Could a suburban semi in West Yorkshire be haunted by the ghost of a medieval monk? BBC Radio’s Danny Robins pays an overnight visit to find out…
I always feel nervous going up these stairs,” says Bil Bungay. Bil is tall, with a ponytail and slightly bohemian scarf. He’s a successful businessman and the owner of 30 East Drive. It’s a modest, semi-detached house that just happens to be the site of one of the most violent and terrifying alleged poltergeist hauntings in British history – ‘The Black Monk of Pontefract’.
The town of Pontefract in West Yorkshire is where King Richard II was murdered, so you’d expect roaming spirits to stalk its medieval centre, but we’re in the less obviously atmospheric location of the Chequerfield housing estate. In 1968, the Pritchard family, who lived in 30 East Drive, spent 10 months bombarded by bizarre, violent events, including objects such as paintbrushes, eggs and a crucifix flying through the air, a grandfather clock being chucked downstairs, and sinister inverted crosses appearing painted on doors.
Dad Joe was seemingly locked in the cupboard where the family kept coal, and physically attacked. Most terrifyingly, mum Jean and her teenage son Phillip saw Phillip’s sister Diane being dragged up the stairs, screaming. Afterwards, she had what looked like red finger marks on her neck!
So, I can understand why Bil is nervous about these stairs. He now rents the house out to ghost hunters to spend the night, which is why I’m here, to record an episode of one of my podcasts. It’s said the poltergeist, who the family nicknamed ‘Fred’, is still active. On the house’s website, you’ll find a long list of the phenomena visitors here claim to have experienced. Whether you believe in ghosts or not, there’s something creepy about the place, the 1960s decor seemingly frozen in time.
Bil had his own strange experience one day when he was washing up at the sink in the kitchen. “I felt the instinct to turn, and an object just materialised in thin air, and flew straight at me. It bounced off the window, and then landed on the floor. I looked down, and it was a domino. I’ll never forget it. I spent the next two hours being bombarded by objects.”
It sounds bizarre, but the history of this house is littered with truly weird incidents. Maybe strangest of all was when the Pritchard family’s deeply religious Aunt Maude came to stay. She lost her fur gloves somewhere in the house, only to be woken in the night by disembodied hands seemingly wearing them! As she sang ‘Onward Christian Soldiers’ to scare them off, the hands conducted her!
But why is ‘Fred’ described as ‘The Black Monk of Pontefract’? The name comes from a dark, cowled figure the Pritchards claimed to have seen, which became linked to reports a medieval monk had been hanged on the site on which the house was built. Like so many good stories, this particular detail turned out to be untrue, but, monk or no monk, something deeply strange happened back in the 1960s that had a life-changing effect on the Pritchard family, and as I prepare to spend my own night in this most infamous of haunted houses, I feel a mixture of excitement and nerves. All my life I’ve wanted to see a ghost, but hearing the stories of what’s happened at 30 East Drive, I think “be careful what you wish for…”
To find out what happened next, listen to episode 6 of The Battersea Poltergeist. (Spoiler: I survived, as I made it back to write this!
This article was first published in the February 2022 issue of BBC History Revealed
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From ghostly phantoms to UFOs, The Battersea Poltergeist’s Danny Robins investigates real-life stories of paranormal encounters on his BBC Radio 4 podcast Uncanny. Episodes available now on BBC Sounds
