Danny Robins' 'Uncanny' Podcast Digs Deeper Into The Case Of A Poltergeist Haunting A Family Home In Stratford Upon Avon
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Photo: © Erik Mclean
Last week, Danny Robins introduced listeners of 'Uncanny' to James. He and his family experienced a potential poltergeist haunting in their nondescript 1920s terraced house in Stratford upon Avon that left them shaken and questioning their own senses.
In last week's episode, James told Danny about the origins of the haunting and left us on a cliffhanger. James had just described how one night he heard a series of terrifying unexplained noises, including glass smashing, banging, and furniture being overturned. The sounds suddenly stopped, leaving James and his mum petrified of what might come next.
In the latest episode, which is available to listen to on BBC Sounds now, James continues his story by telling listeners that when he checked the downstairs of the house, not only was it empty, but nothing had been damaged, smashed or even moved.
The inexplicable sounds and events continued, with James's father eventually sitting up all night in a rocking chair armed with a baseball bat, desperate to catch whoever was responsible. The family's distress eventually led to their separation, leaving James and his mother to face the haunting alone.
The family's nightmare took a turn for the worse when James's mother became obsessed with the idea that she couldn't be alone. As her mental health declined, she was eventually diagnosed with a brain tumour. The haunting seemed to slow down after she passed away, leaving James to wonder if the tumour was responsible for the strange occurrences.
However, other events could not be easily explained. James's visiting sister reported hearing their deceased mother's voice calling her from upstairs and seeing strange lights in the house just as James was finally moving out. James's cousin, who had lived in the house with the family for a short time, later took his own life, with his ex-girlfriend revealing that he had been terrified by something he had experienced in the house.
What The Experts Think
The chilling story of number 67 raises many questions about the nature of the haunting and the family's experiences. Was the poltergeist a manifestation of their collective fears, or were they the victims of a restless spirit?
Danny's experts, Professor Chris French and Evelyn Hollow, discussed various aspects of the haunting. Chris suggested that the noises the family heard might have come from elsewhere, and the family's interpretations of events could be affected by memory and emotions. He also pointed out that looking for a single explanation for all phenomena might be a mistake, and that James's mother's mental health could play a role in the family's experiences.
Evelyn focused on the seven-stage scale of poltergeist haunting, mentioning that destruction and voice phenomena were particularly unsettling. She emphasised the focus on the stairs as an area of interest and wondered why the alleged poltergeist baited them to come up and down the stairs. She also discussed the strange flashing lights in a house with no light bulbs and how this phenomenon happened only when they were leaving the house.
Overall, the experts entertained various possibilities, including genuine supernatural occurrences, infrasound, complex patterns of electromagnetic activity, and coincidences leading to strange experiences in the house. The haunting remains open to interpretation, with no single definitive explanation.
For now, the haunting of number 67 remains an unsolved and chilling tale that has left a lasting impression on James and his family, but next week, Danny delves into a familiar story, the case of Room 611.
More episodes of Radio 4's 'Uncanny' are available on BBC Sounds now and will also be broadcast on Saturday nights at 11:30pm on Radio 4 from April 8.
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