Exorcist to visit ghost house.
Council housing officers hope to be present when an exorcist arrives at a Birch-wood council house which tenants say is haunted by a ghost called George. Housing director Mr Arthur Tindall said the young couple, Andrew and Michelle Hurst, had been asked to tell his officers when the exorcist was due to make his attempt to rid the Kemble Close house of the ghost.
The Hursts, who have two children aged 20 months and four months, have been urging the council for two months to move them because, they say, Mrs Hurst has been pushed to the edge of a nervous breakdown. But Mr Tindall said: “We need to establish the facts before we decide on their request. We are waiting to hear when the exorcist is coming.”
The Hursts say they are too frightened to stay in the house any longer. They are packing, waiting to move out on Friday. Mrs Hurst (20) said it would probably mean splitting the family between her mother’s and sister’s houses, because neither home was big enough for all of them. The Hursts say they have heard the ghost’s footsteps, seen electrical equipment and toys turn themselves on, and their daughter Sarah has awakened night after night screaming in terror at a chilling presence in her room.
A medium called into the house told the Hursts that the ghost had revealed itself to her as a man called George who had lost his wife, son and dogs while living on the site.
Lincolnshire Echo, 21st September 1983.
‘Ghost’ house couple are to get new home.
The couple who fled their council home because they say it is haunted, have had their plea for a move accepted by the City Council. Andrew and Michelle Hurst and their two small children are sleeping in one room at their mother’s home in Turner Avenue after quitting the house in Kemble Close, Birchwood, terrified by a ghost called “George.” Housing and estates director, Mr Arthur Tindall, said the Hursts’ application for rehousing had been accepted by the Housing Subcommittee for registration. That meant they were now officially on the waiting list. He could not say how long it would be before they had another home.
The sub-committee’s decision had nothing to do with the stories of the ghost, Mr Tindall said. He would not comment on the future of the house in Kemble Close. Housing Committee chairman, Coun. David Jackson, said that, without making any promises, he was hopeful that the Hursts could be rehoused within three months. He foresaw no difficulty in re-letting the Kemble Close house. Several people had looked at it already. “Even if there are psychic phenomena in a house, 99 per cent of people would not be aware of them,” he said. “Only the 1 per cent who are psychically sensitive would be affected. Why is it that if you own a stately home a ghost is a tourist attraction, but if you are a council tenant it is a problem?”
Mrs Hurst’s mother, Mrs Brenda Melbourne, said they were pleased and relieved that the application had been accepted. “We’ll be even more pleased when they get another house. It’s a bit of a crush here. We’re all falling over each other and we’re not getting much sleep.” Mrs Melbourne said Mrs Hurst’s 21-month-old daughter Sarah had whooping cough and her five-month-old son had an infection. But despite all this Mrs Hurst (21) had been feeling much better since leaving the house that frightened her so much. Her nerves had been shot by the strange happenings she experienced there, but now she had been able to give up nerve tablets.
While in Kemble Close, the Hursts said they had seen toys and electrical equipment turn themselves on, heard footsteps and Sarah had awakened every night screaming, feeling a chilling spectral presence in the room.
A medium, who later had a confidential meeting with housing officials, claimed to have identified the ghost as a man called George who had lost his wife, son and dogs while living on the site. But the previous tenants said they never experienced any ghostly events while living there.
Lincolnshire Echo, 12th October 1983.