Family flees a musical ghost.
A family has fled their home in terror – because they say a ghost keeps playing “No Place Like home,” on their door chimes. Last night a vicar was giving them refuge at his home. Stephen Pagett, 26, said the ghostly old lady has terrorised him, his wife and two children for the last three weeks. The ghost had thrown a pushchair, kept weeping in bedrooms, and locked the bathroom door from the inside.
“Our doorbell should play ten tunes one after another,” said Stephen, of Coppice Avenue, Cotmanhay, near Derby. “But the ghost plays only one.” Police have stayed at the house and are satisfied the bell is not being sounded by prowlers.
The wife of the viar, the Rev. Leslie Walters, said: “My husband has said prayers in that house as he would for anyone in need.”
Daily Mirror, 2nd August 1986.
Ghost Flustered…
Family living in fear of poltergeist.
By Mike O’Sullivan.
Special prayers have been said at a Sunday service for a terrified Derbyshire family whose home has been invaded by a poltergeist. Reverend Leslie Walters said the prayers on behalf of nerve-wracked Stephen and Carol Padgett, of 40 Coppice Avenue, Cotmanhay. Their life has been made a misery by the ghost’s eerie campaign of fear. Ghostly goings-on at the family’s semi-detached council home includes:
Mysterious late-night rings on their doorbell; The wailing of a baby from bedrooms; Objects being moved by an unknown force; A grey figure drifting across the garden.
Mrs Padgett (25), who has a daughter Kelly (2), and son Andrew (nine months) said: “It has been the most frightening thing I have ever experienced.” The family refuse to sleep in upstairs bedrooms because they are terrified.
Reverend Walters spent a night at the Padgett’s home two days after the poltergeist first struck last week. Mr Walters, who is now paying daily visits to the house said: “I am convinced it is a poltergeist. I have been advised by the Bishop of Derby’s expert in the paranormal that this is the most likely explanation.
The couple’s ordeal began last Monday as they sat in the downstairs living room with friends Georgina Parry and Dean Cooper (both 17), who are staying temporarily at the house. “We were sat talking and then the doorbell went off,” said Mr Padgett. “When I went to the back door there was nobody outside. We thought it was prowlers at first. There was a knocking on the back door and a ringing on the doorbell every hour that night.” Police were called out but could find no one in the area, he said.
The doorbell can play a range of ten tunes but it plays only two songs – “There’s no Place Like Home” and another the family cannot identify – when rung by the poltergeist. Fear caused by mysterious happenings forced the family to seek refuge in Reverend Walter’s vicarage three nights later. Mr Padgett said: “We had to go to the vicarage on Thursday night because we were that frightened. Whe had been sleeping on our living room [floor?] and I could see a green light under the door. I got up to put the light on and there was nothing there. One morning the kitchen door opened by itself and the push chair went across the floor as though someone had pushed it. Another time my wife was not able to open the bathroom door – it was as if someone was behind the door. It is trying to get us out of here but I am not going to let it defeat us.”
Mr Walters said: “I have prayed in the house and I am giving them support day by day and seeking to help them. I am trying to get the family to treat the poltergeist as a member of the family. I have spent a night at the house and the only phenomenon I have been aware of is the doorbell ringing. There was no question of there being a human agency there. I was not frightened – it would not have helped if I was. Poltergeists do not harm anyone. The harm they do is to make people fearful.” Mr Walters said prayers had been offered up for the family at services held at his church ceremony.
The Padgett’s next door neighbour, Mrs Mary Hall (36) of 42 Coppice Avenue, Cotmanhay, said: “I have heard mysterious bumps and bangs and someone knocking at their front door. I would not like to say what it is. It could be friendly but I would be frightened to live there. They have got into an awful state over it and I shall be glad when it is sorted out.”
Derby Daily Telegraph, 4th August 1986.
Reverend Leslie Walters has asked his congregation to pray for the terrified Padgett family.
Name the ghost.
Pal up with poltergeist, family is urged.
Family plagued by a poltergeist – Carole and Stephen Padgett with their children, baby Andrew and Kelly and (right) friend Georgina Parry.
A ghost-busting clergyman has told a terrified Derbyshire couple to make friends with the eerie poltergeist which has invaded their home. The Rev. Douglas Howell-Everson, the Bishop of Derby’s advisor on the paranomal, says the nerve-wracked Padgetts should treat the ghost as a member of the family. And the couple have been advised to give the poltergeist a nickname like Fred or Bill.
The ghost has been terrifying Stephen and Carole Padgett, of 40 Coppice Avenue, Cotmanhay, for more than a week. It has mysteriously moved objects in the house, made late-night rings on the doorbell and made wailing cries. Mr and Mrs Padgett and their children Kelly (2) and nine-month-old Andrew were forced to spend a night at the home of a local vicar because they were so scared. But Mr Howell-Everson (66), of Carlton-in-Lindrick, Notts, says the ghost cannot hurt them.
He said: “A poltergeist cannot do any harm to you. It is energy released by the deep unconscious mind and has no reality apart from its owner. It arrives because someone is under severe mental pressure and it comes from the deep unconscious. But the person under stress will not know about the problem because it is deep in the mind. I advise people to get the problem off their chest or treat the poltergeist as a member of the family. Giving it a nickname can help.”
Mental pressure, the onset of puberty or adolescence can trigger off the presence of a poltergeist, he said.
Local vicar the Rev Leslie Walters, of Cotmanhay and Shipley Parish Church, is paying daily visits to the family’s home. He said: “The family are coping quite well with the manifestations which are continuing but not to such a great extent. They have enough confidence to sleep in their own beds and have had some good nights, although not always. I’m not quite sure what further action could be taken at present, but we are certainly not letting the situation go.”
Derby Daily Telegraph, 11th August 1986.
Consider your ghost one of the family.
A family who say they are victims of a mischievous ghost have been advised to adopt it. The Rev. Leslie Walters was called in by Mr Stephen Padgett and his wife Carol, who said bumps were heard on the stairs, a doorbell chimed mysteriously, objects moved in the house and a ghostly figure was seen in the back garden. “It played a number of tunes on the doorbell while I was there,” said Mr Walters, vicar of Cotmanhay near Nottingham, yesterday. “There is no doubt that it is a poltergeist.”
The vicar consulted an expert who advised making the ghost “one of the family” at the house at Cotmanhay. Poltergeists feed on fear, said Mr Walters. “By being friendly towards it, we hope it will leave them alone.” Now the couple, who have two children aged nine months and two years, have named their uninvited guest “Fred.” The vicar said: “Giving it a name is very important, because it seems a poltergeist is like a naughty child, and can be treated like one.”
Mr Padgett (26) said the family were trying to live normally.
Aberdeen Press and Journal, 15th August 1986.
Family adopts ghost.
Stephen and Carol Padgett, who have two children, have adopted a ghost and called it “Fred”. The Padgetts, plagued by bumps on the stairs, a doorbell chiming mysteriously and objects being moved in their house at Cotmanhay, near Nottingham, England, were told by their vicar that by making the poltergeist one of the family, it might leave them alone.
Mr Padgett, aged 26, said: “Weird noises and happenings have continued. But we hope by being friendly it will go away, leaving us to live our lives in peace.”
Reading Evening Post, 15th August 1986.