Client:          Mr & Mrs M                                            Case No.       / 2000

Location:      West of Scotland Coastal Town

Team:          Daphne Plowman, John Plowman and Catriona Malan

The locations is an owner-occupied, chalet type detached house in its own garden in a West of Scotland coastal town. The house was built about 30 years ago. The family have lived there for about 4.5 years.

Phenomena reported on the phone was that two weeks before, dripping water was heard, but there was no sign of the cause. From time to time there was a banging of the doors heard from upstairs, this had been heard by the husband, on 5/9/00 when he had been asleep, and was in the house alone, while his wife was out.

They hear the noise of a typewriter upstairs, but the only one they have is an old toy (Petite) which is in the loft in its box. A see-saw swing in the garden had ‘gone beserk’ on one occasion (witnessed by Mrs. M). The day had been still & hot. This part of the back garden backs onto a tree plantation, which had been planted about 150 years ago.

The family consists of Mr & Mrs M and a son G 13, son GT 9 and a daughter  E 7. All three children have health problems and two, GT & E, have learning difficulties. They have two cats, one of which gets upset in the house.

Mrs M said that they were planning to divide a big bedroom (upstairs front) to give the eldest boy a room of his own.

I arranged to visit the house on 9/9/00 with JRP C. Malan.

We arrived to see Mr M getting out of his Transco Van in his driveway. He is a Gas Engineer. He & his wife seemed glad to see us. Two of the children were at home; the girl E hid behind the settee and seemed a bit strange. Her mother said she was shy. The middle boy GT was at the dining room table working on some project and wasn’t very interested in us. Later a crowd of their friends arrived, and they seemed quite lively and happy with them.

We were shown into an extension/sun lounge at the back of the house, which had been built after the family had moved in. We were served tea/coffee and heard a similar tale to the original report by phone. The couple seemed to be straight forward and certainly backed one-another up where they had both heard the doors banging, etc. Mrs M showed us the view she had of the see-saw/swing and although it was a windy day – it wasn’t moving much.

The conversations were recorded on tape. JRP then went upstairs to see the rest of the house, and particularly the front bedroom. He managed to get E to tell him what was worrying her (on tape) about her bedroom, and particularly the area around her desk.

The phenomena reported during the visit were:

Sounds of rushing, and dripping water. Loud banging, coming from the eaves, and also doors banging and rattling as though being slammed with great force. On one occasion the door was found to be wide open, although it had been shut earlier. On another occasion Mr M had shut and locked the front door for the night. The couple heard a click, and on investigation, found the front door wide open.

The sound of the heavy footsteps are heard by all the family. E calls this ‘Mr Bigfoot’!

The sounds of a typewriter including the ‘ting’ of the bell at the end of the line.. even in the middle of the night.

One of the cats suddenly goes rigid and staring wide eyed growls at something behind Mrs M.

Neighbours reported that when they passed about 3 am, the whole house was lit up, and on one occasion only. The family were asleep and as far as they knew the lights were out.

The oldest boy was with his father on an occasion when they investigated the slamming of an upstairs door. The other two children slept through the noise. We did not meet the eldest boy. GT, when questioned by his parents the next day, said he thought he heard a door slamming.

We gave as much reassurance as we could and I suggested that the family should keep a diary of events in their home, which could be passed to us.

A look at the history of the area showed that there had been at least one mill in the area and various streams had fed the mill race. The ruins of one mill is the nearby park.

CONCLUSIONS

This seems to be a genuine case but the family has a lot of stress owing to the health of the children. One boy is a teenager, and we may have a case of poltergeist activity, which is often short-lived. The history of the site of the house is interesting and there are many ancient sites in the vicinity, even a possible burial mound in the back garden. Mrs M had found a arge pile of stones arranged in a mound, where she thought she would make a rockery. She decided not to. (I’m glad she did not).

On 10/9/00 I received a phone call from Mrs M thanking us for our help and saying they they felt a lot better about their situation. CM had given her phone number as she lives nearby. We have not heard from the family since.

Some material is confidential and not contained in this report.

 

The Scottish Society for Psychical Research.

This report has been anonymised. Names & details have been changed.

Permission to photocopy for education. Not for resale or profit.

Copyright the author.