Poltergeist!
Family flee house of terror.
Exclusive by Jan Rowe.
All packed: Scott and Sammy Collins ready to leave the home they shared with an unwelcome ghostly guest.
The terrified Collins family say they have been forced to flee their home because it is haunted by a poltergeist. And they are not the first family to suffer from ghostly goings-on in Hull’s Cambridge Grove. For the previous tenants of the council house off Preston Road say they were also haunted by spooky experiences. Now mediums and ghost experts have been called in to investigate.
Mr Mark Collins, his wife Marta and three children, Scott (6), Chelsea (4) and Sammy (2) had only lived at the house for six weeks but weird noises and moving objects meant their terrified youngsters refused to go upstairs – where the ghost is believed to live. Neighbours in the road say they have reported odd sightings when the house is unoccupied. Members of a local group studying paranormal experiences may spend the night at the house with video cameras and tape recorders. Mrs Collins has said she would rather move the family to her mother’s house than spend another night in the spooky house.
Ghost experts have said that some homes are often besieged by ghosts and exorcisms will usually solve the problem. Psychic investigator, Les Sallis who was called to the scene says he has studied several similar kinds of case. He says he can usually spot whether people are lying and or if it is a case of hysteria, after visiting the house he said he needed to carry out more research [sic].
Things started to go wrong for the Collins family on their first night at Cambridge Grove. The electricity failed and later workmen said there was no fault in the system. The family only heard later from the neighbours that the previous tenants, the Nicholson family had also suffered. Mrs Collins will now be moved to the bottom of the housing list after handing in the keys to the council. She said: “The last people told the council, but they didn’t want to do anything about it, they just thought they were loonies.”
The ghost the kids call Freddy.
Things that go bump in the night are making themselves heard in Cambridge Grove. Reports of flying shoes, banging sounds and murmuring voices have left residents upset and children terrified. Reporter Jan Rowe and photographer Sean Spencer set out to spend a night in the ghost-ridden number 43. [I can’t see number 43 on the map].
Freddy the spook was either very shy, or had taken an early summer holiday on the night I stayed up until the early hours hoping to meet him. The ghost obviously didn’t want publicity in the pages of the Hull Daily Mail and gave a resounding “no comment.” Despite sitting with the lights off in the spot at the Cambridge Grove house where Freddy usually makes himself known, we drew a blank. Even the photographer describing reports of ghostly sightings as “cobblers” failed to raise a murmur from Freddy.
Spectre expert Les Sallis, who accompanied us, tried his hardest and knocked the walls to try to raise a response. Sitting in the room next to the creepy hallway we attempted to talk about other things to tempt Freddy out by annoying him. As the hours ticked past midnight it looked like we weren’t going to get spooked that night. But even so, climbing the dark stairs to walk onto the creepy landing left me shaking. A cold chill catches you as you walk into the hallway – and I had a nervous feeling for most of the night – even the innocent ticking of the clock managed to make me shudder.
Freddy’s home is believed to be the attic, and peering up into it I could imagine the ‘red eyes’ leaping out. Imaginations, if not Freddy, were running riot – the slightest sound put us all on edge. And the discovery of the shadow of a woman’s face in the sitting room window didn’t do a lot for my confidence. In fact the shape, which outside looked clearly like a woman sitting facing sideways, turned out to be a trick of the curtains and flower display behind. Disappointed, we gave up at about 2.15am, and left a ‘sorry to have missed you’ note for Freddy.
Les Sallis’ verdict: The subject needs more research.
Child remembers red-eyed woman.
The previous tenants of 43, Cambridge Grove also reported ghostly sightings. Flying shoes, moving ashtrays and a young girl’s conversations with a mysterious woman with “red eyes” prompted the family to want out. Barbara Nicholson (33) lived at the house with her common-law husband David Ivory and her three children for five years. Emma Nicholson (7) says she has spoken to the ghost. She said: “She had red eyes and was kind of white. She used to come and talk to me some nights.” Mrs Nicholson said she used to find her daughter sitting on the end of the bed apparently talking to herself.
Appointed Church of England exorcist for Hull, the Rev. Tom Willis, explained that children are often a lot more receptive to ghosts than adults. He said “They tend to experience ghosts more often as tat that age they are more psychic.”
On one night Emma recalled the children were all sitting on the stairs when a high heeled shoe flew over their heads. “There was nobody there to throw it,” she said. Emma’s aunt, Jenny Cheney, said she had come out of her house to see the terrified children jumping out of the window.
Another time the ghost threw an ashtray at a boy who was visiting and left him with a black eye.
Three steps of exorcism.
There’s something weird in your neighbourhood, who you gonna call? – Forget Ghostbusters. Call the Rev Tom Willis – the Church of England’s appointed exorcist for the area. Mr Willis’s supernatural investigations have led him to be a reluctant celebrity after hundreds of studies into ghostly sightings. The vicar, who is based at Bridlington, has performed exorcisms at many homes and says it nearly always clears the problem up. Having lived in Hull for 17 years, many of his exorcisms were in city homes. Mr Willis said that figures show one in ten people will report seeing a ghost at some time in their life.
“I am called out about 20 times a year now,” he said. Mr Willis explained there were three steps leading to an exorcism. “First of all you have to find out exactly what has been happening, how many reasonably sensible people have witnessed it. Then you have to begin diagnosing it and pinpoint the exact date as to when it started, and if certain things trigger it off. Then saying some prayers in the house and blessing it will usually get rid of an unwanted spirit. I have blessed all kinds of things – hotels, cellars, trawlers and many homes.”
Family plagued by weird happenings.
Six-year-old Scott Collins is now too frightened to go into his old home. The spooky feeling in the house means that if Scott does get over the threshold, he definitely will not go upstairs. Mrs Marta Collins and her family moved into the council house in Cambridge Grove, off Preston Road, six weeks ago. But since then they have been plagued by poltergeists. They have heard weird voices and unexplained banging noises and the lights inexplicably turn themselves off.
Now Mrs Collins, her husband, and three children have had enough and are seeking refuge at Mrs Collins’ mother’s house. Mrs Collins’ children are too terrified to venture upstairs int he council house, and have nicknamed the ghost Freddy after the evil Freddy Kruger from the Nightmare on Elm Street films. Mrs Collins says she could not sleep in the house. “We have moved out. We can’t stand it any more,” she said. “The lights go out and there is loads of banging and talking.” She said none of the family had seen figures but all had heard or felt the presence of something strange. Mrs Collins says the family would rather stay with her mother than in the house. Even the neighbours have reported hearing mysterious banging sounds when there is nobody in th ehouse. And a medium who visited the house said she felt a “very ghostly presence.”
Mrs Collins’ 88-year-old grandmother, who knew nothing of the ghostly goings-on, says she sensed something was wrong as soon as she walked into the house. The Collins family did not know that the previous tenants had suffered the same trouble until she spoke to neighbours.
Occult danger – vicar warns.
Occult dabblings are sometimes behind a surge in the residents’ reports of ghostly goings-on, says the Rev. Martin Green. Mr Green, who has been vicar of St Aidan’s Church in East Hull for the last two-and-a-half years, has visited several homes in his parish to pray for the removal of evil spirits. Although he did not know of the Cambridge Grove case, he commented: “I have been into a number of houses on the estate where similar things have happened. Manifestations have included ghost-like figures, voices, lights going out in part of a room, and an unnatural coldness. Mr Green said if people were worried about such things they should get in touch with a Christian minister.
Hull Daily Mail, 7th June 1991.