On the program, Dave Pellymounter told of how he came home
after work, placed his wallet in his coat pocket, which he hung in the hall and
went upstairs to clean himself up. When he came down, his wallet was no longer in
his coat pocket so he retraced his steps and looked to see if it had fallen
somewhere but to no avail. He decided to look all over the house and came to
find it under the marital bed, even though he had only visited the bathroom, so
it had gone from his coat pocket to under the bed.
The strange and eerie goings on tended to happen
downstairs, especially the hallway. Voices that were muttering would be heard
there and also rustling noises as if some invisible persons were walking through
the hallway.
Their 3 year old son, Alan, would be very afraid to walk
through the hallway and he would stand before it and just cry. The
Pellymounters called in a local vicar, Father Walker, who then called upon
Canon Harman, from the local Diocese to conduct an exorcism. The program showed Canon Harman performing the exorcism
and Dave Pellymounter said the temperature was very cold during the exorcism
and as it progressed, the temperature went back to normal.
I have seen this episode many years ago but unfortunately,
I’ve not been able to find this particular episode so if you know where I can
find a copy, let me know!
We now go onto the 2nd exorcism that happened
just half a mile and 7 years later from the above case. It was 1980 and a teenage
couple, Perry and Donna Bryce, lived on Melksham Close, Penhill. The young
couple said that the activity started as soon as they moved in with their 3
week old daughter. The first morning they were woken up by their dog howling
and their back door was being banged upon as though someone was trying to get
in the house. They also found that the loft door was fully opened and that the
door of their pantry had been ripped off its hinges.
A friend was in the kitchen with Donna and they were
making coffee when all of a sudden, loud banging on the back door was heard.
Again, it sounded as though someone was trying to get in the house. Both women
fled in pure fear!
The couple decided to sleep in the living room, with their
baby besides them, in a cot. As they lay there trying to go to sleep, the light
in the living room kept flashing on and off. As that was happening, a cassette
recorder was witnessed levitating and then thrown 10 feet towards the baby’s
cot.
The Bryce’s turned to the local council after the last
activity as they felt whatever this force was, it might hurt their baby
daughter. It was the council who said they would get an exorcism on the
property and would also rehouse the young couple.
It would appear rather strange that 2 houses within a half
mile of each other, had similar poltergeist activity. It might be suggested
that whatever had been on the land before, could have some reason as to why these
houses had poltergeist activity. The Penhill estate was built on farmland and
it had been owned by the Merton Oxford College estate at one time. There was
also a site of a well head on Inglesham Road, that supplied the water for
Arkells Brewery. Inglesham Road is not too far away from where the
Pellymounters lived. There may have been some cottages on the land for the farm
workers, that were knocked down when the estate was being built.
I did find 2 interesting and rather morbid accounts that
happened when the land was farmland. An inquest was held in 1866 on the death
of 19 year old Elizabeth Legg. Elizabeth had been working as a domestic servant
at the time of her death. She had put turpentine into an oven, for the purpose
of cleaning furniture. As she took the turps out of the oven, her clothes
caught fire. She had rushed outside, screaming and despite quick attendance in
putting out the flames, she was to die from severe burns, not long after the
accident. Her death was recorded as ‘Accidental Death’.
Another person was to lose their life on the farmland too.
It was in 1913, in the winter at around 5.45am, when a local man, Albert Kirby,
who was a carter, came across a dark object laying under a hedge on Penhill
Farm. Albert Kirby took a closer look at the object and was horrified to see it
was the body of a man, lying face down. Albert touched the body, and it was
very cold so he ran and sought the assistance of a police officer and when they
returned to where the dead body lay, a wagon was bought so the body could be
taken away to the mortuary at the local workhouse in nearby Stratton.
The body was recognised at the workhouse as Thomas Pert,
52 years of age and a watercress and mushroom vendor. Thomas Pert had no fixed
address and it had only been the week before, that he had stayed at the workhouse,
on the casual ward. Thomas had had a varied life, joining the Gloucester
Regiment as a young man but after a while, deserted the regiment. He had never
married and spent most nights sleeping rough, in barns, hedges and occasionally,
the workhouse. The cause of death was ‘Exposure’.
Could these untimely deaths
have anything to do with the poltergeist activity in both these houses? I’ll
leave that up to you to decide.
