Spend A Night With The Black Monk of Pontefract

There are a number of famous cases of haunting that captured the imagination of the population and received widespread media coverage in the 1970s, such as the Enfield Poltergeist and the haunting of the Lutz family at Amityville. Both formed the inspiration for a number of books and TV / Film adaptations that helped to cement their place in the collective consciousness and would go on to define the general public’s conceptions of modern day hauntings. Included in this group of paranormal incidents was the events that plagued the Pritchard family of 30 East Drive, Pontefract, West Yorkshire in 1974, and their haunting by the entity which became know as The Black Monk of Pontefract.

A series of unexplained events including flying plant pots, objects jumping out of cupboards and mysterious gusts of wind led to the belief that the house was visited by a poltergeist. The source of the haunting became known as The Black Monk of Pontefract. The house was built close to the site of the long-gone town gallows. One of the more famous criminals put to death there was the author Tom Cuniff, a 16th century monk who was found guilty and was hung to death for the rape and murder of a girl. It is his spirit that is thought to be that of the black monk.

In fact events at the house were so startling that the house gained the reputation for having the most violent poltergeist in Europe. The jury’s still out on whether or not that’s the case, but certainly we must assume that the house didn’t gain this notoriety for nothing. The events at 30 East Drive also inspired a film interpretation in the spooky British chiller “When The Lights Went Out” which was released in 2012.

Against this backdrop the house has been the source of further hauntings and a number of paranormal investigations. The famed UK paranormal investigation series Most Haunted shot a show about the haunting, during which time a number of strange and unnerving events happened to the cast and crew whilst filming at the house. The shoot was plagued by strange noises, banging and the unexplained movement of objects, making it a chilling episode.

The most recent investigation at the house was carried out by the Paranormal investigator Gary Johnston, who spent the night alone in the building in an attempt to prove the existence of the poltergeist. How did Gary get on? Well, you can watch the video below and join him for a night alone in the house with the reputation of being violently haunted, if you dare…