30 East Drive (Pontefract)

Jean, Joe, Phillip and Diane Pritchard moved into 30 East Drive, Pontefract in August 1966. Almost immediately, Phillip and his grandmother witnessed a baffling phenomenon – a fine layer of chalk like dust falling not from the ceiling, but from a level below head height.

To clean up before the children’s parents returned from their holiday, Mrs Kelly (the children aunt), went to the kitchen for some cleaning products, where on her return she slipped on. A pool of water that had mysteriously appeared. Her efforts to mop up the water were impossible, as more pools were appearing on the linoleum in front of her very eyes.

This started the beginning of several years of inexplainable events, such as green foam appearing from taps and the toilet, even after the water was switched off, the tea dispenser being activated resulting in dried tea all over the worktops, lights being turned on and off, plants leaping out of their pots and landing on the stairs, cupboards shaking violently, photographs being slashed with a sharp knife and an endless list of levitating objects and thrown objects – including a solid oak sideboard.

Dubbed as ‘Mr Nobody’ by the local press in 1968, the family preferred to refer to the poltergeist simply as ‘Fred’. There seemed to be no number of initiatives which could persuade the entity to leave the family in peace and house-proud mother Jean refused to be terrorised out of her house by an entity. Exorcisms were met with indignation, walls would seep holy water, faces were slapped, and people were shoved down the stairs.

Ordinarily poltergeists aren’t known for causing grievous bodily harm, and although Fred caused a few bruises and scrapes, to Diane, who seemed to be the focus of his haunting.

It is rare for poltergeists to become extremely violent and cause physical harm, but the activity reached a new climatic when Diane’s hair begun to stand on its own, followed by her being dragged, kicking and screaming up the stairs. This event left her seriously traumatised and with clear visible marks on her throat.