Police swoop on the furniture phantom.
Ghostbuster Bill talks it over with the troubled spirit of 1896.
By Andy Smith and Chris Rundle.
Halloween came early for Brenda Gracey after a spooky intruder created a real nightmare at her Minehead home. She was awakened by a huge crash and found a solid oak dresser had been turned upside down in the middle of the room of her flat in a large house. Yet a large mirror and other ornaments which were on it were completely undamaged. Now Mrs Gracey says she fears her home is sheltering a poltergeist and since police have told her they can only deal with living intruders she is planning to have the troublesome spirit exorcised.
But as a first step she called in Wedmore parapsychologist [sic] Bill Harrison who feels he has discovered the key to the mystery. He said the bedroom was inhabited by the spirit of a Victorian miner who used to live in an adjacent but hidden attic room. Mr Harrison said: “He was about 5ft 7in tall, of stocky build with dark hair and his name was Jack Roberts or Robertson. He used to be a miner, but went on to work with horses. He passed away in 1896 due to breathing problems and some sort of head injury, but the cause of death was unclear. He was what I would call a lost soul. He was present to remind people of an anniversary, probably his death, and to make sure he wasn’t forgotten. I spoke to him and reassured him and he has not reappeared since, much to the delight of Brenda who was somewhat scared to find a ghost wandering about her bedroom. He was not a nasty spirit, in fact he was nice and friendly and he just wanted people in the present day to remember him.”
Mrs Gracey and her ten-year-old son, Daniel, have been haunted by unnatural goings-on for some time. “I used to live in a flat in a cottage at Carhampton where plates shattered and kettles turned themselves off, but only when male visitors were in the house,” she said. “A taxi driver friend from the East End refused to visit me any more after he saw an apparition in a chair; a stern Quaker man who was wagging his finger at him. Danny saw the same figure on a separate occasion and described him identically, but he wasn’t frightened by him.”
But the latest incident in their flat has disturbed them both. “We had both gone to bed early and at about 8.45 there was a huge crash which sounded like someone coming in through the window. When I put the light on, my solid oak dressing table, which is wedged between two wardrobes, was in the middle of the floor and upside down. I was just shaking with fear. I called in the police, but the poor men were absolutely baffled. They didn’t know what to make of it, nor what to put on their report. They did check every window and door and were absolutely certain that there was no forced entry and couldn’t find anything else that might have caused it. If there is no natural explanation for it I want to find out what supernatural explanation there could be.”
An Avon and Somerset police spokesman said “No crime was committed and we have just recorded the case as unexplained.”
Are you plagued by a poltergeist? Ring the Western Daily Press newsdesk with your story.
Western Daily Press, 30th October 1995.