53. A Stone's Throw...

Unexplained cases pertaining to the sudden appearance of mystery objects from seemingly nowhere have, most certainly in the past, been blamed on the eerie aspect of the poltergeist, or 'noisy ghost' – an unseen phantom energy said to throw objects and make others appear. On the 27th April 1872 the London Times reported on a strange incident in Bermondsey.

From 4 o'clock, Thursday afternoon, until half past eleven, Thursday night, the houses 56 and 58 Reverdy Road were assailed with stones and other missiles coming from an unseen quarter. Two children were injured, every window broken, and several articles of furniture were destroyed. Although there was a strong body of policemen scattered in the neighbourhood, they could not trace the direction whence the stones were thrown.

Even more bizarre was a shower of coins said to have rained down on Trafalgar Square in the 1800s, causing a great commotion as hundreds of passers-by scrambled to grasp the rolling pennies. And such pennies from Heaven also appeared in Battersea as reported in New York Evening World on 18th January 1928, but on this occasion the copper coins materialised indoors from nowhere, alongside large lumps of coal, leaving the residents, the Robinson family, perplexed.

In 1876 several 'thunderstones' fell upon London after severe weather conditions. The mysterious rocks, said to weigh around eight pounds, have been known to appear in various forms, often appearing beautifully polished and and green in colour; others have resembled axes, made of flint.

Such bizarre rains echoed those in 1866 when coal-like objects descended upon Notting Hill during late June. During this particularly heavy storm it was also reported that rain and hail poured from a clear sky! In the June of 1880 a large stone struck a house at Oakley Street in Chelsea. During the time a theory was put forward that such an object had meteoric properties, but on the 17th August 1887 a lump of roundish iron that clattered onto Brixton was not as easily explained. The object had fallen during another severe storm.

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