Visit by bishop calms ‘ghost’.
The Assistant Bishop of Derby, the Rt. Rev. T.R. Parfitt, has conducted a service of blessing at a house in Pinxton, Derbyshire, where a series of ghostly happenings began to terrorise the residents three weeks ago. The bishop was called in by the Rector of Pinxton, the Rev. R. L. Gwyther, after the police reported they were satisfied that “no human agency was responsible for the occurrences.”
Mr and Mrs W. Storer, of 128 Town Street, Pinxton, appealed for help after a large stone from their rockery smashed through a window and flew across the sitting room. It looked like vandalism – until a poker rose suddenly from the hearth and broke another window. A plastic ashtray hurtled across the room, and Mrs Storer’s engagement ring vanished from the kitchen windowsill, to be found later hanging on a picture nail.
A Tote ticket and a 10s. note were torn into tiny pieces, and the Storers were locked out of the house – with the keys later found hidden inside. “The police could not give any explanation so in desperation I called in the rector,” said Mr Storer. “The bishop came and sprinkled holy water and since then – touch wood – we have had only one other happening.”
The rector explained: “In cases like this a priest has to consult his bishop, and Bishop Parfitt visited the house and blessed it. There was no obvious explanation for what happened. There were too many incidents and too many people involved. The bishop did not conduct a service of exorcism. That is intended to drive out evil spirits, but the happenings in the Storers’ home were simply mischievous.”
The bishop said yesterday: “There is little I want to say about the matter apart from the fact that as far as I am concerned, the blessing of a house is quite a natural thing to do. I have blessed several houses in different sets of circumstances.”
Nottingham Evening Post, 25th January 1969.