Just an ordinary looking house.
I accept that my idea of a thrilling night out today is probably very different from yours. In the 1990’s it was staying out until 5am, fuelled by little more than vodka and twenty Marlboro Lights, but alas those days are as rare as hen’s teeth. Back then it was my liver and lungs that took the strain, arguably today it is my heart.
From North to South, East to West, you won’t have to look far to find and old house or derelict hospital or hotel waiting to welcome you in the dead of night. I have been to several of these which I will tell you about over the coming months, but today we visit one of the UK’s most haunted residental homes in the north of England.
You may be aware of the more famous Enfield Haunting in the south of England - Peggy Hodgson reported concerning and frightening happens, below her daughter, Janet, caught on camera appearing to ‘fly’ across the room. Much media attention and several films later, it remains an intriguing and much talked about happening.
The Northern haunting.
30 East Drive, like its southern counterpart in Enfield, is an unremarkable looking house from the outside. Sitting on a huge housing estate in Pontefract we pulled up outside at dusk. It looked like my Nan’s house on my Nan’s estate, nothing at all to be scared of, in fact more scary were the group of teens that were circling us and calling out (there is surely nothing so scary as groups of teens, you’ve seen Eden Lake right?).
And so, after checking the car was locked a gazillion times and said teens had been moved on by the host for evening, we made our way, with about ten others, into 30 East Drive.
A short history.
Now privately owned, 30 East Drive was once the home of Jean & Joe Pritchard and their two children, Philip and Diane. They moved into the house in 1966 and the strange occurrence began to happen almost immediately.
Objects were thrown around, green foam ran from the taps and perhaps most disturbing, family members being slapped and pushed downstairs. Later on during their time there, Diane was dragged up the stairs, her hair standing on end, pulled by an invisible force.
Incredibly, Jean stayed in the house for many years, until she moved to a nursing home. We were told that her children left as soon as they could and rarely went back, and who can blame them?
The story inspired the film When the lights went out one I watched before my visit so I was prepared for all possibilities!
Put the lights back on!
When you go on a ‘Ghost Hunt’ you are preloaded to be scared, just the idea that you might see a chair move by itself or hear a disjointed voice, is enough to get the thrills started before you’ve even gone in the building. That said, no matter how excited you are to be spending the night in a cold, often damp and dark building (yes, excited!), if the house doesn’t deliver spooky happenings, you won’t be able to fake it.
The interior of 30 East Drive looks much as it did in the 1960’s / 70’s. Orangey brown walls and carpets, velour settees and worn, kitsch ornaments. Upstairs the wallpaper is dated and the bedspreads as they would have been back then. As far as I was told most of the furniture has been bought in by the current owner. The effect provides that required strangeness on nights like this, not to mention a fustiness that is displacing.
We went with Haunted Happenings, a company that facilitate these nights all over the UK. They are great hosts, they are passionate about what they do and they won’t stand for anybody ruining your night. If you don’t believe, or at least can’t suspend your disbelief for the night, it’s best to stay at home. The nights aren’t cheap and some will have travelled a long way to take part, and won’t be happy of you’re making ghosty noises or interupting seances.
Another bonus I enjoy with Haunted Happenings is hot drinks and all the crisps and chocolate biscuits you can eat, they seem to be available at all venues…(I hope covid hasn’t ruined that!) I’d also suggest a Red Bull on the way, at least if you’re like me and normally asleep by 10pm.
During the night we did table tipping (I will do a separate post on all of the methods used to try and contact the spirit world), and seances, trying to make items move, flash and buzz or perhaps bring a former resident back to say hello.
The night we went there wasn’t anything major to report, but it was certainly creepy. The owner doesn’t allow ouija boards on the property (though table tipping can be used in the same way, so not sure about that rule!). There may have been no direct messages from the dead, but at the end of the night something odd did happen.
The legend is that the house is haunted by ‘The Black Monk’ who it is thought was hung for the rape and murder of a young girl, the gallows being just across the road from the house. At the end of the night all the lights were switched off and we all sat down in a row, spanning the lounge and hallway.
The host began to call for ‘The Black Monk’ to make himself known. This called went on for awhile and while I wasn’t sat next to my husband I could tell that like me, he wasn’t comfortable. It just felt very wrong that if you could bring him back, that you even would, he killed children after all..this wasn’t Casper (remember him? The friendly little soul). It didn’t help that my husband also thought he saw a dark shadow moved across the hallway (the shadow has been reported many times in the past).
As the lights came on I couldn’t scrabble my belongings together fast enough. There was an option to stay the night, but as two of our group began unrolling their sleeping bags to sleep on the settee, I was already disappearing through the back door. No amount of crisps or Club biscuits would be enough to keep me in that house for the entire night.
This was my second haunted house night and there have been two more since, those tales I’ll save for another day…in one there was far more going on that we bargained for!
For those brave enough to spend the night (9pm - 3am) in a haunted building, click on link below:
Until next time,