Alfred Street

Annie A. lived with her husband and young family in a house at the bottom of Alfred Street in the Waterside. When she died her husband, finding it hard to look after the children, took another wife. This second wife was not very kind to the children. When they came home from school she would make them take off their shoes and socks and wash their feet in cold water, even in winter. When they asked for anything extra to eat she made them eat soap. A Mrs. Peoples reported this because she lived in the house above and could see what was happening in the yard. She also reported it to the authorities.

The ghost of the real mother appeared to a new tenant in the house who was expecting her first baby. The woman came into the bedroom wearing a long cream nightgown and she opened the drawer of the dressing table and rummaged around. She looked at the woman in the bed then the ghost disappeared.

The tenant was terrified and asked Fr. Smith, a local priest to come by and bless the house, which he did. A woman across the street who knew the history of the house said that she would never see the ghost again after the baby was born.