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Enfield

The case of the Enfield poltergeist is exceptionally well documented. The well-known psychic investigator, Maurice Grosse, worked on the case full time and collaborated with another famous investigator, Guy Lyon Playfair. The latter wrote a detailed account of the affair called This House is Haunted. The house in question was very ordinary: a three bedroom semi-detached house in a typical home counties' suburb. The house was occupied by a single parent, Mrs Peggy Hodgson, and her four children.

The events started quite gently with Janet, aged eleven, becoming aware of a shuffling noise coming from her bedroom. This was later followed by knocking noises that could not be identified. But the manifestations soon became more alarming when the whole family witnessed a heavy chest of drawers sliding across the room.

This was just the start of the extraordinary things that the family and others, including the police, witnessed over the next few days. Articles flew across rooms, doors slammed open and shut, the toilet flushed itself and more knocking sounds were heard.

This was not just frightening for the children but also extremely dangerous. One of the small boys received a blow on his forehead from a hairbrush that was thrown violently about. Despite being very frightening, there was absolutely nothing anyone could do to make the poltergeist stop.

A policewoman called in to investigate, WPC Caroline Heaps, was witness to a chair floating in the air about a metre off the ground. Matters became even more serious when the poltergeist started to attack the children. On one occasion the sheets on Janet's bed tried to strangle her and it was only her muffled cries that caused her mother to come to her aid.

Peggy's nine-year-old son, Billy, had a narrow escape when a heavy iron grate landed on his bed as he lay sleeping. The strange events at the house became notorious around the town but many locals thought they were all the work of the children playing tricks on their poor mother, although they were at a loss to explain how it was that this was taking place. The phenomena eventually came to the attention or the Society or Psychical Research who treated the case with much more seriousness. They were asked to investigate and they appointed one of their leading members,

Maurice Grosse, to head up the inquiry. The events continued and became even weirder. Apart from objects flying through the air that by now were almost commonplace, two of the children, Janet and Margaret started to speak in tongues, sometimes uttering obscenities.

More accurately, strange deep voices, which a child could not keep up for any extended period, emanated from their bodies. Electronic equipment would occasionally refuse to work inside the house but operated perfectly as soon as it was taken outside. Pools of water would suddenly appear and part of a wall was damaged. Janet was held fast by her leg and, on another occasion, dragged down the stairs.

She levitated on one occasion right through her bedclothes. A grey-haired lady, an old man and a small child appeared as apparitions. There was a case of spontaneous combustion. All in all, over 1,500 separate phenomena occurred and were witnessed by many people. It is quite common for poltergeists to be associated with people. In this case the person that the poltergeist seemed to concentrate on was the child Janet.

This theory is supported by the fact that strange happenings also occurred when the family were staying in a caravan by the seaside. Along with her sister Margaret, it was Janet who threw some small but inconsistent light on the subject. While still asleep, Margaret was witnessed bouncing up and down on her bed shrieking, 'Go away, you ten little things.' When asked, she continued to give details of what she could see in her sleep.

There was an elderly man, whom she described as having died in the chair downstairs, and named him Frank Watson, along with his wife and a number of children. At the same time, Janet started to make the aforementioned deep-throated noises. Maurice Grosse interviewed her while she was in this strange state and the voice identified itself as Bill Hobbs from Durant's Park Graveyard.

He said he was 72 years old and had come to the house to see his family but was disappointed to find them gone. Why did Mrs Hodgson put up with such trauma? She tried to move house but being a single parent, she could not afford to re-house her family and they were forced to endure it. In the end, the poltergeist activity ceased as suddenly as it had begun.

There is a codicil to this story. Maurice Grosse was convinced that he had been 'chosen' for this investigation. Two years before, his 22-year-old daughter had died in a car crash and he was sure that the events in the Hodgson case were an attempt by his daughter to make contact with him. There were a number of unusual coincidences that led him to believe this, which he noted to the Society of Psychical Research. Italy | New York | Wiltshire | Activity | Activity | Activity | Borley | Brazil | Brazil | Brazil | Burma | Canada | Corney | East Drive | Edinburgh | Finland | France | France | Germany | Ghostly | Lincoinshire | Manchester | Northern ireland | Northern Romania | Nova Scotia | Paraguay | Phenomena | Poltergeist Information | Scotland | Scotland | South London | Suffolk | Switzerland | USA | Washington State | West Norwood | Whitechapel |