Hello and welcome back to Wyrd Wessex! It's your host, Craig, joined by Andy, who is currently being banished to a cold shed for the sake of good audio. Today we're diving deep into the world of poltergeists and hauntings, and let's just say, the dedication for this episode is palpable—you can practically see Andy's breath!
The Durweston Poltergeist
My story takes us back to the late 1800s in a village called Durweston, near Blandford. Here lived a kind widow, Mrs. Best, who was plagued by unexplained knocks and disturbances in her cottage. The activity soon escalated, with floating objects like seashells and thimbles and even a boot that literally knocked a man's hat off his head.
When the Society for Psychical Research got involved, things took a turn for the bizarre. During a séance, an entity was asked to communicate by writing on a slate. To the amazement of the witnesses, the pencil began to write the words "money" and "garden" on its own! The disturbances eventually followed one of the foster children, Anne Cleave, before a doctor diagnosed her with a "hysterical" tendency.
The Penhill Hauntings
Andy brings us to a more modern, and frankly, terrifying, series of hauntings in Swindon's Penhill estate. Built in the 1950s on land that was once a brewery's water source, this area has a consistent history of poltergeist activity on two specific streets: Westbury Road and Melchon Close.
In 1973, a young couple, Dave and Cheryl Pellymounter, reported a chair being thrown across the room and dummies going missing and reappearing. Their case was so well-known that an exorcism was actually televised by the BBC! Later, in 1980, another couple on a nearby street claimed a levitating cassette player nearly killed their three-week-old baby. The council believed their story, agreeing to rehome them and perform an exorcism.
What's really fascinating is that this wasn't just a one-off thing. We found multiple other reports from the same two streets spanning from the 60s all the way to the 2000s, with reports of things being thrown, and people even being scratched and pinched by an unseen force.
Our Verdict: Pop Culture, Psychokinesis, or Bullsh*t?
This episode sparked a big debate for us. We noticed that a lot of these famous poltergeist cases, from the Durweston story to the Penhill hauntings, seem to revolve around young girls, children, or new families. We discussed the theories of psychokinesis, where stress or hormones could cause objects to move, and the influence of pop culture like The Exorcistand Poltergeist on people's perceptions.
We're both leaning towards the skeptical side, with the possibility of "baby brain" or just an overactive imagination, but we can't completely dismiss the fact that so many people in the same small area reported similar experiences over decades.
Wyrd News!
Most Haunted Holiday: Did you know that a recent study named Dorset as the most haunted holiday destination in the country? Apparently, the county has 18 prominent ghost stories, beating out places like Norfolk and the Cotswolds.
The Pink Pond: A pond in Hawaii has mysteriously turned bright pink, and while it's not toxic algae, officials are concerned. The leading theory is an organism called halobacteria thriving in the water's super-high salinity due to a drought.
Bonus News: We also couldn't resist talking about a very weird-looking, bubbling green slime that appeared in a New York City sewer. It turned out to be dye used by workers, but it made for a great visual!
Coming Soon: A Christmas Special!
We're excited to announce that we'll be back soon for a special Christmas episode! We're bringing on our very first guest, Jimmy the Welsh Viking, who does ghost walks in York. He'll be sharing some Christmas-related paranormal stories, and we'll have a few festive Wyrd News stories for you, too.