This Paranormal Investigator Locked Himself In Britain's Most Haunted House And Lived True Terror
The History Of The House Makes It Ripe For Hauntings
While investigating the haunting of the Pritchard family, paranormal researcher Tom Cuniff uncovered a whole mess of reasons as to why the Pritchard family's home could be haunted. First, he discovered that the home itself was built on top of a battleground, which is basically code for "a site where people died violent deaths."
If that weren't enough to make the house ghost headquarters, Cuniff found even more horrible things in the home's past to ensure that it would become the Grand Central Station of paranormal activity. Not only was the house a makeshift burial ground, but the land it was built on stood directly across from the town's gallows. And that's still not it. History piled on even more horrific circumstances surrounding the house: in the 16th century, a monk was executed in the gallows for raping and murdering a young girl. And that is how you get a super haunted house.
The Pritchard Family Thought The Entity Was Friendly And Gave Him A Name
The haunting at 30 East Drive in Pontefract began in 1966, when small paranormal events began to occur to the Pritchard family just after they moved in. Chalk dust floated from the sky, pools of water formed on the floor, the lights flickered on and off - all classic haunted house stuff, but nothing too alarming. The family actually felt that the presence was a kind ghost and not some malevolent creature that was trying to harm them. The Pritchard family even started calling the creature "Fred." That all changed when paranormal investigators showed up looking to research the eerie events.
Once investigators started trying to figure out what was happening, Fred began to lash out. Fred allegedly dragged one of the Pritchard family's daughters up a flight of stairs, and the ghost even was said to wear a woman's fur coat and gloves while spooking people out. The weird and terrifying haunting of the Pritchard family went on for years and it didn't stop until they finally got fed up with the paranormal activity and moved out of the house.
The Entire Town Knew About The Black Monk
Many hauntings are so hard to prove not only because of a lack of evidence, but because they're also only seen by a few people. That's not the case with the Black Monk haunting from the late '60s. Everyone in the Pritchard family knew that their house was haunted. They were seeing creepy shadows walking through their home at night and Joseph Pritchard even allegedly saw a spirit wearing robes floating over his bed one night. But they weren't the only people who witnessed the haunting. The local police, an MP (member of parliament), and the vicar (church bishop), all saw variations on the haunting and corroborated the family's claims. If that wasn't enough, it was said that the Pritchard's home put off a faint glow at night. You don't get much more haunted than that.
Nick Groff Was Drawn To The Pritchard's Home To Save His Own Family From A Haunting
The host of Paranormal Lockdown and respected paranormal researcher Nick Groff claims that he was drawn to Britain's most terrifying haunted house because he felt that it held the key to exorcising a spirit haunting his own family. Groff believes that after investigating the Hinsdale House in New York, an entity followed him home and began to wreak havoc on his life. While attempting to perform a cleansing ritual on his home, one of his ghost hunting gadgets said "Pontefract." While that could have been a simple coincidence, it's hard to ignore the synchronicity of a man investigating a ghost in his home and one of the most haunted houses in history. Groff decided to investigate the Yorkshire home, hoping that it would provide closure for him and his family.
Groff Knew That Something Was Off With The House Immediately
Rather than just take a day trip to the most haunted house in Yorkshire, Groff and his research partner Katrina Weidman opted to stay in the house for 100 straight hours. Not only would this give them ample time to fully research the haunting, but it would also give the entity some time to ramp up its paranormal activity. Groff didn't need to wait long for anything to happen - he said he could feel something negative the moment he and Weidman got to the house.
"Right when we stepped on the property it felt different. There's an energy about it. When you take a step into that location it's haunting, it really is, without anything really even occurring you just feel it, you feel the energy and the sense that something is there lurking in the shadows."
The Monk Started Off Playful... And Then Got Nasty
Once inside the Pritchard house, Groff attempted to have a nice chat with the ghost. After taking some initial readings, he reached out to the Monk and asked if the entity would move a ball, and it did. This led Groff to believe that the entity was a kind spirit, if not ambivalent to his presence.
But then things changed. Within a few hours the ghost began to knock things off the wall of the home and made the crew feel nauseous. When Groff realized that something was off, he began to ask the ghost questions and the temperature in the home began to drop.
The Black Monk Spoke In Latin To Groff And His Team
After it became obvious that the ghostly monk wasn't interested in playing nice with Groff, the paranormal investigator set out to understand why the entity was tormenting him. The spirit knocked a clock off the wall on the second story and after Groff repeatedly asked the ghost to do it again, nothing happened. Groff pulled out his trusty EVP recorder and began asking the entity questions. When he asked, "Do you need a lot of energy [to move things]?" Groff slowed down his recorder and discovered that the spirit was speaking Latin to him through his recorder, specifically the word "desperata" which translates to "hopeless." You can hear the creepy recording here.
The Monk Kicked Up The Scares A Notch With Violence
It wasn't long before Groff and Weidman began to get a full taste of the haunting provided by the Black Monk of Pontefract. There were the bumps in the night and slamming doors that are standard with this kind of case, but the entity took things to a new level when it began to attack the ghost hunters sleeping in its home. Doors started slamming and the ghost hunters managed to film a shadowy figure walking through the home. This is when the ghost became violent.
Weidman seems to have taken on most of the brunt of the creature. She says that throughout her time in the house, she felt like something was constantly weighing her down and that she felt like she was stuck in quicksand. She also claims to have been scratched by an entity while exploring the house. And then there was the knife that something left on the stairs. Was it a warning to Groff and Weidman? Or had someone simply forgotten to put away the cutlery?
The Black Monk Was Caught On Camera
In 2016, another ghost hunter did some snooping around the Black Monk's home and ended up coming away with some truly creepy evidence. Claire Cowell, another paranormal investigator, says that she's been in the home multiple times. On her trip in late 2016, however, the Black Monk decided to make itself known for some reason. She and her team witnessed marbles being thrown down the stairs before hearing a series of bangs around the house. Cowell and her team stuck around for a few hours, but it wasn't until the end of the night that the ghost showed itself. While getting a glass of water, Cowell heard something at the top of the stairs and went to investigate, she took a photo of the dark staircase and it wasn't until she looked at the photo that she realized she'd captured visual proof a paranormal entity.
"The arm you can see in the photo is not a solid form – it looks like mist and is very strange but you can see the sleeve of a robe hanging down. There is something which looks like rosary beads in his hand dangling down. It really is the only solid picture we have ever really caught of the monk up until now."
Does Anyone Live In The House?
Whether or not you believe in ghosts or poltergeist activity, you have to admit that something very strange is happening in this house. And as interesting as it would be to conduct a 100 hour paranormal investigation of the home, living there would be another story. British advertising maven Bil Bungay anticipated the concept of haunted tourism so he purchased the Yorkshire home and turned it into a destination B&B of sorts where you can stay if you feel like being tortured by a ghost for the evening.
Bungay allegedly won't stay in the home, but that didn't stop him from producing the 2012 film When The Lights Go Out - a horror movie loosely based on the Black Monk case. Even if you do fancy yourself a paranormal investigator, Bungay insists that you don't stay the night. The home's website reads: “30 East Drive, Pontefract is NOT a traditional guesthouse, a Hotel or a B&B: It isn’t catered for, you won’t be covered by insurance and frankly, the owner DOES NOT recommend that you stay here.”
