Home. A lovely word. What do you think of, when you think of home? If you are one of the world’s lucky people, you will think of words like warmth, relaxation, and safety. You might have a picture of yourself snuggled up by the fire with a hot drink. Imagine yourself sitting at home when objects suddenly launch themselves down the stairs or across the room. Imagine being alone in the house and hearing heavy footsteps crossing the room above. Imagine your doors locking themselves against you. How would you feel then? All that happened in Mr R’s Belper home. Here is his story: At Home with a Poltergeist
My Father, Mother and I lived at the cottage for around 4 years whilst I was a child during 1948 – 1952. I think it was after a couple of years that Willie the poltergeist joined us.
The first incident was extremely heavy footsteps from upstairs one evening, sufficient to rattle the horse brasses around the fireplace. “There’s someone upstairs!” cried mother in amazement. My father went to see who it was, but of course there was no-one there. After that, there would often be thuds and noises from above. Our cleaning lady, on first hearing them when in the house alone, shot out of the house to the farm across the road. The men came back with shotguns to round up the burglar but, again, found nothing. Thereafter she always had the radio playing at full blast and all the doors wide open!
Next I think there was tuneless whistling in my parents’ bedroom – someone switched on the light and it stopped. After that, events came thick and fast, here are some of them:
A matchbox was thrown at Mum in the kitchen: Willie was, perhaps, annoyed at being told to shut up and stop whistling the night before.
The Spitfire clock in the kitchen was dumped in saucepan of soup – it survived, and we still have it today.
Imitating hens outside the back door – we had a hen run at the end of the garden and thought they must have escaped, but no, it was just Willie playing around.
Imitating my voice: “Mummy, mummy, come quick!” She rushed downstairs only to find me playing quietly. And “I’m home, Mummy” when I wasn’t at all. I was late from school due to a play rehearsal.
Before going to bed, Mum used to leave me a couple of biscuits for when I woke in the morning, but Willie would often snaffle these, to my annoyance. Although he did once leave a ten-shilling note in compensation!
One morning an extremely old shoe was found on the dining table.
Mum’s watch vanished from her dressing table. The house was turned upside down while we were looking for it, to no avail, but about a fortnight later it returned to the dressing table, set to the correct time, fully wound and with the strap neatly coiled around it.
Mum’s sister and her family came to stay one Christmas, they had a very slow and foggy drive from Birmingham and were very late.
“Just drop your stuff in the bedroom” said Dad, “supper’s ready.” “I can’t open the door, it’s locked,” said Uncle. “It can’t be locked; we’ve never had a key”. But it was: they both tried to open it. “Never mind, come and have supper, we’ll sort it out afterwards”. But after supper it just opened perfectly normally! We had been a bit concerned at being unable to get in because a fire had been lit in the bedroom (no central heating in those days!) but all was well.
My cousin found her bedroom freezing cold that night.
We went into Derby one morning. Upon our return we found all the bedroom furniture piled in the middle of the room.
A Swiss cowbell was hurled from the attic down two flights of stairs in the middle of the night – what a racket, Mum (now 101) says she can still hear it to this day!
Likewise, we had one of those wonderful art deco Electrolux vacuum cleaners that looked like a rocket ship: it was a cylinder on sleds and Willie thought it would be fun to toboggan it downstairs in the middle of the night, together with all its pipes and accoutrements.
Flushing the toilet multiple times, far faster than it could possibly refill. This, too, was in the middle of the night. Dad went to investigate and found nothing, but Mum said he was literally green when he came back to the bedroom!
Next door to us lived two elderly sisters. The night one of them died there was a lot of activity from Willie, who rushed around frantically and noisily.
One interesting thing about the footsteps often heard upstairs was that you could track them across the ceiling, from the bedroom door to the opposite wall. When we redecorated the bathroom, which was next door, we uncovered a doorway that had been bricked up, precisely where the footsteps went.
My father was offered a good job in Wales, so the house was sold to another family, who had always admired it and asked for first refusal should we ever sell it. But they only stayed six months! We heard that their daughter seemed to have a lot of bad luck there, and they, I think, unearthed a story about a maid who had hanged herself in one of the attic rooms, back in Victorian times. Could this possibly be connected with Willie’s presence? But Willie was not malevolent or frightening – he was obviously a bit of a prankster, and as time went on he sort of grew and developed, becoming bolder in his actions.
The address of this property is withheld out of consideration for the current residents.
Poltergeist.
The label is German for ‘noisy spirit’ Nobody knows for sure what a poltergeist is, but everyone knows what happens when one comes to stay. There are instances from all over the world and throughout history. A variety of effects are claimed, but there is a common core.
Typical Poltergeist Activity:
Thumping or banging noises are heard.
Voices and domestic noises are heard, although nobody is talking or making noises.
Household objects go missing, then sometimes return.
Objects move through the air as if thrown.
Sometimes people report minor injuries.
A poltergeist is a physical experience, and it is generally a domestic experience. The stories we hear are about ordinary homes inhabited by ordinary families, not about castles, churchyards or battlefields. Poltergeist stories are also time limited. The effects stop at some point. This differs from typical haunting stories, which can cover centuries. There are, however, plenty of overlaps between poltergeist reports and other kinds of haunting . Mysterious footsteps and moving objects, for example, occur in plenty of ghost stories. If we wanted to put a label on a case, we might not know whether to call it a poltergeist or a haunting. Labels can be confusing when the boundaries are not cut and dried. The word ‘ghost’ can mean different things to different people. It is more helpful to concentrate on the experiences people report, and describe those, instead of trying to name them. ‘Anomaly’ is not a very exciting word, but it does what it says on the tin. Something strange has happened, but we do not know how it happened, or why it happened. It means we do not have to commit to one label or one explanation, but we acknowledge that something has happened. We might or might not eventually find a simple explanation. Rickard and Michell suggest thinking in terms of ‘Locus’ and ‘Focus’. Anomalies might be focussed on a person, and so move around with that person, or they may be focussed on a place, and only happen in that place. ‘Willie’ appears to be a series of anomalies in one location. The family only experienced disturbances in the home, and when they moved house, the disturbances did not follow them. The following explanations have been offered for these domestic anomalies:
A person (often a teenager) is somehow projecting a destructive energy.
The building is affected by subsidence, faulty electrics, troublesome plumbing…
Every case is either a hoax, a mistake, or the product of someone’s imagination.
The building has been invaded by an entity or spirit.
There will always be people who are convinced there is an unseen world which interacts with us, and they will hold on to that belief no matter what. Similarly, there will always be people for whom no amount of evidence will ever be enough to persuade them that there is more to this world than what they can see. There is no point in trying to change people, but choosing a clear label to put on an experience is important. One day, somebody might find out exactly what a poltergeist is. Then that word will become a much more useful label. Mr R did not feel that ‘Willie’ was very frightening. His family seemed to adjust to having him around. It is surprising how many people will say that they co-exist with something strange in their homes, but do not feel especially anxious about it. Not everyone has such an easy time, however, and some experiences might be downright unpleasant . If you are genuinely distressed by anomalies in your home, you can seek help. The Association for the Scientific Study of Anomalous Phenomena (ASSAP) is a reputable organisation. http://assap.ac.uk/index.html ASSAP can arrange for an investigator to visit and help you. All ASSAP investigators are volunteers and will not charge you any money. They operate under a strict ethical code which ensures your safety and privacy. If you would just like to share your story, either anonymously or publicly, contact [email protected] . References The Rough Guide to Unexplained Mysteries, by Bob Rickard and John Michell The ASSAP website.
