This story starts with an advertisement in The Morning Post on the morning of the 19th August 1937. It read
“FOR SALE. – Haunted Wardrobe. – Advertiser will be glad to deliver same to anybody interested, complete with ghost, which would also no doubt feel more at home if welcomed. – Write Mrs Barclay, Carterton Manor, Oxon.”
I have a couple of sources for this story. The Lady who posted the advert in The Morning Post, Mrs Barclay, had purchased the wardrobe from a house in Streatley Berkshire. It was a walnut Victorian wardrobe seven foot (213.4 cm) high seven foot six inches (228.6 cm) wide, and had four drawers. She paid £10 for it.
It was put in the guest room of her house, and nothing happened for two years. In Spring 1937 noises were heard in the house, but the source could not be found. Then her guests complained that the wardrobe doors would open and shut by themselves. Mrs Barclay eventually saw for herself the doors opening and shutting, however from then the phenomena started to become more complex.
One day the figure of a bent and wizened old man, wearing old fashioned clothes and a deersalker’s hat, walked out of the wardrobe, down the stairs and out of the front door. This was all seen with the lights on. This then started to happened regularly. If someone tried to touch the figure, it would disappear.
The ghost became more of a problem, being seen in other parts of the house, appearing at all times, creating a lot of noise. Her friends would not stay and the servants left.
In desperation she put the advert in the paper. This resulted in it being followed up by the paper. Letters came in from all over the county interested in the wardrobe. Even a local practical joker in a white sheet turned up one evening. In the end a friend brought it for £50. His name was Mr E Rundle and he owned the Plough Inn at Clanfield.
He put the wardrobe into an outhouse in the garden of the pub. That first night Mr Rundle and his wife heard noises and felt vibrations from the wardrobe. Word soon got about and the local youths were now causing a nuisance around the outhouse. So it was brought into the pub. On being put in one of the rooms, it was taken apart but nothing unusual was found. In its new location the old man with the deerstalker was never again seen, and no sounds were ever heard from it.
At least the lady had made a profit on the wardrobe, and got some peace. It was suggested at the time, that a psychic investigator could have the wardrobe in a spare room and save a fortune in travelling costs. As long as he didn’t mind being woken up night after night, or the ghost wandering thorough their house.
