The Enfield Poltergeist: A Real Life Ghost Story That Will Give You the Chills

There exists, in this world, a large number of unexplained events that truly shake us when they hit the public eye. Demons, ghosts, or perhaps pure hoax? Perhaps the most terrifying of these famous tales is the Enfield haunting. Ghost or hoax? You decide.

The Enfield Poltergeist (or sometimes referred to as Haunting) is a title given to a phenomenon that occurred between 1977 and 1979, primarily surrounding two girls in Brimsdown, Enfield, England and has appeared in many documentaries subsequent to the events and was even the inspiration (loosely) for The Conjuring 2. Maurice Grosse and writer Guy Lyon Playfair of the Society for Psychical Research and many others believe this haunting to be genuine, while others still remain unconvinced; either way, the events that took place on 284 Green Street are positively chilling to this day and the victims of this haunting remain steadfast in their story.

This story begins in late August of 1977 when Peggy Hodgson thought that she heard two of her children, Margaret and Janet, "roughhousing." When she went to check on them though, the two girls were huddled in a corner in absolute terror claiming they had witnessed a dresser moving. The mother thought they were lying until moments later, to her own horror, the dresser moved towards the door. She pushed on it herself and could not budge it, and that is when she began to suspect there may be some truth to her daughters’ story. The family fled from their home to the home across the street belonging to the Nottinghams, where Vic Nottingham decided to inspect. He confirmed he heard strange noises from the home when he went in, and no one seemed to be able to explain the events which would soon escalate.

The police were called that evening to the home, and one of the officers even claimed to have seen a chair move. It wasn’t long before the police determined this was “not a police matter,” and vacated the premise, leaving the family to deal with the events in their home alone. This was only the beginning of a nearly 18-month long, unrelenting nightmare that would continue to deliver terror after terror to countless witnesses.

After seeing countless supernatural events occur in her home, Peggy contacted the Daily Mirror, a popular U.K. newspaper, and they quickly dispatched a reporter and photographer to investigate. For hours, the house remained silent until the reporter and his photographer were getting ready to leave, entirely unconvinced of the phenomena occurring in the home when a Lego brick struck the photographer, leaving a mark. Maurice Grosse of the Society for Psychical Research was soon sent to the home to verify if the events were a mere hoax. He was shocked at what he would discover in his investigations.

Activity continues to escalate with the spiritless shy to perform than before. Grosse has claimed that he bore witness to more than 2,000 events in the home including levitation, fires igniting, furniture turning over and even disembodied voices; a good deal of these events captured on audio tape and film. During Grosse’s time in the home, Janet also began to speak in a low voice, claiming to be a man named Bill Wilkins, asserting that he had died in the home years before. As it was later proven, Bill Wilkins indeed was a resident of the home and had, in fact, passed away in their very own living room. Even Ed and Lorraine Warren, famous demonologists recognized by the Catholic Church, spent some time in the house and claim to have witnessed supernatural activity occur.

Janet and Margaret were caught faking some of the activity by investigators, but admitted it was to “see if they would be caught,” (like typical children) and have maintained that every time they faked it, they were caught, but that the majority of the activity was real. The other events still remain largely unexplained. Hoax or not, these events began to taper off and the family was eventually free from the haunting, however, have always said that it has stuck with them throughout the years and that they can never be free from the memory of those supernatural events that took place on 284 Green Street all those years ago.If you are not scared yet than you may one want to check out some of my other articles: "Top 10 Usual Deaths Throughout History" or "How to Tell if Your Neighbor Is a Vampire?"Finally, if you enjoy my tales from the dark side than please feel free to show your girl some love with a Tip! You can below... Don't be SCARED! Thank you for reading!