The Enfield Poltergeist

In August 1977 Peggy Hodgson called the police after her children reported furniture moving and knocking on the walls. A police officer signed a statement saying she saw a chair slide across the floor. Journalists from the Daily Mirror soon followed, and photographer Graham Morris captured images of Janet apparently being thrown across a bedroom.

Maurice Grosse and Guy Lyon Playfair of the SPR spent months at the house. They recorded a deep, rasping voice which seemed to come from Janet and claimed to be an elderly man who had died in the house. The recordings remain unsettling to hear.

Other researchers, including SPR members Anita Gregory and John Beloff, believed the girls were sometimes playing tricks. Janet and her sister were caught bending spoons and banging a broom on a ceiling, and Janet later said that a small proportion of events were faked, while insisting others were real.

Enfield inspired books, documentaries and films. It is a reminder that a frightened family, intense media attention and genuine uncertainty can all exist in the same house at once.