‘Haunted house’ parents say their baby wakes up screaming.
It’s all a bit puzzling and rather frightening at times – living in a haunted house. But Edmund Kiel, a 37-year-old partner in a Hull warehouse business, and his wife, Ivy, have learned to live with the unwelcome “presence” which has made itself known over the last 10 years in their Orchard Park Estate home. But now, the peculiar happenings are becoming more frequent at 11, Ancourt, and Mr and Mrs Kiel are anxious about the effect of the “ghost” on their daughter, Julie Ann, who will be three next month.
The Rev Tom Willis, vicar at St. Paul’s, Hull, and a member of a voluntary team which investigates hauntings, said there had been one or two such cases on Orchard Park Estate. Supernatural happenings could take the form of telepathy, a memory left behind and picked up years later; the dead returning; poltergeists, energy coming from the living; or because someone had been dabbling in the occult. The happenings in the Kiel household were typical of cases he had come across.
Mr and Mrs Kiel have become so worried that they want a new house – and they have contacted their local council representative and the housing department. The “presence” made itself felt soon after the Kiels moved in. “Things disappeared, such as my shaving kit and my wife’s shoes,” said Mr Kiel, a fisherman until Julie was born. Bulbs came out of the sockets for no apparent reason and we found them unbroken on the floor. They had been put in securely. Flowers and ashtrays were also scattered about the floor,” said Mr Kiel.
On one occasion, when Julie was about six weeks old, her bottle disappeared from upstairs and was discovered hidden under the sideboard downstairs, much to the couple’s bewilderment. The baby’s dummies also kept disappearing and were found later by the window cleaner – on the shed roof. Footsteps – on the landing, the stairs and in the roof – have also been heard. “Once we were so frightened we slept downstairs,” said Mr Kiel. “But we were woken up by someone walking downstairs and we saw the door handle move. But no one came in.”
At one stage, Julie spoke about an old lady and pointed to the window, said her mother. “She has now started waking up and screaming early in the morning,” said Mrs Kiel. The last thing to happen was the sound of footsteps a few nights ago. They stopped outside Julie’s bedroom, but no one was there.
Mrs Kiel said that gipsy caravans were parked on the site before the houses were built, and that gipsy children had died in a caravan fire. “These things have frightened us but we have had to live with them, but now we are worried because of Julie,” she said.
Hull Daily Mail, 23rd January 1973.
Ghosthunters to help ‘haunted house’ family.
Ghost hunters are to spend a night in a house in Orchard Park Estate, Hull, in the hope of tracking down an unwelcome “presence” which has plagued a family for 10 years. The all-night vigil will begin late on Friday evening when members of PHASER, the Hull-based ghost-chasing group, hope to come face-to-face with the mysterious spirit. Their equipment will include a tape recorder, an infra-red camera and scientific apparatus.
Last night, Mr Alan Grieveson (21), his wife Penny (20) and two other members of PHASER, called at the house, 11 Ancourt, to talk to the occupants Edmund and Ivy Keil. The couple, who have a young daughter, say that over the past 10 years things have happened in the house for no apparent reason. Mr Grieveson said today: “We will position ourselves at various points in the house and remain there all night. From what the couple have told us, we assume that it is a mild poltergeist activity.”
Hull Daily Mail, 25th January 1973.
In 1973, the Kiel family in Ancourt, Orchard Park Estate, confessed that their house was apparently haunted after objects vanished and then turned up again in another part of the house. Bulbs came out of their sockets and were later found unbroken on the floor footsteps were heard on the landing and stairs and the frightened family slept downstairs for comfort. These inexplicable happenings went on for nearly a decade – and, perhaps significantly, seemed to worsen when the couple had a daughter, Julie Ann.
The incidents of objects disappearing and then being found later in another part of the house became more frequent. On one occasion, Julie Ann spoke about an old lady and pointed to the window. She began waking in the night screaming. Mmore footsteps were heard along the landing – which came to a halt outside the baby’s room. The couple were understandably worried about the effect on their daughter. Help from a local vicar and a team of scientific investigators was offered, but for non apparent reason, it was turned down.
The Kiels still live at 11, Ancourt, but Mrs Ivy Kiel was reluctant to talk about the mysterious events. She admitted that strange things had continued to happen after the publicity was over but could not say when it all stopped.
But she did put forward a disturbing theory which related closely to her daughter seeing an old lady. “We heard that before they built these houses, the land was used by gipsies and that an old woman refused to move and died there,” she explained.
[part of article] Hull Daily Mail, 14th September 1979.