The houseproud ghost.
Ethel Joynson liked to have everything about the house just so. She was a houseproud sort of person. When she died, her old spick-and-span place became the home of the Heath family. But the Heaths claim that their lives there have become a nightmare… thanks to the “ghost of Mrs Joynson.” The ghost, they say, is even tidying up.
“We’ve found the grate tidied up, the poker was moved, and a drawer which had been left open closed,” said 41-year-old Mrs Mary Heath. “Sometimes, especially around eight o’clock at night, you can feel the atmosphere changing. You feel as if you’re choking. Everyone is very frightened.”
The house is in Albert Street, Audley, near Newcastle under Lyme, Staffs, and Mrs Heath lives there with husband Herbert, son Norman, 20, daughters Denise 14, Cheryl, 9, and baby Sharon, and with her other son, Alan, and his wife, Christine.
“Not long after we arrived,” Mrs Heath went on, “I was in bed when I heard a strange sound. I looked up and saw the shape of a woman standing by the bed. Then the shape vanished. My daughter-in-law and one of my sons have seen the same apparition.”
A local vicar has blessed all the rooms in the house, but still the ghost tidies up, according to the family. Alan and Christine now plan to move out and Mr Heath, too, is looking for other accommodation.
Mrs Joynson’s husband, Wilfred, 79, who now lives nearby, said: “It’s true my wife was a very tidy person. I know they are saying that it’s the spirit of my wife returned, but as far as I’m concerned it’s a load of bunkum.”
The People, 4th February 1973.