Back in 1996, several families on an estate in Manchester reported terrifying incidents of alleged poltergeist activity
Screengrab from the 1990s documentary series Ghosthunters: The Case of the Gorton Poltergeist
An alleged poltergeist haunting brought months of terror to residents of an estate in Manchester. The strange goings-on were so vivid, and similar stories were reported by so many tenants on the estate, that one housing officer was convinced that their experiences were genuine.
The story first appeared in the Manchester Evening News on July 13, 1996, in a report on the chilling apparitions and ghostly goings-on that were “terrorising families on a Manchester housing estate”. The story documented how at least four people living on the Peacock estate in Gorton had been “plagued by poltergeists”, resulting in one family being placed on the priority rehousing list.
Supernatural investigators from the Stockport Ghost Society were called in, who confirmed they believed something sinister was happening on the estate. Some of the affected families were said to be unwilling to talk to the press about their experiences because of fears they would be ridiculed and “branded cranks”.
However, couple Vincent and Amanda spoke to the M.E.N. about what had been happening.
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The pair, who had lived in Embleton Walk on the estate for about a year, said the problems were getting worse.
Vincent said that soon after they moved in, he woke in the night to find a child dressed in what appeared to be a Victorian christening gown standing in the bedroom doorway.
“I just froze with fear,” he said.
“When I recovered a bit, I turned to give Amanda a shake, but when I turned round again it had gone.”
Since then, the couple said they had been bombarded with psychic experiences.
“Something happens every day,” Amanda said.
One of the most disturbing incidents was when the couple heard their toddler crying and found a blanket that had been outside the cot placed over her head.
Gorton Poltergeist story that appeared in the Manchester Evening News on July 13, 1996
That day, their young daughter Chloe kept pointing at something on the floor and repeating: “Bad man, bad man.”
“That worried me, and I’m afraid to leave her in a room alone,” Vincent said.
The couple also described hearing dragging sounds and footsteps, while also noticing a foul stench they described as “like rotting flesh”.
They said their neighbours had also told them they had seen a child looking out of their living room window when they were out.
David Byrne, chairman of the Stockport Ghost Society, said members had been investigating strange happenings at four houses on the estate.
A medium brought in is said to have sensed “an evil presence” at one of the houses.
Other members of the Stockport Ghost Society are said to have witnessed apparitions. One was said to be a young teenager of about 14, while another said a girl of four or five squeezed her hand.
Mr Byrne said he had also been violently pushed by a ghostly hand at the top of some stairs after going to investigate the sound of something being dragged across the back bedroom floor.
The young couple had applied to be rehomed. The local council confirmed that three sets of tenants had approached the local housing office about ghosts, with one tenant asking to be rehoused.
A few weeks later, the M.E.N. followed up the story by reporting that Sandra Wills, a mum living on the estate, had turned detective to try and solve the mystery of the strange happenings that had been terrorising her daughter.
After researching at the local library, Sandra said she found out that her and her neighbours’ 1970s homes were built on the site of a chapel of rest.
Sandra, 41, and her 14-year-old daughter Lisa were said to have been terrorised by strange nightly disturbances since they moved into their two-bedroom home in Embleton Walk six months earlier.
“We found a 1904 map which shows the chapel of rest where our homes are now,” Sandra said.
“I don’t know if that’s why were are haunted, but nobody has come up with any other explanation.”
Episode from the 1990s documentary series Ghosthunters titled The Case of the Gorton Poltergeist
This could have been the end of the strange saga. However, the following year, the case was featured in the TV series Ghosthunters titled ‘The Case of the Gorton Poltergeist’.
Ghosthunters was a British documentary series that focused on the paranormal and ran for two years, producing 28 episodes.
The first person to appear in the documentary is a housing officer named Alan, who says: “There was no refuting it. There were two people that had told me hand on heart they had ghosts – a difficult thing to do. Approaching people in official positions to say something they could be ridiculed for.”
Several residents on the estate appear in the documentary, including Vincent (Vinny) and Amanda (Mandy), who had earlier spoken to the Manchester Evening News about the alleged haunting.
Standing on his doorstep holding his young daughter, Chloe, Vinny describes the distress she experienced due to the strange happenings: “Chloe’s very frightened. She’s a different child altogether since this has all been going on. She more or less refuses to go upstairs, especially of a nighttime. In the daytime, she’s not too bad but of a night time she will not go upstairs. She just stands at the bottom of the stairs screaming.”
Another couple, Pam and Tony, also appear in the programme. Speaking outside her home, Pam describes one of the strange incidents Tony experienced when switching off the television and lamp before bed.
Pam says: “He went down on his knees and turned the telly off, then turned the lamp off, and then went behind the television and turned it off and plugged it out, and he was in pitch, pitch black then. So he got up and everything came on full blast. The telly came on, the light came on, full blast. So he ran straight up the stairs, got me and said ‘Pam we’ve definitely got a ghost!'”
Tony adds: “I was just sat there watching telly. The dog was there mucking about, and then all of a sudden, like, he had a bone in his mouth and it was like someone was pulling on the other end of it, because he was pulling back. Nothing was there.” Earlier in the programme, Tony also revealed that an unseen force had thrown him off his feet.
Vinny tells the interviewer that there used to be a farmhouse on the land where he now lives, and that a sinister man who lived there used to hold children captive. Several residents revealed they had contacted the local priest but hadn’t received much help.
Later, the attention turns back to housing officer Alan, who says he started sceptical about the claims. But when so many other families living close by recounted similar experiences, he said by the end of the investigation he was convinced they were telling the truth.
The documentary’s narrator says their investigations revealed that the land the modern housing estate had once been rows of Victorian houses built to accommodate workers in the cotton mills. And before that, it was church land with a large burial ground, with another part of the land used for farming.
The programme ends with Tony, who tells the interviewer: “Basically you just can’t believe that things you’ve seen in movies and everything could happen to you. You think it’s all far fetched and you just sit down and watch it. Until it happens to you – then you know there is something out there.”