Anyone want a spooky house?
Postman Walter Johnson claims that the ghost of a “mad old woman” is making life unbearable for his family in their £4-a-week council flat. So he is asking Havering council to find them a new home. The ghost, according to Mr Johnson, has been pestering them since they moved two years ago into Oundle House, a block at Harold Hill, Essex [Montgomery Crescent].
Once, he claims, the “old woman” poked him in the ribs with an icy finger. Another time she tipped 18-year-old daughter Doreen out of bed. Other antics include hurling plates across the kitchen and emptying sugar bowls on the floor.
Said Mr Johnson, 50: “We’re all scared out of our wits.” All the family say they have heard the ghost. But only grey-haired Mrs Edna Johnson claims to have seen it. She said: “It was horrible. I woke up and the old lady was standing at the end of the bed surrounded by a green haze.”
But the family has come up against a snag – the council has a rule that a three-year tenancy must be completed before a transfer can be asked for. However, a council official said: “We are always ready to listen to requests if there are exceptional circumstances.”
The People, 6th February 1972.