The Syderstone Parsonage knockings
Knocking in the dead of night at Syderstone Parsonage, home of the Rev. Mr. Stewart, grew so violent over six weeks that one servant left in terror.
A report reprinted by Elliott O'Donnell in Haunted Places in England says the Rev. Mr. Stewart, a curate who was also rector of Thwaite, lived at Syderstone Parsonage. About six weeks before the report, knocking started in the dead of night. The family could not find where it came from and grew alarmed.
The noise got steadily worse, and one of the servants left out of fear. By the time of the report it began nearly every morning at about two o'clock and went on until it was light.
The Norfolk Record Office's blog came back to the case in 2018. It quotes a group who went to hear the noises and heard them. The din began like an animal clawing after its prey, then came knocking, some of it as loud as a hammer striking an anvil, from some time between eleven and twelve at night until the sun had been up nearly two hours. One of the group said they had arrived with all sorts of explanations in mind and went away puzzled. In 2019 the Weird Norfolk series in the Fakenham & Wells Times compared the parsonage, at Syderstone near Fakenham, to Borley Rectory.
""In Syderstone Parsonage lives the Rev. Mr. Stewart, curate, and rector of Thwaite. About six weeks since an unaccountable knocking was heard in it in the middle of the night. The family became alarmed, not being able to discover the cause. Since then it has gradually been becoming more violent, until it has now arrived at such a frightful pitch that one of the servants has left through absolute terror. The noises commence almost every morning about two, and continue until daylight."
- A Tale of Two Spectres: Will the Real Syderstone Ghost Please Stand Up, Norfolk Record Office (2018)
- Weird Norfolk: Who was the poltergeist that terrorised a Norfolk parsonage?, Stacia Briggs and Siofra Connor, Weird Norfolk / Fakenham & Wells Times (2019)