A Mediumistic Maid April 18, 2016
Author: Beach Combing | in : Contemporary , trackback
There is the need for a collection of all Arthur Conan Doyle’s gadding around in his ‘psychic’ years. And when that time comes Strange History will have several stories to offer up: sometimes ACD turns up as an expert on the spot, at other times the press use ACD as an expert or talking head. Here, in 1928, he only intervenes at the end.
Uncanny happenings in an old farmhouse Mason’s Bridge, two miles south of Redhill, Surrey, are being eagerly discussed by the villagers. The house, known as Mason’s Bridge Farm, Mason’s Bridge-road, Salfords, is a picturesque half-timbered building, between 400 and 500 years old.
There is plenty of nineteenth century form for this building but unfortunately no recent pictures have come up. Now to the drama:
Mr. Christopher Roads, the tenant, has only been occupation for 18 months. Besides his wife and a boy of six years, the other occupants are a maid 16 and youth who is learning farming. A few days ago the family began to be alarmed at mysterious happenings. Heavy pieces of furniture were shifted and crockery was found to have fallen from the shelves. A woman representative of the Spiritualist Church, after investigation, concluded that the maid had a highly developed medium, and that the spirits have been attracted by her presence.
This is an interesting turn on the usual, blame-any-adolescent-females-in-the-building motif, particularly if they are on the serving staff: if they are daughters send them to boarding school…
Constable Dixon says that when he called, Mrs. Roads, on going upstairs, found that her bedstead had been turned round. ‘Five chairs from the dining-room had been moved mysteriously into the drawing-room.’ Next morning she heard her little boy crying from his bedroom, ‘Mother, someone is moving my bed’. Running upstairs, she found that the bed had been turned round, and the boy was terrified. ‘A pair of boots disappeared from the scullery, and were found in the drawing-room. Two local farmers called. While they were talking in the kitchen a pot of jam moved from its place on the table and fell on the stone floor without breaking. A woman who visited tho house opened one of the china cupboards, and a child’s teacup jumped out and fell on the floor at her feet.’
And now to ACD
Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s private secretary supports the view that the occurrences are due to the presence in the house of the mediumistic maid.
So consensus with the Spiritualist Church, then. Well done Arthur.
Anything else on the Mason Bridge Poltergeist: drbeachcombing At yahoo DOT com Or the mediumistic maid…
