Ir is said fo be haunted by the ghost of a beautiful auburn-haired girl, clad in a white bridal gowl. Many people claim to have seen or heard the apparition. Mr. G. G. Williamson, who has lived with his parents in the house for the past 18 years, told a News of the World representative about the phantom bride. When he first moved in he dis-

missed the story as fantastic, in spite of the assurance of the previous tenants, who described the ghosts even as himself later saw it. When all the folk in the house were in one room, said Mr. Williamson, they at times heard mysterious noises, as if someone was walking down the passage, j They heard doors open and shut for, ( no apparent reason. Once a stranger i to the place heard the front door open : and shut, an object rat-tie the ha»I stafid, and footsteps come down the I hallway, x. He went to the door, telling those in the room that Mr. Williamson, I senior, had returned early from the city. Everyone in the room heard the sounds, hut. when searched, the house proved empty. Mr. Williamson was later met on getting off his usual train. Figure of a Young Girl. That is but one of many similar inexplicable instances. Airs. Williamhson ; says she has felt the unknown touch I her more than once, while on one ! momentous occasion her son actually I saw the apparition. An old monks’ track leads past the house, and used, in old times, to c* tend from Hockley Parish Church to a house that now stands on the Eastwood oßa<l. Mr. Williamson says he was coming down the track, about nine o’clock on a winter's evening, when Trosaw the figure of a young gifl standing I underneath a big tree in front of the jhouse. She hail (lowing auburn hair, and was dressed in what appeared to he a full-length white bridal gown. was luminous in the dark, and as he watched she moved across the lawn and seemed to drift through the front gate and into the meadow beyond. Air. Williamson confesses that he was badly shaken, and finally reached the house by a roundabout route. As far ns is known, the spectre has never interfered with anyone, and confine.-? her activities, more or less, to an oakbeamed room in the oldest wing of the house. The spectre’s one mischievous : trait appears to be the habit of fastening doors, thereby locking people in or out of rooms, often when they are alone in the building. Only a little while ago a. male member of the household was thus incarcerated, while rumour has it that a previous tenant found himself imprisoned in his bedroom when he got up one morning. A Ghost in a Bedroom. Another firm believer in the existence of the ghost is Miss Tawke, of Bullwood House, Hockley. Whitbreds Is her property, ami althoug she herself has never lived there, her motheF, who.n she describes as “a, most practical person,” resided there' in days gone by, and saw the ghost on no fewer than three separate occasions.

Aliss Tawke related that in those days the spare bedroom was the 11 ghost room,” and on one occasion a blind cousin was accommodated there. She knew nothing about the supposed spectre. Next morninug Aliss Tawke’s mother asked the visitor how she slept. The blind guest replied, “Someone In the room kept putting a hand -over my face*” The room was not used as a bedroom after that time.” Miss Tawke said she could give uo clue as to the history of the apparition. Parts of the house are very, very old. It was once acquired, with all the surrounding estate, by money made in the slave trade. The owner was very eccentric.