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# FORUM # HOMEPAGE # Paranormal News # Haunted Nottingham # Haunted Derby # Haunted Ilkeston # Information Desk # Investigations |
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September 1982 |
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Ilkeston Own Amityville - Hawthorn House |
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NEARLY
a century ago, so local legend has it, a man named Hugh Crane had a
house built at He called it Hill
House and moved in with his young wife. Little is known of Mr. Crane,
but the legacy he left Ilkeston will be spoken of for many, many years.
It is' believed that tragedy first struck when his wife was killed in a
coaching accident outside the front door of the house. He re-married,
but his second wife, we're told, was killed when she fell down the
stairs. Crane married again.
But it is said that his third wife out lived him only to die at the
hands of a knifeman inside the house. Since then the locals have lived
in fear of the house which was renamed, Hawthorne House. Forty years ago five
men and a woman went inside to try to cure the deathly air. The woman
died during the attempt. A few years ago, as a relief road for the town
was planned, the house was purchased by Derbyshire County Council.
They intend to demolish it when the road is finally built, but
have been letting it to tenants. The latest man to
rent it is Mr. Owen Davies, 35, a technician and ex-Royal Marine. But he
swears that after recent events he will never set foot in. Since moving in a
year ago he says he has experienced things that would send weaker man
insane At His girlfriend, Elaine Short, says something inside that house
nearly killed her. She too will never tread its floors again. They hadn't been
there long when lights began to go on and off of their own accord. Then
Owen awoke one night to hear a thumping sound downstairs. Thinking it
was the damper on the open fire he went to investigate. At first he saw
nothing a miss But then he looked at the back door of the house. The
recess of the Yale lock had been torn off. The door also had a pad lock,
but this was untouched. If the noise had been someone trying to break in
then the padlock would have given way.
But it hadn't Owen had to reason that that the damage had been
caused by someone - or something - trying to break out. From that day things
rose to a horrifying crescendo that to neither he nor Elaine would ever
forget. Once, Owen found handles from internal doors strewn across the
floor.
At a Christmas party
fruit-bowl filled with nuts suddenly rose unaided from the sideboard and
blew itself to pieces, scattering the nuts everywhere.
Soon after this incident Elaine saw the ghost of a Victorian
woman on the stairs Later she saw the same ghost behind one of the glass
doors in the kitchen. "She
was small-waist wearing what looked like a
crinoline dress and a pointed hat," she said. It was the
night after that second sighting that Elaine's terror began in earnest. She was in the
downstairs bathroom washing her hair. All of a sudden coldness came on
to the back of my neck," she said, "and all of a sudden it
pushed my head under water I
managed to get my hands or it
either side of the
sink and force
myself up,
but this mighty push
came down again. Then it went warm I knew she had gone." Elaine walked into
front room where she found trail of tobacco along the shelve and
cigarettes had been
snapped in half and scattered around the floor. "Then, the most
chilling thing of all. She
heard a woman giggling and ornamental birdcage in the room began
swaying. In the pantry a
packet cornflakes had been scattered on the floor. "I grabbed hold
of the Canon's arm," she said, "and had a violent shaking
bout. As though she was trying to part my back and get in me." He went downstairs and as the
screaming continued, as trays and a letter rack were "wriggling
about" on a shelve and a transistor radio was missing from
a table. With
screaming still ringing in his ears, he opened the pantry door and it
suddenly stopped When he closed the door the secreaming started and when
he went to the from room he saw something he will never forget: “an
potted plant and a vase of artificial plants were moving through midair
and swapping places on top of a storage heater Panicking he bolted for
the door. They key was missing. He raced to the back door, but found
that bunch of keys missing too, he tried the only window that would open
but that was tightly shut. On the point of throwing a chair through the
window in a last desperate bid to escape he remembered the advice of Rev
Robertson and said a prayer, but the screaming continued until 6 am “I sat up all night with cotton wool in my ears,” he said Owen is convinced
that the source of the disturbance is the ground floor pantry or the
cellar under it. Whatever the secret of Hawthorne House is, the people
of Ilkeston are aware that danger lurks there. Old people talk of it as
a place to be avoided and Owen Davies has joined their ranks: "I
want nothing more to do with it," he said.
The
article was written well before the Inner Ring Road was built, Also its
been reported another family did stay in the house, but experienced
nothing, though this time they had children and they do claim a few
unexplained things did happen.
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