Fred the ghost just won’t budge.
One of Britain’s top ghost hunters has been called in by a couple whose council home is haunted by a stubborn spirit. For nearly two years George and Lynda Heritage of Jasmine Close, East Malling, have put up with a restless and unwelcome lodger, known to them as Fred the ghost. Now they have contacted John Pearce-Higgins, former Canon at Southwark Cathedral, who is a leading exorcist. Two seances and services of exorcism have failed at the 15-year-old three-bedroomed terraced house, but the Canon has recommended they enlist the help of Sittingbourne spiritualists, Roy and Joan Broster, of Astrey House.
George and Lynda were delighted with the house when they first moved in, although neighbours told them that the previous tenants had left in a hurry, and it was known that the wife hated being in the house alone. They thought nothing of it until they could find no ordinary explanation for the constant nocturnal noises. George checked the plumbing, pulled up floorboards, and spent hours trying to trace the source of dragging sounds, clicks and mutterings. In the end, he made several tape recordings of the psychic activity. George and Lynda had the shock of their lives when their ghost’s voice was recorded, telling them, “Everything’s all right.”
East Malling vicar, the Rev. D. Chapman, has given them prayers and guidance, and Maidstone spiritualist Les Dukes and his wife, who recently emigrated to Canada, held seances, but nothing has removed Fred. In a trance, Mr Dukes had said that the Heritages would get “a surprise at Christmas, as a peace-making gesture from the spirit.” They certainly got a surprise. After little disturbance since September, Fred was back with a vengeance on Christmas night.
Lynda said: “At the same time, a friend suggested that we should ask for a rates reduction, and someone heard that you can live rent-free if you can prove a house is haunted. All we really want though, is to get rid of Fred.”
Housing manager at Malling Rural Council, Mr R. Rendle, said he had heard of a similar case in Northfleet. “The family was moved, and hundreds applied to live in the house, they didn’t care two hoots whether it was haunted or not. There was no trouble after that. Our legal department has never come across the rent waiving clause, and it would be very difficult to prove a haunting. As far as the rates go, if a house is occupied it is rateable, and this place sounds more than occupied if you ask me!”
Kent Evening Post, 3rd January 1973.
Phantom Fred gets notice to quit.
Evening News Reporter.
Fred, the friendly ghost looks like finally being flung out of the council house he shares with the Heritage family. That is if they can find the right method to evict him. For Fred is not one of your run-of-the-mill phantoms. Since he moved in with the family into the house in Jasmine Close, East Malling, two years ago he has baffled two vicars, mystified the mediums and amused the neighbours. Nothing they do wiill persuade the ghost to go. But now Mr George Heritage, his wife Lynda, and their sons, David, aged seven, Mark, four and Graham, two, are thoroughly fed up with Fred. They are sick of him switching on lights, opening windows, knocking on doors and making heavy breathing sounds when everyone’s trying to sleep.
“We are determined that 1973 is not going to be a good year for Fred,” said Mrs Heritage. “We have had a service of exorcism, visits from mediums and psychic research workers. But Fred still haunts us. We have got past the stage of sleepless nights and depression that Fred brought when we first used to hear him about the house. We do not want another council house, we just want to get rid of the ghost.”
The Rev. Donald Chapman, vicar of East Malling and the Rev. E.S. Haviland, vicar of East Peckham held a service of exorcism in the semi but the spectre stayed put.
Mr Heritage, a 28-year-old plumber said: “He still opens doors, switches on lights and walks about the house at night. We used to worry for the children’s sake and spent many sleepless nights. Then we realised we were lumbered with Fred and might as well accept him. But now we have decided to try to get rid of him again, and have called in another medium.”
A spokesman for Malling Rural Council’s housing department said: “There is nothing in our records to suggest that previous tenants of the house had any similar experience.”
Evening News (London), 5th January 1973.
Ghost hunter called to tract down Fred.
One of Britain’s top ghost hunters has been called in by an East Malling couple, whose council home is haunted. For nearly two years George and Lynda Heritage, of Jasmine Close have put up with a restless and unwelcome poltergeist, known to them as Fred. Canon John Pearce Higgins, a leading exorcist who works with Psychical Research, and faith healers Roy and Joan Broster, of Sittingbourne, hope to rid the modern three-bedroomed house of the psychic phenomenon.
So far two seances and services of exorcism have failed to stop the nightly creaks and “bonks.” George has checked the plumbing, pulled up floorboards and spent hours tape recording mysterious sounds, even a voice. The couple have found that much of the activity is centred in their kitchen cupboard.
Lynda said this week: “A friend suggested we should ask for a rates reduction.” Someone else had heard that you can live rent free if you can prove a house is haunted. “We don’t want to move in case Fred came with us. All we really want is to be left in peace.”
[…] BBC2’s “Man Alive” series is planning to film the East Malling exorcism.
Maidstone Telegraph, 5th January 1973.
On holiday – and the ghost comes too!
Do you believe in ghosts? Before you start arguing the pros and cons of psychic phenomena, here’s a haunting story for you. And it’s true. I’ve always been fascinated, but unconvinced, about “things that go bump in the night” – that is, until last May when I went to investigate a call for help from a young couple living in East Malling. Their three-bedroomed council house was only 15-year-old, and certainly didn’t have a violent history. Yet Lynda and George Heritage were sure it was haunted. An unsuccessful exorcism service had already been tried, and they felt the next move was to bring in a spiritualist to remove the ghost, affectionately known as Fred. For months they had slept with their bedroom light on all night, listening to the “bonks,” creaks, opening and shutting of doors, and dragging sounds that were Fred. Their alsatian had fits of mad barking for no apparent reason, a box of matches had been found scattered on the floor, and sudden temperature drops had turned their arms and legs goose-pimply. In an effort to find an explanation, George tape recorded the sounds. He and Lynda, and their three young sons played them over and over, trying to determine what had caused the creaks and clicks. As far as they were concerned, water pipes and floor boards could not have been responsible for the mysterious nocturnal activity.
We called in Maidstone Spiritualist Church medium Mr Les Dukes, who with his wife, Elsie, had held seances over many years. But a few nights before the seance in East Malling, I went to the house, together with a six-foot-two-inch ally, and a tape recorder, for a midnight vigil. Fred might be a stubborn spirit, but he’s shy of strangers, and there was little activity. But as I sat in the Heritage bathroom with the tape recorder, a tingling cold built up around it. Then the spools stopped turning, and efforts to push them around failed. It felt as if an unseen force was holding them rigid. When the tape was played back wind was heard whistling into the microphone. We were told later that this was a “psychic wind” indicating that a spirit was close at hand. Of course, you might say that the machine had developed an electronic twitch for a reason not even remotely associated with ghost hunting. But the fact is that it had never behaved like that, before or since.
When spiritualist Les Dukes went into a trance, George and Lynda were told that Fred, was not Fred, but Eric Mason, who had lived on the site of their house in 1851. A recluse, he died when he fell out of bed at the age of 85! Afterwards, parish records were searched, but there was no mention of the luckless Eric Mason. The couple were told their ghost would soon go, and the last they would hear of Fred was “the tapping of his stick.”
But it didn’t work that way. Fred stayed, and after a second seance, the Dukes had to leave the case when they emigrated to Canada. Shortly after that, a neighbour was having tea with Lynda when the living room coffee table started rattling and scones on a plate moved apart. Other neighbours told them of many experiences when some form of “presence” outside the house had stopped them in their tracks. They had tried to walk by, but found that something held them there for several seconds. Lynda said to me on many occasions: “Everyone thinks we are crazy. We have been told that we are imagining the noises, but no one seems to be able to get rid of them.”
George had certainly been sceptical to start with, but one night he recorded Fred’s voice saying: “Everything’s all right.” It was gruff, but clear. He was really alarmed a few weeks later, when, while in bed with Lynda, something shook their legs. “We couldn’t feel any pressure, but the sheets went tight around our feet, and they started to shake” said an amazed George.
Through the summer, poltergeist continued. They found that three different alarm clocks went haywire in their bedroom, and had to rely on neighbours to knock them up in the morning. Around this time, George was woken in the early hours by a hammering on the lobby door. He rushed downstairs to answer it, but there was no one there. Twice he has heard what sounded like a ton of coal being delivered outside – but there was nothing. They have seen a “black shadow” passing around the room, and settling down beside them, but never anything of substance. In September, Lynda and George went on holiday. They left the key so that I and an intrepid band of ghost hunters could investigate the house under what we thought would be ideal conditions. It didn’t quite work out that way! When we arrived at the house late one night at the end of the week an agitated neighbour was waiting for us. “The tape recorder’s on the lawn, and there’s a vase on the middle of the living room floor,” he said. I don’t mind telling you that we all stuck together. We all thought that Fred had been up to some tricks – but there was a rational explanation – the house had been burgled. The television had gone, but the thieves had evidently been disturbed and abandoned George’s tape recorder. Malling CID arrived in force, and we had a devious time with them, trying not to let on why we were in th ehouse when the occupants were on holiday. No wonder they wanted our fingerprints! We stayed for a couple of hours after that, but, the house was utterly still. Not even the stairs creaked. It seemed almost deliberate.
Maidstone Telegraph, 5th January 1973.
Fred the Ghost is Finally Freed.
Fred the ghost won’t bother Lynda and George Heritage anymore. The spirit was “set free” at an exorcism in the couple’s terraced council home in Jasmine Close, East Malling. Canon John Pearce-Higgins, a leading exorcist, was called to the house by Sittingbourne faith healers Roy and Joan Broster. They alerted the Canon after Mr Heritage began to go into a trance as they made tape recordings of psychic activity. Mr Heritage was allowed to go into a trance and was told the spirit was Tom Warner who died in 1924. He lived in Trottiscliffe and had been shot and buried in a trunk on the site of the 15-year-old house.
Then the house was “sealed” and blessed. The Canon said: “Many think that to die is to sleep in the grave, but spiritually they must move on to the next plane of existence. It is when they stick to the Earth, that the trouble arises, that is why it was so important to set this spirit free.” Now he is confident the Heritages will have no further trouble from the ghost they fondly called Fred.
Kent Evening Post, 9th January 1973.