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Disputed

The Wem farm disturbances

WhereThis has no location, and never had one.
DoorSomewhere You Can Go
Our judgementObscurity 3 of 6

At the Woods, a farm near Wem in Shropshire, in November 1883, a pan of eggs leapt off the fire, crockery smashed and clothes caught fire.

Andrew Lang places the case at Wem in November 1883, at a farm called the Woods about ten miles from Shrewsbury. A saucepan of eggs jumped off the kitchen fire, and the tea things sprang off the table and broke. Cinders flew out of the grate and set some clothes alight. A globe jumped off a lamp. Mr. Lea, a farmer, saw every upstairs window look as if it were burning, though nothing was. A young servant ran in fright to a neighbour's house, and her dress caught fire on the way.

F. S. Hughes's report on the case in the Journal of the Society for Psychical Research puts the farm a mile and a half out of Toppington and nine or ten miles from Shrewsbury. It names the farmer who lived there as Hampson, where Lang has Mr. Lea seeing the windows. In that version the servants were getting tea ready at about four in the afternoon. The girls said the egg pan jumped off the fire, the tea things were thrown down and smashed, and hot cinders set light to clothes in a basket.

From the primary source
"By a lucky chance an English case occurred at Wem, in Shropshire, in November, 1883. It began at a farm called the Woods, some ten miles from Shrewsbury. First a saucepan full of eggs "jumped" off the fire in the kitchen, and the tea-things, leaping from the table, were broken. Cinders "were thrown out of the fire," and set some clothes in a blaze. A globe leaped off a lamp. A farmer, Mr. Lea, saw all the windows of the upper story "as it were on fire," but it was no such matter. The nurse-maid ran out in a fright, to a neighbour's, and her dress spontaneously combusted as she ran."
Andrew Lang (1897), Project Gutenberg ebook #12621, The Book of Dreams and GhostsRead the source →
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