“A haunted house at the top of your street is fantastic,” says Pontefract resident Caroline Gibson.
While not everyone would agree with her, Caroline and other residents of the town’s East Drive have embraced the paranormal activity for which one property there has become infamous.
The street in Pontefract, a town more famous for the liquorice treat named after it than its ghostly activity, is certainly not your typical setting for a ghost story.
The residential road is made up of former council homes dating back to the 1950s and a community centre built in 2004. It hardly provides the ingredients for a haunting horror tale that will leave you sleeping with the lights on.
But legend has it an aggressive poltergeist lives at number 30, an otherwise nondescript semi, with reports of strange activity dating back to the 1960s.
The house is already popular with paranormal investigators and ghost-hunting tourists, but a new BBC podcast telling the story of 30 East Drive has brought the mystery to a new audience.
Caroline Gibson has lived just a few doors down from the property for the last five years and is a firm believer.
“When we first moved here I walked past and it did look like there was a child stood in the window,” the 36-year-old recalls.
Caroline has never been inside the house, but its owner Bil Bungay – who has written a book and even produced a film on its legend – says he has welcomed hundreds of visitors through its doors.
Bil admits he was a “rabid sceptic” until experiencing a paranormal experience inside the property.
While washing up, he says he turned to see an object hurling towards his head, smashing against the wall behind him.
“That was the turning point for me,” he says, still able to remember the event in 2016 to the exact day, a Sunday.
“It was real and it was crazy.”
The house has not been occupied since 2001. Bil bought it in 2012 and has never lived there himself, but the film-maker maintains the 1970s aesthetic and lets the property to ghost-hunters for overnight stays or day visits.
Other more recent reports of unusual goings-on include people being scratched, pushed and hearing the sound of a “demonic growl”, says Bil, who only visits during the daytime.
