The mystery surrounding the haunting of No. 18 Argyle Terrace

A regular enquiry we receive at the Hull History Centre is that concerning spooky goings on. For most it tends to relate a house or property. Frequent questions include: what was on the site prior? Did someone live/die there?

Whether you believe in the supernatural or not, people have for centuries reported strange occurrences, many of which continue to intrigue amateur ghost hunters, paranormal investigators, psychologists, parapsychologists, and those in forensic psychology to this day.

Hull has its share of alleged supernatural accounts and reputed hauntings across the city. In this blog we revisit the reported haunting of No. 18 Argyle Terrace, Argyle Street and shed light on this alleged haunting.

The haunting  

In October 1969, the Hull Daily Mail ran a front-page story in which it reported a mother and her six children lived in terror, claiming a ghost of an old women roamed their terraced house. The house was No.18 Argyle Terrace, Argyle Street.

Argyle Terrace, 17 Apr 1973 
[Ref: C THD/3/221/17]

It was claimed the ghost caused a sudden drop in temperature, pulled the children, bruised a new-born baby, and touched the neighbours. The ghostly occurrences appeared to centre around the 13-year-old daughter, who had seen the ghost - an old woman - and even recognised her.

Trouble began shortly before the Hull Daily Mail broke the story. Initially, banging came from upstairs of the property. The banging, put down to children was soon dispelled when the children quickly came downstairs terrified, claiming they’d seen an old woman. Over the following days banging and strange and noises continued. A medium visited the property, but this was said to have only made things worse. The family described it like being followed, with a sudden drop in temperature.

A neighbour in nearby Wycliffe Grove who had spent time with the family at the property described the coldness and a presence. On one occasion a neighbour felt something move through him.

Explanation(s)

The simplest explanation is there was no haunting. The children were playing a prank which simply got out of hand. It is not the first time this type of thing has happened. The famous Enfield haunting is believed to have been a hoax. The explanation for such a hoax at Argyle Terrace is the family were after a new home and the whole haunting was made up to facilitate a move. Interestingly, the children’s father claimed not to have witnessed or sensed anything.

Another theory to the alleged haunting was its location. Argyle Street was once home to the Old Hull Borough Asylum. Argyle Street originally called Asylum Lane, was home to the Old Borough Asylum. The asylum however was located further north, occupying the space somewhere between what is now Wyndam Street and the western tip of Londesborough Street, rather than the area of Argyle Terrace or indeed any of the adjoining terraces.

The closest to an actual explanation put forward was shortly after the story broke by an unnamed woman claiming that as a young child, aged 14, she cleaned for an old lady at No. 18 Argyle Terrace, fifty years earlier. She recalled the lady who she named as Mrs Sellers, wore a shawl. A shawl was described by the thirteen-year-old daughter who said she’d seen the old lady in a chair. The letter went on claiming Mrs. Sellers husband died shortly after their marriage. The person who sent the letter did not name themselves. The only thing known about the letter is that it was posted in Hull.

Unidentified court, New George Street c.1890s-c1930. Note the two ladies wearing shawls which was not usual for the period
[Ref: L THP/1590]

This information was checked after the Mail reported it. Directories for 18 Argyle Terrace did not record a Sellers listed at 18 Argyle Terrace. Interestingly, a George and Charlotte Sellers were recorded living in the next terrace, Wycliffe Grove, at number 8. This George and Charlotte married in 1907. At the time of marriage both were in the later years of their lives. At the time the young girl said she had been cleaning, Charlotte Sellers would have been aged sixty.

There are however a couple of discrepancies. Firstly, the address. This Charlotte Sellers did not live at 18 Argyle Terrace. The writer also described Mrs. Sellers as about 80, when in fact she was around 60. And thirdly, the letter claimed Mrs. Sellers lost her husband just after their married, but in fact he died thirteen years after their marriage. 

This said, we must remember the reputed letter writer was aged fourteen at the time they claimed they worked for Mrs. Sellers. An individual aged sixty may look aged eighty to younger eyes. And although Mrs. Sellers lost her husband 13 years after her marriage, the young girl may have been told her husband died recently which is where the confusion lies.

Another interesting comparison to the Charlotte Sellers of Wyncliffe Grove is that she did live alone after her husband’s death. The 1911 census reveals that George and Charlotte Sellers had no children. Using the register of electors, no other individual was listed living at 8 Wycliffe Grove. The 1939 register reveals Charlotte Sellers living alone at 8 Wycliffe Grove.

Nos. 5, 6, 7 & 8 Wyncliffe Grove, 17 Apr 1973
[Ref: C THD/3/221/21]

Charlotte died on 24 January 1945 aged eighty-six. Her death notice simply noted, ‘loving wife of the late George’. Later that year the Hull Daily Mail published a notice from Gosschalk and Austin, Solicitor’s, asking for persons to come forward who have a claim to the estate of Charlotte Sellers, late of 8 Wycliffe Grove, further suggesting that Charlotte Sellers had no family, further corroborating the letter which recalled Mrs. Sellers as having no family.

If the letter is indeed recalling Charlotte Sellers of 8 Wycliffe Grove, though well intended, it is difficult to see how it has a link to the alleged haunting at 18 Argyle Terrace. The writer may have simply got confused. Easily done when looking back over 50 years through a child’s 14-year memory. And while the description of Mrs. Sellers wearing a shawl appears to match, shawls were common attire for women at the time. As for the 13-year-old daughter who was said to have recognised the women, Charlotte Sellers died in 1945, therefore the daughter could not have known her.

Sadly, the History Centre records cannot prove whether 18 Argyle Terrace was indeed haunted. The existence of ghosts or spirits has not been scientifically proven. All we can do is look at the evidence and conclude that the letter explaining the reputed haunting of 18 Argyle Terrace by a Mrs. Sellers cannot be true.

In the early 1970s Argyle Terrace and those adjoining were demolished by the Corporation. The site is now the main carpark by Argyle Street for the Hull Royal Infirmary.

Our holdings

Remember the History Centre has books on Hull, East Riding, and some wider Yorkshire hauntings. You can search our information index under ‘Ghosts’ to look at other local reported and reputed hauntings. You can uncover the history of your house, or the land its sits on. The History Centre holds maps for Hull. There is free access to FindMyPast and Ancestry. Trade directories are available as too are the registers of electors for Hull. We also have original house plans for properties in Hull.

Neil Chadwick

Librarian/Archivist

Introducing the University Records Project

Ever wanted to know more about the history of the University of Hull? Well that’s the focus of a new cataloguing project here at Hull History Centre. 

This is the first post in a project blog series which will track Hull University Archives’ epic quest to get ready for the University’s centenary in 2027. That gives us three and a half years, which should be enough, right… (mildly panicked tone)?!

We’re aiming for at least one post a month and we hope you’ll follow our progress. We’ve also got a project webpage where we’ll be posting news and lists of recently catalogued collections as they are released or updated.

Project webpage

The task at hand…

We’ve known the centenary was coming for some time now and we knew that the University would want to celebrate. Last year, things seemed to pick up on campus – a few appointments were made to support centenary efforts within the wider university, and Hull University Archives started to receive initial enquiries about what we hold that could be useful.

Whilst we know roughly what University records we have (photographic collection, VC’s files, annual reports, minutes of council, senate and committees, etc.), these collections are largely uncatalogued. Separate to these key records, we have lots of small collections documenting individual departments, societies and personalities associated with the University. In some cases, box lists exist and can provide a rough overview of what is in these collections, but for the most part we face the exciting challenge of uncovering the details! With this in mind, we need to undertake some major cataloguing work if we are going to be able to respond to requests from elsewhere in the University in the run up to 2027.

Photograph showing Principal Morgan, Thomas Ferens, H.R.H. Prince George (later Duke of Kent), and Lord Mayor Benno Pearlman at the official opening of the University College of Hull, 10 Oct 1929

How we’ve ended up here…

Historically, the University Archives focused on cataloguing and making available our large deposited collections, as these are widely used by academics and other researchers, from Hull and all over the world. This meant that our own institutional records were not always the top priority. But with the centenary focusing everyone's minds, we decided that now was the time to tackle our own history.

So, where to start…

In July 2023 we began the mammoth task of tackling the backlog of uncatalogued records that have been created by the University of Hull since its foundation in 1927. We’re not going to lie, this is a daunting task that fills us with a not insignificant amount of dread!

Instead of panicking and ignoring the problem, we decided to tackle it head on. The first step was to do some digging and bring together everything we had that might help us. We started by searching out any and all box lists, old half-finished catalogues, collections management spreadsheets, etc. This was largely a desk-based exercise. We created new folders and sorted everything into one main storage location. 

Armed with this information, we created a master collections management spreadsheet. We included columns to record information about each collection, information such as physical location, whether any box lists exist, accession numbers (records of when material came into the archives), previously assigned reference numbers, extent of material in linear meters, rough contents (where known), and whether any descriptive records have already been created in our collections management database.

Our new master collections management spreadsheet, ready to go!

As you can see, there are a lot of blanks that need to be filled. Taking the time to do this work early on will make future stages of the project much easier.

Next, we needed to create an intellectual framework (known as a cataloguing schema) into which we could sort the different records we hold. Doing this gives structure to large collections and helps researchers make sense of them.

What archival theory tells us… 

The usual approach, according to archival theory, is to take an organisational structure chart and replicate this using a hierarchical system of reference numbers. You can then slot in individual series of records according to the area under which they were created. For example:

DBX – Records of Business X 

DBX/1 – Records of CEO and Board

DBX/1/1 – Governance Documents

DBX/1/2 – Correspondence Files

DBX/1/3 – Minutes

DBX/2 – Records of Human Resources

DBX/2/1 – Personnel Files

DBX/2/2 – Policies and Guidance

DBX/3 – Records of Marketing

DBX/3/1 – Publicity Material

DBX/3/2 – Subject Files

When we did our desk-based survey, we discovered that past attempts had been made to create a cataloguing schema for existing University material but that these had all ended up discarded and unfinished. It’s a complex task to devise a framework that accurately reflects the structure of an organisation like a university, which can evolve over time. A quick, hypothetical example:

Research institute X is opened as a self-governing entity. The University then changes its funding model and the institute is subsumed into a department. Its core functions continue but it is now overseen by the department’s governance structure. The records created to record the institute’s activities span a period covering both the institute and the departmental periods. Where do you situate this single series of records to most accurately reflect organisational structure – an ‘institutes’ series or a ‘academic departments’ series? Would you split it? Not if you want to retain the archival integrity of the series.

Our approach…

We revisited these past attempts and tried to puzzle it all out. After much headbanging, we decided to do away with complex organisational charts and half-workable schemas, opting for a slightly off-the-wall solution: we wouldn’t bother creating a structure at all! Instead, we decided to use a running sequence of reference numbers, cataloguing the different collections one after the other and in no particular order.

‘Woah’, we hear you say, ‘that’s madness!’. Don’t worry, we have an alternative plan to bring it all together so that researchers have a hope of understanding what records the University has created. We plan to clearly outline the administrative and functional context of each set of records in the usual collection description that sits at the beginning of an archive catalogue. 

Additionally, we are developing a research guide, to be hosted on the website, that will include a URL back to the guide from each individual collection catalogue uploaded to our online catalogue. The guide will provide a more traditional overview of the University and will list individual collections under pages dedicated to functional themes. By doing this, we can mention the same collection under multiple thematic headings, thus solving our headscratcher above and ensuring that researchers can find all relevant records without us tampering with the archival integrity of individual collections.

Future proofing…

Another benefit to this approach is that it allows for future expansion of the collections. With a running sequence we can simply keep adding new collection references and we can slot new collections into the accompanying research guide. 

Fellow archivist colleagues may call us mavericks but we think we now have a workable approach! 

So, that was our summer. We’ve laid the groundwork and now we can get cracking….

Claire Weatherall, Archivist (Hull University Archives)