The shocking case of haywire house.
Frank’s cottage keeps blowing a fuse.
Pensioner Frank Pattemore is being forced to return to the dark ages until engineers sort out electrical problems at his cottage in Somerton. For five years Frank, aged 76, has been living in a world of bursting light bulbs, melting plugs and exploding televisions, and the South Western Electricity Board cannot explain why. All they know is that every so often, for a split second a tremendous surge of power travels through wiring in Frank’s cottage in West Street causing everything to go haywire. The Board has rewired his home, sent engineers there twice a week and still cannot find out what is happening.
Frank, who now uses a battery powered television since his mains set blew up said: “I see the engineers so often that I know each of them as friends.” He said: “I am forever changing bulbs and buying new plugs. There is a sort of hissing sound and everything either melts or breaks.”
None of his neighbours are affected by the problem and SWEB says it is baffled. A spokesman said: “He literally has a home in a million. The problem is the power surge lasts for a millionth of a second. Our engineers are doing everything they can to find out what’s happening there.”
Meanwhile Frank and his son Nigel are having to get out the candles and use bottled gas to cook teas.
Western Daily Press, 12th March 1987.
Big bang leaves Frank in the dark.
Volts from blue shake his home.
The Big Bang that regularly shakes Frank Pattemore’s house is baffling electricity experts. So far it has wrecked five television sets, shattered thousands of light bulbs, melted scores of fittings, ruined kettle elements, and sparked several fires. The trouble is a massive surge of power that sweeps through the electrical system of Frank’s home every few days. It lasts for only a fraction of a second, but it’s enough to blow every fuse. Frank, 77, now has a sixth TV set – powered by a car battery. And he keeps warm with a gas heater – provided by the electricity board. He also has a steady supply of free bulbs and fuses.
The trouble at Frank’s home in Somerton, Somerset, began five years ago. He said yesterday: “Men from the board have been round hundreds of times trying to trace the problem. I’ve got used to it, although some visitors get very nervous when a bulb explodes or the fuse board flashes.”
The sudden surges, almost ten times the normal power supply, have left the South Western Electricity Board without a clue. Frank’s wiring has been changed twice in three years. A board official said: “We are stumped. We have never come across anything like this before.”
Daily Mirror, 12th March 1987.
Old soldier Frank Pattemore has been given a free supply of light bulbs by South Western Electricity Board – because his own keep exploding during freak power surges. Frank, 77, has lost 5,000 bulbs in his cottage in Somerton, Somerset, in the past five years.
Huddersfield Daily Examiner, 14th March 1987.
Investigator Roger Cook took a break from getting beaten about the head by exiled criminals and camera-shy porn merchants and went West for The Cook Report (HTV). And looked, for a little light relief, at the mysterious forces that are blowing up the homes of the Prices of Churchill [Churcham / Oakle Street], near Gloucester, and the Pattemores, near Somerton. He also established that it was something a little more sinister than the presence of ley lines that was causing televisions to explode, light bulbs to pop and wiring circuits to fuse. Alas, with Britain now being the world leader when it comes to paranoid security-consciousness, all the important doors were slammed so hard that even Mr Cook was unable to force his foot in. Chris Rundle.
Western Daily Press, 6th August 1987.
The Cook Report: Close Encounters. https://youtu.be/S6vGbEu_Cyc
[continuing from this page: https://poltergeistreports.blogspot.com/2023/04/oakle-street-gloucestershire-1987.html ]
Nigel Pattemore reading from a letter to the afflicted family in Gloucestershire: ” I thought you might take some comfort from the fact that someone else has very similar troubles.”
RC: Fifty miles away in a terraced cottage in Somerton live Frank and Nigel Pattemore. Their home has been rewired to industrial standards several times, and still the wiring melts. Amongst the appliances destroyed, five television sets.
NP: We’ve had boards coming into the house, the main boards catch fire in cascades of flame. We’ve had cables underneath the floorboards and in the ceilings catch fire. We’ve had thousands of fuses blow. That’s both in the plug tops and in the main supply board to the house. Hundreds and hundreds of light bulbs [he produces a wine box of them] – this amount has gone sometimes within a week or less. Our nearest neighbour has had switches weld in his house. But no one, it’s fair to say, has had trouble on the scale that we have.
RC: Over the past five years the electricity board has spent £50000 trying to end the Pattemore’s problems.
Mike Newton, SW Electricity Board: We’ve installed sophisticated monitoring equipment to check the quality of the supply to the property. We have tried numerous tests – providing an alternative supply from another source – a process of elimination if you like, to eliminate parts of the system which are healthy, and by doing so we hope then to locate the real cause of the problem.
RC: But the Board couldn’t find an answer. So, as in the Prices’ case, the Electricity Council’s Capenhurst laboratories were called in, and in a subsequent letter to the Pattemores, the Electricity Board said: “The damage could only have been caused by deliberate interference with the circuits and apparatus.”
FP: Well there was a knock on the door, and five gentlemen from the police came in, and I said ‘what is all this about?’ and they said the fire officer was perturbed that I might be found dead in my bed. The police then made it clear to me that they had a warrant, and that they was going to search the house. I said, ‘well there’s no need for a warrant, you can search the house anyway.’ I turned out drawers and cupboards, all my linen chests: we went right through the bottom of the house and the two bedrooms and the bathroom, and they did not find anything which could cause any major damage.
NP: I was taken to Yeovil police station, where I saw a duty sergeant, and I was then put in a police cell for about three and a half hours before I spoke to anyone. And then an officer interviewed me. While I was being interviewed by the police, they kept referring to this report on the table, which was done by the Capenhurst Research College at Chester. I wasn’t given a lot of detail as to what was in it. It was suggested that one thing that could have been done to cause the damage, was for someone to have stood on a stool by the meter board and worked the trip up and down about six, seven hundred times in a minute.
RC: So what alternatives was the report exploring?
NP: I cannot really tell you, I wasn’t allowed to see it.
RC: Did it look to you as though they were saying – Either it’s the electricity that’s at fault, or it’s you – and ruled out all other possibilities?
NP: Yes, definitely. After a total of eight hours in custody, I was released without charge, to reappear at the police station a month from that day.
The Man With The Lie Detector Machine: Ok, do you know who has caused any of the electrical damages reported at this house?
NP: No.
TMWTLDM: Did you cause any of the electrical damages at this house?
NP: No.
TMWTLDM: Have you reported any false information regarding the electrical damages at this house?
NP: No.
TMWTLDM: Did you deliberately lie to any of the questions I’ve just asked you?
NP: No, definitely not.
TMWTLDM: It’s my opinion that the questions I asked related to their possible involvement in the electrical damages here – is that they were not involved in it.
NP: We have had theories as regards radar from the Royal Naval Air Station at Yeovilton, or probably a guidance system of some sort on their aircraft. We have also been told, the existence of the radio station, which is situated within eyesight of this cottage, but the GPO External Radio Service have told us they do no transmissions whatever from the Somerton site. So this would seem or appear to rule this out.
Professor of Physics: Good morning, very nice to meet you. I gather you’re having some electrical problems.
FP: Oh my word, we’re having quite a lot.
POP: As a physicist I’m finding it very hard to imagine how you or your son could produce what is obviously a surge of voltage. I mean the incidents you describe, welding switches, bulbs blowing, televisions blowing up and so on, all seem to be caused by a voltage surge.
FP: Yes they admit that, and their technician from Bristol has proved that.
POP (Dr Frank Barnaby, Weapons Expert): I totally discount the possibility that any amateur could produce the effects that we’ve seen in this house.
RC: Well what do you think the most likely cause is, then?
POP: Well it’s certainly compatible with a heavy surge of voltage, a short period surge of voltage, produced, for example, by a very high intensity radar beam, of the sort that is being developed to counter a stealth aircraft. But my favourite theory would be that’s a voltage produced by the simulation of an electromagnetic pulse of the sort that would be produced by a nuclear weapon. I have two reasons for saying that. Firstly, that the military are very anxious, and are doing a lot of research, spending a lot of money, developing methods to protect their electronic equipment and their weapons systems against the initial pulse of radiation which comes from a nuclear explosion. And they couldn’t do a nuclear explosion, so they would simulate it by other means which would consist of a very highly focused, high intensity energy beam. And this house may be in the path of such a beam.
RC: Dr Barnaby’s views are supported by Dr David Baker, another eminent scientist, formerly with NASA.
DB: Britain is a very crowded island, with a lot of military research going on in a small area, in a small space. It’s not like the United States, where tests can take place in the Nevada Desert, hundreds of miles from the nearest farm. A lot of technology is now available to make things very difficult to see on radar scans. In order to combat that you’ve got to keep increasing the power output of the radar that you use to find out where those objects are. So aircraft are used to test against these radar devices, the ability to sneak in, to sneak under, to sneak round what kind of shape they are on a radar screen. The main difference now to five years ago, is those energy levels are many orders of magnitude higher than they were in those days.
RC: What effect would you expect to see, in houses in the path of energy like this?
DB: It can melt plugs, it can disassemble wire, it can create harmonic vibrations that will unscrew pipes – it can create all the wealth of things that we are seeing reported by various people in various places. And the overall effect can be to create a very bizarre situation where ordinary electrical lines are bursting into flames, and where potting[?] melts inside a structure which may survive. Ordinary domestic appliances can just explode.
RC: The best everyday example we have of the potential energy radiated through the air is the domestic microwave. Now many of us have one of these in our kitchen, but have you ever thought what might happen if your kitchen ended up in a microwave? [a miniature kitchen inside the microwave sets on fire].
NP: We have had voltages of anything up to 2000 volts registered in this cottage. And I hasten to add this is not a continuous 2000 volts, it is an impulse voltage which may only last a microsecond. The problem occurs when we get a series of these impulses within a second, and then they become almost continuous. And I think that is when the damage occurs.
DB: It’s entirely compatible with what we would expect to see if research was being turned to application, for using radio waves to experiment with the detection of small objects, low flying objects going very fast across the ground, in order to pick those up on radar screens as early as possible. And in fact those kind of radar systems exist.
RC: So, if the radar theory put to us by four independent scientists is correct, why have two such different properties been singled out? The answer, according to Dr Barnaby, could be that they are right at the end of local electricity distribution networks. The long incoming overhead wires would readily attract radiated energy. Both properties are both plagued by low-flying aircraft.
Mr Price: It was very noticeable up until a few weeks ago. Very noticeable. Quite bad in fact. Even times when you’re down in the workshop there and you actually duck, they’re that low. You can’t see them but you actually duck because the noise is so terrific.
RC: Are you alright, Mrs Price? [Mr Price looks very miserable and like he might cry, and Mrs Price has her head bent low over the table, suppressing a sob].
RC: And what effect does it have on people and animals?
DB: Well for a long time it’s been known that the effect on human beings can be quite complete and catastrophic, and in fact there are servicemen walking around today who are sterilised because of the effects they suffered in tests that were conducted by this country during the second world war.
RC: Could these effects be fatal?
DB: These effects could be fatal. They have been tested against animals in research laboratories in the United States.
Nigel Pattemore: The things we’re now thinking about may sound fantastic, but they’re the only ones we have left.
DB: Well in the interests of national security, especially in Great Britain, which has an almost unbridled paranoia about discussing aspects of defence and the protection of these islands, there are unwilling servants of the new technology, who are unable to discuss matters which relate to what are thought of as exotic devices.
[Shot of the University College of Swansea]
RC: In Swansea there is another scientist, who while not discounting the military theories, says it’s not patriotic to discuss them.
Dr Ray Macario, Electronics Expert: I’ve worked on some of these aspects from time to time – one is always of course under the official secrets act, even if you don’t sign it. You never talk out of turn – this is a basic school rule you have.
Mr Price: We’ve always had this feeling that there’s a cover-up somewhere. I don’t know where. I wish I did know. But I’ve always had this feeling there’s been a bit of a cover-up.
RC: And you’re the patsy?
Mr P: Well exactly.
RC: How do you feel about that?
Mr P: Not very good. I don’t know how they’d feel about it. I wish to god it would happen to them, then they’d be getting on with it more about what it felt like.
DB: I think it is a matter that should be exposed for public debate, that in achieving what we feel to be a supreme tool for defence, that we are in fact creating, in what is in fact an enduring peace, thank god, a situation which is infinitely more harmful to our social environment. The environment that is described in the events seen and felt and experienced by real people in real situations, is very similar to converting the whole of the British Isles into a microwave cooker.
RM: The defence of the realm is a very responsible exercise, and anyone engaged in this mustn’t take it lightly. And if you sit around implying that they’re doing things which are untoward and suchlike, people would be very upset. I mean it’s the same as if you ask a personal question.
RC: But the effects on the Prices and the Pattemores have been very personal indeed. They say that secrecy in the corridors of power has led to much unnecessary suffering by two ordinary families. The electricity board kept them in the dark. GCHQ said it wasn’t them. So too did the Royal Signal and Radar Establishment. The Ministry of Defence say they too are not to blame. Britains penchant for secrecy means this programme can only offer the expert’s best guesses as to what’s going on. So – whodunnit?
Nigel Pattemore, arrested during the making of this film, was told today that he was being released from police bail, and need not now report back to the police next week.
———————————————————————–
Bid to solve the bursting bulbs poser.
Electronics experts are hoping to unravel West pensioner Frank Pattemore’s shocking power problem. After three months of investigation they are to present a report on his home – although last night South Western Electricity Board said they could not promise an end to the problems. “We hope they will come up with a diagnosis, but even if they do we will still have to find a way to cure whatever is wrong, and that may not be easy,” said a spokesman.
For five years Frank, aged 76, has been living in a world of bursting light bulbs, melting switches and exploding TV sets. SWEB say his home keeps being hit by a massive power surge which lasts just one millionth of a second – but they do not know why. Although the Western Daily Press highlighted the problem in March, at the house in West Street, Somerton, Frank and his son Nigel are still having to use a battery powered TV and cook dinners on bottled gas.
Western Daily Press, 7th July 1987.
Police quiz for son in riddle of haywire house.
By Philip Kerswell.
Machine operator Nigel Pattemore is fighting to clear his name after police arrested him following a series of bizarre electrical faults in his home. […] On Thursday, five policemen joined South Western Electricity Board staff in an early morning raid at the Pattemore’s home in West Street, Somerton. The officers were armed with a search warrant. Nigel Pattemore was arrested at Powrmatic in Chard, where he is a press operator, and released on bail without charge after seven and a half hours questioning.
In recent years SWEB engineers and troubleshooting specialists have rewired the house three times, installed monitoring equipment and spent hours examining appliances, but cannot trace the fault.
“I have been told to report back to the police station in three weeks unless I hear otherwise,” said Nigel. “No one has told me what I am supposed to have done. The police have released the fact that I was arrested and people will think I have done something wrong. The SWEB people have been here when there have been power surges and I have been sitting in a chair. They know I cannot have anything to do with it. It has been a traumatic experience. I feel very bitter about it. I am waiting for the police to contact me and say my name is clear.”
Yeovil police said they questioned Mr Nigel Pattemore at the request of SWEB, and confirmed no charges have been brought. SWEB head office in Bristol refused to comment.
Western Daily Press, 21st July 1987.
Shock over ‘power house’.
Report: Tina Rowe. Picture: Steve Roberts.
Pensioner Mr Frank Pattemore says he may sell his home to prove he and his son have nothing to do with its bizarre electrical problems. And his son has spoken about the trauma of being arrested by police for questioning on the mystery.
For five years the cottage in Somerton has suffered weird power surges of around 2,000 volts, lasting only a fraction of a second. They cause televisions and light bulbs to explode, melt plugs and points, and have sometimes started fires. Electricity experts cannot find the cause, despite rewiring and detailed monitoring.
But last week Mr Pattemore’s son, Nigel, aged 35, was arrested and questioned for seven and a half hours at Yeovil police station before being released without charge. He lives with his father in the cottage in West Street. The South Western Electricity Board had called in police and five officers armed with a search warrant went to the cottage with officials. They told Mr Pattemore senior, 77, they were looking for implements, but they found nothing. Nigel was arrested at the Powrmatic firm at Ilminster, where he is a machine operator. Last night he said: “It has been a traumatic experience. I feel very bitter and I am waiting for the police to contact me and say my name is cleared.”
Mr Pattermore senior, a Burma veteran, says SWEB has monitored the surges on the main supply after it has been disconnected from the house, proving that it cannot be caused by internal tampering. Fighting back tears he said: “I am seriously considering selling the house. It is the only way of proving our innocence.”
SWEB has refused to comment about the matter. Superintendent David Coggan, of Yeovil police, said today: “We received a complaint and conducted an investigation, which is still continuing.”
Nigel Pattemore
Frank Pattemore, who may have to sell his home.
Bristol Evening Post, 21st July 1987.
Frank’s home town art is a current success.
Artist Frank Pattemore will not be putting Somerton’s most famous house on canvas as part of his record of the town’s past. For the most talked-about local residence is his own terrace home in West Street, where surges of electricity have been bursting light bulbs, breaking down appliances and baffling SWEB officials. Frank, aged 77, has painted four canvases so far, showing the Royal Oake pub, the Red Lion Hotel, Williams the saddler and Elijah Puddy the baker. The buildings are depicted as they would have been a century ago. Schoolchildren in the pictures are carrying slates, and Frank remembers using them when he was at school. The Pattemores have a history of helping to brew fine beers in the area. He said: “My grandad was the maltster at Somerton Brewery, and my father was in charge of the shire horses there.” He hopes that his problems with the troublesome electricity supply will soon be solved by technical experts.
Western Daily Press, 28th July 1987.
New probe into N-blast link theory.
Mystery of the ‘power house’.
By Tina Rowe.
The cottage scene of the mystery.
Top-secret radar tests or a simulated nuclear explosion are the latest suspects for bizarre surges of electric power in a West cottage. But police are continuing their own inquiries into the odd happenings at the home of Mr Frank Pattemore, aged 77, and his son Nigel, 35, in West Street, Somerton, Somerset. For five years the house has suffered from occasional high surges of electricity, sometimes up to 2,000 volts. It lasts only a microsecond but is enough to set switchboards ablaze, fuse and melt plugs, blow up five televisions and burst hundreds of light bulbs. After rewiring to industrial standard several times and frequent specialist monitoring, South Western Electricity Board says: “The incidents can only be caused by some sort of third party interference.” It has told Mr Pattemore he must now pay for future call-outs.
Police interviewed Mr Nigel Pattemore three weeks ago and bailed him to report back to them. Now they have told him he need not do so. Chief Inspector Rod Dean of Yeovil police said: “Our inquiries are continuing and are widespread.” The Pattemores strongly deny responsibility and have said they might sell the cottage to prove their innocence.
The Price family have had similar problems at their home in Oakle Street, Minsterworth, Gloucestershire.
Last night four scientists, including weapons expert Dr Frank Barnaby and former NASA scientist Dr David Baker, said in the Cook Report on independent television that secret radar or high-energy beams could be responsible. The Ministry of Defence denies conducting any tests which could cause the trouble.
Bristol Evening Post, 6th August 1987.
In My View.
You can’t knock the pace when ace investigative reporter Roger Cook and his team get on the trail. After last week’s horrific expose of child pornography, last night’s Cook Report (HTV) was as shocking in its own way. Take a house where six washing machines have blown up, there have been 53 fires and 73 floods and pets drop dead. What have you got? Poltergeists? Probably not. The ever-wicked military? Probably. Sudden and massive surges of energy seem to be behind the mystery, in which electric cables burst into flames and lights fly out of their sockets. Cook brought in leading scientists to speculate and a lie detector to ensure the victims hadn’t set fire to their own home. Then it was discovered the house lay on a direct microwave link to GCHQ, Cheltenham. So there’s the answer. The damage to health and hearth was caused by secret radar research and hushed up by the military. Julian Richards.
Bristol Evening Post, 6th August 1987.
Mystery rays ‘set house on fire 40 times’.
By Sydney Young.
Top secret government experiments are being blamed for a series of mystery blazes in two homes 75 miles apart. Space science expert Dr David Baker says they are in the path of microwave radiation beams designed to knock out low-flying enemy jets. He believes the tests could be the cause of forty fires at a house in Gloucester and a spate of bizarre electrical blazes at a Somerset cottage. The trials are so secret it is difficult to pinpoint the microwave transmitters – but Dr Baker suspects they are near hush-hush listening posts at Cheltenham, Gloucs, and Taunton, Somerset.
David and Ruby Price’s home in Minsterworth, Gloucs, has suffered the 40 blazes over five years. The damage includes six washing machines destroyed. At pensioner Frank Pattemore’s home in Somerton, Somerset, kettles have been destroyed, lampshades have burst into flames and wall switches have melted. Frank’s son Nigel, 35, was questioned by police over the alarming faults. But he was released without charge after electricity experts could not find an answer to the problem.
Dr Baker, 43, is an Englishman who worked for NASA in the United States for 15 years. He is now chairman of a space programme consultancy based in Kingston, Surrey. “This sort of experiment is nothing new,” he said. “In 1942 Churchill encouraged research into beams which would disable enemy aircraft engines. Strange things happened even then. Car engines burst into flames then – but the project was surrounded in mystery.” Electro-magnetic beams, he said, are also central to the American “Star Wars” defence programme.
Daily Mirror, 6th August 1987.
Radar not surge cause.
The defence ministry has denied carrying out secret radar tests which have been blamed for causing the mysterious electrical surges in a Somerton cottage. It was claimed by scientists on ITV’s The Cook Report, last week, that secret radar or high-beam tests may be causing the bizarre happenings at the house in West Street.
The MoD says it is as puzzled as Frank and Nigel Pattemore, who own the house. A spokesman said: “Even the most powerful radar stations would not effect the houses nearby. Commercial airports such as Heathrow have enormously powerful radars, but none of the houses is these districts are effected.”
For the past five years the house has suffered from high electrical surges causing five televisions and numerous light bulbs to blow up and plugs to melt in their sockets.
Despite claims from the scientists on the television programme, police are still investigating the strange happenings. They interviewed Mr Nigel Pattemore last month and released him on police bail to report back three weeks later. Although they have not told him not to do so, Chief Insp. Rod Dean of Yeovil police said: “Our inquiries are continuing and still widespread.”
The MoD spokesman said they had thought about other possible causes. The British Telecom maritime service, based just outside Somerton, was one suggestion – but again highly unlikely.
This week the South Western Electricity Board refused to comment.
Central Somerset Gazette, 13th August 1987.
Jinxed home has SWEB baffled.
The electricity board has “pulled the plug” on the haywire house of pensioner Frank Pattemore. Seventy-seven-year-old Mr Pattemore has been plagued by mystery power surges which have blown up five TVs and hundreds of light bulbs in his jinxed home in five years. Now the South West Electricity Board has washed its hands of him. It has not disconnected his supply at the house in West Street, Somerton, but has refused to make any more efforts to solve the mystery.
Earlier this year police arrested Mr Pattemore’s son Nigel, who lives at the house, claiming he was to blame for the problem, but later released him without charge.
SWEB said that after extensive tests and relaying wiring to industrial standards, it does not believe its equipment is at fault and Mr Pattemore will now have to pay for call-outs.
Last night Mr Pattemore was in darkness after one of the microsecond power surges damaged his lighting.
Western Daily Press, 21st October 1987.
Haywire House report banned.
Pensioner Frank Pattemore, who has to live by candlelight because of bizarre power surges through his electricity supply, has been banned from seeing a report which could explain his nine years’ of misery. Mr Pattemore, aged 80, who lives with his son. Nigel, in West Street, Somerton, has suffered hundreds of exploding light bulbs because of the mystery surges. Fuses blow and switches weld together. After years of exhaustive tests, South Western Electricity Board called in the Electricity Council Research Centre, at Capenhurst, Chester. But they will not let Mr Pattemore see the confidential report. South Western Electricity says it has given up after exhaustive tests to trace the problem. Mr Stephen Marshall, SWEB solicitor, said: “I am not prepared to say what is in the report, it is confidential.”
Meanwhile, Mr Pattemore has to use a paraffin heater because night storage heaters will not work, and Calor Gas to cook by because their new cooker will not work. Somerton Parish Council has taken up the case, which became known as “haywire house.”
Bristol Evening Post, 25th November 1988.
[…] Somerton parish council has taken up the case of “Haywire House” and is trying to find temporary accommodation for the Pattemores, so an independent electrician can examine the house.
Western Daily Press, 25th November 1988.
Power probe home in link claim.
Electricity chiefs have rejected claims of a link between mysterious power surges at a pensioner’s cottage in Somerset and a house only yards away. Pensioner Frank Pattemore, aged 80, has been plagued by power problems since the 1970s at his home in Somerton. South Western Electricity has refused to make public a report on the phenomena, which has left Mr Pattemore and his son Nigel, aged 35, with hundreds of blown light bulbs, fused switches and damaged appliances.
Now former neighbour Horace Crossman, aged 59, who until three years ago used to live across the road from the Pattemores, says he used to be plagued by similar problems. “A new cooker blew out for no apparent reason. Lights went out with a flash and light switches were sometimes welded,” said Mr Crossman, who now lives in Fore Street, Castle Cary. There were sudden surges of power. The TV picture suddenly got brighter and then it would dim.” He says having the house rewired failed to solve the problem and Sweb were unable to trace the cause of a mystery fire in the bathroom. The house has been empty for a year and is being renovated by builder Mr Harry House, who says he has experienced no problems.
Sweb say their supply to Mr Pattemore’s house is not at fault and after investigations failed to find the problem they have refused to take further action. And a spokesman rejected Mr Crossman’s claims. “There has never been a similar case to Mr Pattemore’s,” he said. “We do from time to time have normal engineering complaints about our supply and this case may have been one of those. But there is no record on our files to suggest that anything special happened at that property.”
Bristol Evening Post, 3rd December 1988.
Electrical mystery baffles the boffins – for nine years.
New tests bring hope to pensioner.
Mr Pattemore’s diary. For the first few years, Mr Pattemore kept a daily diary of his experiences. This is one day: Wednesday – tested board and found no faults. Ring breaker went down five minutes later. 7.28pm. Switched kettle on. Ring breaker down. 8.34pm. Ring breaker went down and three amp fuse in television blew.
Nine years after his quaint Somerset cottage was first engulfed by an unexplained electrical phenomenon, Somerton pensioner Frank Pattemore is still living by candlelight. The 81-year-old war veteran relies on a single paraffin camping stove for cooking and hot water, and uses hundreds of batteries to run basic facilities like the television and radio. Now, a new team has joined the battle to explain the mystery, and give former shoemaker Mr Pattemore back his life of normality. The men, a physicist, an electronics engineer and a radiologist from Folkestone have asked to remain anonymous while they carry out their probe. Their cloak of secrecy, they say, is to avoid any suspicion of a Ministry of Defence cover-up. The house is less than a mile from a high-powered communications base.
The latest group’s leader said this week he had met with an information black-out. “Originally I was interested on a professional basis, now I want to know why there is all this hush-hush and intrigue,” he said. He claims his initial tests prove power still surges through Mr Pattemore’s modest two-bedroom house, even with all electrics switched off. The tests are the latest in an unbelievable series of visits and interventions. Margaret Thatcher once sent a special team to look at Mr Pattemore’s home. They vanished before answers were provided and phone numbers they left behind were received by a mystified farmer, according to Mr Pattemore.
Visits from psychics and experts in the supernatural have also failed to explain the bizarre happenings in the ordinary-looking West End terraced house.
Hundreds of fuses have been blown, sockets are melted and scorch marks scar the walls.
Among the most intriguing suggestions is that high-powered microwave messages relayed from the nearby British Telecom radio station are frying the house. The Ministry of Defence will not be drawn by questions, despite the undeniable fact that the start of the surges coincided with the Falklands conflict, and that many parts of the civilian hill-top station are fenced off with high-security razor ribbon. Such beams would explain why two of Mr Patteson’s neighbours have had similar experiences. To this day, a shop and house directly across the street both lie empty with their windows boarded up. Horace Crossman, who used to live there said: “One day the cooker broke down and everything else went off.” He nnow lives in Castle Cary.
It is not known whether the latest tests will bring an end to Mr Pattemore’s plight. Until then, he will continue to live on food cooked in a battered biscuit tin.
Central Somerset Gazette, 28th March 1991.
Parish joins in fight for light.
Parish councillors are once again fighting to help Somerton pensioner Frank Pattemore. For the past nine years, Mr Pattemore has been plagued by an unexplained electrical field around his home in West End. It has meant his electrics blowing up, and despite two complete rewirings of his house, he still has to rely on candles and a paraffin stove for food. Dozens of experts have failed to solve the mystery of his home. Now councillors, led by Barry Feiven, are writing to the newly-founded national electricity watchdog, OFFER. “It is really time something constructive is done to help this man,” he said.
Central Somerset Gazette, 4th April 1991.
New probe at electric avenue.
A new team of investigators arrive in Somerton next week to attempt to solve the mystery of Frank Pattemore’s electric house. The three-man squad will carry out three days of tests on the West End house which has been cloaked with an unexplained electrical force for nine years. The team, all electrical and electronics experts, have asked to remain anonymous for fear of interference from outside bodies.
War veteran Frank Pattemore, who lives at the house, has been plagued by fuses blowing and kettles exploding since 1982. Tests by the electricity board have shown up to 2,000 volts running through the house even when switched off from the mains. Mr Pattemore, aged 81, relies on candles for lighting and a paraffin camping stove for cooking. He has hundreds of blown fuses and bulbs to illustrate his problems.
“Another 100 amp fuse went just the other day, yet everything was switched off. It makes no sense,” Mr Pattemore said.
Dozens of investigators have visited the house over the past few years from electricians to psychics to experts in the paranormal. None have given Mr Pattemore an explanation.
One possibility, which has the backing of some investigators, is that the house is being “fried” by high-powered messages beamed from the nearby Ministry of Defence relay station. That belief would appear to be supported by the fact that a neighbour of Mr Pattemore, Horace Crossman, had to leave his home when it too fell victim to electrical surges. The house is still boarded up today.
A document believed to explain the situation, thought to be called the Capenhurst report, has never been released to the public despite national media coverage of Mr Pattemore’s predicament. He also claims that a team was sent by former Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, but they left suddenly and the telephone number they left behind was that of a baffled farmer in Wales.
Central Somerset Gazette, 8th August 1991.
Mystery surrounds war veteran’s house.
Bizarre results from electrical tests.
Latest tests on war veteran Frank Pattemore’s house in Somerton have unveiled a baffling series of results. An independent team of electricians and physicists visiting the West End cottage last week watched readings shoot off the scale for no apparent reason. They believe the house is receiving electricity from an outside source and that it is coursing backwards through the mains of the house. Water pipes running beneath the house also gave unexplained electrical readings that should not be there, the researchers said.
The investigators, who have asked to remain anonymous, are now calling for a new inquiry by the national Electricity Research and Development Centre in Chester. The ERDC is believed to hold the key to the mystery as it carried out a secret inquiry, called the Capenhurst report. The report was commissioned by South Western Electricity Board, SWEB, but it was never released. Campaigners, including former parish council chairman Roy Jones, tried at the time to get a copy of the report but was told in a letter, it must remain secret for reasons ‘not least of which is the safety of Mr Pattemore himself.’
The latest investigation used an oscilloscope and a surge clock to test electrical impulses in the house. Both registered readings off their 650 volt scale. The man leading the investigation said: “We expected the usual 50 Hertz sin waves, but we got a weird high frequency wave with a strange triangle.” He said electric meters in the house continued to clock up electricity when every switch was turned off. Parish council chairman Denis Carson and a researcher from the international news agency Associated Press were at the house to see the readings.
Campaigners are also fearful for the health of 82-year-old Mr Pattemore, who relies on a paraffin camping stove for cooking.
Central Somerset Gazette, 22nd August 1991.
Interest surges in power house.
Scientists have called for a further investigation into the mysterious power supply at a Somerton pensioner’s house. A recent investigation into the power surges has eliminated 81-year-old Mr Frank Pattemore, of Iverson Cottage, and his son Nigel from any blame. “There is certainly something very strange happening at Iverson Cottage,” said physicist William Love, who is leading the investigation into the mystery.
Central Somerset Gazette, 26th September 1991.
Electrical mystery refuses to go away.
Frank’s home is a TV shocker.
By Charlotte Dunn.
A man from Somerton had his few minutes of fame when he appeared on Jonathan Ross’ television programme Fantastic Facts. For the last 11 years Mr Frank Pattemore has been experiencing strange happenings in his home. Investigations have shown that the house is receiving electricity from an outside source. Even the water pipes running beneath the house have unexplained electrical readings. In the past, electric meters have continued to clock up electricity even when everything is switched off.
During the Jonathan Ross show a specialist tried to analyse the problem, but his machine seemed to fuse, even though the only other electrical appliance in the house was a fridge. And the whole interview with Mr Pattemore had to be filmed with a battery-operated camera.
A spokesperson for SWEB said: “We have been contacted by Mr Pattemore concerning his electricity supply, however all our intensive investigations in the past have confirmed that the electrical capacity and the integrity of his supply from SWEB are both in order.”
Wells Journal, 19th August 1993.
New evidence ‘clears’ power-surge home pensioner.
Ohm-less power shocker for Frank.
By John Turner.
A physicist claimed this week to have come up with evidence which completely exonerates pensioner Frank Pattemore for any involvement in the weird goings-on with the electrical system at his home. For more than 11 years, Mr Pattemore’s Iverson Cottage, at West End, Somerton, has baffled teams of experts as electrical appliances, heavy duty fuses and wiring have been destroyed by unexplained power surges, sometimes up to 12,000 volts. The problems are continuing, even though Southern Electricity stripped every piece of wire from the cottage in installed completely new power circuits. As recently as August SWEB implied the problem was inside the house itself, pointing the finger at Mr Pattermore, aged 83, or his son Nigel, who lives with him, according to physicist Mr Bill Love.
Mr Love, of Folkestone, Kent, said this week he has evidence that, following the latest reqiring, a Southern Electric sales representative was among the witnesses who saw the Pattemore meter record power being consumed when nothing was being used, and was there when a 100 amp fuse blew – even though tails were not connected to the outside supply. Mr Love said SWEB was continually evading the issue. The company kept replying that the meter had been checked and found to be accurate when, in fact, it was not the meter it was concerned about, it was the power system. He has asked SWEB at least to exonerate the Pattemores in view of the latest information.
In a report prepared after several days of investigation at the cottage in 1991, Mr Love said: “There is something very strange happening at Iverson Cottage and it would be very wrong to leave Frank Pattermore and his son to suffer another winter of physical discomfort, the fear of fire and the stress of innuendo and gossip.”
In one of his latest letters to SWEB on behalf of Mr Pattemore, Mr Love said: “It amazes me that SWEB continues to ignore these facts which have been witnessed by qualified people. The main fuse blowing before the tails were connected throws considerable doubt on SWEB’s assertion that their supply is normal. Could it possibly be that SWEB are taking instructions from higher authority, or are they suggesting that witnesses to these strange events are unreliable?” he asks.
A SWEB spokesman said a lot of time and energy had been spent trying to get behind the problems at Mr Pattemore’s house. “Apart from making sure our equipment is as good as it possibly can be, there is not much else we can do. We have not been asked to get involved again recently. If we were, we would be happy to check the tolerances and specifications of our equipment again,” he added. “It seems his neighbours have no problems. It is all a mystery.”
Wells Journal, 9th December 1993.
Home shocker SWEB pledge.
SWEB said this week it was planning to make another investigation into the electrics at the Somerton home of pensioner Mr Frank Pattemore. For more than 11 years Mr Pattemore’s home at West End has been hit with mysterious power surges which have blown fuses, and electrical appliances. It has even blown fuses when the wiring has not been connected to the mains. Several times the cottage of the 83-year-old has been re-wired, but always the problems have existed. Top experts have been baffled. Jim Moir, spokesman for SWEB, said this week: “We have had a request for another investigation from Mr Pattemore and we will carry it out as soon as possible.”
Wells Journal, 23rd December 1993.
No cure for Frank’s power poser.
Somerton pensioner Frank Pattemore looks like heading for yet another winter without the benefit of mains electricity. Despite his cottage in West Street being completely re-wired several times, mysterious power surges regularly ruin electrical appliances and snuff out main 100 amp fuses. Lampholders burn and melt with regularity.
Experts have gone over the cottage with a fine toothcomb on numerous occasions. It is estimated that £50,000 has been spent by researchers in unsuccessful attempts to find the answer or the cure. The wiring inside Iverson Cottage has been regularly stripped out and replaced. South Western Electricity Board and Southern Electricity Board have both failed to come up with the solution despite many years of the mysterious happenings.
The intervention of Somerton and Frome MP Mark Robinson has also failed to get any closer to the answer. Kent power expert Bill Love has been taking up the cudgels for the 85-year-old for several years. He said this week: “It does seem totally inhumane that Frank should spend yet another winter with no heating or cooking facilities.” He is pressing for the two electricity boards to come up with a solution. He also wants SWEB to reveal the contents of a detailed report of an early investigation into the problems.
One of the most baffling aspects of the case is that the meter in the cottage records and the main fuse blows, even when the outside supply is not connected to the cottage.
Wells Journal, 30th June 1994.
Power stand-off.
There is no way proper investigations into Somerton pensioner Frank Pattemore’s weird electrical system can be carried out unless Frank, and his son Nigel, move out of the house. The unexplained power surges, which blow fuses and bulbs at the West End cottage, and destroy electrical equipment, have baffled the experts for 12 years, and the house was recently rewired. Now, Professor Bill Love, from Kent, who has been investigating the phenomenon, wants Somerton Parish Council to put pressure on SWEB to carry out more investigations. But council chairman Cllr Pat Mountain pointed out that Pattemores [sic] refuse to move.
Wells Journal, 22nd December 1994.