Redmoor Mine, Callington, Cornwall ((1937)

 Eerie Noises at Night.

Mine's Ghostly Will-O'-The-Wisp. Strange experience at Callington.

A strange experience which befell three miners working at Redmoor Mine, near Callington, was related to "The Western Morning News" representative yesterday by the men.

The old mine has recently been re-opened, and it is stated that queer noises for which no accountable reason can be given have been heard at the mine at night. The men, Messrs. Roscoe Smith, Lionel Smith, and Fred Scould, of Wadebridge, were on night shift, and were the only miners in the mine at the time.

"I left the levels at 2.30 a.m.," said Mr. Roscoe Smith, "and I made my way to the drying-house. It was a dark night, with no moon or stars, not a breath of wind, even. Just as I reached the drying-house something, I cannot ell what it was or what it looked like, suddenly came out of the drying-house and swished past me. Then I heard a sound, but saw nothing. The thing, whatever it was, made my lamp go out. Presently I lit my lamp again and entered the drying-house, but saw nothing to indicate what it was that had frightened me. Then I heard a loud noise, like stones falling on a galvanized roof. It came from the direction of the mine-sheds. I went towards the place, but the sound shifted and I heard it coming as if from the stamps up above me. My mates came out from the levels just then, and we went to investigate.

"We heard a mysterious thumping and rattling, coming from the old mine-burrows and stack, then from the sheds and blacksmith's shop. Wherever we went in an attempt to locate the cause of the noise it shifted to another region. Once we heard it coming from the direction of some farm buildings about 200 yards away. As a matter of fact, the weird noise came from many angles, at almost regular intervals, but always on the mine or the immediate vicinity. It began at 2.30, and not until daylight, about six o'clock, did it cease."

The other two miners admitted feeling scared at the time. "It's past explaining," Mr Lionel Smith remarked. "I've never heard anything like it. It was really uncanny. I'm not nervous, but I shall never forget my experience. Sometimes I thought it sounded like something scrambling away and making a big noise about it."

Other miners spoke of curious tapping sounds being heard in the levels, reviving the theory, popular in Cornwall, that the spirits of departed miners, known as "knockers," haunt old workings.

Western Morning News, 23rd September 1937.