Family tell of ‘haunted house’ terror.
A family who claim that their Tividale home is possessed by spirits spoke today for the first time about their ordeal. The Webb family have had their home blessed by a clergyman, who put the mark of the cross on their doors using holy water. Sheila and Stephen Webb and their sons Paul and David say they are disturbed nightly by strange kicking sounds and occasional muffled voices in the house in Grace Road. They have also experienced unexplained cold spots in the centre of the lounge and claim that the washing machine and vacuum have inexplicably switched themselves off.
They revealed that the haunting goes back more than 10 years and the house has been blessed before for previous tenants. Their eldest son, Steven, aged 29, left home several years ago because he was so disturbed by the ghostly goings-on.
Local priest Father Stephen Day, of the Holy Cross church opposite their home, carried out the latest blessing. He said the spirits were not malevolent or nasty and there was no need for an exorcism. “What exactly is going on I do not know because you cannot see or touch it, and it does not explain itself. But there is obviously some sort of exceptional disturbance in the house – I would call them supernatural happenings,” he said. Father Day confirmed that he had blessed the house three times this year. His predecessor blessed the house in July 1979 when the previous tenants claimed the house was haunted. “If it has a supernatural source then it should be put back in its rightful place in the unseen world,” he said.
Mrs Webb said Steven and Paul first heard the sound of their bedroom door being kicked nightly at 3am shortly after they moved in. “I never believed in spirits and I didn’t believe Steven for a long time. We have looked for logical explanations but there aren’t any,” she said. Mrs Webb has heard ghostly voices in the corner of the living room and her youngest son David, aged nine, is so frightened he insists on sleeping in the front bedroom with his parents. They have asked Sandwell council to move them from their neat home and have ditched plans to buy the house.
Wolverhampton Express and Star, 19th March 1992.
Ghost drives out family.
A Tividale family who claim their lives have been made a misery by ghostly goings-on have made a desperate plea to be moved from their council home. Stephen and Sheila Webb said the three-bedroomed house at Grace Road was haunted by voices, knocking noises and door-banging. They said the washing machine and vacuum cleaner had switched on and off mysteriously, the iron had blown up, and temperatures dropped alarmingly in two rooms. The family put a tape recorder in one of the bedrooms to record the muffled voices, but the machine blew up.
Mrs Webb’s oldest son, Paul, aged 29, has been so terrified he has moved out and the family have called in a clergyman to help. Mr Stephen Day, vicar of Holy Cross Church, said today he had blessed the house with holy water and said prayers. The family have traced the records back to find that the house was also blessed in July 1979, before they moved in, and it was built more than 70 years ago on the site of a former churchyard.
Mrs Webb said: “We moved into the house eight years ago and have spent a lot of money on re-decorating and improving it. My sons Paul and Steven complained in the early days of hearing voices and knocking noises in their bedrooms, but we did not take too much notice. But things have got worse, and Stephen and I have experienced the knocking noises, the opening and shutting of doors and the feeling of someone’s breath on our faces. We have looked up the records to find that the house was blessed by a clergyman on July 8, 1979, before we moved in, which suggests the previous tenants must have had trouble. We complained to Sandwell Housing department and we have since had several visitors, including a spiritualist, who told us that the house was plagued by demon spirits.”
Mrs Webb said that her third son, David, aged nine, slept in the same room as his mum and dad because he was too frightened to sleep in one of the bedrooms.
A Sandwell Council official said the couple had now been offered alternative accommodation.
Sandwell Evening Mail, 19th March 1992.