High spirits rattle family. by Rachel Cutts.
A couple have asked for a housing transfer because they claim ghosts have separated them from their four-year-old son. Mr and Mrs Brian Manterfield moved into their council home close to Barnby Crossing, Balderton, shortly before Christmas, 1992. They said that after a few days they began hearing noises during the night, although these would stop whenever they tried to investigate. Believing the house was infested with rats, they contacted a council pest controller, who searched the building but found no trace of rodents.
A few weeks later their son, Christopher, demanded to stay with his grandparents and refused to return home because he said he had seen nasty men in the house. The chairman of the district housing and environmental health committee, Mrs Jill Dawn, said this week that housing officials would visit the Manterfields’ home to look into their case. She said district council officers would keep an open mind in the investigation and they hoped a clergyman would accompany them.
Believing their son had been disturbed by nightmares, Mr and Mrs Manterfield took Christopher, who was three, to see a doctor. The doctor later put them in touch with a health visitor. Mrs Samantha Manterfield said: “The health visitor listened to Christopher and advised us to talk to a psychic. While we were trying to help Christopher we were witnessing strange things ourselves.” Mrs Manterfield said she sometimes saw plastic bags moving in the kitchen and often felt other people in the room with her when she was alone. “One day I was preparing the dinner and I left the kitchen for a minute. When I got back, all the potatoes were in a line on the worktop. It couldn’t have been my other two children because the eldest was just one year old. Then we realised we were sharing our house with something.”
A Lincoln psychic talked to Christopher, who would still not go home. Christopher told him there were four people living with his parents and his brother and sister. Said Mrs Manterfield: “Christopher was three years old at the time and we all believed everything he told us. Children at that age don’t know how to tell lies.” The psychic told Mr and Mrs Manterfield their house was haunted and he claimed to have cleansed three spirits from the building. “The psychic could only find the spirits of a woman and two men, so we assumed Christopher had miscounted,” said Mrs Manterfield. She said the noises continued and objects would occasionally move on their own. “To make it easier to live with, we called the spirit Peter Poltergeist, although we were so frightened that by this time we were all sleeping in one room,” she said.
Christopher still refused to go home and she had to visit him at her mother’s house. On another visit the psychic claimed there was still a spirit in their house. “Christopher would only visit on odd occasions for a few minutes. We noticed that he was particularly upset by going over Barnby Crossing. The psychic said this was because a boy similar to Christopher, who had previously lived in our house, had seen his father die on the railway. The spirit left behind was believed to be the boy’s uncle,” she said.
Christopher’s grandmother, Mrs Christina Hunt of Century Street, Newark, said Christopher was convinced there was still an unwelcome visitor in his house and refused to go home. Mrs Hunt said: “When I first went to the house I had a strange feeling about it. If there was more room in my house I would tell all the family to live here because I am terrified for them.” Mrs Hunt said when she went to her daughter’s house she also experienced strange things. She had often been aware of something invisible standing next to her while in the front room.
Mrs Manterfield said the spirit had more recently been imitating crying children and throwing toys across the room.
The couple applied to the Newark and Sherwood District Council for a housing transfer. “We have told the council we will move into accommodation for the homeless or a small flat – anywhere to get out of the situation we are in at the moment. I just want my son to live at home again,” said Mrs Manterfield.
Mrs Samantha Manterfield comforts her son Christopher who is frightened to go home because he believes the house is haunted.
Newark Advertiser, 7th January 1994.
Spooks force family out of ‘haunted’ house.
A Notts family are to be moved from their council house after claiming their four-year-old son has been frightened by ghosts. Brian and Samantha Manterfield moved into their home near Barnby Crossing, Balderton, just over a year ago. But after a few weeks their son, Christopher, refused to stay in the house and went to live with his grandmother in Newark. At first they thought he was having nightmares and sought medical help. The doctor passed them onto a health visitor who advised them to talk to a psychic.
Mrs Manterfield said they had also witnessed strange events in the house, including unusual noises and objects moving on their own. The psychic claims to have got rid of the spirits of three people from the building, but Christopher still feels uneasy. And Mrs Manterfield said her son was behaving like a different child and was obviously frightened by something.
Coun. Jill Dawn, housing chairman at Newark and Sherwood District Council, visited the house. She said: “We had a long talk with Mrs Manterfield and she is convinced there is a problem with spirits. Christopher is not happy, and we are concerned about him being away from his family for whatever reason.”
The family were already due to move from the house because it is too small for their needs. “And if that move is sooner, rather than later, it is going to benefit Christopher, who has been advised not to go back to that property,” said Coun. Dawn. But she doesn’t believe the spooky goings-on will cause any problems when the council tries to let the house in future.
Nottingham Evening Post, 15th January 1994.
Ghost claim family may get new home. Billy Phillips.
A family who claim they have been split up because of a ghostly presence in their Balderton council home are having their request for a move considered by Newark and Sherwood District Council. Housing officers and housing committee chairman Mrs Jill Dawn visited the Barnby Crossing home of Mr and Mrs Brian Manterfield last week, after the Advertiser had highlighted the family’s plight. Mrs Samantha Manterfield said they had been plagued with problems since they moved into the house shortly before Christmas 1992. They contacted a medium and they thought the problem was solved when he claimed three spirits had been cleansed from the two-bedroom home. But their son Christopher (3) told them a nasty man had come into his bedroom. He could not look at him and could not go to sleep.
Mrs Manterfield said “At first we though it may be that Christopher needed reassurance because he was new to th ehouse. He loves watching American wrestlers on television, so we put up his favourite pictures and models in his bedroom.” But Mrs Manterfield said she hadfelt the presence on the landing and in the bathroom, and had heard noises like the sound of someone counting money. On one occasion, she returned to the living room to find toys had been moved for no apparent reason.
Mrs Manterfield said the situation was so bad that Christopher had gone to stay with his grandmother in Newark, and did not want to return home becuase of the noises. She told housing officers: “I don’t really care where we go, if we could get a move from here then Christopher would be happy to come home, and that is all that matters to us.”
Mrs Dawn said after the visit: “It is the first time in my experience that I have come across anything like this. We are not happy that this family is split up and their child is living away from them for whatever reason.” She said the family would aloso be considered for a move because the house was too small for their needs, but said it was impossible to predict when the move might come. Mrs Dawn ruled out the possibility of an exorcism on the home. She said: “I don’t think this would stop people wanting to come and live there once the house became vacant. Some people do not believe in the spirit world, and I am sure that many people in homeless accommodation would be pleased of a chance to get a council home.”
Spooky stories of ghosts on the stairs are no joke for the Manterfield family. Newark and Sherwood District Council housing chairman Mrs Jill Dawn (left) discusses the problem with Mrs Samantha Manterfield on the stairs of the family home at Barnby Crossing.
Newark Advertiser, 21st January 1994.