Is there a ghost in the house?
A team of Long Eaton Advertiser reporters is carrying out a full investigation into claims that a council flat in Hemington is haunted. Tenants of the Castle Donington Rural Council-owned flat, Mr Bexon, his wife and their baby son, have fled their home because of strange noises which they say are both terrifying and inexplicable.
The couple have left the keys to the flat in teh charge of this newspaper and have given staff permission to spend as much time in their home as they want and carry out any tests they wish. Since beginning the investigation last week reporters have spent two full nights in the flat in an effort to determine just what it is that terrifies the Bexons. During the time spent keeping watch so far – about 11 hours in all – none of the investigators has seen or heard anything.
While reporters agree there could be many explanations of the cause of the strange noises Mr Bexon has taped, they have not yet dismissed the idea that the couple’s home could in fact be haunted. The noises, bumps, and chain-like rattles are there for everyone to hear on a cassette recording Mr Bexon made recently on a night when the sounds were particularly disturbing. According to the Bexons, however, it is not the sounds that are terrifying them. It is the whole atmosphere which is created in their home.
Mr Bexon talks of waking up during the night in an ice-cold sweat and feeling the weight of what he terms “the spirit” pressing down on him. He is adamant that the “presence” is a spirit and not a ghost and points out that on no occasions have either his wife or he seen anything. Mr and Mrs Bexon have many theories about what is troubling their home and, as far as the reporters are concerned, none of these can be dismissed lightly. Although the spirit is said to be active in the flat only on certain days, a close relative of the Bexons claims that the presence is in the flat regularly.
Reporters spent Friday night sitting in the flat with the lights on discussing just how the noises could be explained and, after a session of six hours reached the conclusion that there was no presence in the home.
On Tuesday came a second visit – by candlelight – and the whole atmosphere of the flat was different on this occasion. According to the Bexons, one of the main signals of the presence is a drop in temperature. During Friday’s visit this drop – once as much as 10 degrees F – occurred alternatively in each of the two bedrooms the temperatures were measured. This was by far the most enlightening fact to emerge from the first visit and, so armed with candles reporters conducted a thorough search of the whole flat on Tuesday in an effort to detect draughts .Nothing at all was found and they concluded that the whole flat was virtually draught-proof.
While the temperature drops were by no means noticeable this time, reporters agreed that there was something strange about the flat. Though could it be simple apprehension at the suggestion that something might be there? Nothing could be heard – no banging of furniture as the Bexons claim to have heard. Nonetheless something marked this flat as different – and the atmosphere increased after midnight.
Reporters and the Bexons agree that the atmosphere principally affects men. All the men who have visited the flat during the investigations notice this difference. Mr Bexon is of the opinion that the claimed spirit is male, and wants to communicate with the outside world verbally. To do this, though, he must speak through a man – hence the spirit’s lack of interest in females.
A clairvoyant, known to the Bexons, might soon be asked to conduct a seance at the flat. The family attribute her with psychic power and using this it is hoped that she will be able to contact the spirit. After this, the couple hope the spirit – if it exists – will leave. So concerned are the Bexons with the spirit that they have engaged the help of the Church, and already prayers have been said in the flat by both the couple’s vicar and a canon.
Mr and Mrs Bexon are living with Mr Bexon’s parents in nearby Castle Donington at the moment, but both swear they will never go back to live at the flat. Only a fortnight ago, they decided to move back and try and pick up the pieces once more, but no sooner did they return than they had what they describe as their most frightening experience so far. During one particular night, both Mr Bexon and his brother-in-law, who had agreed to stay over with the couple say they were approached by the spirit which was trying to make contact. It was this episode which finally turned the family against the flat.
So frightened are they of what they fear lurks in the home that the couple have left the flat fully furnished and many of their clothes are still there. And, because they say the spirit has been known to appear during the day, both Mr and Mrs Bexon are afraid to return alone to pack their things.
Rural council surveyor Mr B.G. Pember said he had made a thorough investigation of the flat but could find nothing wrong with it structurally. He admitted that he could find no logical explanation for the strange noises the couple had reported.
The vicar of Lockington, the Rev. W.B. Feerick, revealed on Thursday that the exorcism ceremony had taken place. “We do not talk about these things,” he stated. However, he pointed out: “The being may decide to return or go on elsewhere.” Did he believe the house was haunted? “I am not clairvoyant,” replied Mr Feerick. “I sincerely believe these people have been affected by something.” He added: “God is the final decider of these things.”
However, when asked whether the exorcism had taken place Mr Bexon emphatically denied this was so. He said the church simply said prayers in each room of the flat – afterwards the spirit was as strong as ever before.
Long Eaton Advertiser, 22nd June 1973.
Tales that place is haunted are ignored.
When Christine Dakin heard there was a flat available in her home village of Hemington she completely ignored the warnings about it being haunted. “Admittedly I was apprehensive about moving in on my own but I was so anxious to find a home that I think I would have moved anywhere,” she recalled this week. Now two and a half years later Christine, now Mrs Monk, is still living at 55 Main Street and scoffs at any rumours in the village that her flat was once haunted. “Nothing has ever happened. My son Mark has never had nightmares. I have never heard or felt anythign in the flat. I think it is a perfectly normal council flat,” she stated.
But the ghostly tales which swept through the tiny village have never been forgotten. People still stop and ask Christine about the much-talked about ghost. Is she scared when she is alone? Does she believe there is a ghost? And has she seen or heard anything? To all she answers with a definite no.
The bizarre story of the allegedly haunted council flat hit the headlines in June, 1973. They had heard tales of haunted mansions, but not a council flat, people scoffed. But the tenants, Mr and Mrs Bexon, were so adamant about terrifying noises which they said they heard during th enight, and what they called the “clinging” atmosphere of the rooms that they called in their vicar and a canon to say prayers. But this did not help. The ghost seemed as strong as ever, according to Mr Bexon who thought it was a male spirit which wanted to communicate with the outside world through a man.
He took tape recordings of bumps and chainlike rattles and after a particularly bad night the couple decided they could stand it no longer. So they moved out and went to live with Mr Bexon’s parents in Castle Donnington. Two weeks later they moved back to try again. Within a matter of days, however, Mr Bexon had had a particularly disturbing experience of waking up in an ice-cold sweat. He felt this might be the spirits way of approaching him and the couple decided to leave, this time for good. They left the keys in the hands of a team of Long Eaton Advertiser reporters who carried out a series of tests in the flat, which included spending two nights there, one in a candlelit room.
The tests proved little as those involved saw and heard nothing but male reporters did say they felt a strange atmosphere, a funny smell in the flat and a severe drop in temperature despite the fact that the flat was draught-proof. They confessed they were just as baffled as the Bexons.
Living just round the corner at Station Road with her mother, Christine had heard all about these strange happenings and the fear which had made a young couple flee, refusing ever to go back to the flat, not even to pack their belongings. “But I knew that the flat had not been built on the site of an old building where perhaps someone was murdered. It had been built in a field so I had no worries,” said Christine. About six months after she moved in she married Paul Monk of Sutton Bonington, who moved in with her and four-year-old Mark. Even Paul scoffed at the rumours: “We are both practical people and just cannot see how the flat was haunted. We have had no trouble.”
But did Christine have an explanation for the noises? “The central heating makes a noise when it comes on and we have plastic guttering that clicks in the summer but these are just normal noises that most houses have,” she replied. “I was too practical ever really to believe this place was haunted so the noises have never bothered me.” The flat was previously the property fo the former Castle Donington Rural Council and now belongs to North-west Leicestershire District Council.
Long Eaton Advertiser, 15th January 1976.