Supernatural Happenings in a Somerset House

At an undisclosed address, 3 miles from the Somerset County town of Taunton, strange events were being witnessed. A report from the Somerset County Herald newspaper, in 1947, told of these events as they had interviewed the witnesses. This large house, or parts of it, were said to have been from the 13th century, built possibly as a retreat for the monks of Taunton Priory, whilst the newer parts of this house, were built in 1594.

First to be interviewed was a young woman, who was said to come across as educated and level-headed. In her bedroom, for the last few months, the sound of a ticking clock was heard around 11.30pm. The ticking sound would last for around 30 minutes or so. At first it would come from the wall, on which her headboard was against. The sound would then move into mid-air, towards the middle of the room. The young woman’s terrier dog would sleep in a dog’s basket in the bedroom but as the ticking sound started, the dog would leave his bed and go sleep in another corner of the room. He would then return to his basket once the ticking sound stopped.

The heavy oak door of the bedroom would also be gently opened, then gently closed, with the click of the latch, as though an invisible entity had entered the room. There was a bookcase on the opposite side of the bedroom, which had glass panelled doors. These doors were locked but this unseen spectre would be able to open them and when the doors were shut, they were locked shut. The terrier dog would growl when this happened, as though aware of this unseen presence. The young woman said she wasn’t afraid and thought this activity was carried out by someone who had once lived in the house and was, perhaps, interested in who resided there currently.

Interesting to note is that the ticking sound was also experienced by the previous tenant too.

In another part of the house, in a bedroom called the blue room, there seemed to be another ghost, whose behaviour was quite different from the other bedroom ghost.

The son of the then current tenant was a scientist, who was conscious of an unseen presence, who would be heard talking in the early hours of the morning, waking the young man up. It happened so often that the man moved rooms so that he could get an undisturbed sleep. He was rather annoyed with having to move rooms.

A guest of the household, a Roman Catholic woman, was to stay in the blue room. She was aware of the young man’s experience in that room, so she had asked for the protection of St Francis and went on to have a fully refreshing sleep that night.

It was several weeks later when the young man went back in the blue room to mend an electric switch, that he was to hear the voice again. He asked out for the ghost to speak more clearly but got no response. He went out of the room to ask the others in the house if they had spoken to him, but they hadn’t. So he went back into the room to finish the job and the voice was heard again.

Several months later, on a calm evening, the tenant of the house was in the blue room, mending a window catch. The door to the room was wide open but the door was suddenly slammed shut and when the tenant went to open it, he found he was locked in.

No one else was in the house at the time, so the tenant had no choice but to climb out of the window. He re-entered the house and went upstairs, only to find the door wide open.

There have also been audible voices heard coming from the blue room, and these voices are heard whilst people are on the lawn, which the blue room overlooks.

There has also been local talk about a phantom white horse running wildly on the lawn but this had not been witnessed by those living at the property in 1947.