Sit-in bid to get re-housed.
Woman’s haunted home plea.
A Long Sutton woman is holding a lonely protest vigil at Spalding Town Hall because she says her house is haunted. Mrs Jean Pentney of 14 Garnsgate Road, Long Sutton, wants re-housing because she says she is haunted by footsteps in the night, exploding light bulbs, freezing cold rooms and an evil, eerie presence which has a disturbing effect on everyone who enters. Mrs Pentney, married for the second time, says her husband, Ray, blames the house for the breakup of his first marriage and she says their children have had to be put in care because of it. They have two other children, aged 14 and four, living at home with them.
She also claims two local vicars held an “exorcism” ceremony at her home after she went to them desperate for help. Mrs Pentney said: “Two vicars held an exorcism at my house. Things were a bit better afterwards. We were able to sleep in our bedroom again which we could not before because of the noises and the cold.” But one of the vicars described the service as “prayers for peace” and the other would not discuss the part he played because he would be breaking a confidence if he did so.
Sutton Bridge vicar, the Rev. Bernard Parsons, said: “The Rev. Warwick of Long Sutton knew the family had problems and troubles. He had been called in to try and help. Mr Warwick consulted the bishop who told him not to have anything to do with an exorcism ceremony but said he could say prayers with the family. We went one Sunday afternoon and said prayers for peace in the house.”
Long Sutton vicar, the Rev. John Warwick, said: “It was not an exorcism at all – it is a matter I am not free to say anything about. My services are confidential. What I did was all tied up with her doctor and social services and a good many people whose work is also confidential.”
Mrs Pentney says she has discovered that her house and the one next door are the only ones in the row of six council homes along Garnsgate road to have been built on a pit. She believes this is something to do with the haunting and said: “My next door neighbour left her home after just three months. She could not live in her house any longer. I began sitting-in at the Town Hall on Monday. I have been seen by eight or nine officials and I’ve told them I’m not budging until they promise to rehouse me. I shall cycle every day from Long sutton until we can get out of that house,” she added.
Fenland Citizen, 21st June 1978.
Spirit of protest.Housewife Joan Pentney, who claims her council home is haunted, plans an around-the-clock vigil at the town hall in Spalding, Lincs., until she gets another house.
Daily Mirror, Wednesday 28th June 1978.
Transfer hope for ‘haunted’ house tenant.
A week-long protest vigil at Spalding Town Hall has not brought a new house for a Long Sutton woman who claims her home is haunted. Mrs Joan Pentney (32) of 14 Garnsgate Road, Long Sutton, does not warrant a new home under the district council housing system. Mrs Pentney has said she will carry on sitting on the steps of the council offices until she is offered a new home “to bring my family together again.” But Mrs James Brindley, chief executrive, said that a request for a transfer of council house for Mrs Pentney had not been granted. “The family appears to have been adequately housed,” he said. “The next housing committee meeting on July 12 may well look at the issue and decide whether there is a case for granting a transfer.”
Mrs Pentney, her husband, Ray, and children Rodney (14) and Wendy (4 1/2) suffer from strange happenings in their council house. “The worst thing is the weird atmosphere,” she said. “It disturbs us all and the children cannot sleep at night.” Mrs Pentney blames the house for the fact that two of her children are in care. “I am fighting for the children to get them in a new home so I can have them together again.”
One bright hope in the long days of waiting at the council offices for Mrs Pentney is the expectation of a house becoming vacant in Queen’s Way, Long Sutton – so long as the district council decides to grant a transfer.
Fenland Citizen, 28th June 1978.
Protest tenant 24-hour vigil.
Long Sutton woman Mrs Jean Pentney has pledged to fight to the bitter end in her battle with the council for a new home. On Tuesday she stepped up her ten-day protest vigil by sleeping rough outside Spalding Town Hall and said she is prepared to be arrested rather than give up. Mrs Pentney (32), of 14 Garnsgate, Long Sutton, wants rehousing because she claims her present home is haunted, but under the district council letting system she does not qualify for a transfer.
After spending a lonely and cold Tuesday night on the Town Hall steps she said: “It seemed like six weeks in one night. I didn’t see anybody and all you could hear was the rain making a noise on my plastic sheet.” Despite the hardship Mrs Pentney is sticking it out. “I won’t budge,” she says. “The police have not tried to move me so far but if they do they will have to arrest me first.”
“I feel terrible but will not be moving until they carry me away,” she added in a hoarse voice, the only result of her night in the open. On Wednesday the council’s chief executive, Mr J. Brindley, said he had nothing to say on the matter.
Spalding Guardian, 30th June 1978.
Mother calls off Town Hall protest.
Mrs Joan Pentney, the Long Sutton haunted-house woman, has abandoned her 24-hour vigil outside Spalding Town Hall – for the moment. Now she hopes a group of people from Cleethorpes will be able to help in the fight against her haunted home. On Thursday she received a letter from Mr Peter Kew, of Cleethorpes, who said he had heard of her problems and might be in a position to help. The letter warned Mrs Pentney against moving, saying the “devil” could move with her. “If this group can come and rid m y house of the trouble I would be prepared to stay there,” she said. “He has done this sort of thing for people in Cleethorpes and all I am asking for is help.”
Mrs Pentney, of 14 Garnsgate, Long Sutton, is not planning to sit outside the Town Hall any more because she is afraid social workers might take away her four-year-old daughter Wendy, if she does so. Mrs Pentney said she had written to Mr Kew and was expecting him to telephone her as soon as he received the letter.
Fenland Citizen, 5th July 1978.
Sir – I am absolutely disgusted with all the publicity Mrs J Pentney is getting about her so-called haunted house. Every council house is a little bit spooky at times. I very often sit in my living room and hear noises upstairs when there is nobody else in th ehouse. The structure of all houses has to give sometimes, especially wooden floorboards. I think Mrs Pentney just wants the publicity and another house.
Mrs H. Rix. 3 Bateman’s Close, Gedney.
Spalding Guardian, 7th July 1978.
Ghost-hunters in big search.
The puzzle of Joan Pentney’s “haunted house” is being put together piece by piece, according to ghost-hunter Peter Kew. The disappearance of knives from the home, Mrs Pentney’s fear of water, and a series of murders from the past may all be of great significance to the mystery. Mr Kew and three other members of the Atlanteans Metaphysical Society, from Cleethorpes, spent Tuesday night in the house at 14 Garnsgate Road, Long Sutton, to carry out preliminary tests. The team “probed” with cassette tapes, infra-red films and thermometers to search for a metaphysical presence in the house. But Mr Kew made it clear that if there was an entity in the environment it could not be driven out in one visit by his team.
They intended to come back before this weekend to find out more about the history of the Garnsgate Road area, and eventually hope to have the run of the house for three or four days. “Only then can we make any firm decision on where the problem lies and take any sort of steps to remedy the situation,” said Mr Kew, who terms himself a “parapsychologist.” “Right now it’s getting to the flash-point, where something has to be done to help. It cannot get much worse.”
It was almost a month ago that Mrs Pentney started a night-time vigil on the doorstep of Spalding town hall to help her claim for a new home.
She first told the Free Press of her problem – claiming that she must be rehoused because her present council home is haunted and she can stand it no longer. But she stopped her doorstep protest when Mr Kew contacted her to say he was interested in her case. He visited on Sunday, and left a cross in Mrs Pentney’s bedroom. Since then, she has been feeling cold and has been in pain, she says. And the crucifix mysteriously moved, according to son Rod. Mr Kew said: “This would indicate that there is some entity here in the environment. The cross was alien to the environment so it was moved. But the fact that the object happened to be a crucifix is not necessarily significant at the present time. It may have happened with any object foreign to the home.”
Since Sunday Mrs Pentney’s health seemed to deteriorate, said Mr Kew, who added that it ought to be established whether there was any physical illness.
Recently the children have been waking up at around three o’clock each morning, and often they go “frantic,” said Mrs Pentney. The family’s two dogs have also been restless. Electric lights have been flickering considerably, and bulbs sometimes explode. Mr Kew said that a metaphysical presence could affect the electrical systems in the house. On Sunday, a short tape recording revealed an intermittent buzz which they thought could only be the noise of the fridge – but the fridge was unplugged.
Mrs Pentney also complained that she was always having to buy new knives. “It’s not forks or spoons, just th eknives that keep disappearing. And they never turn up again elsewhere in the house,” she said.
Mr Kew said Mrs Pentney had a fear of water. And Mrs Pentney said: “This morning (Tuesday) I was in bed upstairs and a voice told me to come down to the kitchen and put my head under the tap. So I did it.” And Mrs Pentney also told of an occasion recently when daughter Mandy inexplicably walked into a pit in Garnsgate Road. “She was up to her neck in water, then suddenly she started climbin out,” she said. Mr Pentney added: “Whenever we come over the bridge at Sutton Bridge, Mandy starts to cry and won’t look at the water.”
Mr Kew said the references to knives and to water could be connected with the two or three murders which are believed to have happened just 100 yards from the Pentney home many years ago. They are said to have taken place at Cross Pits, where there used to be an inn and where The Warren, home of veterinary surgeon Mr Harry Holmes and his wife, now stands. The pits into which Mrs Pentney’s daughter walked are now in the garden of The Warren, which nine years ago also appeared to be haunted. At that time Mrs Holmes spoke to the Free Press of strange happenings and footsteps in the night.
“It would be reasonable to assume that the metaphysical activity could have moved from there, to here – Mrs Pentney’s house,” said Mr Kew. “Or it could be some different force. Whatever it is seems to want the environment to remain unchanged. We are beginning to feel that there is certainly a link with the past, about which we shall have to find out more.” Mr Kews fears that when council modernisation work starts, the problem could explode into turmoil. He added: “The cruel thing is that people will just laugh at Mrs Pentney. They do not realise how real the danger can be.”
Mrs Pentney said: “Nobody is trying to help me. Everybody just laughs.”
Spalding Guardian, 14th July 1978.
Ayscoughfee Owl.
Ghosts, like the ladies, never speak till spoken to, said the Rev. Richard Harris Barham (1788-1845) according to my book of quotations. And furthermore some wise German by the name of Holeti adds to a mine of information on the spirit world: “Ghosts only come to those who look for them.” Which might help to explain why the “parapsychologist” who has descended on a Long Sutton council house can quite rapidly come to the conclusion that the place is haunted. We ordinary mortals may laugh and scoff but that doesn’t help the people, few and far between though they may be, who find ghosts anything but amusing.
Mrs Pentney can’t be said to have derived a great deal of fun out of her “haunted council house” protests. South Holland Council is in a difficult position because, as a letter writer pointed out last week, any house can be spooky what with all the creaks, bangs and rumbles one hears when human activity is at a low ebb. If you’re prepared to bend your mind to the suggestion, your home could be haunted, too. It must be said though that Mrs Pentney’s unhappiness now appears to be quite desperate and on this basis help should be given.
Spalding Guardian, 14th July 1978.
Haunted house – no move.
The housing committee of South Holland District Council has recommended that no special action be taken in the case of the haunted housewife, Mrs Joan Pentney of 14 Garsgate Road, Long Sutton. Mrs Pentney, who lives in the council-owned house with her husband and family, had asked the council for a transfer because she says her house is haunted. When the council refused she camped out during the night on the steps of the town hall at Spalding and said she would not move until she had been rehoused.
When the committee met this week they received a confidential report prepared by the housing manager, Mr Reg Twedell, which was considered with the Press and public excluded. Afterwards it was reported that the committee was told Mrs Pentney’s name was on the transfer list and the committee had decided not to take any special action in the case.
Mr Peter Kew and four members of the Atlanteans Metaphysical Society, from Cleethorpes, had the run of Mrs Pentney’s haunted house on the weekend. On Saturday Mr Kew said: “We spent the night here and heard one or two bangs and footsteps. We have done something and tried various ideas but now we are waiting to see whether it works out.”
Fenland Citizen, 19th July 1978.
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Pat Prentice drops in at a former pub and hears of Mysterious Footsteps in the Middle of the Night.
For five years Mr and Mrs Harry Holmes have lived at The Warren, Station Road, Long Sutton. And for five years something else has lived with them in their ageing home – something that walks at night, but is never seen. The “something” takes occasional strolls along the landing of their home. Nothing has ever been seen but its footsteps are clearly heard – and even now, says Mrs Christine Holmes, they sometimes wake her up in the dead of night.
Two years after the ghostly sounds were first reported in the “Guardian” they are still unexplained. When I called, Mrs Holmes was apprehensive about saying anything else of her strange visitor. Two years ago, Mrs Holmes said she felt there was nothing evil about them – but she had no wish to see what made them. And after five years she still hasn’t found out what causes the eerie footsteps or made any investigations into it. “We’ve got used to it,” she said. “I’m not saying anything more about it, but it is definitely not harmful, whatever it is.” Mrs Holmes said the strange noises still wake her up occasionally, but they never enter the bedrooms and always stay on the landing.
“We’ve sort of christened the thing as a him, and when we hear the noise, we’ll probably say ‘There he goes again.'” Mrs Holmes said she had never asked builders if the sound could be from the house’s structure, or had any other kind of expert in. She has heard nothing in the village to suggest a cause for the noise, nor any local rumours of the house’s past. Her four young children, three girls and one boy are not worried by the mysterious visitor.
Mr F.W. Robinson, an authority on local history, who wrote a book about it some time ago, has never heard of any legend in the area likely to cause hauntings at the house, which was once a public house known as the Cross Pits. The name was derived, he thinks, from two pits at the front, which still remain near the tree sheltered house, in the shape of a dyke.
There were several murders in the area at various times, but none of the strange happenings usually associated with hauntings.
Before Mr and Mrs Holmes moved to Long Sutton, the house was occupied by Mr Ronald Creasey. He now lives in Wales and never mentioned the sounds as far as anyone can remember. Perhaps, like Mr and Mrs Holmes, and possibly the occupants before them, he came to accept the strange visitors as a friend.
Spalding Guardian, 8th August 1969.