Ghostly footsteps on the stairs and lights switched on at night.
Priest fails to oust unseen visitor.
A presence called Bobby is driving a Quinton family with three young children to distraction. Their army house has footsteps on the stairs and in the bedrooms, and lights and electrical appliances which mysteriously switch themselves on. Mrs Anna Morris, aged 21, 29 Bastyan Avenue, Quinton, has a bed in the corner of the lounge and refuses to sleep upstairs.
The Morris family moved into their semi-detached married quarters house two months ago. Once while her husband was on night duty at the nearby Long Marston camp, Mrs Morris said, she heard someone walking up the stairs and into the children’s bedroom. She said every time she switched on her bedroom light the footsteps stopped. Several times since then she has had the impression of someone walking up the stairs behind her.
Her husband showed a “Herald” reporter the impression of a man’s hand on a bedroom wall two feet from the floor. He claims that harsh detergents and scrubbing failed to remove the mark – it is almost invisible viewed from one side – and that it grows more distinct as night falls. He says the poltergeist – “if that’s what it is” – seems to favour three-year-old David, who has named it Bobby. It ignores Terry (two in November) and six-months-old Angela and concentrates its activities in the vicinity of the eldest boy. When they moved him from the front bedroom to the rear of the house the noises moved too.
Army welfare authorities from the Central Engineer Park have not shown much sympathy towards the Morrises’ problems.
So the family recently called in a Catholic priest – he blessed the house, but Mr Morris claims this has only annoyed Bobby and the noises are louder. The priest himself told the “Herald” the only course open is to conduct an exorcism ceremony. “But, before we can do this we have to have an examination – an observation as to what is going on. Then we have to apply to the bishop for his approval.”
Lower Quinton is overshadowed by the brooding Meon Hill – once alleged to have been the scene of witchcraft activities. The village came to national notice with its unsolved billhook ritual murder of the early 1940s.
Mrs Morris and David.
Stratford-upon-Avon Herald, 22nd October 1971.