Family appeal to council after seeing ‘ghost’.
Fear of ‘haunted’ house!
Previous tenants quit after strange happenings.
By Hazel Richardson.
A Consett family are living in fear because of the “ghostly goings on” at their home. They are the second family to protest about the ‘haunted’ house. The last tenants were transferred. It is claimed doors open and close by themselves, strange voices have been heard and objects have moved mysteriously.
Mrs Mary Alice Brown, aged 35, says that visitors to their home in Briardale, Delves Lane, rarely return and they are fast losing their friends. Now she and her husband Richard, aged 39, are desperately trying to be rehoused. Their eldest son John, aged 17, has gone to live with his grandparents to escape the “haunted house” and their five other children are frequently upset by the strange happenings, said Mrs Brown.
Mr Brown, who is redundant, is taking tranquilisers. He said yesterday: “It has really got me down. Since October I have been pressing the council to give us a transfer but they keep saying no.”
Mrs Brown said they had often seen a ghostly lady and one night she found her six-year-old daughter Natalie crying hysterically after she said she saw “the woman” sitting on her bed. Twelve-year-old Richard will not go to bed now without the lights in the hall being left on after the ghostly lady tried to pull off his blankets one night, it is claimed. He has also seen his wardrobe door opening and closing by itself, said Mrs Brown. Several members of the family and also visitors have stumbled down the stairs after sensing that they were being pushed, she added. “Last week my mother decided to go home after suddenly feeling very cold. I don’t know whether she will ever come back,” said Mrs Brown.
In December a toy was mysteriously lifted from the Christmas tree and flung across the room and once a dinner plate fell on tto the floor from the dining table without being touched, she said. Said Mrs Brown: “It has got to the stage where I am frightened to stay in my own home, but a few years ago I wasn’t afraid of anything. I used to watch horror films on television but now I never sit up late and I will not stay in the house alone. If we want to see our friends we have to go out because they won’t come here.”
The family moved into their four-bedroomed house three years ago and the strange happenings started about six months later. They contacted the previous tenants Frank and Sheila Malpass and their family who said they had suffered exactly the same experiences and had asked Derwentside Council for a transfer. The Malpass family now live in Fell Top, Blackhill, Consett. Yesterday Mrs Malpass was reluctant to discuss what happened when they lived in the house but she said it had made her ill. She said: “I would not stay in the house on my own. There were some very strange happenings and I am glad we got out.”
Mr and Mrs Brown’s application for a transfer is to be heard by Derwentside Council’s housing committee tomorrow.
The Brown family (left to right): Natalie, aged six; Dawn, aged 15; Mr Richard Brown; Dorleen, aged three; Richard, aged 12 and Alvanna, aged 10.
Newcastle Journal, 10th February 1981.
‘Ghost-house’ man tried to burn council office.
Richard Brown, who claims his house is haunted by a ghost, was quickly spirited away by police minutes before he tried to burn down a Derwentside council office. The 38-year-old, who lives in a council house in Consett, was armed with matches and a cardboard box when he was found outside the offices in Medomsley Road, Consett.
Derwentside magistrates were told this afternoon the father-of-four, who lives in Briardale, Delves Lane, was about to make an arson attack late on Saturday night following a conversation with a Mr Ian Armstrong. He had recognised Mr Armstrong as a council employee and told him he was going to burn down the council offices. Mr Armstrong immediately telephoned the police who found Brown at the door of the council offices. Asked what he was doing, Brown commented: “Well, I’ll tell you the truth. I’m going to burn this lot down. They won’t rehouse me. They don’t care.”
Brown, who had been drinking, admitted possessing a cardboard box and matches with intent to destroy or damage property and a second charge of threatening to destroy or damage property. Magistrates deferred sentence for three weeks for reports.
Newcastle Evening Chronicle, 20th July 1981.