Vicar spooks Home Guard
DURING the decade or so this column has been running, I've covered a good few wartime ghost stories.
My good friend Alan Tedder, from Sunderland, gave me some ageing newspaper cuttings of a story that sent shivers down a few spines in 1942. I hope you like it.
St Aidan's church house, in Linthorpe Road, Middlesborough, used to be a manse.
At one time it was inhabited by the Reverend GH Sellwood-Godwin, who, according to legend, was a descendant of King Harold Godwinson.
Eventually the manse was sold and, at the outbreak of the Second World War, was used as a headquarters for civil defence.
In July 1942, staff began to hear other sounds, such as doors banging, footsteps when no one was around and eerie laughter.
Some people will scoff, but the civil defence workers found the situation anything but funny. Things got so bad they called in the police.
As luck would have it, the job of investigating was given to Detective Sergeant Appleton, who was himself an ardent spiritualist and, I've been told, a practising medium.
A sance was held, and DS Appleton announced the spirit was that of the long-departed vicar.
But there was more. The ghost of the good reverend had a message for his former parishioners, and, he stated: "Face the future bravely and accept the sacrifices imposed on you in this awful struggle against the forces of evil and destruction which threatens your civilisation.
"Dispel all complacent moods, and renew your faith in the Eternal Father."
DS Appleton's boss, an Inspector R Stewart, put himself on 24-hour call and demanded to be told immediately if the disturbances returned.
They did, and one local suggested the spirit of the old minister was angry because his former study had been turned into a bedroom.
The bed was removed, but the noises continued. One night, two civil defence members decided to stay overnight to see if they could spy the ghost.
Well, they heard footsteps upstairs and dashed up to investigate.
However, as soon as they opened the door of the study the sounds stopped. On entering they found it empty.
Not surprisingly, they decided to end their vigil and made for home – or, more likely, the pub for last orders.
One cynic suggested the noises were being made by birds in the loft.
But Stewart doubted birds could have thrown shell casings around the building as the ghost had done in front of numerous witnesses.
Eventually the ghost faded away, but the wartime prophecies of the disembodied Reverend Sellwood-Godwin proved to be eerily correct.
* Bizarre now has its own website. Check it out here.
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Weather for South Shields
Thursday 09 February 2012
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