If you’ve ever wondered where the old cliche “the butler did it” came from, then wonder no more.

This week in our occasional series Bizarre Bradford we head back half a century to 1963, where a story from March 14 tells a terrible tale of an armed robber who broke into a house in Menston with an accomplice and forced a 73-year-old woman there into a cupboard, which he locked and then looted the property of £247 worth of goods.

The man in question was Thomas Cecil Williams, who three days before had left his job as a butler at the large house, and he and his partner-in-crime were arrested on a bus after a pub landlord in Guiseley, who they had tried to sell a bottle of brandy to, became suspicious and alerted the police.

Williams was jailed for five years and his accomplice, Peter Howard, was put on probation for three years after the judge said: “I think you were led into this.”

The woman who was locked in the cupboard was not the home-owner but a friend of hers who was alone in the house at the time, watching television.

Our report said: “Suddenly she felt she was not alone. She looked round and saw Williams, who was carrying a gun. Howard had a cloth round his face.”

Scary stuff. Less real, but no doubt still frightening to an extent, was the “ghost of a caretaker” who was said to wander the grounds of Farfield Junior School in Buttershaw during the night.

We reported on March 21, 1963, that a group of around 300 schoolchildren went “ghost-hunting” in the grounds of the school the previous evening.

“The children, whose ages range from five to 15 years, swarmed around the school grounds and peered into the windows. Some climbed onto the roof of single-storey classrooms before police were brought to disperse them.”

But where did the story come from? No-one seemed to know. School caretaker John Firth – very much alive in 1963 – told the Telegraph & Argus: “They got hold of a tale about a ghost and it spread quickly, but I have no idea where the story came from.”

He said an assistant caretaker at the school had died, but that was some time ago. His death had been a natural one and had not occurred at the school.

An unfortunate conjunction of story and unrelated picture occurred on March 18. The story was a court report headlined: “Liversedge man on bigamy charge”. The photo that snuggled up alongside this tale of woe was of a couple outside church in their wedding finery. But this was NOT the Liversedge bigamist – this was a happy photograph of Maureen McCarthy and Ronald Saddington at their wedding at St Stephen’s Church in West Bowling – nothing at all to do with the court report.

Hopefully the picture being alongside the story didn’t spoil the memories of the happy day. It was a less happy day for the chap in court, however – a 34-year-old bricklayer who got married at Liversedge and was charged with bigamy after the prosecutor said the man neglected to mention that he already had a wife and three children in Scotland...

l If you have any quirky or unusual stories you remember from times past, drop us a line at david.barnett@ telegraphandargus.co.uk and we’ll try to dig them out for a future Bizarre Bradford piece.