In 1931 Leslie French and David Lloyd-Lowles moved into Leith House. The previous owners had told them that there was ‘something’ in the house as did the locals who related a tale of committing murder so as to gain a body. After they moved in they both would hear the sound of something heavy being dragged along the upstairs hallway, usually in the autumn. They believed the ‘something heavy’ to be a body as the legend has it that around the year 1800 two men visited the house and killed the old woman who lived there, a time when body snatching was commonplace. Leslie’s mother also heard the sounds and refused to be in the house alone.

In the 1940s a child of three stayed at the house and she was put in a room that was part of the haunting. In the morning the girl asked her mother who the nice lady was who had come to tuck her in. Was this the lady who was murdered? She appeared quite often to children including those of the previous occupants. She never spoke but seemed very pleasant. If an adolescent stayed at the house then the haunting turned to poltergeist activity.

Other occurrences include the time when Leslie was alone in the house and he heard the front door open. At that point Leslie’s two dogs stood up and went stiff. He distinctly heard footsteps going along the hall then up the stairs. Thinking it was David he called out but received no reply. David came home thirty minutes later.

Other people were also witnesses including their neighbour Nora Bigg and her family. In the late 1940s they were dining with Leslie and David when Nora’s daughter, Wendy, had to go upstairs. A few seconds later she reappeared white-faced and shaken saying that there was something in the guest room. Leslie went up and saw a white ‘mist’ in the corner of the room. Both women were terrified, so to reassure them Leslie went and stood in the mist. He did not feel frightened but he did have a feeling of intense cold and he could smell rotten meat.

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