This Paranormal Investigator Locked Himself In Britain's Most Haunted House And Lived True Terror
Britain's most haunted house sits at 30 East Drive in Yorkshire, and it’s the site of a poltergeist best known as the Black Monk of Pontefract. In the late '60s, the Pritchard family moved into the home and immediately began experiencing a haunting that didn’t let up until the day they moved out. Over the course of their stay in one of the few real haunted houses in the world, they experienced banging, things flying off the walls, and even a full body apparition.
There have been multiple paranormal researchers who have attempted to find scientific explanations behind this haunted house, but so far no one has been able to debunk the terrifying haunting that captured the imagination of Yorkshire, England. Paranormal investigator Nick Groff and his team spent 100 hours inside the house in order to find proof of the afterlife in Britain's Black Monk House and he not only managed to amass some very interesting evidence, but he may have come face to face with the entity.
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.