Ghost in my house.
(Special agent: Jessica Pilkington).
They were petrified when they first suspected something was wrong. It was nine years ago, three years after the Hopgood family had moved into their terraced Blackthorn home. Everything had seemed perfectly normal at first. The Northampton house appeared to be like any other in the street. There was a small kitchen, a couple of bedrooms and a small, square garden. But one night, while Paul and Sue Hopgood were watching television in their lounge, they were startled by a thudding sound coming from the kitchen. Afraid it was a burglar, Paul crept into the kitchen to investigate. But what he saw frightened him more than anything else he’d ever seen. Paul claims every cupboard door in the room was wide open, meticulously positioned so each opened at exact right angles. Some of the doors, fitted with springs, would usually have slammed shut of their own accord – but on the evening in question the springs mysteriously didn’t work.
At first Paul and Sue refused to believe it was anything paranormal. The couple went straight to bed and tried to forget anything happened. They couldn’t. Eight days later the Hopgoods say they witnessed something even more bizarre. Just as they turned the lounge light off to go to bed they heard another dull thudding sound. Paul immediately switched the light back on and couldn’t believe his eyes – video casettes, previously piled haphazardly under the television, were neatly stacked, standing up, along the lounge floor. “The videos weren’t just scattered on the floor – they were all facing exactly the same way round, upright and in an unnervingly straight, ordered line. Other objects kept moving after that,” said Paul. “We would leave the kitchen, walk into the lounge and things would have moved from room to room. We’ve never actually seen anything in flight, but we know it’s not in our imagination.”
The Hopgoods say this went on for the next three years. They never knew where anything would be next and the couple were exhausted from lack of sleep. They would find furniture precariously piled up on top of a table, fruit lined up on a floor and dumbell weights on the staircase. “Eventually we called in a vicar to try to explain what was going on,” said Sue. “Even he admitted there was something strange in the house, although he couldn’t say what. We knew it had to be a ghost, but we were also convinced it was a friendly one – although definitely mischievous.”
To come to terms with their uninvited visitor, Paul and Sue decided to name their house ghost Fred. Although the couple took steps to try to lessen the poltergeist activity – friends suggested putting chimes up, filling pots with salt and placing them in the corners of rooms and lighting joss sticks – the Hopgoods say Fred is still around. “He’s not as noisy as he was, but we can feel his presence,” said Paul. “There is a strange meadowy smell that will sometimes fill a corner of a room or a very cold spot, and we know it’s Fred.”
The children, 12-year-old Sarah and nine-year-old Heather, are blase about their house ghost. They’ve got used to having Fred around and hardly raise an eyebrow when things go mysteriously astray. As for Paul and Sue – they now run a handicraft business in Northampton and read tarot cards for people. Paul said: “Before I moved to Northampton I didn’t believe in anything out of the ordinary. But I’ve learnt that not everything is logical or can be explained.”
Paul and Sue have no intention of getting rid of Fred – he was there before them and, in their own words, he’s opened their eyes to another world.
German television crews were fascinated by a little bowl of iron filings which sit on the Hopgood’s kitchen table. The filings move around the plate, without being touched and the crew believe it could be some sort of poltergeist force that is responsible. The television cameras spent a day in the Hopgood’s Blackthorn home recently and plan to broadcast their footage in the near future.
Northampton Chronicle and Echo, 16th April 1997.
Could just be an advert for their business?!