Ghost! So police stay with family.
Something snatched quilt.
By Alan Dick.
Nine policemen stayed with the Greenfield family through the night until breakfast yesterday. Some were upstairs, some were down. The unfortunate Greenfields asked for protection against ghosts – and had to ask the police to stay to protect them against neighbours.
Ghostly moanings, weird lights and shifting objects which have kept the family sleepless for a week at their home in Langmead-street, Norwood, are now nothing compared with jeers and catcalls by neighbourhood people. They jostle round the house until the small hours and even rush up the staircase when the front door opens shouting “Ghostie, ghostie!”
“It’s terrible,” Mr. Dennis Greenfield said to me yesterday, eyes red-rimmed from worry and lack of sleep. “I’m taking my wife out of it. And not because of the ghosts. They are bad enough. But because of the neighbours, some of them. Every time one of us goes out some of them shout after us: ‘Have your heads examined… You ought to be in a madhouse… Cowardy, cowardy custard.” There are others who don’t make a noise, but go about whispering that we are making up stories to get a new house. I wish it were true. These ghostly happenings are turning us all into nervous wrecks. We haven’t slept since last Sunday. Dad and Mum have cleared out already. Me and my missus are next.”
The nine policemen spent the first half of the night trying to keep the neighbours in order. One neighbour ran up and down the stairs crying “Ghosties!” The second half the policemen kept ears and notebooks open. They saw and heard nothing. But while they watched, something snatched the quilt off Mr and Mrs Dennis Greenfield’s bed, and a photograph of a friend’s boy, Johnny Darlington, fell off its hook.
The police were there again last night – to keep the neighbourhood crowds, not the poltergeist, in order.
There are eight people in the Greenfield family. All of them have experienced the ghostly manifestations, footsteps in the attic, moans behind the skirtings, apparitions on the stairs, strange lights, moving clothes and furniture. At least the Greenfield ghost is neat and tidy. When it does move garments or bedclothes it folds them as if they had just come back from the cleaners. So that seems to settle the sex of the ghost, if nothing else.
The family, non-Catholics, have asked a local Roman Catholic priest to bless the house, or if necessary exorcise it to cast out spirits. Said Father Alfred Cole, of St Matthew’s: “If we think there is anything to be done, we will do it. But exorcism is a serious matter. We would have to have the bishop’s permission.”
Daily Herald, Monday 16th July 1951
Suburban “ghost”.
Knockings, rattlings and a roving basket.
Police officers at West Norwood, London, are investigating strange happenings at a small house in Langmead Street. Several months ago unaccountable knockings were heard, mostly from an attic which is entered only by climbing through a trap door. The noises gradually became worse.
Teacups were turned upside down and a spoon in a sugar basin in a closed cupboard was heard to rattle. During the week-end a large photograph fell from its frame leaving the glass front and the backing untouched.
Yesterday crowds gathered outside the house and indoors a reporter found members of the household staring at a shopping basket in the corridor. A few moments earlier, they said, it had been in the front sitting-room and while everyone was upstairs it was flung – by no human agency – into the corridor. The police were called, but the “ghost” lay low.
The Manchester Guardian, July 16th 1951.
Ghost is driving this family mad.
From our own correspondent.
Shortly before lunchtime today the Greenfield family walked up the five red-ochred steps of their haunted six-roomed house in Langmead Street, West Norwood, London, refreshed after their first night’s sleep in seven days. To get a peaceful night they had to leave the poltergeist in their attic to its own devices and go round the corner to the home of their married daughter, Mrs Rennie Allaway.
Since the poltergeist made its debut a week yesterday it has transformed the Greenfields from a normal family into six red-eyed, nervy people. The other two tenants who live in No. 5 Langmead Street are just as worried. Said 60-year-old Mrs Kathleen Greenfield, her fingers twitching at her apron, “Pictures on the walls move before our eyes, eerie tappings come from the roof, and sometimes traced in the dust covering the attic floor are strange, mystical symbols.”
The only one in the family who claims to have seen the ghost is 26-year-old Cecil Greenfield. Cecil, pale and worn, leaned against the doorway of No. 5 as he told me his story. “Last Wednesday night as I came out of the living room an icy coldness seemed to come over me,” he said. “I glanced at the stair and saw a white figure nearing the landing. It paused with one foot on the top step and half-turned, with its arms crossed. But I could not make out whether the spectre was that of a man or a woman. I gave up my job because I cannot work without sleep. Last night I stayed in the house until 3 a.m., but I could stand it no longer. I saw a picture moving on the wall before my eyes. It rose up and down.”
Nightly crowds of curious people are now as troublesome to the Greenfields as the ghost. The Greenfields, who have asked a Roman Catholic priest to exorcise the ghost, are pleading for a council house. “We were told that we were high on the list,” said Mrs Greenfield. “Now, maybe, they’ll help us, for we cannot live in this house any more. It is driving us mad.”
Aberdeen Evening Express, Monday 16th July 1951
Police Watch in London House.
Knock knock… “who’s there?” a “ghost”!
Police are being called two or three times a day to a working-class house in Langmead Street, West Norwood, London, S.E. 27, to trap a “ghost.” So far only the three families who live there have seen the “ghost” or any of its manifestations. Police have waited for hours but no ghostly activities ever happen in their presence. Several months ago unaccountable knockings were heard, mostly from a small attic entered only by climbing through a trap door.
Things gradually became worse. Tea cups were mysteriously turned upside down and a spoon in a sugar basin in a closed cupboard was heard to rattle. During the week-end a large photograph fell from its frame leaving the glass front and the backing untouched.
Yesterday crowds of interested ghost seekers waited outside the house. Inside a P.A. reporter found about a dozen members of the household staring at a shopping basket in the corridor. A few moments earlier, they said, it had been in the front sitting-room and while everyone was upstairs it was flung – by no human agency – into the corridor.
Police were called, but the “ghost” lay low. The area surrounding the attic trap door was covered with French chalk but the noises continued, and when the door was opened two lines were found in the chalk-marks that could have been made with a human finger.
The Northern Whig and Belfast Post, Monday 16th July 1951.
Crowds wait to see ghost at No. 5.
News Chronicle Reporter.
A large crowd stood outside No. 5 Langmead Street, West Norwood, last night. They stood in groups discussing the “ghost.” Earlier there had been many children. Stones had been thrown at the door and windows and there were boos and catcalls. But Mr A Greenfield, who claims that his home at No. 5 is haunted, called the police. Squad cars arrived and moved the crowd on.
The haunting took a new turn yesterday, the Greenfields told me. A 6ft. figure, all in white, with its face blurred, appeared on the stairs early in the morning. Later in the day, they claimed, furniture and ornaments were moved and “MPS238” was scratched on the wall of an upstairs room. Mrs Hilda Bussley, a daughter of Mr Greenfield, who visited the house in the afternoon, said: “I walked into my mother’s bedroom and heard heavy breathing coming from the vacant bed.”
Daily News (London), 17th July 1951.
‘Occupants dare not undress’
Tell of weird happenings and strange noises.
Crashing crockery, mysterious sounds, eerie visitations, flickering lights, and mirrors that turn without a hand to touch them – these and other weird reports have been exciting the attention of the police at a house occupied by the Greenfield family at Langmead-street, West Norwood this week. It was on Friday night that the “ghost” became public property. until then it had been privately annoying the Greenfields until, in desperation, they called in the police. Inspector S. Candler, in charge of investigations, heard how bedding had been mysteriously displaced, crockery moved and mirrors reversed. It was decided that a squad of police officers should keep vigil, and “lay the ghost” if it turned up… but not a sound while they were in occupation.
Two members of the family claimed to have seen the apparition. There have been unaccountable noises from the attic where no access can be had except by a ladder, and initials and signs were seen in the dust. Two neighbours said they saw queer lights in the house which looked weird shining from a top-floor window.
Several nights this week police have been on duty inside and outside the premises. On Friday, two C.I.D. men and a neighbour sat with the Greenfields. At 3a.m. the detectives left. Fifteen minutes later moaning noises were heard by a policeman in a patrol car outside the house. They raced up the stairs, to find four white-faced people on the top floor. They were Robert Green, a 17-years-old neighbour, Cyril Greenfield, aged 26, his 22-years-old brother Dennis, and Gladys, the wife of Dennis. “It was horrible,” said young Green. “We heard moans and a scratching noise. Then, near the skirtingboard we saw what looked like an electric bulb glowing.” Two nights earlier, Mrs Nellie Green, looking from her house opposite, saw a similar light move slowly up and down at a top-floor window. “Neighbours are beginning to think we are mad,” said Dennis Greenfield, a cabinet-maker, “but it’s not madness when five out of six of us have either seen this thing or heard the noises. For months we have heard noises, but it was on Sunday week that they became worse.”
Then Dennis told how brother Cyril was coming down stairs when he saw something white advancing towards him. “He yelled, and when I rushed upstairs I found him sitting on his bed as white as a sheet and trembling. He is so terrified that he will not go upstairs alone – and he is 26 years old.” Then sister Pat comes into the story. Only 14 years of age, she had had an experience she will not forget as long as she lives; she also saw the ghost on the stairs. “She was coming down with my mother-in-law,” said Dennis, “when she stopped and started screaming. Yet my mother-in-law did not see a thing.”
“I was in my room with my wife when when we heard footsteps overhead in the attic. We went up, but found nobody. Yet the dust had been disturbed and there were initials ‘A.T.’ and two circles, as though written by a finger. We went down and stayed in our parents’ room until 5 a.m., but back in our room we discovered beds neatly made which had been untidy when we left them. None of us has had a night’s sleep since Sunday week: we have remained fully dressed.”
Dennis told how, in desperation, he went with brother Cyril to a spiritualist meeting at Camberwell, and there was told that there was a spirit trying to contact us. “It sounds ridiculous, but what else are we to believe?”
Mr. Augustus Greenfield, 69-years-old Lambeth Council employee, said he had been trying to contact former occupants to see if they could give a clue. So far he had not been successful. Mr Greenfield has been along to Lambeth Housing Department to ask them to get them out of the house as soon as possible. “I was sceptical when I received a report of the matter,” said Inspector Candler, “but after interviewing the Greenfields I am convinced that something strange has happened at the house, something which calls for police investigation.”
In the Norwood district children in Sunday School had no time for the normal lesson. All they were prepared to listen to was teacher’s opinion on the ghost story.
Now the Greenfields have another problem. The police have been notified that young people are throwing stones at the “haunted house,” and the prying curiosity of the morbid-minded is making their life a burden.
A sister-in-law, who told our reporter with a smile of relief, “I don’t live here,” said, “these things have happened before; a day or two of peace, and then it starts all over again.”
On evenings this week a Mission Band has been holding services in Langmead-street, close to the house, and there have been frequent inquiries from spiritualists and religious leaders, offering aid in “laying the ghost.”
Norwood News, Friday 20th July 1951
Norwood ghost has been laid. (p1/8)
Prayers offered in house.
The “Ghost of Norwood” has been laid. “We have not heard anything of it since Tuesday of last week,” said a member of the Greenfield family, at their Langmead-street, West Norwood, home, but added: “You never know. These things have been known to go away and then to come back.”
The Rev. John Crouch, minister of the Church of the Nazarene, Auckland-hill, West Norwood, told one of our reporters how on the night before the last manifestations, he took a party of his own congregation and held a service outside the “haunted” house. “It was just before 10 p.m., when one of the young Greenfields came out and invited us into their home to pray,” he said. “Seven of our party went in, and in the front room we knelt with the assembled family and there prayed, finally commanding the Thing to ‘leave this house in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ’. Since then I have made daily calls on the family, and they have heard nothing.” The minister says: “I am satisfied in my own mind that there was something there for two weeks previously. When I first met them the family were in a desperate state of mind.”
Norwood News, Friday 27th July 1951
“Ghost” was heard but not seen.
Invited to open St Matthew’s Church Fete.
When the organisers of St. Matthew’s Church, West Norwood, fete, which attracted crowds on Saturday to the grounds of St Joseph’s Primary School, Crowndale, Upper Norwood, found that Derek Guyler, of the B.B.C, could not be present to open the show, they were not despondent. When Father Cole, priest of St Matthew’s mounted the platform he was able to announce that they had found someone else. “There are plenty of noted people in West Norwood, and clever people as was proved by the successful Festival Week, one of the best in South London,” he said, “but such people are always busy. Then I thought of someone in Norwood who had caused a considerable sensation recently and whose presence in West Norwood had even caused my name to be mentioned in the national press – the Norwood Ghost. I got in touch with the Infernal Regions, but was informed that he never made a personal appearance except at midnight. ‘But I want you to come along and open our fete at 3 p.m.,’ I said, and the Ghost replied, ‘I’ll come along and open it, but the people will not see me.'”
When Father Cole made a suitable introduction a muffled voice took charge of the amplifying equipment and the assembly heard these words: “Here I am, I hope its’ a nice afternoon.” Father Cole then announced, “I now declare the fete opened by the Norwood Ghost.” …
Norwood News, Friday 3rd August 1951.
Norwood ghost came back for bank holiday.
“It did such silly things.”
Norwood’s ghost came back to spend the holiday week-end among its friends, but the Greenfield family, of Langmead-street, West Norwood, where it has persisted in doing its poltergeist tricks for weeks, have adopted it as a friend, and are now laughing at its vagaries.
Mrs Greenfield, senior, told one of our reporters: “It came again on Tuesday and did such silly things. Upstairs it piled the furniture on my son’s bed, and then it put a broken clothes peg in a bottle and put it on the landing.” Then, with a smile which was superior to all “jitters,” Mrs Greenfield added: “I can’t see the sense of things like that, can you?”
Young Pat Greenfield stooped to pick up her retriever puppy, “Sandy,” which she fondled as she said: “As we sit in this room at night- we don’t go to bed any more, but we’re sticking it out – we see the Thing sometimes.”
Mrs Greenfield took up the tale: “We always know when it’s about. The place goes dull and the glass in the pictures goes all misty… and we hear noises, like someone walking overhead. Sure enough, when we got upstairs, there are the things we left, all upset and awry… so we don’t sleep upstairs any more; we just let the Thing get on with it… and we say what we think about it out loud.” Mrs Greenfield continued: “Young Pat (she’s my daughter) speaks to the ghost and often says ‘if you want to be about why don’t you do something useful. Come and help me with this washing up!’ it does not take the hint, but we are not worried about it any more, it can do as it pleases.”
Mrs Greenfield said the Psychical Society had the matter in hand. “As soon as the gentleman comes back from holiday I want him to arrange for a prominent medium to come and ask it what it wants, then, when it has got it, perhaps it will go away.” And young Pat, aged 13, sat by fondling Sandy… and nobody seemed worried any more about what has worried them so long.
Norwood News, Friday 10th August 1951.