Exploring Poltergeist Hauntings: A Chilling Examination of 30 East Drive

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Speaker D: Ask any paranormal enthusiast to name the greatest poltergeist cases of all time and you will likely be given one of two answers the Enfield Poltergeist or the Black Monk of Pontifract. Hauntings and poltergeist activity are nothing new and the law of paranormal research holds countless examples. Yet every once in a while, a case will truly bubble up from the rest to present an extremely strange and strong account. On the surface, both of these cases have a great deal in common, with each taking place in a relatively modest home on an ordinary estate where life could be more challenging and incomes low. In both cases, the entity at the center of each haunting appeared to be that of a deceased male with often physically aggressive tendencies. Both cases involved young children and caused great hardship and strain for the family. Each case would come to the attention.

Speaker B: Of the public at around the same.

Speaker D: Time and present with very similar symptoms and manifestations, including objects appearing and disappearing, disembodied, knocks, footsteps, wraps and taps, the sound of voices and objects being thrown. Something I've seen firsthand in the case of East Drive. As the situation intensified for the families at the center of each haunting, physical assault became more and more common. In each of these cases, phenomena was witnessed and reported by a number of third parties, including researchers and investigators and members of the police. The Enfield haunting presented as a clear example of a poltergeist outbreak marked by activity over a short and finite amount of time. In this case, the summer of 1977. An ending in 1979 with no further reports. The same, though, cannot be said of 30 East Drive in Pontifract, West Yorkshire, a location so complex and compelling with activity still reported in the present day. It's a location where, as I've said, I've seen firsthand items thrown down the stairs, heard loud bangs and noises, and seen other items being regularly moved. This normal looking house lying in the north of England has managed to accrue and maintain a reputation as one of the most haunted locations in the nation. This rather violent, frightening and volatile entity at the time was dubbed Mr. Nobody by the local press in 1968 with the family preferring to refer to the poltergeist simply as Fred. It's this case, this location and this.

Speaker C: Entity fred, Mr. Nobody or the Black.

Speaker D: Monk that we're going to examine today to try and understand why this seemingly ordinary home still fascinates challenges and terrifies people who cross its threshold. So get comfortable and let's begin to examine this intriguing case.

Speaker C: The Farrahs were the first family to occupy 30 East Drive. They were the prior homeowners before the Pritchards. Leander William Farrah or Bill as he preferred to be known had previously served in the military during World War II before becoming engaged to and marrying Barbara in 1950 with limited means. The first few years of their married life meant them moving in with Barbara's family whilst they waited for a subsidized council house. At the same time that this couple were marrying and starting their new life together, foundations were being laid for a new estate. Situated on green fields atop a hill overlooking Pontifract castle, this land was of much historic significance. Having been the site of a former battleground and having seen three bloody clashes during the English civil War, a conflict that divided king and country and eventually led to the execution of King Charles I. Lord Protector Oliver Cromwell is reported to have overseen the bombardment and gradual starvation of the royalists defending Pontifract Castle. The battlefield was where hundreds of combatants met one another hand to hand, sword to sword and pike to pike in a ruthless onslaught beneath a relentless raining down of cannon bombardments from the ramparts of Pontifract castle in what would be a key cornerstone in the defense of a royal Britain. The history prior to this is crucial also as it plays a significant part in the legend of the black monk of Pontifract and how it began. This legend was based on a wicked monk who was reported to have raped and killed young girls before disposing of their bodies down a well. It was on this land steeped in the blood of combat and tales of murder that the largest post war councilor state was being built number 30 East Drive in its neighboring house number 79 were the last two to be built. The buttresses of these two houses ended up bridging the well resulting in half of it underlying number 79 and the rest beneath number 30. The pharaohs moved in with their baby daughter in September 1954 and began to make the property their home. Mentioning the pharaohs is important to what came next. Many focus on the activity and reports experienced by the Pritchard family but the home had similar strained reports and accounts experienced for the first family who lived there. Bill later reported how cupboards and fittings that he'd spent much time leveling and making perfect would a few days later be askew and far from the perfect fit he had strived to achieve. The loving couple began to fight often accusing each other of moving belongings around wallpaper refused to stay up on the walls, and the council had to come out frequently, as the house would simply not stay warm. Barbara's mother, Nancy, would babysit one evening. When Bill and Barbara returned later that night, they walked in to discover their daughter Jane, clearly distressed, and Barbara, who demanded to be taken home immediately. She refused to speak about what she'd experienced with anyone. There were other strange experiences, too. The house was full of strange noises and disembodied voices. The outside coal house was so ominous and oppressive that Barbara refused to go out and collect coal. Furniture would regularly become scratched with cuts and rips. Jane's pram, too, was often subject to this kind of destruction. Despite being an avid and competent gardener, bill could simply not get anything to grow in the garden. Just one more thing that added to the mystery of the property. Over time, Bill and Barbara became increasingly concerned for their now two year old daughter, who simply cried relentlessly each night. Doctors who examined Jane could not explain or come up with any medical reason for why Jane was so unsettled in the house. More and more, the Pharaohs had to ask if Jane could sleep over with Barbara's parents, where she would sleep with no problem. Things were also taking a toll on Barbara herself, who found more and more reasons and excuses to be away from the home. Also, religious objects began to be snuck in. Bill later reported that whatever happened to my wife in that house changed her for the rest of her life and not for the better. And then, ominously tiny scratches and blood marks started to appear on Jane's small face while she slept, thinking at first that Jane was simply scratching herself. During the night, her parents started putting her to bed wearing mittens. In the morning, however, there would still be new scratches and marks. When Barbara became pregnant with her second child, she was plagued with medical issues and considered very high risk. Part of the care plan for her involved weekly injections and checkups from the doctor. After the initial first injection at the home, the doctor refused to attend, again forcing Barbara to have to go to the doctor's surgery. That was until the family moved out of 30 East Drive, and the doctor had no problem visiting Barbara again each week at the home. What caused his unease in wanting to attend 30 East Drive is unknown, but very much wrapped up in the mystery of the house. The Pritchards moved into 30 East Drive in May 1955, a house with a clear history of unexplained phenomena and reports of hauntings. Yet it was not until the Pritchards arrived and had been living there for about a decade that the haunted house and the malevolent spiritual poltergeist finally showed the full extent of its power. The year was 1966, and a family.

Speaker B: Consisting of Jean and Joe Pritchard and.

Speaker C: Their two children Philip, aged 15, and Diane, aged twelve, had been living in the quiet house on 30 East Drive in Pontifract, West Yorkshire, England since 1955. They'd experienced the odd, strange thing after they'd settled into their home. Strange sounds and things being misplaced, all rather innocent enough in nature to raise no alarms, something that could be easily explained as natural sounds of a home.

Speaker B: Or forgetfulness of a family.

Speaker C: The first main incident started on September 16th when the son Philip was staying at the home with his grandmother, Sarah Scholes, while the rest of the family was away on a trip to Devon. One day they felt a strange gust of cold wind pass through despite the summer heat, shortly after which they witnessed what seemed to be a white powder or mist snowing down from the ceiling as the sounds of footsteps echoed from above. When they went to investigate, along with Scholes's sister, Marie Kelly, they came across inexplicable pools of water spreading on the floor of the kitchen. And even as they stared at this new development, those strange noises continued from the next floor up and that dust rained down upon them. At the time, it was thought that the water was merely the result of.

Speaker D: A broken pipe and a repairman from.

Speaker C: The water company was called in to take a look. However, after a thorough inspection of the kitchen there was found to be no sign of anything amiss and the repairman.

Speaker B: Had no idea of where the water.

Speaker C: Could be coming from, even as it seemed to pool up even more as he was there.

Speaker B: The pools of water would eventually stop.

Speaker C: But everyone present was left completely baffled as to what was going on. Later that same evening, the pools of water began to form again from nowhere and this time the phenomena was joined by a violent jolting rattling of various cutlery and pots and pans around the kitchen. In addition to this, the whole area was sprayed with tea as some unseen force repeatedly depressed the button on the tea. Dispenser with great force and increasing speed.

Speaker D: The cupboards and furniture of the kitchen.

Speaker C: Also began to vibrate and move about without explanation or apparent cause. This was all followed by a thunderous bang from the outside hallway.

Speaker B: But when they looked to see what.

Speaker C: It could be, nothing was there, even though the hallway light began to turn on and off by itself even as they surveyed it. It was further noticed that a plant that was normally positioned at the foot of the stairs was now strangely sitting.

Speaker B: At the top of the stairs and.

Speaker C: Neither of them had moved it. As they continued to examine the hall, the crockery and cupboards in the kitchen began to vibrate again with greater vigor. Marie Kelly was once again brought over to observe the frightening show for herself. The kitchen was scattered with tea leaves.

Speaker B: And sugar grains, thanks to that mechanical.

Speaker C: Dispenser whose button appeared to be operating itself. The activity once again soon died down, but when a heavy chest of drawers began to sway on its own volition later that night, both Philip and his grandmother packed a few things and headed to a neighbor's house for the night, terrified of what was going on. Interestingly, by the time the rest of the family returned from their trip, the strange phenomena seemed to have stopped.

Speaker B: At the time, they all thought that.

Speaker C: There had to be some normal explanation for what had happened, especially as there were no further disturbances. Indeed, it would not be for another.

Speaker B: Two years that anything else out of.

Speaker C: The ordinary would happen on the premises, but when it did, it did so with a vengeance, leaving the family at their wits end and turning to the police for help. The long period of silence made it all the more shocking when pools of water started forming all over the house. The events that followed at 30 East Drive would check all of the boxes for a high intensity poltergeist haunting, and many more objects flew through the air, sometimes with great force and other times guided with great precision. Furniture was moved or rattled on its own. Odd green foam or slime would seep out of water taps. A similar viscous material began to appear inside the kitchen cupboards, samples of which were submitted for chemical analysis, but the materials could not be identified. Knocks, thuds and rats founded throughout the house at all hours of the day and night, sometimes in direct responses to questions or requests. Doors would slam open or shut by themselves, and more ominously, family portraits and furniture would be found demolished or slashed and disfigured, as with a knife.

Speaker B: Lights would turn off and on, electrical devices would go haywire and objects appeared and disappeared.

Speaker C: On one occasion, a shower of keys rained down on Mrs. Pritchard while she was cleaning the kitchen flu. Such appearances of everyday objects suddenly appearing from thin air are known as apports or apportations, and are a hallmark for a poltergeist type case. There was also a strange, unidentified, sickening odor that would waft often through the home, as well as anomalous noises including heavy breathing and odly, the sound of barnyard animals. Such things happened nearly every day, and.

Speaker B: It all became so commonplace that the.

Speaker C: Family took to calling the invisible entity Fred, putting an innocuous nickname to the faceless and gradually threatening intruder.

Speaker B: All of this activity steadily graduated in.

Speaker C: Intensity, with things being smashed or broken by unseen hands or objects flying across the room, even in the presence of guests. Indeed, whenever people came over, the phenomena seemed to actually get worse and more violent. And this apparently even happened in the presence of local police officers and the town vicar, leaving everyone dumbfounded and authorities unable to find any rational explanation. In particular, Diane seemed to be targeted, often waking up to the sound of heavy breathing or undefined voices in her ears. And there were other times when she was physically assaulted by the entity, such as being pushed, having her hair pulled, and even, on several occasions, being dragged across the room. The entity was not above lashing out at others as well, and reports of being held down, pushed, slapped or punched by the specter were common even from those just visiting. One day, a neighbor came to visit Jean to enjoy an afternoon cup of tea. As the two ladies stood chatting at the foot of the staircase, the grandmother clock on the upstairs landing began to sway from side to side before falling down the stairs and smashing into pieces. The terrified women were forced to jump out of the way in terror. This very staircase and landing, coincidentally, is where I've also witnessed a child's toy pram being flung down the stairs. A neighbor who lived across the street from number 30 knocked one day on the front door. He simply then wordlessly pointed to the front garden, which was strewn with the records, clothing and bedding that belonged in Diane's bedroom. They'd been flung from the open window above. Nobody, of course, was upstairs at the time. The phenomena seemed to work in cycles, with times when this would happen on a daily basis, interspersed with long absences, sometimes for weeks at a time. But return it always did. On one other occasion, Jean heard a buzzing sound emanating from the wardrobe inside her bedroom. When she opened the door, a swarm of bees flooded out. Jean was stung quite badly over multiple areas of her body. In the face of the escalating malevolent activity, the Pritchard family reached out to the church for help to consider an exorcism. The local vicar solemnly declared that whatever presence was taking up residence at number 30 East Drive was both unholy and evil. Paranormal activity, in fact, escalated after his visit, becoming more angry and violent in nature. Several exorcisms were performed on the house, all of which seemed to just make the spirit even angrier. During these attempted exorcisms, crucifixes were supposedly knocked out of hands or smashed to pieces, and inverted crosses were sometimes found, painted or scrawled upon the walls in red and black ink, neither of which were kept in the house. In one particularly frightening incident, an invisible force picked up a candlestick and held it in front of the priest's face, which was enough to send the man of the cloth running away to never come back. Joe Pritchard was the last to accept that his home could be haunted. He was a typical rough, down to earth, hardworking Northerner who could easily shrug off much of what was happening with a laugh. All of that changed one day, though, when Joe went into the coal house, a small cupboard next to the downstairs toilet. It's unclear what truly happened to him that day. Some reported that he was attacked by an invisible force. What was clear, however, was that he left the coal house that day a changed man. From that point on, he could not dismiss occurrences, and many felt his will and strength had been broken. At around the same time as this, the malicious spirit began to make itself known and visible as a full apparition. At first, these visitations took the form of a dark shape standing at the foot of the bed of Jean and Joe staring at them. It would then simply blink out of existence. On another occasion, Joe claimed to have been awoken to see a figure in flowing black robes hovering over his bed. This strange entity was more often than not described this way as dressed in black robes and with a hood covering his face, not unlike what a medieval monk might wear, colin Wilson, in his book poltergeist a study in destructive haunting, described how the entity had an affinity with the daughter Diane, who would one day find herself ambushed. As she was heading to her bed, colin reported that the hallway was plunged into darkness and the air suddenly turned frigidly cold. The unseen force took hold of a hefty wooden hall stand and used it to pin the terrified Diane down. Colin Wilson reported how Mrs. Pritchard and her son Philip were unable to pull the stand from her as Diane struggled. When she began to calm and struggle less, it was only then that the family could maneuver her free, suggesting a motivation to simply scare Diane rather than harm her. At this point, for now at least.

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Speaker B: Before long, the black monk was seen lurking about by everyone in the family. It was even claimed to have been spotted prowling the property by neighbors and other locals. One such account came from the neighbor Elsie May Mountain, who had seen an.

Speaker C: Apparition standing behind Jean while she was.

Speaker B: Engaged at the kitchen sink. Guests reported of phantom hands appearing, often wearing women's fur gloves. These phantom hands would begin to mimic the actions of a conductor conducting his orchestra. Through all of this, it seemed to still have it in for their daughter Diane, though, and its attacks on her grew in ferocity. The girl would sometimes wake up with scratches and bruises on her body or be completely thrown from her bed, and on at least one occasion was actively choked and slapped around by an unseen force in full view of witnesses who were often themselves not immune to these outbursts. Perhaps the scariest incident happened when Diane's hair was seen to stand up as.

Speaker C: If someone was pulling and yanking on.

Speaker B: It, after which the girl was forcibly dragged up the stairs, screaming. The incident left noticeable bruises on her throat, making it clear that Fred was capable of causing more than mischief. The desperate family had paranormal investigators called in, and some interesting things were found out on the history of the land the house sat upon. For instance, investigator Tom Cuniff uncovered some.

Speaker C: Of the history mentioned earlier that not.

Speaker B: Only had the area once been the site of a battle, but also that it had once been used as the town gallows and that hundreds of people had been executed there. In particular, there was a supposed story of a Cluniac monk who had met his end by hanging there after being.

Speaker C: Found guilty of raping and killing a young girl around Diane's age back in the 16th century. Cuniff believed that it was this spirit haunting the home.

Speaker B: Strangely, despite all of the intense paranormal.

Speaker C: Activity that permeated this home, it would.

Speaker B: All one day suddenly cease just as abruptly as it had started. The weeks would go on, with the family bracing for the black monk to rear his sinister head yet again. But it was completely quiet for no apparent reason, as if he'd just gotten bored and stopped. Diane and Philip grew up and moved out. Joe Pritchard sadly passed away inside the home on June 20, 186, dying on the floor of the upstairs bathroom. A coroner later ruled his death was caused by a heart attack. Jean Pritchard continued to live at number 30 for the next 25 years with her parrot for company. But Fred as he was known to the family was not quite done yet, though. The house would go on to be a popular destination for paranormal investigators, many inspired by the film. When the lights went out, which was inspired by the case. Bill Bungay, in fact, bought the house to help promote the movie, which had been filmed elsewhere. 30 East Drive was used to film scenes and carry out visits and overnight stays from emotional material to release those staying often experienced troubling activity keys that disappeared, keeping them stranded. The kettle would turn on and off repeatedly, and people staying overnight often felt unseen hands holding them down. The black monk was still around and as active as ever, perhaps perturbed by.

Speaker C: New trespasses to his domain.

Speaker B: A very well known and harrowing investigation of the premises was carried out by seasoned paranormal researchers Nick Groff and Katrina Wideman of the TV series Paranormal Lockdown, who decided to actually spend a few days locked up inside of the home. And almost as soon as the doors closed, there were strange reports going on.

Speaker C: It started with a sense of an.

Speaker B: Indefinable dread and a door being slammed shut almost immediately, which could have been attributed to a draught if it weren't for what would transpire over the next 100 hours. Rough would save his initial impression of the house the following. Right when we stepped on the property, it felt different. There's an energy about it. When you take a step into that location, it's haunting, it really is, without anything really even occurring. You just feel it. You feel the energy in the sense that something is there, lurking in the shadows.

Speaker C: The pair would be woken by slamming or banging noises in the house, and the next day they actually reached out to the entity, called it Fred and.

Speaker B: Asked it if it could move a ball. Sure enough, the ball apparently began rolling across the floor of its own volition. It all almost seemed rather playful at first, but then things started to get knocked off the stands thrown across the ring or broken, and a clock dropped off the wall. When Groff reached out to ask the spirit, do you need a lot of energy to move things? An EVP recorded in Latin, the word desperata, meaning hopeless. On top of this, whenever the team asked the entity something, the room temperature would drop dramatically. In addition, a shadowy figure was allegedly filmed moving across the room and the nighttime noises occurred with increasing amplification. To make it all even more menacing, a knife was found left on the stairs, and the crew began to complain of being pushed or shoved by something, with the cohost Katrina actually claiming to have been held in place, attacked and scratched, Groff would say. We've captured this solid figure moving past one of the doors, things moving on their own. My co host, Katrina, she got scratched too, at one point. And so it got really scary as it escalated through our investigation of a hundred hours. When I was living there for 100 hours, there were moments when I was terrified, like when I was sleeping, when I was really deep in sleep. And anybody I don't care how strong you are or how big you are, you will be startled in the darkness, and you're all alone, and something bangs really loud in the room and the door opens on its own and you see an apparition, you're going to get startled. Other researchers have had similarly bizarre experiences on the property, with numerous instances of the ghost voice caught on tape and quite a few pieces of photographic evidence as well. Many of these investigators have expressed shock at the sheer magnitude of sinister paranormal activity at the residence, with some even claiming that they actually feared for their lives. While there, the black monk has earned a reputation for being one of the most violent and evil poltergeists around. Another pair of investigators from the TV show Ghost Dimension said when we arrived at the house, I'd been so excited to finally be filming at 30 East Drive. I'd heard so many stories about what went on through the seen so many photos of Monk like figures. We had never experienced so many paranormal happenings going on in one place and in such quick succession, so concentrated with the haunting and so violent, that the case of the Black monk of Pontifract has gone on to become one of the most well documented and aggressive hauntings England has ever seen. And one that involved many from the local community with the house to this day, said to be ground zero for all manner of strange happenings. Whilst it's highly unlikely that the story of the black monk is actually true, whatever is going on here, the case has never been solved or entirely understood for what it is, as it doesn't necessarily fit the classic poltergeist haunting. We have three phases of activity. The first presenting itself to the Farah family. Then the second phase, where the entity and subsequent phenomena became more violent and pervasive, involving the Pritchards. And the third phase that continues today, where experiences are captured, reported and shared by visitors or people known to the house. If you visit, you can expect a list of things to do and not do with paranormal equipment such as Ouija boards prohibited in order to keep bread at bay, you're instructed to keep possession of the keys for the front door at all times and instructed to ensure electrical appliances are kept unplugged at the wall after use. I leave it to you to decide. Would you be brave enough to investigate? Thanks for listening. See you next time. Bye for now.