Father-of-five, 62, could find his haunted house is re-possessed.
Arthur flees home to escape a ghost.
By David Humphrey.
Handyman Arthur Maidment is in danger of losing his council home – because of a ghost. The divorced father-of-five refuses to live in the bungalow at Tisbury, near Salisbury, claiming it is haunted. Now Salisbury district council has started eviction proceedings as Arthur, aged 62, stays with his sister-in-law Barbara not far away.
Ex-RAF man Arthur moved into the bungalow in Churchill Close, Churchill Estate, in April 1989. Before long he began to notice there was something odd about his new home. Knives and forks would inexplicably rattle in kitchen drawers. A strange “pinging” noise would start for no apparent reason in his bedroom. He felt things crawling in his bed and behind his pillow. A heavy pebble doorstop moved from one point to another on its own. Temperatures plunged in his bedroom and his dog Puch, a collie-labrador bitch, would grow terrified.
Arthur, who works at a Little Chef restaurant near Tisbury, called in a priest who advised him to put a Bible, religious picture and crucifix in separate rooms. “I haven’t been back at night to find out whether they have done the trick,” he said. “I go there during the day to light a fire and keep an eye on things, but I’m too nervous to return at night.” Arthur, who says he has never experienced a haunting before – and drinks just one pint a week – found out that a man had died from “a very vicious heart attack” in the bungalow.
His £23 rent has been paid by the DSS out of income support, but Arthur is worried about where he will live after the council set him a deadline of last Monday to give up the tenancy. “I am doing nothing wrong but they maintain it has been under surveillance. But I haven’t been sleeping there. Under a certain Act they are within their rights to turn you out if you don’t actually live in a place. I have applied for a transfer but they haven’t given me any indication whether or not I’ll get one.”
Salisbury district council’s housing chief, Mr Rollo Batten, could not be reached for comment last night.
Western Daily Press, 10th January 1991.
Medium called in to end ghost riddle.
Seance ‘settles mystery spook’.
By David Humphrey.
Medium Philip Steff may have laid the ghost that drove handyman Arthur Maidment out of his bungalow. During a remarkable seance at the property in Tisbury, near Salisbury, Philip claimed to be in touch with the troubled spirit. His description – an elderly thick set man over 6ft tall and wearing thick-framed glasses – matched that of the man who lived in the bungalow before.
In his trance, Bath Psychic Club president Philip, aged 56, told him he should leave the earth “for his own peace and happiness and those of the people in the bungalow.” The spirit indicated he was looking for a woman, and when Philip told him she was in the spirit world: “I saw him fade from sight,” he said. “My colleague Derek Goodson, the club’s vice-president, then felt his hand become very hot indeed which normally means the spirit has left. The signs are hopeful that the trapped spirit has been released.” Freelance cameraman Michael Head, who attended the 20-minute ritual, said Mr Steff had described the man who lived there before.
Arthur had fled from the bungalow after claiming a ghost was rattling his cutlery, moving heavy objects and touching him in bed. The ex-RAF man, now living with his sister-in-law in Tisbury, said yesterday he would not return to the bungalow even if the spirit had gone. “I’ve sold all my furniture so there is nothing to put in there,” he said. “I want another council property – there’s no way I’ll go back to that place.”
He has criticised Salisbury district council for starting eviction proceedings against him after neighbours told them he was no longer living there.
Western Daily Press, 18th January 1991.