The Haunting Of The Scary Screaming Skulls

There is one category of ghost which appears to be unique to England - the Screaming Skulls.

It's usually the case that these skulls wish to continue living in spirit within some building or house. If there is ever any attempt to remove the skull from the premises then this is when all hell breaks loose. The skulls will protest with screaming, hauntings and poltergeist phenomena.

Some of the Screaming Skulls are those of people who - in days gone by - lost their heads through either execution or murder. Often they request to be buried within the walls of some building, which was meaningful to them prior to their death.

When in situ they are at peace but should they ever be moved or disturbed they will seek their revenge by bringing about some sort of bad luck or death to the culprits. They have also been known to damage the properties concerned.

One example of this is the story of the Bettiscombe Manor Screaming Skull. If this should be removed the culprit will die within one year.

The Bettiscombe Manor story begins with Azariah Pinney, who had plantations in the West Indies way back in the late 1600s or 1700s. After completing his business overseas Pinney returned to England bringing with him a faithful slave.

The slave contracted tuberculosis. His death wish was to be buried in the West Indies but, because of the cost this would incur, he was buried instead in the local village churchyard. Blood curdling screams were soon heard emanating from the dead slave's grave. At the same time Bettiscombe Manor began to shake and rattle while all sort of misfortunes swamped the village.

The terrified villagers petitioned Pinney to take action. Pinney’s solution was to exhume the body and take it back to rest in the manor attic. This seems to have satisfied the slave.

Over time his body crumbled until all that remained was the skull.

Various attempts to remove the skull from the house have been met with unearthly screams.

Local tradition tells of a ghostly carriage which rattles it's way between Bettiscombe Manor and the churchyard on the anniversary of the death of the slave. This is referred to by villagers as 'the funeral procession of the skull.'

There is a strange postscript to this tale. In 1963 this particular Screaming Skull was examined by a pathologist. It was determined that the skull was actually between 3,000 and 4,000 years old and was of an European woman. Some believe the skull may therefore have originated from an Iron Age ritual site at Pilsdon Pen which is situated near the Manor house.

Another famous Screaming Skull is known as Dickie. He is said to haunt Tunstead Farm, near Chapel-en-le-Frith. The story goes that Ned Dixon, an ancestor of the farmhouse owners, was murdered within the house and this is his skull.

Dickie, the skull, now functions as a guardian spirit for the farm. If strangers approach farm knockings will be heard.

On one occasion Dickie was stolen and taken to nearby Disley. The noise and racket that followed at both Tunstead Farm and Disley were so loud and unbearable that the thieves willingly returned the skull to its rightful home.

If you should find a skull in your home it might be advisable to let it remain at peace.

Other Scary Happenings:
The Black Stick Men Who Stalk Our World At Night
The Mystery Of The Enfield Poltergeist
The Faceless Female Ghosts Who Have Travelled The World

The Mystery Of The Enfield Poltergeist

Like something from the movie The Exorcist the rough voice of a man erupts from an eleven year old girl's mouth, "Just before I died, I went blind, and then had a hemorrhage and I fell asleep and died in the chair in the corner downstairs."

These words came from the lips of Janet Hodgson then of 284 Green Street, Enfield, England in one of the most famous, though controversial, cases of poltergeist behaviour. It has since become known as the Enfield Poltergeist.

Janet, then eleven, lived with her mother Margaret (known as Peggy) and two siblings Johnny ten and Billy seven. The problems began in August of 1977 after the children admit to having used an Ouija board.

After hearing a noise Peggy went up to see her children, who were in bed, and witnessed a chest of drawers move by itself. Janet has told of what her mother saw:

"It started in a back bedroom, the chest of drawers moved, and you could hear shuffling. Mum said, 'I want you to pack it in.' We told her what was going on, and she came and saw it for herself. She saw the chest moving. When she tried to push it back, she couldn't."

In the days following there were noises, bangs on the walls, levitation, graffiti, flying objects and other happenings of poltergeist activity.

But before we write this all off as a hoax, it has never been disproved, so much so the Enfield Poltergeist is now being made into a film to be released on next Halloween's Day.

Here is some of the 'proof' for the Enfield Poltergeist.

(1) A policewoman, WPC Carolyn Heeps, sent to the scene has signed an affidavit saying she had seen a large 4ft armchair move unassisted across the floor. She afterwards examined the furniture to make sure there were no wires etc. to pull the chair. To the policewomen it seemed genuine.

(2) Regarding the 'rough man's voice' I mentioned at the beginning of this post he later said his name was Bill Wilkins. Bill's son came forward to confirm how and where his father had died.

(3) The next door neighbour, Vic Nottingham, was called in by Margaret, when the poltergeist activity first started. He said of this, "I went in there and I couldn't make out these noises - there was a knocking on the wall, in the bedroom, on the ceiling. I was beginning to get a bit frightened."

(4) The Daily Mirror visited the scene and photographer, Graham Morris says, "It was chaos, things started flying around, people were screaming."

(5) Investigators from the Society of Psychical Research were sourced. These came in the form of Martin Grosse and Guy Lyon Playfiar. Grosse has since died but at the time said, "As soon as I got there I realised that the case was real. Everybody was in chaos.

When I first got there, nothing happened for a while. Then I experienced Lego pieces flying across the room, and marbles, and the extraordinary thing was, when you picked them up they were hot."

....oOo....
All the while the activity seems to have been centred on eleven year old Janet. She is now 45 and told Channel 4 television:

"I felt used by a force that nobody understands. I really don't like to think about it too much, I'm not sure the poltergeist was evil. It was almost as if he wanted to be part of our family."

Janet told the Daily Mail, when asked about what she experienced:

"I knew when the voices were happening, of course, it felt like something was behind me all of the time. They did all sorts of tests, filling my mouth with water and so on, but the voices still came out.

The levitation was scary, because you don't know where you were going to land. I remember a curtain being wound around my neck, I was screaming and I thought I was going to die."

Janet had a short spell in the Maudsley Psychiatric Hospital but all of her tests found that she was normal.

The mystery of the Enfield Poltergeist will continue, especially as it is being resurrected by a movie to be released in October 2012.

The video is a very short teaser for the movie.



This House is Haunted: The Amazing Inside Story of the Enfield Poltergeist

The Poltergeist Who Terrorised A Family

The previous family living at a house in Coventry, England left in the middle of the night, leaving their possessions behind. They were in a hurry to get away. This, however, didn't put Lisa Manning, 34, off from moving in, along with her daughter Ellie, son Jaydon and partner Anthony, 24.

But then things started to go bump in the night, so much so that Ellie is now frightened to go upstairs to her bedroom.

There have been doors opening and shutting by themselves, furniture moving, articles flying across the room. The family are being terrorised and even attacked by something evil - a poltergeist! Well, that's their claim.

Lisa explained to the Daily Mail how it all started: "From day one, I felt like somebody was watching me — particularly in the kitchen. But I wasn’t that bothered. It never occurred to me it was anything sinister — just a silly shadowy feeling."

Then lights started to switch on and off by themselves.

"I thought it must be a wiring fault, but the electrician couldn’t find anything wrong. So we just tried to forget about it."

"Then the kettle kept smashing on to the floor. And the cutlery drawers started shooting out. Then, one by one, my casserole dishes smashed onto the floor. For weeks we kept making excuses for the children’s sake — it must have been the wind, it must have been one of the dogs."

"Ellie started hearing voices in her room and we told her she must have been imagining it. And then one day I said, 'I think we should get a crucifix', and suddenly a heavy glass ashtray came flying from the kitchen into the sitting room, followed by the kettle."

"As we fled to the door, a dirty mug floated off the dining room table and shattered in mid-air and Ellie and I felt a force hit us in the shoulder like a great shove, before footsteps pounded up the stairs."

All very scary but then things turned even worse. While in the garden Lisa looked up at Ellie's bedroom window and saw, "... something huge and dark — about seven feet tall and like an animal."

All very well you may say, but have they any proof? Well there is a video you can see on YouTube here but it's not exactly convincing stuff. A wardrobe opens and a chair moves across the floor. The photo at the top of the post shows how the wardrobe door has opened and the pink chair has moved.

The family have had all sorts of healers and psychics to try and rid them of the poltergeist, or whatever it is.

One medium explained to Lisa what he thought was happening. He pointed to a spot in the living room and: "...he said that this place was a like a portal hole for spirits. So it’s a bit like a bus stop. They all queue here, travel up through the portal hole, look round and if there’s been a spirit here and there’s negative energy, they’ll come and join."

The television psychic, Derek Acorah, has been to the house and has a different version of who is plaguing the family. He reckons it's an old man called Jim who died in the house and has now attached himself to the young girl Ellie. Acorah has done his cleansing bit and now all is peaceful ... but for how long?

The word poltergeist is German and simply means a noisy spirit and is usually associated with bumps, raps and bangs. The activity is often centered on adolescent children, especially at the time of puberty.

A popular theory is that sexual disturbance of some kind is at the root of many poltergeist infestations. An example is Barbara Barnes a pub landlady from Bolton, Lancashire. One night as she was getting into her bath she felt a hand caressing her bottom. Thinking it must be her husband she didn't object but when she turned round the bathroom door was closed and she was alone.

The psychic researcher Harry Price characterised poltergeist as 'mischievous, destructive, noisy, cruel, erratic, thievish, demonstrative, purposeless, cunning, unhelpful, malicious, audacious, teasing, spiteful, ruthless and vampiric.' So he's covered most angles.

As for Lisa Manning and family, we can only take what she says on trust.

Further Reading
The Unusual Contact With Her Dead Mother
The Ghost Of A Nun Was Herself In A Previous Life
Daisy The Gentle Ghost Who Loves Dogs