Flickering lights, flying objects, puddles on the floor, that's your typical poltergeist phenomenon. What isn't typical, although, is a twelve-year-old girl being held by the throat and dragged up the stairs by a scary ghoul, or the walls being littered with scribblings of overturned crosses. If you are looking for a truly unnerving case of poltergeist phenomenon, with demonic oppression combined, welcome to 30 East Drive Chequerfield, the house of the Black Monk of Pontefract.
As The Hell Breaks Loose...
In the late 1960s, Joe and Jean Pritchard moved into a new house at 30 East Drive Chequerfield in Pontefract, Yorkshire, Britain. They had two kids, Diane, 12, and Philip, 15. In August 1966, the couple went on a week's holiday in Devon, leaving Philip under the charge of his grandmother Sarah Scholes. Once when Sarah was alone in the house, she felt a gust of cold wind while the weather outside was rather warm. As Philip returned home, he was met with the sight of a creepy white powder falling on the floor from mid-air. Sarah rushed out to get her daughter Marie Kelly from down the street. On arriving, Kelly went into the kitchen to get a piece of cloth to clean up the powder, only to slip on a puddle of water on the floor. Soon, numerous puddles appeared on the floor. Neighbors crept in, and Kelly suggested that they call the Water Board. The Water Board arrived in the afternoon, ran a thorough examination, but were unable to determine a cause and left when the puddles finally stopped appearing in the afternoon. They reappeared again at 7 p.m., and a desperate Sarah shouted "Stop it!". This was followed by a potted plant crashing at the staircase and a crockery cupboard vibrating in the kitchen. Fearing for personal safety, Sarah and Philip spent the night at the neighbors'.
An Awkward Pause, Hauntings Relapse
Joe and Jean returned home. For the next two years, nothing happened. But when all was forgotten, they reappeared. The main target of the activity was Diane, who would be thrown from her bed, and one one instance, was dragged by her neck up the stairs by an invisible entity, which left lacerations on her neck. Objects would be thrown, eggs would be broken, crucifixes would be shattered and things would dematerialize from one point and materialize in another. When a priest advised them to exorcise the demon by dousing holy water throughout the house, the poltergeist responded by drawing inverted crosses throughout the walls of the house. The hauntings continued for years, and at a very late phase, family members and visitors would see a black cloaked figure moving around in the house. The Pritchards even invented a name for the entity, they called it 'Fred'. As suddenly as the hauntings had begun, they came to an end very abruptly.
The Black Monk: Who Was He?
Paranormal investigator Tom Cuniff didn't get a chance to see the Pritchards before the hauntings had completely ceased, and concluded that the disturbances had been caused by the ghost of a Cluniac monk who lived during Henry VIII's reign and was hanged for the rape and murder of a young girl. The tensions prevailing between Philip and his father had made his home more welcoming to the spirit, causing the hauntings.
One would at least agree that this is one of the most disturbing cases of poltergeist phenomena ever occurred, if not the most. Till date, the reality of the Black Monk has remained a mystery, and he is still believed to linger the walls of 30 East Drive, as a neighbor Carol Fieldhouse says he often has conversations with 'Fred', who occasionally pays him a visit in his house. What are your thoughts?
