Haunted House Terror.
Ghostly goings-on force family to move out of home.
By Martin Purdy.
A “haunted” family has made a desperate plea for help after the efforts of a local priest failed to deter things going bump in the night at a house in Heywood. “I know the whole thing sounds ridiculous but it is very frightening and far from funny,” said a worried Margaret Barrett this week. Speaking exclusively to the Advertiser she told how her son Stuart has been tormented since buying an end terrace property on Buckley Street. The 28-years-old is described as “a big man afraid of nothing” … but five weeks ago he vowed never to spend another night in his new home. And it’s not just Stuart, his girlfriend and friends have also been terrified by disturbing noises and even a ghostly visage.
The family – which owns Barrett Haulage on Heywood Old Road – recently called in Father Joseph Duggan of St Joseph’s Roman Catholic Church, Heywood. “But it doesn’t seem to have worked,” exclaimed Margaret. She added: “We are desperate and don’t know where to turn. We wondered if anybody else has suffered like this and can give us any advice.”
The “hauntings” began five months ago when Stuart decided to buy the property he had been renting for the past year. He made inquiries about the ownership of an empty plot of ground next to his home as he wanted to build a garage… it was then the problems began. “The previous owner never mentioned it, but we have since been told that the land was formerly a church with a cemetery,” said Margaret. Old maps do, in fact, have a cross representing a church on them.
Margaret explained: “It started with the sound of children playing and shouting. But this would be in the early hours and nobody was ever about. My son was more puzzled than anything until his neighbour asked about the sound of children playing in the house when Stuart – a long distance lorry driver – isn’t home.” His neighbour, Maria Keetings, said: “I first heard the pattering of children’s feet running up and down the lobby. I knew Stuart was away so I went to check if anyone was in the house. I couldn’t see anything. It definitely wasn’t a dog or anything like that.” She added: “I have heard similar things a couple of times since, but it seems to have stopped since he moved out.”
Margaret Barrett continued: “Stuart’s girl friend stayed with her dog, a Staffordshire Bull Terrier, and it spent all night going crazy. It was terrified – a couple of days later it ran off and has never been seen again. Strange loud thumps can suddenly come from the back bedroom as if someone has jumped off a bed. Sometimes it sounds like someon is sat in the room continually creaking a floorboard.”
When Stuart had an old friend to stay, the friend – who knew nothing of his pal’s apprehensions – claims he was disturbed by a figure in the early hours. The next morning he asked Stuart what he had been doing wandering around in the middle of the night… but Stuart hadn’t been out of bed!
This friend, and others upset by strange noises when minding the house in Stuart’s absence, have refused to step in it at night again. The last straw for Stuart himself came when he went into the bedroom and a large mirror just split. He took it downstairs and left it in the kitchen… a few minutes later he heard a loud noise and returned to find it turned the opposite way around. “I know how all of this must sound but I have heard some of the things for myself. They can happen two or three times a week,” said Margaret. “If you saw my son you would think nothing would frighten him – he’s a big man and little does. But this has really got to him.”
Father Duggan at St Joseph’s said: “I went and blessed the property and said some prayers. I always keep an open mind about these things although I didn’t experience anything at the house.” The family also contacted All Souls Church. The Rev Philip Barratt – no relation to the family – said it was something he preferred not to discuss as a matter of confidentiality.
Heywood Advertiser, 14th March 1996.
Ghostbusters move in at haunted house.
By Martin Purdy.
A team of psychic ghostbusters are to visit Heywood’s “haunted home” and try to bring peace back to a local family. Withington Psychic Investigation Society – an organisation with 10 years experience in the field – is due to visit the end terrace property on Buckley Street later this week. The Advertiser exclusively told the traumatic story last week of Stuart Barrett’s nightmare experiences since purchasing the property about five months ago. The 28-years-old long-distance lorry driver, described by his mum as “a big man afraid of nothing” had moved out last month after a visit by Father Joseph Duggan of St Joseph’s RC Church failed to stop the strange goings on. For Stuart, his family, friends and neighbours, have all been disturbed by the ghostly sound of children playing, inexplicable bumps, bangs and creaks, a shadowy visage and even a cracked mirror.
His mother Margaret said: “We are desperate and don’t know where to turn. I know the whole thing sounds ridiculous but it is very frightening and far from funny.” She appealed for help through our paper and we subsequently received a number of offers – the one from the Withington Psychic Investigation Society has been taken up. Group member Andrew Mair, who works in a bank, said: “We understand that these kind of experiences can be very distressing – people don’t know what has hit him. In the 10 years that we have been operating we have seen some incredible sights. In fact, we had an ongoing investigation at another property in Heywood that we believe we have now resolved.” Mr Mair added: “Our first step is to identify ‘cold spots’ in the house. We have a psychic who attempts to make contact with the person, or persons, responsible for ‘the haunting.’ We are confident we can then calm things down and stop any paranormal activity.”
Mrs Barrett said: “The man was keen to stress that the group are professional people and not cranks or idiots. We are very optimistic that they may be able to help us out.”
Sceptical reporter Scott McHugh spent a night in the house… nothing supernatural happened but he came away with a spirited respect.
“When I first heard about the ghostly goings-on at Buckley Street, I foolishly declared that I did not believe a word of it. Sure, there were several people who described the same things happening, and Stuart Barrett, whose house it is, is not one of the those people who scares easily. But I thought to myself that bumps in the night, and the patter of little children’s feet in an empty house, couldn’t possibly be due to supernatural causes, if they happened at all. So I made what could have been a big mistake… I told the office that I would stay in the house and try to see for myself what was happening, and more importantly, what I believed of it all. Of course this was seized upon immediately by the Advertiser rabble, who promptly phoned up and arranged what was fondly termed as my “Appointment With Fear!”
Monday night came, and all sorts of warnings were put my way, such as “guess what happened to my mate”, or “… you must be a barmpot.” Not very re-assuring words from so-called workmates and friends. So I turned up at the house where Stuart greeted me, and began to tell me the tales that forced him to move out of his own home. He told of mysterious bumps in the night, of balls of condensation that just happened to form right in the middle of the window and nowhere else, and of children running past the side of the house in the middle of the night. Then his girl friend, Marie, who had just finished work, came into the house, and repeated the tales with eerie similarity. She added a few of her own to the growing list, including hearing children’s footsteps running up the stairs and the feeling of being watched by figures she could not quite see. By the time the pair had finished, it was past midnight, I started to have an uneasy feeling – perhaps, just perhaps, there was more to this than I thought.
Anyway, I decided it was time to hit the sack and was told I would be sleeping in the “room of horrors” where all the noises and ethereal happenings were taking place. I nearly took the soft option and headed for the sofa, but I realised that the whole point of me being here was that I didn’t believe in such happenings, so why should I fear sleeping in a haunted bedroom? It took me two hours to get to sleep in that room – two hours of listening to every creak in the house, imagining headless figures appearing by my side and feeling that something was watching me. I woke up two or three times following this, alert for the slightest unexpected sign to send me shrieking from the house, never to return. Nothing happened of course, but I swear it was one of the most uneasy nights I have ever had.
I still remain unconvinced that anything happened in that house, despite all the stories that seem to match right up to the last detail. Perhaps unease spread from one person to another, making them think the same thing happened that frightened someone else. Whatever it was, Stuart, Marie and all the others believe that there are things happening in the house that cannot be explained away by normal means, and Stuart has said that next time anything happens he will get in touch with me again. If he does, I might pass it on to someone else… just in case!
Locals give clue to house’s history…
The story of Heywood’s “haunted” family spurred considerable reaction in the town. Mrs Barrett said that after her son Stuart had purchased the house on Buckley Street he had found out that a vacant plot of land at the side of the property had been a church… and possibly a graveyard. We can now confirm that the site was indeed a church before the war, called the Greentown Wesleyan Chapel. But there was never a cemetery there. Heywood resident Mrs Stott called to say: “I can remember the church as it became a nursery for the Mutual Mills in the fifties. I was wondering if the nursery aspect is linked to the sound of children playing.”
Warren Chadwick, a housing official at Rochdale Council, added: “I lived next door to the house in question for 22 years. I don’t remember the chapel but when I was born there in 1947 it was a nursery and you would always hear the children running around. However, as far as I can recall there was never a tragedy linked with it. The two occupiers who lived there in my time were not involved in anything tragic either.”
Other local folk called in to offer their support for the Barrett family. These included people who claimed to have had encounters with ‘spirits’ themselves… one at the Egerton Arms pub.
Very few expressed scepticism and one local man, Daniel Naylor, who has researched the paranormal said, “I believe the family would be better off trying to investigate the history of the house and its owners rather than the site next door. All the activity is centred on the house and it would appear that the man who now has it may have acted as a catalyst. It is not uncommon for paranormal activity to be dormant until a certain person, perhaps unwittingly in tune with it, turns up.”
Sheila Hill, of Heywood Spiritualist Church, said: “The family need to ask themselves if they would normally be frightened of children – they generally come with a lot of love. The spirits are usually people who have passed over and don’t realise that they have gone. They just need someone to explain to them that this is the case.” She added: “The unknown can be unnerving to people but that is only because they haven’t attempted to look at it logically. Maybe people prefer to be frightened.”
Heywood Advertiser, 21st March 1996.