Enfield - The Spine Tingling Tale of a Real Poltergeist

Enfield – The Spine Tingling Tale of a Real Poltergeist

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The UK’s Most Infamous Real Poltergeist Case

We had to go there at some point. While we are trying to cover off-the-beaten-track tales with the podcast, there are some higher profile cases that we just can’t get away from. This is arguably the most famous of all the real poltergeist stories in the UK. The Enfield Haunting has such a wide reach that even Hollywood picked it up. Sadly, Hollywood turned it into The Conjuring II, which was so hammy it removed any of the original scare factor from what is a genuinely terrifying real poltergeist tale. If you did want some good watching in relation to the Enfield Haunting, though, try the BBC mini series by the same name. It absolutely nails the creeping feeling of something entirely evil that goes hand-in-hand with this story. And it has an absolutely stellar cast too.

This story begins in the summer of 1977, when the Metropolitan police received a frantic call from Peggy Hodgson. Peggy claimed that spooky things were going on in her council house.

Tell you what, if I could get a council house, I’d just be putting up with any paranormal activity! But this was the 70s and council houses were not exactly considered a luxury. Oh how times have changed.

But I digress… (who me? Never!)

When police arrived at the scene, they were shocked to see a chair wobble and slide by itself with seemingly no cause. In later disturbances, police officers also reported hearing strange noises and disembodied voices, and seeing toys being thrown.

The First Run-Ins with The Paranormal

It had all started when Peggy, a mother of four, had gone to her daughters’ bedroom to tell them to stop making a racket. The girls complained that something was making their bed shake, but she did what any average mother would do and told them to shut it, before she left them and went back to bed. Nothing much more happened that night. But the following night, Peggy heard the sound of slippers sliding across the floor followed by four loud knocks. Curious, she got up to investigate, but as she did so, a chest of drawers slid across the floor. Shaking her head, Peggy pushed it back again. But once more, the chest of drawers slid across the floor. This time, when she tried to push it back, she couldn’t.

It was all a bit much to take in, so Peggy gathered her family and fled to the next door neighbours’ house to ask for help. The father of the household next door, Vic Nottingham, and his son Gary, decided to go and check out the strange goings on for themselves, expecting to see nothing out of the ordinary. Hysterical women and all that. However, when they entered the Hogson’s property, they heard banging and tapping all over. So they called the police. The police checked everywhere, the walls, the pipes and the attic, but could find no source for the noises.

Over the next few days, a variety of people went into the house and experienced strange things, such as toys being thrown around. Police, council members and clergymen all reported the same activity. Some even reported that they were physically attacked with toys.

The Tabloids Get Involved

On the 4th September, Peggy decided she’d had enough. The police were too scared to go back into the house, even if they did know what to do. So Peggy called the press.

The mirror newspaper, a tabloid shitrag even in those days, was intrigued. Reporter, Doug Bence, and photographer, Graham Morris, were sent out to the scene that very day.

Graham Morris

‘I thought it was an ordinary job until I walked into the house. I stood in the gloom in the kitchen and one by one they brought the children into the adults’ arms and the last one to come in was Janet. Suddenly things just took off and started flying around the room. I got hit by a Lego brick over my right eye. It gave me a lump for a few days, there was a fair bit of force. There were marbles and things left in the kitchen that were just flying around the room. I was watching all of them and none of them was doing anything.’

Graham came away from the initial visit with a large bruise on his face from the flying toys. Doug and Graham reported back to the Mirror that it was not a hoax. Indeed, this was a real poltergeist situation.

The Society for Psychical Research (SPR)

The Hodsons were put in touch with Maurice Grosse at the SPR. Maurice arrived at the house the very next day. He was shocked to find the whole family huddled together at the neighbours’ house. Both families were scared out of their wits.

Together with the Mirror reporters, Grosse took the Hogsons, Peggy, Janet (11) and Margaret (13), back to their house and they waited for unexplained activity. Things seemed to have calmed down, but after three days, it began again.

On the 8th September at 1:15am, there came a crash from the girls’ room. Maurice rushed upstairs to see what was going on, but found both girls fast asleep. However, a chair had fallen over and moved across the room.

This was enough to convince Maurice that something very strange was happening in that house and he decided to stay and investigate.

The Pesky poltergeist Escalates Its Attack

The story of the real poltergeist activity at Enfield was published in The Mirror on 10th September. On the same day, Peggy was interviewed on LBC’s Nightline about the strange goings on in her house.

On her return home, Peggy was greeted by Roz Morris from BBC Four’s The World this Weekend. Peggy sat up all night with Maurice Grosse and by the morning was absolutely convinced that this was a real poltergeist event. She corroborated what Maurice had said – that a chair had, once again, crashed to the ground on its own in the girls’ room and scooted to the other side. She said that she was very sure that the chair had been thrown with some force, based on the noise it made.

Maurice’s Attempts to SHow Real Poltergeist

Maurice confirmed that he had seen items flying around in his time there. Toys were thrown with great force – they had enough power to smash ornaments and light fittings, so he was convinced it wasn’t the children playing. Teaspoons would slide across the kitchen worktops. And he even claimed at one point to see a sofa rise into the air and come crashing down upside down.

Maurice decided that he needed to capture this activity on camera. And since Janet seemed to be the focus of the poltergeist, he set the camera up in her bedroom. He managed to capture her being thrown from her bed. At this point, he realised that he was completely out of his depth. He was new to the SPR. He had joined not long before this case after the death of his daughter and this was his very first case. He called the SPR asking for help. His request for backup was answered by Guy Lyon Playfair.

Ghosts Haunt People, Not Places

On the 25th September, exhausted by all the ghostly shenanigans, the Hodgsons paid a visit to Peggy’s brother, who lived around the corner. Sitting around a table in what they thought was a blissfully peaceful house, Peggy’s sister in law started to pour some tea. It was then that a piece of lego dropped from somewhere above and landed on the table between them all. Taken aback, they came to the conclusion that the poltergeist was not actually tied to the house at all, but to Janet.

That being said, at one point, the Hodgsons went on holiday. The council, unable to rehouse them, took pity and paid for the unhappy family to go away to Clacton on Sea for a week during the school half term. While there, there was very minimal poltergeist activity. In fact, the only thing the Hodgsons reported was barking coming from Janet’s bed in the night.

The Devil Knocks Three Times

On their return from their brief respite from the nasty spirit that haunted them, Maurice Grosse decided to try communicating with the poltergeist in a different way. He asked it to knock on the walls, an activity the poltergeist was by now au fait with. However, this time one knock would indicate no and two knocks would mean yes.

“Are you male?” Maurice asked, like some sort of sick game of Guess Who.

“Did you used to live in this house?” *Knock Knock*

“Was it more than fifty years ago?” *Knock Knock*

“Did you die here?” *Knock Knock*

“Are you unhappy?” *Knock*

“Why are you here? Is it because you want to give us a message?” *Knock*

“Are you having a game with me?” *Knock*

At this point, items began to fly around the room and a cardboard box nearly hit Maurice in the face.

An Uncanny Real Poltergeist Possession

Over the course of the next few months, various mediums and psychics visited 284 Green Street with varying results. All came away convinced that the poltergeist was very real.

At one point, following a visit from a medium who practised automatic writing, Janet began producing bloody and violent pictures. She would slip into a trance and just begin to draw. She also wrote the word “Watson” over and over. It turned out that there had been a family living in the house previously called Watson. The wife of that family had passed away from throat cancer, which was what one of Janet’s pictures seemed to portray.

This went on for months. On the 3rd December, Morris witnessed Janet being pulled from her bed and found her sliding down the stairs headfirst. Apparently, she was fast asleep at the time. After that, more members of the SPR arrived, David Roberts, Dr John Beloff and Anita Gregory.

Interview with the Poltergeist

The small group of psychic investigators began grilling the spirit, bidding it to speak. Suddenly, there was a growling and barking like a rabid dog. And then a gruff man’s voice spoke. It said he was called Joe Watkins.

However, the next night, a different spirit speaking with the same voice said that he was called Bill Wilkins. This time, the voice was clearly coming from Janet’s throat. Bill said:

‘I went blind. I had a haemorrhage. I fell asleep and I died in a chair, in the corner downstairs.’ When Guy Lyon Playfair asked why he wasn’t visible, Bill said, ‘I’m invisible. Because I’m a G.H.O.S.T.’

Bill’s son, Terry, later confirmed that his father had died of a brain haemorrhage after going blind.

To rule out a hoax, Morris told Janet to hold water in her mouth and then taped her mouth up with duct tape. The voice could still be heard coming from Janet’s throat. Following on from this, Janet was examined by a speech therapist who said that the voice sounded like a false vocal chord tone. It’s a technique used by Tibetan monks when they chant, but can cause damage to the vocal chords when used for prolonged periods of time. Morris recorded hours of audio of Bill speaking and Janet’s voice remained intact.

Janet Becomes a Conduit for Several Spirits

Janet was visited by Dr Ian Fletcher, hypnotist, surgeon and member of the magic circle. Janet was put under hypnosis and had the following exchange with Ian.

IAN: Do you know who is doing all this?

JANET: Me and my sister

IAN: Why do you think you are to blame?

JANET: I don’t know who is.

IAN: What does it feel like?

JANET: Cold hands gripping me, gripping me around my body

IAN: Who started the trouble?

JANET: None of us

IAN: What is the cause of the trouble?

JANET: An increase in unhappiness

It has to be noted that the Hodgsons were an unhappy lot. Their father had left them and Peggy was desperately struggling to make ends meet. She was suffering with depression and exhaustion, and it was having a marked effect on the children.

After this encounter, Janet began to levitate. This was witnessed by a local lollipop lady who saw Janet bouncing up and down while lying flat. The lollipop lady said that her friend had also witnessed this and there was no way Janet could have leapt that high from off her back.

Murder Most Horrid

Just before Christmas, the family goldfish died and Bill said that he had electrocuted it with his spirit power. On Christmas day, the pet parrot died and on boxing day, Janet was strangled by the curtains in her bedroom. Peggy caught it just in time and managed to untangle her. After this incident, Janet began to complain about a knife following her around and Peggy found a knife from the kitchen on the stairs.

Janet later recounted:-

Over the next 19 months, writing began to appear on the walls in faecal matter. Puddles of bodily fluids would manifest, seemingly out of nowhere. And Peggy saw a man with no legs floating up the stairs, after which the words “I am Fred” appeared on the bathroom door, written in electrical tape.

Janet was finally sent for psychiatric help. That it took them this long to send the girl for assessment is just nuts to me! She stayed at Maudsley hospital and was placed under observation. During her time there, psychiatrist, Dr Peter Fenwick, noted that there seemed to be nothing wrong with the girl’s mental health. She also wasn’t suffering from epilepsy or any form of brain damage. She was away from home for six weeks, during which time, the paranormal activity died down completely.

But on her return from the hospital, Janet immediately saw the apparition of a small boy.

And Then Just Like That, It was Over

Yet another medium, a Dutchman named Dono Gmelig-Meyling, paid the Hodgsons a visit. He said that there was the spirit of a 24 year old woman that was trying to come through and had been involved in the hauntings. Morris’ daughter had died on a motorbike at the age of 24. It had been the catalyst for him joining the SPR in the first place. He had a brief exchange with this female spirit.

And then that seemed to wrap everything up. The supernatural turmoil that the family had been living in just seemed to… end.

The Conjuring II Vs The Real Poltergeist

The film, The Conjuring II, was loosely based on the haunting at 284 Green Street. I say “loosely” because, while well known ghost hunters, Ed and Lorraine Warren, did visit the house, in reality they were there barely a day. Their input on this whole case was minimal.

The Conjuring doesn’t just overegg the Warrens’ involvement. It also manages to strip the story of any nuanced sense of impending danger and just hits you over the head with overly theatrical, much exaggerated events. Because… Hollywood. And don’t even get me started on that soggy nun. I saw scarier get ups in Jilly’s at the weekend in the 90s.

If you want to see a more accurate portrayal of life on a 70s council estate, the BBC miniseries, the Enfield Haunting, is a much more enjoyable watch. In addition, the cast is full of absolute gems of the acting world.

Were the Events In Enfield A Real Poltergeist Or a Hoax

While the Hodgson family has always maintained that the haunting was real, they have come under a lot of scrutiny.

In the first instance, they called the papers. Clear evidence of a cash grab. They also received a lot of attention from the media over the course of a nearly two year period. There were often times when visitors to the house claimed to have seen things moving, but at the time were unable to confirm that it categorically wasn’t the children.

The spirit of Bill was obsessed with periods. A strange topic for a middle aged man to take any interest in. However, young girls are often fixated on menstruation in the early days of puberty.

As a final kicker, the children all admitted to faking some of the events. As soon as one event proved to be fake, the entire story should have been shot down. That is was allowed to continue, with people of supposed authority corroborating the stories, the tension in that house must have been unbelievable. The power of suggestion raises its head again.

Scaredy Cat Skeptic Take

Hoax. 100% a hoax. I believe that it started as a fun game that got out of hand. Janet was in a stressful position for one so young. She had lost her father,was starting her period and was the middle child. A difficult position in the sibling hierarchy. Her mother was struggling with mental health issues.

The gruff sound of Bill speaking sounds like a kid putting on a voice. I would have been able to do similar things when I was that age. In fact, I have an extremely deep singing voice, which sounds very different to my speaking voice. The one thing that I struggle to reconcile is the voice continuing, even though Janet’s mouth was full of water. But Janet was not the only child involved with this case. And the other children are very much overlooked. Free to do whatever they can to add to the poltergeist story while all focus is on Janet.

Janet mentions abuse. Many people who were abused as children have psychotic breaks and are more likely to become convinced that they are possessed by a demonic presence. While Janet was talking about the spirits abusing her here, it strikes me that something else, something more sinister, could have been going on with Janet.

The photos of Janet “levitating” look like a child jumping in the air. I have photos of me doing that when I was a kid too. There’s no hint of anything supernatural going on with these pictures.

I’ve also noticed in a lot of these hauntings that I’ve looked into, they just come to an abrupt end. Almost as if the perpetrator has grown bored of the game.

Your Thoughts

There is so much information out there about this case, including videos of the family talking about what happened.

Have you seen them? What do you think happened back in the 70s at 284 Green Street, Enfield?