Family’s ghostly terror.
By Andrew Lloyd.
A couple are on the verge of contacting an exorcist after a spate of poltergeist activity in their home. Furniture is thrown around, toys move about on their own, footsteps are heard on the stairs and two ghosts have been sighted in the council terrace house in Cambois. The terrified family first noticed something strange about their home when a piece of rubbish jumped out of a bin by itself. Since then two of their children have moved out after hearing heavy breathing and their pet dog sets its hackles and snarls at something in a corner of the lounge.
The 38-year-old mother, who doesn’t want to be named, contacted a spiritualist when her toddler woke up screaming in the night, claiming a ghost with a knife was in his bedroom. She herself once felt hands tugging at her skirt in the kitchen and when she turned around she saw a young boy staring up at her. She said: “We really have had a terrifying time of it. You spend your life dreading what will happen next. My father came to stay and he was up all night because he saw a figure downstairs. I can usually tell now when something is about to happen. The room goes cold as if there is a draught. Sometimes you see a fleeting shadow, then it’s gone. The dog seems to sense it too. The spiritualist said the house is haunted by an ex-soldier and a boy who is searching for his mother. Apparently they think we are intruding on them! I know people think we’re mad but we’ve all experienced these things. My nerves used to be in tatters but it happens so often that I try to carry on as normal now.”
The family has been offered a swap by Wansbeck Council, but local councillor Alan Stewart says a vicar is usually contacted in cases where tenants have problems with the paranormal. The woman said: “Most people would have fled months ago but we’ve spent a lot of time getting the house nice and I don’t want to be driven out.”
Canon David Goodacre, from Ovingham, has performed such ceremonies and said: “Sometimes a ghostly presence seems to be a person who suffered in life and is unable to move on after dying. I say a few prayers to commend it into the hands of God.”
Blyth News Post Leader, 8th February 1996.