Ghost terrifies young family.
Two local clergymen, who fought a race against time to rid a ghost from a block of new flats in Burwell, have at last succeeded in their mysterious tasks. For more than a month a young family lived the ordeal of sharing their home with a ghost called Lucy. And when the first attempts to exorcise the evil spirit failed they were almost driven out of their flat with fear. Although the housewife insists that her family remain anonymous her account of their terrifying experiences has been confirmed by the Rev. Ken Haynes and the Baptist minister, the Rev. Peter Peel, who have both visited the flat. Mr Haynes said this week: “I was firmly convinced that an evil spirit was present in the house. During my visits I saw things happen that I had never seen before. It was my first experience of anything like this.”
The ghost moved into the flat on New Year’s Eve after the family had been entertaining friends with “seance games” during which attempts were made to communicate with spirits. The housewife, who has two young daughters, told of the mysterious incidents. First the room became very cold despite the high temperature readings. During the following days chairs and heavy furniture were moved and overturned in the middle of the night. Pictures regularly fell of the walls and ornaments were arranged in circles on the floor when the flat was empty and locked. Saucepans were hurled across the kitchen as she looked on in terror. A friend who visited the flat became almost hysterical with fear when – while completely alone in the sitting room – she was pelted with nuts from a fruit bowl a few feet away. And there was the phantom cup which suddenly appeared, full of hot black coffee, on a sitting room table, and promptly disappeared just as mysteriously.
One morning the two little girls asked their mother when “aunt Lucy” would be visiting again. Questioned closely by their parents the youngsters described the “old lady in the summer dress” who had tucked them into bed the previous evening.
On another occasion the housewife was watching as her four-year-old daughter scribbled with a pen. Suddenly she stopped and continued, in a very mature handwriting, to write clearly: “Knowledge for all.” The youngster had never been to school. She could not read or even copy her own name.
“I just could not stand it any longer. I had to stay with my neighbours while my husband was out because I was too terrified to stay alone in the flat,” said the housewife. She added: “We decided to go to the Rev. Haynes for help. He came here three times and we knelt and prayed together. The Rev. Peel also came but strange things continued to happen. Then suddenly last week everything stopped and the whole atmosphere in the flat has now changed.”
“But we have decided that should anything like it ever happen again we will find a new home very quickly,” she said.
The Rev. Peel said this week: “I hope the experience of this family will serve as a warning to others who wish to dabble with spirits. It is a very foolish thing to do. People should try more to use the most powerful spirit – the spirit of God.”
Newmarket Journal, 19th February 1970.