Strange happenings in ‘haunted’ house.
Scunthorpe housewife Mrs Evelyn Medex has asked the Borough Council to exchange her present home, because she claims it is haunted. Mother-of-three Mrs Medex (40) moved into the house in Farthing Avenue last month, after exchanging her bungalow in Manifold Road. Since then a series of eerie happenings has prompted her to call her doctor at three in the morning and her local priest on two occasions.
“I would never stay in this house alone at night. I would rather sleep in Scunthorpe bus station,” she declared. Mrs Medex, who is separated from her husband, says she is happy with the condition of her house and improvements carried out by the Borough Council since she moved in on October 12. “But I am afraid to go upstairs at night. There is something dreadful happening here,” she said.
The chain of events, she says, started the day after her nephew’s son was born in Scunthorpe on October 13. Brass ornaments have flown around the living room, clocks have moved from the bedroom to the bathroom, and upstairs doors have been slammed shut. The gas fire has mysteriously vibrated, objects have moved in the kitchen and the television and an electric clock have exploded.
On another occasion, a two-year-old boy in the house was hurled from the kitchen into the living room, as if someone had thrown him. Mrs Medex also claimed that clothing in her airing cupboard has been torn to shreds.
Last week, she says, she was disturbed in the early hours of the morning, when she experienced a feeling of strangulation. She ran into the street and telephoned her doctor.
Mrs Medex said her 17-year-old son Paul had also refused to stay in the house since the happenings. “I have been told that the previous occupants of the house dabbled in voodoo. I definitely believe that the house has poltergeists and I have asked the council to move me,” added the Grimsby-born housewife. “I have lost half a stone in weight since moving here and I am at my wits’ end.”
Scunthorpe Council’s Housing Lettings Officer, Mr Tony Judd, confirmed that Mrs Medex had made a complaint to him, which he was investigating. Mr Judd said that exchanges of council houses were not allowed until the tenant had occupied the home for a year, except in exceptional circumstances or on strong medical grounds. “It is the first time in five years in this work that I have come across such a complaint,” he said.
The Vicar of St George’s church, the Rev. Ernest Hepworth, said Mrs Medex had asked him for help and he had twice counselled her and prayed with her in every room of the house, the last occasion being on Monday. Her doctor confirmed that Mrs Medex had in fact called him after 3 am one day last week, but on examination he said he found no marks on her neck.
Grimsby Daily Telegraph, 18th November 1977.