‘Ghosts made us quit’.
An ordinary English family have fled in terror from their ordinary English house – no ancient castle – because of “unseen clutching hands, footsteps in the night, icy draughts… Ghosts!”
The family, terrified, unnerved, have gone to live with relatives. They first ran from the house – 14, Toadpool, West Auckland, Co. Durham – on Thursday night and battering at the door, begged a neighbour to let them in.
“There was Bill Byles, his wife and their three children,” says the neighbour. “Mr Bayles’s hair was on end. He nearly passed out. Some of the things he told almost frightened us to death,” she adds.
Mr Bayles, 43-year-old garage proprietor – safe in his mother-in-law’s home at Cockton Hill-rd, Bishop Auckland – said yesterday: “If I describe some of the things people will think we are mad. I never believed in ghosts – until the last few weeks.”
“All my family heard mysterious noises at night. A woman’s footsteps were usually heard early in the evening. The atmosphere would go icy cold and then, most horrible of all, unseen hands would touch us,” he said.
The family had lived in the house for 21 years.
The People, 6th December 1953.
Mystery taps, unseen hands in West Auckland home.
‘Poltergeist’ drives out a family
‘Silly? Let someone else try it’ says father.
A “poltergeist” has driven from their home a West Auckland man, his wife, two adult sons and a six-year-old daughter. Mysterious tappings, the sound of footsteps and the feeling of being touched by an unseen hand at nights, are reported by the family of Mr William Bayles, aged 43, garage proprietor, and his 41-year-old wife, according to neighbours. For three weeks these strange, uncanny occurrences have worn the nerves of the inhabitants of No. 14, Toadpool, West Auckland, until late on Thursday night they could stand no more. They left their furniture and the house and went to the home of Mrs Bayles’ parents, Mr and Mrs C Murton, of Cockton Hill Road, Bishop Auckland, where they are now staying.
Mr Bayles and his two sons, aged 24 and 21, admitted to “The Sunday Sun” last night that they had been “disturbed” by the strange happenings, but would not describe their experiences. They said they wanted someone other than a member of the family to stay in the house overnight so that their own story could be independently confirmed. “Some people think we are just being silly, but I would like them to stay in the house themselves and then they would think differently,” said Mr Bayles.
Neighbours said that the Bayles family had reported mysterious noises during the night between about 8 p.m. and 3.30 a.m. and the feeling of an unseen presence touching them. At the home of Mrs Murton, a reporter was told that Mrs Bayles was too upset to be interviewed and was in a bad nervous condition. Mrs Murton said that all the Bayles family had experienced “terrible things.” “Something must have been happening for them to get so upset,” she said.
Sunday Sun (Newcastle), 6th December 1953.
A ghost goes shy.
Toadpool Terror is silent.
The ghost of Toadpool refused to walk for his Press conference, although reporters pretended to sleep from midnight to 2 a.m. yesterday so they might question him. He had walked too much for the Bayles family of five – so much that they quit their 100-year-old terrace house, 14, Toadpool, at West Auckland, Durham, and went to live with Mrs Bayles’ parents. “If I told you some of the things that have happened you would think us mad,” said 45-year-old Mr William Bayles, a garage owner.
But the recumbent reporters waited in vain. After two hours Billy Bayles, only one of the family present, switched on the light and said: “Nothing will happen tonight; the atmosphere isn’t here.” Mr Bayles, senior, came in to tell of the family’s three weeks of terror; footsteps, bangs, furniture moved, and the touch of invisible hands. One night the touches went on for four hours while his wife Lettie sat, praying, with six-year-old Doreen on her knee, he said. “I am going to ask the vicar to exorcise the spirit,” said Mr Bayles.
Daily News (London), 7th December 1953.
The ghost did not walk.
The poltergeist which has driven a West Auckland, County Durham, family from their home by tormenting them at nights for three weeks has itself apparently fled from the house. But Mr William Bayles, who left the house with his family in terror on Thursday night, says it will return.
Two reporters, a photographer, and William, 24-year-old son of Mr Bayles, stayed in the house on Saturday night, but failed to lay the ghost. They lay in separate beds in the darkness, but everything remained normal. There was no strange noise. No one felt the touch of unseen hands… the ghost had disappeared.
At 2 a.m. the ghost hunt was abandoned. Mr Bayles, jun., switched on the light saying: “I know it is not present now, because the house is too cold. Whenever it is present the room gets very hot and you can feel the surge of hot air.”
Soon afterwards Mr Bayles sen., who had been waiting in a car some distance away, entered the house. He also immediately said the ghost could not be present because the “atmosphere” was too cold. Mr Bayles again visited the house later in the day, but again he “could not feel the presence of the thing.”
“It will still be in the neighbourhood, however,” he declared, “and I am sure it will return.”
The Bayles family have complained of mysterious tapping noises, the sound of footsteps in the night, and the feeling of being touched by unseen hands. Mrs Bayles has felt something pulling her arm, while others say they have had their eyelids forced open by a hand while lying in bed.
Aberdeen Evening Express, 7th December 1953.
Family will go back to home.
Eight mediums visit haunted house.
Say ghost has gone.
By ‘Journal’ reporter.
The Bayles family will no longer be disturbed by the poltergeist which led them to abandon their home in Toadpool, West Auckland, last Thursday. At a seance held in the “haunted house” last night, the spirit which has tormented the Bayles family for weeks was contacted. It promised never again to disturb the family, said eight mediums who took part in the seance. No member of the Bayles family was present. In a few days Mr Bayles expects to return to live in the house with his wife and family, he said afterwards.
For six days and nights as he and his wife and two sons aged 24 and 21 and six-year-old daughter have been staying with relatives in Bishop Auckland and driven from their home by the poltergeist. The seance was in a bedroom upstairs. The eight mediums, four men and four women, from County Durham, sat in a circle round a small table. The electric light bulb hanging from the ceiling was changed for a red one. The trance medium was 36 year old Mr George Mason of Bishop Auckland [illegible]. His wife who acts as his ‘power booster’ was next to him. The seance opened with a hymn and prayers and on the table were a trumpet, a tambourine and two small hand bells for the spirit or spirits to use if they desired.
I was warned not to be afraid if they suddenly left the table and went flying round the room. Later the trance medium had a fit of coughing and then started to [illegible] “Let me alone, Help me.” This, I was told afterwards, was the spirit which had been haunting th ehouse using Mr Mason’s “vacant body” to speak to the company. The voice was told by the other mediums, “We are here to help you. What is your trouble. What is your name.” Then the trance medium in a loud voice [?] Let me get out. You have locked me in. He gave a loud peal of laughter.
The spirit voice said it could not rest and was in the darkness. Through the trance medium, in reply to questions it said: “I did not mean to do any wrong. I am quite well now. You must not tell anyone.” Pressed to speak of its trouble the spirit voice said: It would have been nice if I had had a little girl of my own. Doreen is lovely. Mr Bayles six-year-old daughter is named Doreen. When pressed for her name the spirit voice made the company promise not to divulge it because it would mean distress for those she had left behind. She said she had lived nearby and had passed into the spirit world about five months ago. She had been disappointed at not having a child of her own. She was 26.
She said she was now quite happy and added, “Tell Mr Bayles he can come back home. I will not frighten them any more. I just wanted somebody to k now I was here.” Further pressed to give her name, the voice asked, “Do you know someone called Johnson?” Mrs Mason said that she did but the voice answered that that was not her name but just a clue to her name.” Mrs Mason then said that she knew the spirit’s name but would not divulge it as promised. The voice said it would go away in peace and asked the company to sing Abide With Me as she left. The seance took two hours.
Newcastle Journal, 9th December 1953.