Ghost gets the blame for a blaze.
Paul Connew.
Barbara Mills knew who to blame when a mystery fire broke out in her kitchen… a mischief-making ghost. Today, 37-year-old Barbara hopes to get rid of the ghost for good. She has called in a local minister to try to drive the “firebug spirit” away from her council home. There have been a lot of strange goings-on during the eighteen months that Barbara has lived in the terraced house in Treherne-road, Coventry. Such as the sound of footsteps on a deserted flight of stairs. And a dog owned by Barbara howling and whining for no apparent reason – so much so that it had to be given away.
After curtains and a lightshade in her kitchen mysteriously burst into flames last week, Barbara decided she had had enough. The blaze had firemen baffled. They could find no reason for it. So Barbara asked the Rev. William Ballard, minister of her local Congregational church, to conduct a service of exorcism at her home today.
Barbara said yesterday: “There is always something in th ehouse – lurking, watching. It is uncanny. But I am determined not to be scared away.” She said neighbours had told her that a young woman gassed herself in the kitchen during the last war. Mr Ballard said last night: “Who are we to say that there are not evil spirits of this kind?”
Daily Mirror, 21st October 1968.
Prayers in house of mystery.
Birmingham Post Coventry Staff.
A Coventry Congregational minister, the Rev. W.E. Ballard, is today to say prayers in a Coventry house where last week a mysterious fire took place. The fire was in the kitchen of the home of Miss Barbara Mills of Treherne Road. When she went into the kitchen, she found the curtain on fire and the window frame burning “as though someone had put a blow-torch on it.”
Coventry Fire Brigade officers have been unable to find the cause of the fire, which also destroyed a lamp shade hanging six inches from the kitchen ceiling without blackening the ceiling or the electric bulb. The electric wiring in the house was examined and found to be in order. When firemen experimented with a remnant of the lampshade by setting fire to it and holding it near the ceiling, the ceiling was blackened.
Miss Mills says she feels that strange happenings in the house are caused by a poltergeist. “There have been several strange happenings since I moved in 18 months ago,” she said. “Once when there was no wind the leaves of a plant in the house waved wildly. I had to get rid of my dog because he howled every time he went into the kitchen. There is something odd about the house, but I don’t want to leave.”
Next door neighbour, Mrs Marjorie Blackett, said: “Whenever I have gone into the house I have experienced a clammy feeling. I have always known that it was an unhappy house.”
Miss Mills said she had been told that during the war a young married woman gassed herself in the kitchen.
Mr Ballard, of Radford Congregational Church, said: “Miss Mills has certainly been upset by the happenings. I believe in helping people in any way possible. Who are we to say there are no evil spirits in the world? I shall say prayers in every room.”
Birmingham Daily Post, 21st October 1968.
Prayers in ‘haunted’ house.
A Congregational church minister said special prayers in a reputedly haunted Coventry municipal house yesterday to help 37-year-old Miss Barbara Mills overcome her fears of what she called “unwelcomed spirits.” At her home in Treherne Road in recent weeks there has been a mystery fire involving the curtains and window frame. Fire officers were unable to find the cause and Miss Mills has also been puzzled and frightened by a lampshade bursting into flames when the electric wiring and bulb were apparently safe.
Miss Mills, who moved into the house 18 months ago, has heard strange noises in her home, and because her dog howled and whined for no apparent reason she gave him away to a friend. she has heard the story of a wartime suicide in the house.
The minister, the Rev. William Ballard, of Radford Congregational Church said: “We said prayers together in every room and I think we can allay her fears. The blessing of the house should drive away any evil spirits.”
Birmingham Daily Post, 22nd October 1968.