The Durweston Poltergeist: A Victorian Tale of Floating Objects and Mysterious Scribbles
In the late 1800s, the quiet village of Durweston, near Blandford Forum, Dorset, was disturbed by a series of unsettling events. The focus of these disturbances was the cottage of an elderly widow, Mrs. Best, who lived there with two orphaned girls she had fostered: Anna Cleave and her younger sister (whose name, sadly, has been lost to time).
One night, Mrs. Best was awakened by loud bangs and knocks emanating from within the cottage. Initially, she suspected the girls were the source of the commotion, but they vehemently denied any wrongdoing. The noises persisted, growing more unsettling with the addition of scratching sounds echoing from the walls.
Fearing something supernatural was at play, Mrs. Best turned to her neighbor for help. Mr. Newman, the gamekeeper for the nearby estate of Viscount Portman, was no stranger to strange occurrences. He himself had witnessed a boot flying through the air and striking a wall within Mrs. Best's cottage. Intrigued and concerned, Newman decided to investigate.
His investigation took a decidedly bizarre turn. After audibly challenging the unseen entity, a collection of small seashells inexplicably floated into the room, gently tapping him before falling to the floor. This was followed by thimbles and a pencil, all moving in an unnatural, floating manner. The previously airborne boot then reappeared, hovering a foot above the ground before dropping heavily in front of him. Newman, understandably unnerved, threw the boot outside, only to have it fly back into the cottage and knock his hat off his head.
The escalating activity prompted Mrs. Best and the girls to seek temporary refuge with Newman. Word of the strange happenings spread throughout the village and beyond, eventually reaching the ears of the Society for Psychical Research. The Society dispatched an investigator, Mr. Westlake, to Durweston to document the events. Westlake interviewed those involved, including Newman, whose detailed account of the floating objects was carefully recorded. The Society deemed further investigation necessary and sent two more individuals to Durweston: the local schoolmaster, Mr. Shepherd, and the Reverend Anderson.
Shepherd, a man of science, was determined to find a rational explanation for the disturbances. The investigators devised a method of communicating with the entity, using a system of knocks (one for yes, two for no). They asked the entity if it would like them to fetch a slate for writing. The entity responded affirmatively and, through a series of knocks, guided them to the girls' bedroom. It then made a peculiar request: only Mrs. Best and the two girls should remain in the room.
This request raised suspicions among the investigators, but they complied, instructing the women to stay on their beds. They placed a slate and chalk in the room and periodically checked on the occupants. The knocking and scratching sounds continued, even when the investigators were present. At 2:30 a.m., while waiting below the stairs, they distinctly heard the pencil scratching on the slate. Both the Reverend and the schoolmaster swore that no one had moved from the beds.
This process was repeated five times, with the scratching on the slate resuming each time the investigators left the room. On one occasion, the slate was marked with a flourish of curves; on two others, it bore words: "mony" (money) and "garden."
The poltergeist activity persisted even after this investigation, and the girls were eventually separated and sent to live in different homes. Intriguingly, the disturbances seemed to follow Anna Cleave but not her younger sister, suggesting that the phenomenon might be connected to a person rather than a place. It was later reported that Anna had a consumptive tendency and was considered hysterical by a doctor. Her fate after these events remains unknown.
The Durweston haunting stands as a compelling Victorian ghost story, documented not only in the Society's records but also in several contemporary newspapers, lending credence to the tale and leaving us to ponder the true nature of the "noisy spirit" that plagued Mrs. Best's cottage
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