Hauntings

The Candow Street Smashing Crockery, Attercliffe 1910

Also known as: Attercliffe ghost 1910

Candow Street, Attercliffe, Sheffield

January 1910

The story was found by Icy Sedgwick in the British Newspaper Archive and was reported in the Yorkshire Telegraph and Star on 10 January 1910 and the Sheffield Evening Telegraph on 12 January 1910 (under a headline about Attercliffe's ogre). William Cupid lived at 37 Candow Street with his wife, three children and two brothers-in-law.

The papers said the household was disturbed by a series of nerve destroying incidents in which, step by step, all the crockery and breakable things in the house were destroyed. The "supernatural symptoms" were said to stop if anyone lit a match or a candle. The family called the police, and the officers who entered "fearing naught" saw a number of smashed plates, a table turned on its side and a walking stick that walked. The family left the house.

The next day they agreed to a seance in a neighbour's house. A clairvoyant said she saw a man and a woman, and when Cupid's mother heard the description she said they were her husband's parents. The clairvoyant considered the matter closed. Since the family did not return, it is not known what happened next. The report is a rare dated poltergeist case from the city, known only from secondhand quotation of newspaper copy here.

A residential street; no particular house is open to the public.
Evidence
Single witness account
Access
Private property
Location
53.399, -1.420 (Sited to the village)

Sources: Icy Sedgwick, "The Dark Side of Sheffield Folklore: Spectres and River Spirits" [other]

View on the map →

Comments

Loading…