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By M.P. Pellicer | Stranger Than Fiction Stories
The Chateau des Noyers du Tourneur located in Normandy, France was known to be haunted by a white lady that walked the grounds, and a werewolf that stalked the peasants in the vicinity, however between October 1867 and January 1877 the terror that made itself known had no parallel. ![]()
The chateau was built in 1835 on the site of the medieval Castle Noyers that dated back to the 14th century, and was less than a mile south of the chateau. The older structure was razed by a fire, and the de Baudre family decided to build a new home using the stones from the original one.
The de Baudre family ended without direct descendants, and the chateau was inherited in 1867 by a close branch of the family. The new owners were Ferdinand Lescaudey de Manneville (1837-1918), his wife Pauline De Cussy (1841-1933), and their son Maurice (1866-1895). When the family moved to the chateau, with them came Emile the coachman, Auguste the gardener, Celina des Bissons the cook, Amelina the maid and Abbe Droussaval, Maurice's tutor. The first three years of their stay they witnessed strange events like doors slamming for no reason, moving objects and odd noises. M. de Manneville initially believed the strange events were a result of malice against the family, and therefore of human origin. Once a strange noise was heard he would gather all the household into one room to make sure they were all accounted for. He bought guard dogs and he organized surveillance rounds with his servants. He also set traps, but ultimately they turned out to be useless. He noted: "When the noises occurred while the ground was covered with snow, there was no trace of footsteps around the castle. I have secretly stretched wires to all openings: they have never been broken." Suddenly all the peculiarities stopped, and stayed that way for five years. In October, 1875 the events returned and started to escalate. M. de Mannville started to keep a diary of all the disturbances, even those his friends witnessed. Clergy that was brought in to help also saw the strange phenomenon. Ferdinand de Manneville began a newspaper that he filled every morning after the events of the previous night: 11pm January 17, woken by what sounded like a body falling in the first floor corridor. Followed by a heavy ball that rolls along the corridor to strike loudly on the door of the green room. Twenty sharp rapping sounds, then eighteen coming from inside the green room. At 11:35 five blows on the door of the green room. Fifteen loud thumping noises going up the stairs to the second floor. Two gun shots. Footless legs walk ten paces up stairs to the second floor as the building seems to shake. At 15 minutes past midnight eight strong blows on the first floor landing, three on the second. ![]()
Bangs would be heard coming from a far-off room, followed by unintelligible shouting. Then the noise would become louder and closer.
On October 13, 1875 Abbe the tutor came to M. and Mme. de Mannville saying he had seen a chair in his room move by it self. M. de Mannville went to the room, used gum paper to stick the chair in a certain position, and left. Later that night the tutor started to ring a bell he had in his room to signal something had happened. When M. de Mannville arrived the poor man was huddled in his bed with his covers pulled up. The chair had been moved to another part of the room, and ornaments and a candlestick were toppled lover. The tutor told him the sharp rapping started to sound out in the room. As they spoke loud thumps came from around the chateau, as if from every corner. De Mannville, along with the servants which he had armed, pursued the slowly fading sounds. Every room they opened was unoccupied. There were other times when furniture would be moved inside a room to block a door from being opened. It seemed that whatever haunted the chateau was also a mimic, since several times the servants heard what sounded like the voices and the steps of the de Mannevilles, only to find they were not in the structure. Starting that night, the household was terrorized by the sound of a fist banging on windows and door. A huge, but unseen object would be heard rolling down the stairs. The parish priest was summoned, and he decided to stay for the night. In the pre-dawn hours, heavy footsteps like a stomping giant echoed down the main staircase. The priest needed no convincing to believe that a supernatural event was taking place. All the activity intensified on Halloween night, and sounds of wails, shouts and thumps kept the household on the edge of their seats until 3 a.m. Another who kept a journal was the cook, Celina Desbissons who detailed the phenomena. After the de Manneville family sold the chateau, she stayed and married a local man. The diary is currently kept by her descendant Didier Duchemin the mayor of the town Le Tourneur. This is an entry dating to 1875: Night of Thursday, December 30, 1875: at 0:40, three blows struck slowly on the door of the green room, eight deaf blows at the top, everything trembles, ... long walk in the corridor of the second, the steps are sometimes fast, sometimes slow, these steps do not’ anything human, no animal can climb like this. Following blows in the vestibule, in the corridor, on the second floor, we hear screams like bellowing at the height of the windows. ![]()
The disturbances would originate mostly in the green room called thus because of the color of the walls. It was located on the first floor, on the left when looking at the front façade. The house also included a red room and a blue room.
Then during a terrible storm screaming accompanied the loud knocking. The din would increase until the voice of a distressed woman, calling for help would fill every corner of the building. The next day the wailing woman's voice was inside the chateau. Her whimpering and shrieks chilled the blood, but the worse was knowing they didn't come from a flesh and blood woman. The night after this, the cries came from inside the locked green room. By now the household knew better than to investigate the shrill sobbing. The tutor seemed to be the target of quiet horrors. In his room, his belongings would be moved around, as were his clothing and furnishings. Once a chair was found on top of the table. The window in his room would fly open, despite being nailed down. Once all his books were thrown to the floor except the Bible. From 1876 to 1880, the de Mannevilles forbade anyone to cross the door of the cellar and go down the steps. It was one of three parts of the manor to always have some type of inexplicable phenomena occur. ![]()
There were nights that whatever walked the halls of the chateau knocked on each door as if asking to be let in, but always more at the tutor's room. Then the thumping resumed inside the green room.
Once Mme. de Mannville was unlocking a door when the key was ripped from her fingers, and then struck the back of her hand leaving a large bruise. The bishop sent a canon, whose presence calmed the poltergeist activity, but only for a while. A few days later it started up again, but worse than before. One day an unseen force went into Emile and Auguste's room and threw around their belongings, after overturning their beds. The next target was M. de Mannville's study, where his books and papers were scattered on the floor. The woman's screams were now accompanied by growling from an unknown animal, and the bellow of a bull. Pulse-like tapping moved along the corridor, and came to Maurice de Mannville's room where his door was hit so hard every window in the structure shook. The Catholic church finally agreed to conduct the rites of exorcism, and having a Novena to be said at Lourdes at the same time. On January 26, 1876 the parish priest came to Chateau des Noyers du Tourneur. Upon his arrival, an unearthly scream sounded out, accompanied by the sound of stampeding animals. Then the noise of heavy furniture being dragged around echoed out. This was followed by the door to Maurice's room shaking violently. The rite of exorcism reached its peak at 11:15 p.m. The agonizing growls of an animal in it death throes resounded between the walls. The green room was filled with furious thumps, and a man's voice shouted up from the first floor. Then silence enveloped the house. The priest slumped in his chair, and in a huddle the servants went from room to room. Nothing strange was found. All was quiet for a few days, then Mme. de Mannville while writing at her desk, had holy medals and crosses materialize out of nowhere and fall across the letters. Months followed with no activity, but the peace ended in August, when quiet but unmistakable tapping started to sound out in odd corners of the chateau. The next month the drawing room furniture was dragged around into a horseshoe shape. M. de Mannville was away on business, when his wife saw the bolt on her bedroom move back by itself. In another room, an organ played by itself, and the furniture in the room of Maurice's new tutor was rearranged. The occurrences never intensified to the degree the family had previously experienced. Much of the activity lessened, but the exhausted family moved out in 1877, and then sold the property. In 1884, the chateau was acquired by Mr. Decaen described as "enigmatic", a Freemason, a Rosicrucian and a student of occultism. He kept a mobile attraction which was the carcass of a whale, and was known to be unkind to those who worked for him. The Chateau de Noyers remained occupied until the early 1980s, the last occupant being Madeleine Richard. ![]()
The mystery persists as to the origins or cause for these hellish manifestations. Some spoke of a lady belonging to the de Noyers family who lived in the old castle at the beginning of 19th century. It was said she was selfish and vain, and after death the gates of Paradise refused to open for her, so she wandered every night around the house that once occupied the land of her one-time home.
Like the de Manneville, the occupants of the chateau asked for intercession from the Catholic church. A blessing drove her outside the home, which is why she was seen walking through the grounds. This however does not explain what would rampage through the chateau at Calvados. There are still stories of a woman's head appearing at a window. Some believe the stones of the ancient chateau used for construction of the present building transmitted a curse, perhaps a product of public executions in the town square, or deaths from the plague. This area itself has a terrible legend of a furious beast — a predator who devoured over two dozen people in the Cinglais forest in 1632. It was known as the "Bête de Cinglais" or the "Bête d’Evreux". These events predate the attacks of the Beast of Gevaudan between 1764 and 1767. The people of the area believed what preyed on the villagers was a human who changed into a wolf. Priests tried to enlist the help of neighboring parishes, but the townspeople were so traumatized that they had very few volunteers to take part in a hunt. The hunters themselves refused to go deep into the wood unless they were in a large group. In 1633, it was reported that an animal, larger than a wolf was killed after a hunting party organized by the Count de la Suze, poured over 5,000 hunters and beaters into the area. The wolf was red in color, with a pointed tail and a wider rump than a normal wolf. By then it had claimed 30 victims. The Cinglais wood extended over 3,700 acres on the edge of the Orne valley. A report in a gazette from March 19, 1632 read: Since last month in the forest of Cinglais, and then between there and Falaise, people have seen a wild beast that has already devoured fifteen people. Those who have avoided his fangs report that this savage beast is similar to a large mastiff of such a speed that it would be impossible to run and catch him on foot. He is of such extraordinary agility that people have seen him jump right over the river in certain places. Some people call him Thérende. Local residents and forest gamekeepers have shot at him from range with their arquebuses on several occasions, but without wounding him. They do not dare approach him, or even to reveal themselves, until they are organized in a large group, exactly as they will be today when they hear the sound of the alarm bell, to which all the parishioners from all the parishes around have been invited by their village priests, as three thousand people are assembled to carry out the hunt. ![]()
One of those who came to investigate the haunting was Camille Flammarion (1842-1925), an astronomer, author and Theosophist. He investigated paranormal events and spiritism from a scientific angle for over 60 years.
In a presentation to the Society for Psychical Research in October, 1923 he said he believed in telepathy, etheric doubles, the stone tape theory and "exceptionally and rarely the dead do manifest" in hauntings. By 1924, a year prior to his death he published his book Les Maisons Hantées (Haunted Houses) in which he concluded that only in rare cases where hauntings caused by the souls of the departed, but mostly they were the result of "the remote action of the psychic force of a living person". Harry Houdini reviewed the book and remarked: "it fails to supply adequate proof of the veracity of the conglomeration of hearsay it contains; it must, therefore, be a collection of myths." In 1984, a fire of unknown origin damaged the building, all except the green room. Present day it sits quiet and lonely, deep in the Orne down an inconsequential track. The following is a translated account (Annales des Sciences Psychiques) of investigators who came to the chateau and interviewed the family years after they left: PRESENTATION OF THE STRANGE PHENOMENA OF THE CHATEAU DE T.
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