Bishop to pray in ‘haunted’ house.
A bishop will visit a five-roomed council house in Sunderland tonight to conduct a special service aimed at ridding the home of a “troublesome spirit.” A family of five – a young couple, and their three children – have not slept in th ehouse in General Havelock Road, Ford Estate, for the past fortnight because of “ghostly” happenings.
Accompanied by the Vicar of St Luke’s Church, Sunderland, the Rev. C.H.G. Hopkins, the Bishop of Jarrow, the Right Rev. J.A. Ramsbotham, will say special prayers in the home of 26-year-old labourer, Mr Norman Dixon.
Mr Dixon and his 24-year-old wife, Audrey, became tenants of the house only three weeks ago. For three days their lives were peaceful. Then, they said, they heard heavy footsteps on the stairs, doors unaccountably opened and violently shut, and invisible fingers, touched them. Mr Dixon told the “Evening Chronicle”: “We were in bed one night when the bed clothes lifted off us. Then I felt something like four fingers digging me in the ribs. I made sure it was not my wife because I took hold of both of her hands.”
On the sixth night, they moved into another bedroom. “About one o’clock in the morning, the air seemed to leave the room and we both felt as though we had masks over our faces,” said Mr Dixon. “We were both gasping for breath and I dragged my wife out of the bed and downstairs.”
His 65-year-old mother, Mrs Flora Dixon, of Felstead Crescent, Sunderland, and his brother, Mr John Robert Dixon, came to stay with them for a night. Said the mother: “I was determined not to be frightened but I experienced the weirdest things. Something I couldn’t see began digging my ribs,” she said. “I felt as though icy water was being poured over me. The hall door was flung open and banged shut again, and both my sons and I saw a smoky wavy line rising up the wall.”
The Dixons’ three children, aged between six years and 12 months, experienced no supernatural happenings, said their parents. For the past fortnight the whole family has been sleeping at a relative’s house a quarter of a mile away.
The Vicar said this afternoon: “I was aksed to help the family and I have arranged for the Bishop of Jarrow to visit the house to bless it. I have had no personal experience of this house, but from what I know, I would say there is quite enough in its history to account for these happenings.” Previous tenants of the house were members of a spiritualist family. The Dixons believe that two elderly people died there in recent years.
Newcastle Evening Chronicle, 22nd March 1957.
Ghost Exorcised.
The Rt. Rev. J.A. Ramsbotham (Bishop of Jarrow) last night conducted a service of exorcism in a council house in General Havelock Road, Sunderland. A young couple, Mr and Mrs Norman Dixon, who live there with their three children, complained to Sunderland Police that the house had a poltergeist. They had not slept in the house for seven nights because, they said, a ghost which took the form of a zig-zag line appeared on the wall of their living room. They moved into the house a fortnight ago.
Liverpool Echo, 23rd March 1957.
Bishop exorcises the zig-zag ghost.
A bishop in cape and mitre and carrying his crosier spent 25 minutes last night exorcising the “zig-zag” ghost at a council house. Police outside had to control a noisy crowd of 200 women and children who had gathered. Something strange “and quivering – like a vibrating coil of wire,” it was said, had twice been seen on the sitting-room wall. But this was only one of the odd things that worried the Dixon family after they moved into General Havelock Road, on Ford Estate, Sunderland, three weeks ago.
There were uncanny movements of bedclothes and noises in the chimney. A door flew open and the room seemed airless “as if someone had put a mask over our mouths.” It was all too much for Mr and Mrs Norman Dixon, who got up in the middle of the night last weekend and took their three children off to Mr Dixon’s mother’s house in Felstead Crescent. Eventually they called in the police – who saw the vicar. And that is why last night the Bishop of Jarrow, the Right Rev. John Ramsbotham, went to the house with his chaplain and the vicar. He gathered the Dixon family around him, recited the Lord’s Prayer and sprinkled water in the rooms.
Daily News (London), 23rd March 1957.
Bishop fights with a ghost.
A bishop last night walked through a house, praying and sprinkling holy water in a bid to get rid of a ghost. That ghost has terrorised the Dixon family ever since they moved into their council house there three weeks ago. Twenty-six-year old Norman Dixon said at the house in General Havelock-road, Sunderland, last night: “I told the police what was happening here and they called in the Bishop of Jarrow.” The Bishop, Dr J. A. Ramsbotham, blessed the Dixons three children, Norman, six, Barry, four, and year-old Brian. Then, in mitre and gold embroidered cape, he walked through the five rooms of th ehouse… the house where Mr Dixon and his 24 year-old wife Audrey, are afraid to sleep.
Mr Dixon said last night: “The trouble began the first night we moved in. A hand lifted the bedclothes and touched us. Several nights later the same thing happened and then we felt as if all the air had been withdrawn from the room.” Then came more nerve-racking experiences: a strange quivering shape on the wall, a shaking door, ghostly footsteps on the stairs, the clammy feel of a clutching hand…
The Dixons moved into the house after exchanging with 53-year-old Mrs Jane Aubrey, because they wanted to be near their relations. Mrs Aubrey, who now lives in the Dixon’s old home in Lichfield-road, Sunderland, said last night: “My mother, who died nearly four years ago, lived there for 24 years. I didn’t notice anything unusual until her death. Afterwards I used to hear her talking to my father, who died in 1949. I have felt a hand touch me in the night and the bedclothes have been lifted just as Mr and Mrs Dixon say. But I was never scared.” Mrs Aubrey’s grandfather, James Thompson, used to hold spiritualistic services in Sunderland.
Daily Herald, 23rd March 1957.
Bishop blesses ‘haunted house’.
The Bishop of Jarrow, the Rt. Rev. J.A. Ramsbotham, was told last night by a young Sunderland couple that their four-roomed council house in General Havelock Road, was haunted. The Bishop conducted a 10-minute service in the house, during which he blessed it. The couple, Mr and Mrs Norman Dixon, have not slept in the house for seven nights because, they say, a ghost which takes the form of a zig-zag line appears on the wall of their living room.
They moved into the house a fortnight ago with their three children – Norman (6), Barry (3) and Brian (12 months). The first night they slept in the upstairs bedroom, Mr Dixon, a 26-year-old labourer, and his wife, found sheets were ripped off the bed and fingers were dug into their chests, he told a Press Association reporter.
“A few nights later, I felt something clammy on my back and so did my wife. There seemed to be no air in the room, so I staggered downstairs with my wife and, although it was two o’clock in the morning we took the family to my brother’s house. Since then, we have lived in the daytime at our home but at night have gone to my brother’s.
Mr Dixon told Sunderland police who passed the information to the Rev. G. Hopkins, vicar of the parish in which Mr and Mrs Dixon live. He organised the visit of the Bishop. Last night, the couple was [hoping?] for a [quiet?] night.
Northern Whig, 23rd March 1957.
The ghost still walks.
The haunted Dixon family asked yesterday: Who can we turn to now? For the Bishop of Jarrow had failed in his bid to drive away the ghost that stalks their home in General Havelock-road, Sunderland. The Bishop, the Rt. Rev. John Ramsbotham, prayed in each of the five rooms on Friday and sprinkled them with holy water. But the ghost walked again on Saturday night.
Said 26-year-old Norman Dixon yesterday: “My brother John and I took turns lying down in my bedroom. And both of us experienced the THING again. An invisible hand touched us near the ankles and an icy sensation began to go up our legs.
Mrs Jane Aubrey, 53, of Lichfield-road, Sunderland, who lived in the house before the Dixons, believes it is haunted by her mother’s spirit. She said: “I don’t think her spirit is upset because strangers have moved into her old home. My mother was never a resentful person.”
Daily Herald, 25th March 1957.
No sign of the ghost after ‘house blessing.’
The Dixon family, of 79 General Havelock road, Sunderland, awoke this morning after a peaceful night, during which the clothes were not pulled off their beds, they did not feel fingers poking into them, they did not feel cold objects on their backs – and they saw no sign of the ghost.
“We hope the service which was conducted by the Bishop of Jarrow in the house last night has stopped the haunting,” said 26-year-old Mr Dixon. Wearing his mitre and gold embroidered coat, the Bishop, Dr J.A. Ramsbottom, last night walked through the five-roomed Council house sprinkling holy water and praying. He had been asked to bless the house by the vicar of the local St Luke’s Church, who was consulted by the Sunderland police after the Dixon family had reported their house was haunted.
Mr Dixon, a demolition worker, his 24-year-old wife, and their three children – Norman (6), Barry (3), and Brian (1) – moved into the house three weeks ago. For the first three days everything was quiet. Then the Dixons felt their bed clothes rising up one night and Mr Dixon felt four fingers jabbing into his ribs. “I made sure it wasn’t my wife because I took hold of both her hands.” They moved into another bedroom.
Mr Dixon said: “We kept the light on that night, but three nights later we experienced cold objects on our backs. Again there was no explanation. It seemed as if the room was being emptied of air and I almost had to drag my wife downstairs. We took the three children to my brother’s house, although it was two o’clock in the morning.”
Mr Dixon said he had seen the ghost, which he described as a series of zigzagging lines shimmering on the walls.
Doors, he added, had rattled violently and there had been noises from the chimney.
He put the trouble down to the previous occupants, who were interested in spiritualism. The Dixons moved in after exchanging homes with 53-year-old Mrs Jane Aubrey. Mrs Aubrey, now of Lichfield Road, Sunderland, said: “My mother, a spiritualist, died nearly four years ago. After her death I used to hear her talking with my father, who died in 1949. I, too, have felt the bed clothes lifting. But I was never scared. I’m not afraid of the spirit of my own mother.”
Edinburgh Evening News, 23rd March 1957.
I was a guest in the haunted house – but the ghost did not walk. By Ken Culley.
The council house ghost in General Havelock Road, Sunderland, did not walk last night. I made certain of it because I spent the night waiting for the “troublesome spirit” to appear in a bedroom of the Dixon household. I lay in the bed where 24 hours before the tenant Mr Norman Dixon and his brother John were numbed by an icy paralysis that crept up their bodies… where they felt invisible hands touching them. A reporter colleague and I were invited to be guests for a night in the haunted house because, said 26-year-old Mr Dixon, he wanted some proof that he is not going mad. Let me say that he is a strong-minded, level-headed man. The fact that I experienced nothing of a supernatural nature proves nothing – but I do have theories.
My companion and I settled down in the bedroom at 12.20 this morning. We left Mrs Dixon, nervy and raw eyed through lack of rest, asleep on a chair in the living room. The Dixon brothers said they would stay downstairs for as long as possible. The room was cold – icy cold. But at the same time it was devoid of air circulation. We opened the winow. Both of us were cold to the knees. Nothing supernatural in that. There was a space at the bottom of the bed and any draught in the room seemed to swirl in that vicinity. With a little imagination, we could feel our bodies numbing.
Two cigarettes later – 12.55 a.m. My colleague jumped and complained of a stabbing pain in his back. I advised that he turn over into a new position. No more stabbing pains.
At 1.20 a.m. we agreed to call on the ghost. Rather self-consciously I asked her – or him, to knock once on the bottom of the bed. Silence, broken only by the magnified ticking of my watch. Again we implored the apparition to announce herself. Still nothing.
Just before 2 a.m. a low moan from an adjacent room, followed a few seconds later by a similar noise. We assumed it was one of the Dixons’ three young children turning in his sleep.
I tried an experiment. Closing my eyes and relaxing, I tried to conjure up an invisible hand clawing its way up my body. for a few seconds nothing – then I felt a heavy weight pressing against my ribs. It was realistic enough for me to make an involuntary move to brush it away. But I had deliberately conjured it up and it was really only in my mind.
The watch said 3.10 a.m. – and the next thing I remember was Mr Dixon knocking to announce that it was 6.45. Our night in search of the ghost that was making the lives of a healthy young couple miserable was over. If only positive results counted our mission had been unsuccessful. But as I said I have theories.
There is no doubt that, for Norman and Audrey Dixon, the ghost does exist. It has grasped them, clashed doors and banged up the stairs. It has raised the bedclothes from their bodies and it appeared once as a black coil that rose from the floor and slowly disappeared through the ceiling.
The Vicar of St Luke’s Church, Sunderland, the Rev. C.H.G. Hopkins, visited the Dixons last night and said a prayer with the couple in the bedroom in which I spent the night. Perhaps prayer kept the unwanted visitor away. The Bishop of Jarrow (the Rt. Rev. J.A. Ramsbotham) kept it away for 24 hours – after he had sprinkled Holy water in the rooms. But according to Mr Dixon and his brother it was back with them in the early hours yesterday.
Before I left Norman Dixon told me: “My wife and I will try sleeping in our bed again tonight. But this is getting us both down and if it continues we cannot go on living here for very much longer.”
‘Haunted’ house call led to row.
Henry Maskell, of Hexham Road, Sunderland, did not believe the story of the ghost said to haunt a house in General Havelock Road, Sunderland. On Friday, after the Bishop of Jarrow had been to bless the house, he knocked on the door. At Sunderland today, Maskell was fined £2 with 5s costs for being drunk and disorderly. He pleaded not guilty.
Police Constable Mr. Prest said that he was in his house at 11 p.m. when he heard a noise outside. He saw Maskell fighting with the two Dixon brothers, one of whom lives in the “haunted house.” He asked what was wrong but Maskell would not answer. The Dixons said he had tried to get into th ehouse. Asked to go home, Maskell adopted an aggressive attitude and refused. Maskell told the court: “I went to the Dixon’s house just after 11. I went to see about this ghost which I did not believe in. I knocked on the door and when it was opened, Dixon dragged me in and started beating me up. He knocked me down and dragged me to the officer’s house. I was not drunk but I had had a couple.”
Newcastle Evening Chronicle, 25th March 1957.
‘Ghost House’ man taken to wrong studio.
The mystery of the “missing Dixons,” tenants of the “ghost house” at 79, General Havelock Road, Sunderland, who should have appeared on BBC television last night, was explained by an official at the Manchester studios today. She said: “The Dixons should have been at the studio at 6.5 p.m for the programme, “Tonight.” A car picked them up in Sunderland. It was hired by the BBC in London from agents in Newcastle. But the driver took the Dixons to Granada House, Manchester, which is the ‘home’ of ITV. “Only the driver could explain why. It was about 7.15 p.m. I think, when the car finally arrived at the BBC studios in Dickinson Road.” The Dixons were to have told viewers of their experiences in their five-roomed council house which they claim is haunted.
Said the official: “The BBC were anxious for the Dixons to stay the night in hotel accommodation in Manchester. But they wanted to go home to be with their children. They will not be appearing tonight.” But there is still a chance that viewers will see the Dixons at a later stage.
After an all-night journey from Manchester, Mr and Mrs Dixon arrived home to find a pile of letters on the door-mat. “most of the letters were from spiritualists offering to help us rid the house of the troublesome spirits,” said Mr Dixon. “I just threw them into the fire. My faith is in the Church. Tonight we shall sleep in our beds.” He added: “If the BBC invite us to appear on television we shall go.”
Newcastle Evening Chronicle, 26th March 1957.
‘Haunted’ house noises greet Mrs X on her birthday night.
A Sunderland woman ended her 59th birthday by spending last night in the “haunted” house in General Havelock Road. With the woman, who prefers to remain anonymous, was 65-year-old Mrs Flora Dixon, her neighbour in Felstead Crescent, Sunderland, and mother of the tenant of the “haunted” house. Both said that during the night they heard moans, the sound of furniture being dragged around, and a man’s gruff voice.
Mrs X told an “Evening Chronicle” reporter this afternoon: “Before we went upstairs I was standing beside the piano in the living room. Suddenly I felt an irresistable force drawing me backwards and I had to shake myself to collect my thoughts.” The two women had been in bed half-an-hour when said Mrs X they heard a man’s voice from the next bedroom, which was unoccupied.
“It was a gruff voice and sounded like a man speaking in a large hall. I am a bit deaf, but I thought it sounded as if he was calling “Meg, Meg.” Sounds of furniture being moved around again from the empty bedroom were heard half an hour later. Then both heard a light switch clicking off and on, and low moans. Later there were creaking noises under the floorboards. Gusts of air whistled through the room, said Mrs X., followed by a smell of burning. She said: “My legs from the knees down felt weak and aching. I am usually very nervous, but strangely I was not a bit frightened while all these things were happening. I am confident that something supernatural is there, but at the same time I have the feeling that it is not harmful.”
Several more letters offering advice were received today by the tenant of the house, 26-year-old Mr Norman Dixon. Many spiritualists, hypnotists and people interested in psychic research want to visit the house. But Mr Dixon is refusing all offers. “I am putting my faith in the Church,” he said. Three American airmen in Bedfordshire, who are investigating psychic phenomena want to meet the Sunderland ghost, but they, too, are being refused.
Newcastle Evening Chronicle, 28th March 1957.
Can’t Exchange ‘Haunted’ House.
Because Norman Dixon, 29, believes his home is haunted he has asked the Sunderland Housing Committee to let him exchange for a council house. But the committee do not believe in ghosts and have refused his request. Mr Dixon and his family say they have felt icy hands on their shoulders, seen doors shake violently, and heard footsteps on the stairs when no one was there. He and his wife have not dared go to bed since they moved into the house – in General Havelock road, Sunderland – two months ago. Now Mr Dixon will ask his M.P. to help him get another home.
Weekly Dispatch (London), 21st April 1957.
The ghost that won’t go away.
The Dixon family are really going all-out this weekend to lay the Stubborn Ghost of Sunderland. Stubborn – because he is still haunting the Dixon home in the town’s Havelock-road, despite every form of anti-ghost ritual. Stubborn – because he still returned nightly even after the Bishop of Jarrow, the Very Rev. James Ramsbotham, blessed every room in the house. Now 29-year-old Norman Dixon has arranged for a team of six spiritualists and a medium to hold a seance on Saturday in a final bid to put the spirit at peace. He called them in because Sunderland Council refused to give him a new house. Red-eyed with lack of sleep – ghostly noises and footsteps keep him awake at night – Mr Dixon said last night: “It seems the council doesn’t believe in ghosts. They should try spending a night here.”
Daily Herald, 23rd April 1957.
‘Ghost’ defied a bishop.
By Sunday Dispatch Reporter.
A bishop whose prayers failed to drive an evil spirit from a haunted council house said yesterday: “Nerves and imagination can play a great part living under this type of stress.”
A month ago the Right Rev. John Ramsbotham, Birshop of Jarrow, Co. Durham, went to th ehouse in General Havelock-road, Sunderland. He prayed and sprinkled holy water to try to drive away the “apparition” which had been terrorising labourer Norman Dixon, aged 26, and his family every night for three weeks. But the night after the bishop’s visit was the only ghost-free one the family have had. Now this weekend seven spiritualists are going to attack the ghost. The Dixons will not reveal the time because when the bishop tried to lay the ghost there were 200 spectators milling round the garden.
“I am satisfied,” said Norman Dixon last night, “that if the Bishop’s visit had not been given so much publicity it would have been successful.”
Will the bishop have another try? “Everything is delegated to the parish priest, and any move must come from him,” was his onlycomment. What went wrong with his anti-ghost attempt? “You don’t know hwat may have happened. Nerves and imagination can play a great part on people living under this type of stress. Let us hope and pray they will find their way out of the situation,” he said. And he added: “Exorcism is the wrong word to use. It has been used freely concerning this case, but it is not the right technical expression. We blessed the house and prayed the people might be helped in their difficulty. It was not an exorcism ceremony.”
Weekly Dispatch (London), 28th April 1957.
Six spiritualists talk it over with the chilly spirit.
Council house ghost apologises. ‘He just wanted to say he’d been drowned.’
Mr Norman Dixon, 26-year-old tenant of Sunderland’s haunted council house, has been told the identity of the “chilly spirit” that has made life uncomfortable for the past seven weeks. A Sunderland medium, Mr James Long, says the ghost is a drowned man who gives his name as John McKenzie… and who has apologised “for being bothersome.” He says the spirit made itself known at a seance in the Dixons’ semi-detached home in General Havelock Road at the weekend. Six spiritualists took part.
Mr Dixon told the “Journal” yesterday, Mr Long went into a trance. “After some time something took control of him. It was the spirit, which said through Mr Long, ‘I’m sorry I have been troublesome, I won’t bother you again but I have been trying to let people know I was drowned.’ He said his name was John McKenzie.” Efforts to get McKenzie to say more about himself failed, said Mr Dixon. But he did say an ‘earthbound’ spirit of a woman was also present in the house, although he refused to identify her.
Mr Long said, “I tried to contact the spirit of the woman but was unsuccessful. There will be a seance in the house later in the week but I don’t think the spirit of John McKenzie will trouble the Dixons any more.”
Mr Dixon said: “After the seance my wife and I slept in our own bedroom for only the second time since we took the house. We were not afraid although we saw a shadowy apparition about two feet high, like something trying to turn into human form. It vanished when I said, ‘Come closer, brother,’ an expression Mr Long had advised me to use.
Who is McKenzie? Mrs Jane Aubrey, who lived in the house before the Dixons took possession, does not know. She said she experienced supernatural happenings in the house but was not afraid because she thought the ghost was that of her mother.
The Bishop of Jarrow, the Rt Rev J. A. Ramsbotham, visited the house after an approach by the Dixons to their vicar, but still the ghost walked. “Now,” says Mr Dixon, “I feel that we might get some peace at last.”
Newcastle Journal, 29th April 1957.
Couple to tell TV viewers about Sunderland ghost.
Mr and Mrs Norman Dixon, tenants of Sunderland’s haunted council house, will tell the story of their uncanny experiences on BBC Television tonight. They left by car this afternoon for the Manchester studio. Said 26-year-old Mr Dixon: “I want the world to know we are telling the truth about this ghost. That is why we have agreed to appear before the television cameras. I understand we will be going on at 6.15 tonight.”
The Dixons who have three young sons, were told at a secret seance held by six Sunderland spiritualists that the ghost claimed: “I am John McKenzie. I was drowned.” The seance was held at the Dixons’ home in General Havelock Road, which was blessed four weeks ago by the Bishop of Jarrow (the Rt. Rev. John Ramsbotham) in an attempt to put the ghost at peace. No-one knows who John McKenzie is – or was. Police have no record of anyone called that reported drowned or missing. Mr Dixon said: “I am hoping that someone will write to me and give the answer.”
He said the ghost spoke through the medium, 67-year-old Mr James Long. Mr Long said: “I don’t think the spirit of John McKenzie will give any more trouble. But we were unable to contact the spirit of the woman that also frequents the house. We are holding another seance later on in the week.”
But last night the Dixons got no sleep again. They have not had a night’s rest for the past two months. They went to the bedroom but were kept awake by a “presence” which would not let them rest.
Now Mr Dixon has accepted an offer by two hypnotists to put him into a trance. They will be calling at General Havelock Road this week. They think the spirit will make itself known through Mr Dixon while he is hypnotised.
Newcastle Evening Chronicle, 29th April 1957.
Wear family who ‘lived with a ghost’ refused to pay the rent.
‘Haunted’ tenants evicted.
We’ll soon find new ones, says housing chief.
The ‘haunted’ council house in General Havelock Road, Sunderland, where a bishop and spiritualists have tried unsuccessfully to lay the ghost, stood empty last night, its windows covered with whitewash. Twenty-six-year-old Mr Norman Dixon, who has been the tenant for six months, handed in the keys at the Corporation Housing Department yesterday. Then he and his 24-year-old wife, Audrey, and their four children went to stay with friends “until we can get fixed up elsewhere”.
But there will be no difficulty in getting another family to live in the “haunted” three-bedroomed house, thinks Councilllor H.G. Jones, chairman of Sunderland Estates Committee. “With 10,000 on the waiting list in this town we will soon have it taken,” he said.
The Dixon family were served with notice to quit after failing to pay their rent. Mr Dixon said: “I deliberately withheld the rent as a protest against the Estates Committee’s refusal to allow me an exchange. I expected this and now I intend to pay back all the arrears. but I still would not live in the house rent free.”
Their troubles began the day after they arrived in General Havelock Road. There were bumps and footsteps in the night and invisible fingers touched them. For several weeks Mr and Mrs Dixon slept in the living room. The Bishop of Jarrow, the Rt. Rev. J. Ramsbotham, said prayers in all the rooms – but the ghost returned. Spiritualists held seances; a hypnotist tried to pursuade the Dixons they suffered from hallucinations – but the ghost stayed on.
In desperation Mr Dixon sent an application to the Estates Committee for a transfer to another house. They turned it down. “Some people have suggested we are only saying these things to get into a better house,” said Mr Dixon. “That is nonsense.”
Newcastle Journal, 29th October 1957.
Ghost ‘All Quiet’ For New Tenants.
After a quiet first night in the Sunderland “ghost house” the new tenants, the Rowe family, said today: “We are very happy with our new home and we intend to stay.” As a symbol of their defiance against the “spirit” 62-year-old Margaret Rowe has planted some new rose bushes in the front garden of the house in General Havelock Road. “That’s to show we are planting our own roots here, too,” she said.
Living with her are her 63-year-old husband John and their unmarried son and daughter John, aged 40, and Caroline, aged 39. Mrs Rowe told the Evening Chronicle that when she first went into the house she felt a little uncomfortable. “After getting the first night over we all feel perfectly happy and relaxed. None of us experienced anything out of the ordinary.” The family moved from Ford Estate, where they lived for more than 20 years. “We wanted a home in a quiet neighbourhood. This suits us fine,” said Mrs Rowe.
The Dixons said that since they had moved into th ehouse six months ago they had been plagued by a ghost. Their application for an exchange was refused.
Newcastle Evening Chronicle, 5th November 1957.
Court Case ‘Caused By Ghosts.’
House of spirits mentioned in Wear child neglect case.
Circumstances “out of this world” brought a young Sunderland couple into court yesterday, said a solicitor. The couple claimed that their house was haunted by ghosts. Mr J.A. Brougham, defending, said Mr Norman Dixon and his wife, Audrey, left a council house in General Havelock Road because of the ghosts. The Dixons pleaded not guilty to a charge of neglecting three of their children and they were bound over for a year and ordered to pay £3 3s. advocate’s fees.
Mr Brian Mair, prosecuting on behalf of the N.S.P.C.C. said that the Dixons had been interviewed on television about their claim that there were spirits in the house. The Dixons applied for a new house, he said, and the council turned their application down. They could not get an exchange. They were given notice to quit because of arrears in rent and they left with “nowhere to go.” Inspector J.A. F. Dawson, of the N.S.P.C.C. said that Mrs Dixon refused to allow the children to stay in a corporation hostel after the family were turned out of their house for failing to pay the rent. They were then put into the care of the local authority. Mr Dawson said that the Dixon’s two eldest children were in Ashbrooke Towers, and the youngest in a nursery.
Mr Brougham said that they had been happily married for six years. “But the strange happenings in the house caused the disruption of a happy family. They sought the assistance of the Bishop of Jarrow in an attempt to create a better atmosphere,” he said.
Newcastle Journal, 28th November 1957.
Haunted family reunited again.
New house ends separation.
By a Sunday Sun reporter.
The haunted Dixon family – split up for five months after a “ghost” drove them from their five-roomed home – are reunited. They moved into a two-roomed flat yesterday and all went to bed happily last night for the first time in over a year. The flat is in Laura Street, Sunderland, and last night 28-year-old Norman Dixon said: “We may be a bit overcrowded compared with our old house but it is heaven without the ghost, which almost drove us out of our minds.”
The Dixons, Norman, his 25-year-old wife, Audrey, and three sons, Norman, six, Barry, four, and Brian, two, moved into their haunted house in General Havelock Road, Sunderland, last March. They wanted to be near relatives and friends, and to do this they arranged to exchange their new council house in Southwick and also pay for the transport of the other family’s furniture.
Soon after they moved in, they watched terrified as a ghostly hand lifted the bedclothes off them. This happened on several occasions. Once, while relatives were in the house, a “shivering coil-like apparition” danced across the wall. Phantom voices and sinister footsteps were heard.
Mr Dixon told the police and was advised to get in touch with the Rev. C.H.G. Hopkins, who arranged for the Bishop of Jarrow, the Rt. Rev. J.A. Ramsbotham, to sprinkle holy water and bless each room in the house. The ghost disappeared – but only for a brief spell. On its return, the Dixons asked the council to give them another house. This was refused and the family finally fled. Mr Dixon, his wife and the youngest son, Kevin, who was born in the house, went into lodgings. The three remaining sons were boarded out.
Now after five months separation, the Dixons are together again. Last night they all slept peacefully under the same roof – with no worries and no ghost to keep them awake.
Sunday Sun (Newcastle), 23rd March 1958.
It’s SO peaceful in ‘the haunted house’.
By a Sunday Sun Reporter.
The ghost of “The Shimmering Coil” has been laid… but its reputation still haunts a Sunderland family living on the Ford Estate. Now 65-year-old Mrs Margaret Rowe has appealed to the Sunday Sun to “nail down the coffin” on the ghost associated with her home in General Havelock Road – known locally as “the haunted house.” It is over a year since she and her family moved into the house from Forest Road on the same estate. And during that time she has found it “the most peaceful place I’ve ever known.”
Previous tenants of the council house left after nights of terror when phantom hands plucked at bedclothes and touched the sleepers with icy fingers, paralysing their limbs… when doors opened mysteriously and hollow footsteps sounded on the stairs. The ghost appeared as a shining coil against the wall, becoming dense black as it neared the centre of the room.
The Rt. Rev. J.A. Ramsbotham, then Bishop of Jarrow, was called in to help. So were spiritualists. But the ghost still walked…
Mrs Rowe is often asked by curious neighbours whether the ghost has reappeared. “But we haven’t noticed anything unusual,” she told me. “I would be first out of the door if we did. I am tired of telling people that the house is peaceful. It’s time the lid was nailed down on our ghost.” She smiled, and added: “It’s a funny thing, we had nothing but trouble at our last house. Since we moved here things have changed. It’s a quiet house and I often go to bed with a book of ghost stories. There’s nothing like a good spine-chiller.”
Sunday Sun (Newcastle), 8th March 1959.
‘Now I promise to be a good ghost,’ says John.
John McKenzie has promised to be a good ghost and not alarm 26-year-old Norman Dixon and his wife Audrey, aged 24, any more. But he has warned them he cannot answer for the ghost of a woman who is also haunting their house on a council estate. Mr and Mrs Dixon slept in the bedroom of their home at General Havelock-road, Sunderland, England, last week for only the second time in the seven weeks they have been in the house.
And the ghost kept the word he gave at a secret seance earlier in the evening. Six spiritualists and Norman and Audrey Dixon were at the seance, Mr James Long, a 65-year-old medium, went into a trance. “His face went black as his spirit guide took control of him,” Mr Dixon said. “After a while Mr Long made contact with a spirit which said: ‘Sorry I have been troublesome. I won’t alarm you any more. But I have been trying to let people know that I was drowned.'” The spirit was asked his name and said: “I am John McKenzie.”
Mr Dixon said: “We tried to press John McKenzie to say more about himself, but he refused. He told us the earthbound spirit of a woman is also present in the house, but he could not say who she is.” A month ago the Bishop of Jarrow, the Right Rev. J.A. Ramsbotham, blessed the house and sprinkled holy water in every room. But the Dixons continued to feel the clutch of unseen icy hands.
The Singapore Free Press, 7th May 1957.