Haunted by Past.
Families living on the site of Burton’s old general hospital today told how their new housing estate is among the most haunted in Britain. Residents in Gough Side, on the site of the old New Street hospital, have spoken of a catalogue of eerie sightings of ghostly patients and medics. They have also told of unaccountable noises, strange smells, swinging doors and frightening visions.
The tenants have broken their silence after living with the unexplained phenomena, on what they believed to be ground blessed by the Church before building work began. One family is now considering moving out. Resident Mrs Eva Broadhurst, 78, who moved to the street six months ago said: “It all started in my bedroom when the doors kept opening a bit at a time and then closing again. It kept on going like that. Then one night I saw a lady at the bottom of my bed. She was dressed in blue with short, fair hair, a round face, and a lovely smile. I would imagine she was about 60. After that nothing happened for quite a while. I thought I had put her to rest. But since then I have had my doors open on their own. One night I was watching television and happened to glance towards my kitchen and I saw a fellow with his back to the worktops with a pink shirt and wide braces. All I could see was his left hand but I couldn’t see his face. I spoke to him and said: ‘Hey, what are you doing there?’ and told him to show himself and suchlike. After, I turned away and watched telly in my bed again and he had disappeared. I got up and went through every room to make sure there was no-one here but it seemed so real. It was the way they just vanished into thin air. I knew they were ghosts when they did that.” Mrs Broadhurst has also had a visit from a team of ghostly medics standing round her bed in the middle of the night, and had also been haunted by a vision of a tree shedding leaves in a gale.
Mrs Broadhurst’s next-door neighbour, Mr Michael Oxley, 32, today confirmed he too has felt the presence of a woman in his house. He said: “It was just a feeling of a woman standing nearby and I was sitting in my lounge on my own. It was just a feeling. I never saw or heard anything.”
Mother-of-four Mrs Lynn Dennett, 32, said her five-year-old son Matthew had been terrified by a ghostly sighting – and her family had witnessed strange goings-on for eighteen months. She said: “It started when I first moved in here in April, 1996, and I had put my little boy in bed. In the middle of the night he started screaming and ran into my bedroom and said: ‘I have just seen a ghost.’ I said there was no such thing. It has taken me a long time to get him back into that bedroom and I was sleeping in there myself not so long ago and I saw a vision in the bedroom. It was there with me. It looked like there was someone in the room and you could see the shadows on the wall. I’ve always said there was no such thing but some unreal things have been happening.”
Mrs Dennett has witnessed closed doors opening on their own, smelt aftershave no-one in her home uses, felt herself being lifted off her bed, saw an apparition go through the bathroom and disappear. She has also had problems with her electricity cutting out.
Mother-of-four Mrs Angela Alexander, 38, told how her son, James, 10, had been left frightened by an apparition and her family had experienced ghostly occurrences.
The site of the former general hospital, at the corner of New Street and Union Street was used for treating patients for 125 year, before the last patients left in 1993 as services switched to Burton District Hospital, later becoming Queen’s Hospital, in Belvedere Road.
Owner Waterloo Housing, of Sutton Coldfield, manages houses on the site but today staff said they were unaware of the residents’ unworldly experiences. Mr Deryck Wilson, press officer for Queen’s Hospital, Burton, said: “It is fascinating news. We will be asking around our own staff members to hear if they have any stories. It has left me puzzled. It they are ghosts they should get a second opinion and if they are hospital staff we should know them because they will be wearing name badges.”
New homes… the site of Burton’s old general hospital – still home to patients and medics and (insert) witnesses Mrs Lynn Dennett, 32, Mrs Angela Alexander, 38, Mrs Eva Broadhurst, 78, with Matthew Dennett, five, Lydia Alexander, eight, and Hayley Dennett, nine.
Burton Daily Mail, 7th October 1997.
Rallying call to exorcise ghosts.
By Paul Kelly.
Bosses of Burton’s haunted housing estate have pledge to back church leaders’ efforts to release ghostly spirits from the site and calm residents’ nerves. Waterloo Housing Association has called a meeting on the day before Hallowe’en for householders to discuss problems of living on the old general hospital site. Support worker Mr Bob Mitchell, of the Sutton Coldfield-based housing association, said: “Quite clearly if there are things that upset residents, wherever they are coming from, then it is up to the meeting to identify solutions to things that are a problem. If there are solutions offered around, such as exorcism, then clearly the meeting is also open for people to discuss that. If church leaders come in with prayers and provide solutions then that’s quite useful.”
Residents of Burton’s Gough Side, part of a housing complex built on the former hospital site, revealed this week how they have witnessed apparitions of medics and patients, heard unexplained noises and felt the presence of spirits. Church leaders, including those from Burton Community Church, have already offered to visit householders to pray with them to end the spirit activity.
The residents’ meeting, on Thursday, October 30, at Burton’s Brewhouse arts centre, also has more worldly problems on its agenda such as litter and late night noise. Security of the complex of rented and shared ownership homes, access to the site and problems with taxis are also due to be discussed at the meeting.
Housing association staff have said they have yet to receive complaints about unexplained phenomena but would support action to deal with the problem.
Burton Daily Mail, 9th October 1997.