This is the second of two articles about strange incidents in the Wiltshire village of Avebury, collected by the late R C C Clay and kindly made available to Uncanny UK by his grandson Robert Snow. There follows one of those inexplicable little events that though linked to ghostly activity are otherwise hard to categorise.
Avenury Lodge is probably only 100 years old. Mr W. E. V. Young, the archaeologist and curator of Avebury Museum, lives there with his aged mother. They live in the top flat. The ground floor is a flat for one of the Avebury custodians and his wife.
Both Mr Young and the woman in the downstairs flat have often heard loud tappings on the landing floor (I have tested these boards and find that it is not easy to make these relatively modern floorboards creak). Recently Mr Young, when working in the kitchen, ran into his mother’s room on hearing loud tappings, while the woman downstairs, hearing the same noise, ran upstairs in alarm.
Mrs Young is over 90 years of age and so feeble that she cannot walk or stand alone, and has difficulty in raising her hands to her mouth. In her bedroom she sleeps in a small bed in the N. W. corner, while her son sleeps in a small bed in the opposite S. E. corner, about 15 feet away. Mr Young has recently placed an upright dining room chair, close to his mother’s bed and parallel to the head of the bed to prevent his mother from rolling out of bed. From long habit, Mr Young wakes several times during the night to see if his mother is alright.
A few nights ago he awoke as usual, and on looking across the room saw to his horror that his mother was lying on the chair. She was either unconscious or asleep. From her position, she looked as if she had been dragged out of bed, for it would have taken a very active person to get her into this precise position.
Added to this strange incident was the startling fact that Mrs Young’s underclothes, which had been lying folded up on her bed, were now 15 feet away on her son’s bed. It would have been absolutely impossible for Mrs Young to move two feet, let alone 15 feet.
Mr Young lifted his mother back to bed, poured some brandy between her lips, and she soon returned to her normal dazed position. At no time has Mrs Young any recollection of getting into the above position.
