A former tenant of St Aubyns, a 16th century house in Chapel Street, claimed that the house was haunted.

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In 1951, soon after Mr Richman had moved into St Aubyns, a visitor, who was not at all imaginative in this respect, was lying in bed whilst everyone was downstairs.  She swore later that she was certain someone was in the room looking at her. At first, she took no notice, as she thought Mr Richman’s mother, who shared the room with her, had returned for some purpose or another. There was no movement or sound, so she turned round to see who was there, but the room was empty. Mrs Richman had not been nearby.

 

In 1956 Mr Richman heard of two different experiences said to be some distance apart and the second person had no idea what had happened to the first, till both were living elsewhere.

 

The first lived in St Aubyns during the first World War.  It was not until she had met a lady who used to live there between the wars who said that she was never so scared in her life as when she lived in the house.

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Asked why, she described exactly the same experience which the other lady had had years before.

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It was ‘just like someone with dragging footsteps and holding on to the wall for support coming from the front room door (not the front door a few feet beyond) along the main passage, then at right angles along the other passage towards the kitchen door’ at which point the steps ceased.

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She and the other lady, with whom there was no collusion, both said the steps were not to be confused with those of neighbours on either side, which can be heard but only faintly, at times but were quite distinctly in the house itself.

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The Richman’s did not have this experience but they did hear footsteps very often coming from the front door (not the front room as the other ladies) and sometimes heard the door open and close first. The steps came down the passage and then straight up stairs to the first floor. Once they used to go and look but later, they never bothered but a male friend who frequently visited them made a point of seeing if there was anyone, but there never was.

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Mr Richman said his mother also had a very curious experience in the kitchen one evening in 1956 about 10-11pm.

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Mr Richman arrived home to find his mother sitting looking intently at the wall opposite. She told him, “I’m just watching the shadow of a ghost!” and asked him to watch the walls after noting there was nothing cooking or boiling on the stove and no tea or other beverage on the table or elsewhere to cause any steam or vapour. After a moment or so they saw a hasty flash of a shadow, almost like that of steam but without any continued existence as it would have been from the shadow of steam from a kettle or other utensil.

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Mr Richman laughingly remarked that it was the ghost of steam from a vessel carried from the old copper, where generations of women have worked. It was just a flash across the chimney breast (there was no fire), followed a few seconds later by the same on the next or inner wall. The shadow passed across a small mirror.

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Mother and son tried to repeat the shadow or reflection by means of various objects on the table but without result.

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The curtains were drawn and the door was shut and bolted. The next ‘shadow’ flashed across the door and it was when yet another flash of the same shadow went across the fourth wall and across the white plate at the back of the gas stove, that Mr Richman remembered he had seen exactly the same thing at the same point on a number of occasions about that time of night, but had never really taken much notice of it.

 

The same ‘shadow’ was repeated on each wall in turn several times as they watched.