The Haunted Wardrobe – Oxfordshire, England.
In 1937, the Northern Standard, a Northern Territory newspaper, reported on the case of a haunted wardrobe in Oxfordshire, England. Mrs Barclay of Carterton Manor, Oxon, had advertised in the Morning Post, an English newspaper, that she was selling a haunted wardrobe.
Barclay explained that she had purchased the wardrobe for ten pounds at a sale. Three months later, after bringing it into her home, the wardrobe's doors and drawers began opening and closing of their own volition, causing a considerable ruckus. Not long afterwards, she claimed to have witnessed the ghost of an elderly man. Barclay stated that "the figure of an elderly man, dressed in old-fashioned clothes and wearing a kind of deerstalker cap, appeared in the house." Every evening, the ghost would walk from the bedroom, down the stairs, and out the front door.[1]
Barclay stated in an interview, "I am not nervous, but the wretched ghost makes such a noise. He clatters across the landing and shuffles down the stairs, and the noise is exasperatingly loud."[2] Barclay also claimed that the ghost had terrified her cook and frightened him away.[3]
The night before the auction, Mrs Barclay claimed that the ghost was upset about the sale. He banged the wardrobe doors with more than his usual venom. The wardrobe clattered down the stairs more loudly than she had ever heard it before, prompting her to have it removed to the manor grounds.
That evening, a group of practical jokers dressed as ghosts invaded Carterton Manor and refused to leave until Mrs Barclay's secretary dispersed them by firing a shotgun.[4]
Mrs Barclay subsequently auctioned the wardrobe. During the sale, a bidder asked whether she could guarantee that the ghost would accompany the wardrobe, to which she replied that she could not. Bidding drove the price well beyond the ten pounds she had originally paid for it. Mr E. Rundle, a former R.A.F. officer and innkeeper, eventually purchased the haunted wardrobe from Mrs Barclay for fifty pounds.[5]
After making the purchase, Rundle stated, "I am having my bedroom enlarged and am having the wardrobe put in it. Anyone who wants to do so may sleep there. Personally, I do not believe in ghosts."[6]
Rundle took the wardrobe to his Clanfield inn and soon reported experiencing the same strange occurrences. As a sceptic, he decided to dismantle the Victorian-era wardrobe to investigate why its doors and drawers opened of their own accord. Finding no hidden mechanisms or other explanation for the wardrobe's behaviour, Rundle concluded his investigation and carefully restored it. Following its restoration, he reported that it never behaved in the same manner again.
[1] 'A Haunted Wardrobe
Complete with Ghost', The Catholic Advocate, (25 November 1937), p.
[2] Ibid.
[3] 'Haunted Wardrobe', The
Argus, (21 August 1937), p. 13.
[4]
'£50 Highest Bid for Haunted Wardrobe', Lachlander and Condobolin and
Western Districts Recorder, (6 September 1937), p. 6.
[5] Ibid.
[6]
