Terrified wife and baby quit ‘haunted’ pre-fab.
Herald Reporter, Bristol, Wednesday.
Ghostly happenings in a ‘haunted’ prefab have driven a young couple and their baby from their home. Doors opened and slammed by unseen hands… bread knives whisked away… mystery scratchings on asbestos walls… that’s the sort of thing. Blonde, 25-year-old Mrs Doris Hawkins, mother of David, aged 18 months, had this to say tonight about the pre-fab in Brook-road, Speedwell: “I wouldn’t go back to that terrible place for all the money in the world. My little boy has come scampering into the house screaming with terror for no apparent reason. He can’t say what frightened him.”
Mrs Hawkins and David and her husband, Dennis, a 28-year-old motor mechanic, are now staying with Mrs Hawkins’ mother. They became tenants of the bungalow six months ago. “But,” said Mrs Hawkins, “I just couldn’t stand what went on there any longer – not after the bread knives.” Short, bespectacled Mr Hawkins explained: “We had two bread knives, Christmas presents. They both disappeared. Then one suddenly turned up on the hall floor. A large tool-box lid and my set of darts vanished, too. Then we heard dragging footsteps in the front garden. No one was there. Things have been moved about in the house, lights switched on and off.”
But Mr Hawkins is going to spend a night in the haunted pre-fab. He said: “I want to prove that there’s something queer about the place – I want to see something. If I do I will be round to the City Housing Department right away. My wife is becoming a nervous wreck.”
Daily Herald, 17th January 1952.
Quitting ‘haunted’ prefab.
A Bristol man, his wife, and two-year-old daughter have left their prefab home because they say it is haunted. The couple, Mr and Mrs D Hawkins, told of ghostly footsteps at night, doors opening, lights suddenly coming on, and ‘an eerie feeling.’ But… a Corporation official said: “The previous tenant was a policeman, and he was quite happy.”
Bradford Observer, 17th January, 1952.
‘Haunted pre-fab’ quitted by family.
A Bristol man and his wife have left their pre-fab home because they say it is haunted. The couple, Mr and Mrs D Hawkins, now staying with relatives at Albion Place, Red-cross Street, Bristol last night told of ghostly footsteps at night, doors opening, and lights suddenly coming on.
“I am not going back to that dreadful place for anything,” said Mrs Hawkins, mother of a two-year-old daughter. He husband declared – “This is not just foolish fancy. You get an eerie feeling that you are not alone in the house. We have had nothing but bad luck ever since we have been there.”
A Corporation official said – “The previous tenant was a policeman, and he was quite happy!”
Northern Whig, 17th January 1952.
Man applies for ‘haunted’ prefab.
If Mr D Hawkins is not convinced by housing officers that his prefab is not haunted he may lose it. “We have had an application for it,” a Bristol council official said yesterday. The “ghost” is officially ascribed to a faulty light switch, a flush out of order, and a door that does not latch properly.
Daily News (London), 19th January 1952.
Council men lay ghost in prefab.
Corporation men spent two hours yesterday investigating the ‘haunted’ prefab at Speedwell, Bristol. Then they reported: “The reason for the ghostly occurrences was not hard to find. One of the doors does not shut properly, some of the light switches need attention, and the flush makes strange noises, but will be easily repared.” A housing official told this to Mr and Mrs Dennis Hawkins – who quitted the prefab with their two-year-old son after complaining that it was haunted. Mr Hawkins intends to sleep in the prefab for two nights after the defects have been put right, before trying to persuade his wife to go back.
Daily Mirror, 19th January 1952.
Troubles were only bubbles – but housewife won’t believe it.
Priest and plumber help to lay ‘ghost’ of the haunted prefab.
Bumps in night.
By Sunday Dispatch Reporter.
Three Bristol Corporation officials, a plumber, and a clergyman specially robed for the occasion, yesterday laid the ‘ghost’ which had driven a young couple and their two-year-old son away from thei ‘haunted’ prefab home for nearly two months.
In the present of the tenant the three officials, Mr G. Hill, maintenance superintendent of Bristol’s Housing Department, Mr C.S. Hodges, chief technical officer, and Mr H.S. Heath, residential agent – demonstrated how a prefab could produce all the ‘supernatural’ sound effects of a haunted house. They proved that ‘ghostly feet’ consisted of nothing more than bubbling water in pipes; that ‘table rappings’ came from loose metal panels; and that a ‘self-flushing water cistern’ was due to a sticky valve. ‘Things that go bump in the night’ were merely metal fittings that expanded and contracted with heat and cold. For the demonstration, the ‘effects man’ was the local plumber Mr A.C. Bennett, who laid bare the noisy pipes for inspection.
In mortar board and gown, the Rev. F.S. Lee, white-haired Vicar of St Ambrose Church, came prepared, if necessary, to exorcise the ‘ghost’. But after the convincing demonstration of sanitary engineering only a few wise words were necessary from him to convince the tenant, Mr Dennis Hawkins, 28-year-old garage mechanic, that the ‘ghost’ which has haunted his family was due to natural cuases.
Here might have ended the first ghost hunt organised by the local Housing Department – a three-day wonder that has plagued the local authority with hundreds of inquiries, and frigghtened most of the children and some women in Brook-road prefab colony. But frail, 25-year-old Mrs Doris Hawkins refuses to be reassured. At her mother’s home in Albion-place she said flatly: “The place is haunted. I shall never return.” She even refused to enter her home to attend the ceremonial ‘ghost laying’.
Mr Hawkins said: “I am satisfied now, but my wife is adamant. I just can’t persuade her. If I take her back to the prefab she will only be worrying herself silly while I’m away at work.” So the Housing Department is trying to find the Hawkins family another home. Already nearly 20 families have applied for tenancy of the prefab.
It was six months ago that Mr and Mrs Hawkins first throught they heard phantom footsteps. Lights seemed to go on and off, and when the carving knife periodically disappeared neighbours were told. As the news got about children in the prefab colony were afraid to come past No. 5 at night. Other women began to hear ghostly noises.
This is how some of the other phenomena at the Hawkins’ home were described in a report to the council by the maintenance superintendent, with his comments: Lights found on and gas cooker lighted – “natural carelessness.” Child screams for no reason – “no child of two can explain why it screams.” Bread knife found in prominent position after being missing for two weeks – “child can probably explain this.” Mother-in-law saw figure pass from bedroom to kitchen – “flight of imagination or reflection of self.”
Weekly Dispatch (London), 20th January 1952.
In 1951 a haunted “prefab” came into the news in Bristol. Doors were opened and slammed by unseen hands, bread knives were whisked away, mysterious scratchings appeared on asbestos walls, objects were moved about in the house and lights were switched on and off, apparently without human hands. A young couple and their two-year-old son left the house, terrified.
The housing department of the City Council took it up – and the result was that in January, 1952, three Corporation officials, a plumber and a clergyman went to lay the “ghost.” The officials demonstrated how a “prefab” could produce all the “supernatural” sound effects of a haunted house.
The “ghostly feet” consisted of bubbling water in pipes; the “table rappings” came from loose metal panels; the queer noises were due to cistern valves, and also to metal fittings expanding and contracting with heat and cold. Many of the phenomena could be ascribed to domestic carelessness. So – with these explanations – the services of the cleric were not needed to exorcise the “poltergeist.”
Ballymena Weekly Telegraph, 20th December 1956.