The setting for this story is Hornsey, North London, the year is 1921. 8 Ferrestone Road was
the home of the Frost family, and the household was a busy one. It consisted of the elderly Mr.
and Mrs. Frost, their son Ivan Frost, his wife, their two adult sons, and the three orphaned
children of Ivan’s sister who had passed away in April of 1920 from tuberculosis. Her children
were Gordon, Bertie and Muriel Parker, who were 11, 9 and 5-years-old respectively.
By the time the Frost family made the national newspapers that year, they had, for some time,
according to them, been witness to an array of poltergeist activity within their home.
If the family’s accounts were to be believed, these events were both violent and relentless.
Furniture, candle sticks, food, and a flat iron were thrown about the house,
and young Gordon Parker was narrowly missed by a kitchen knife when it glided past him,
its blade them piecing a wall. Lumps of coal were also said to have been hurled from the fireplace.
In fact, the mystery surrounding the coal is where the Frost family’s story began.
It was New Years Day, 1921. An exceptionally cold winter had taken hold,
and Mr. Frost had just received his regular order of coal. When the fuel was stored in the cellar,
the family were alarmed when the unlit coal began to spit, hiss and move around. When placed
in the fire grate, the coal was flung from the hearth, hitting the walls and smashing windows.
Ivan Frost, believing that the coal must have been mixed with some kind of explosive,
called in the police and fire brigade. When both authorities investigated, they too witnessed it.
When speaking to journalists on January 31st, 1921, Mr. Frost said:
When the story of the Frost family’s plight went public, they were met with a great deal
of ridicule. Neighbours laughed at Mr. Frost’s descriptions, despite friends of the family and
authoritative figures attesting to have also witnessed the phenomenon. The Dundee newspaper,
The Sunday Post was particularly unsympathetic when they reported on Friday February 20th.
Making reference to the current political climate surrounding coal minors, they ended their report
by saying that even if Robert Smillie had entered the house, there would be no rise in coal.
It’s interesting that the coal aspect of this story has been the main focus historically,
with the case widely being known as the Hornsey Coal Poltergeist.
When you look at the entire story, though, one might say it was a minor factor.
There was a theory that disgruntled mine workers had mixed explosives with the coal;
something that was later proved false. This theory arose when, in 1921,
a woman was killed in her Guildford home when hot coal exploded from the grate. However,
this does not take into account the fact that the coal at the Ferrestone road was unlit. Nor does
it explain how the coal began to inexplicably reappear in the house once it had been moved to
the garden, even ascending several steps and reaching the upper floors of the building.
The coal aspect aside, we now come to Tuesday the 15th February.
According to Ivan Frost, this was the day everything went from bad to worse.
He said that that evening, Gordon Parker, his nephew was unwell, so he shared a bed with him
that night so he could watch over him. Gordon was shivering uncontrollably and then suddenly became
still and cold to the touch. That’s when rapping noises were heard coming from the next room
followed by three loud taps at the bedroom window. On investigation, nothing was found and the night
passed without further incident. It wasn’t until the next morning, when the family made
their way downstairs that they saw that the plates, cutlery and a pack of playing cards
had been thrown to the ground, although no sounds had woken them during the night.
After the mess was cleaned up and they all sat down to breakfast,
Ivan Frost said that the heavy mahogany table lifted, spilling the milk.
He said that the chair Gordon was seated on then rose two feet from the ground,
throwing him off, and then rose almost to the ceiling before falling to the ground.
The family sought the help of Reverend A.L. Gardiner of St. Gabriel’s Church in Wood Green.
According to the Nottingham Evening Post and other newspapers that covered the story,
the Reverend was more than a little vague when speaking on the matter;
simply stating that he had witnessed some strange occurrences within the house.
The editor of Occult Review magazine, Ralph Shirley, also spoke on the case. He said:
On Saturday February the 19th, large crowds gathered outside of 8 Ferrestone Road after it was leaked
that members of the Psychical Research Society were there. Police managed to move several large
groups on, but smaller groups hung around in the shadows until the late hours. Newspapers
reported that the Psychical Research Society had witnessed one of the boys levitating whilst seated
on a wooden chair, and had stated that they were confident that there was no trickery involved.
It’s often said that poltergeist activity is brought on when an adolescent person either
lives in or enters a home; that person having become the vessel for a malevolent spirit.
It's a theory that has been supported with evidence many times over the years. With this in mind, it
was decided that 11-year-old Gordon Parker would be moved away from the house. He was sent 82 miles away to the
coastal town of Broadstairs in Kent, in the hope that the activity would stop. It did die down, apparently,
but did not cease completely. When Gordon Parker returned in March, it was worse than before.
His sister, 5-year-old Muriel Parker, who up until this time, was said to have coped quite well
with the events, became anxious as her young mind tried to understand what was happening around her.
Then on April 3rd it was reported that a chair on which Muriel was seated, was hurled into the air,
throwing her to the ground. The incident caused her to bite her tongue. She became unwell after
this and struggled to cope. The family said that for a period of nine days she got progressively
worse. Sadly, Muriel Parker died on Thursday, March 31st 1921. After an examination, a doctor
said that meningitis had been the cause, but nerve strain had almost certainly accelerated her death.
Muriel’s uncle, Ivan Frost, who was convinced that the haunting was directly
responsible for her death. He said:
While the family looked for a new home, Gordon and Bertie Parker went
to stay with some friends of the family in Brockley, South London.
On April 30th it was reported that Gordon had suffered a seizure while in Brockley
and been taken to Lewisham Hospital where he was visited by Reverend Gardiner. It’s said that
doctors could find nothing wrong with the young man, although an earlier conversation between
young Gordon and Reverend Gardiner was revealed in the press at this time. According to the Reverend,
Gordon had told him some weeks earlier that he’d felt a sensation within.
As if a pen was writing inside him. The words written were ‘Amen. Bad luck to you’. This was
followed by a feeling of light passing through him. Gordon said this is when the haunting began.
But there was another revelation; an experience that Gordon and Bertie said they had shared.
They told the family that one night their late mother had appeared to them in their bedroom
dressed in red. Even before the boys’ story was told, the notion that their
mother may have been somehow involved in the haunting had crossed the family’s minds.
However, Bertie’s grandmother said that it could not have been her daughter,
because she wouldn’t have communicated in such a violent manner.
The origins of the 1921 haunting are open to debate.
The most commonly accepted theory amongst paranormal investigators
is comparable to a horror movie cliché, and lies in the grounds of Ferrestone Road itself.
The road and its houses had been built on a 700-year-old old burial ground in the early
1900s. The last of the dead were interred there only a few years earlier in 1894, despite an
1882 order prohibiting new burials. This order was ignored due to the amount of deceased poor people
in the area who clearly could not afford to be interred at the nearby Highgate Cemetery.
If you take a look around the vicinity of Ferrestone Road and nearby St. Mary’s Church,
you will clearly see grave sites scattered close to public footpaths,
the boundaries of private back gardens, and indeed in the gardens themselves.
In 1999 the late David Farrant of the British Psychic and Occult Society paid a visit to
8 Ferrestone Road and spoke to Pauline Taylor, the then occupant. She said that during the 18 months
she’d lived there, she had discovered some old headstones just below the earth in the garden,
and after some light digging, even uncovered some steps, which she believed led into an old crypt.
Pauline Taylor also mentioned the strange experiences she had since living there;
like extreme changes in temperature, and, more significantly, an odourless plume of smoke
which she said rose from the floor of the living room, but did not disperse; rather it imploded.
This visit was documented by David Farrant in a 14-minute video, some of which I will show here.
Pauline, can I just ask you first, how long have you actually lived in
in the house here? - Only 18 months. And Iunderstand there's been some quite weird goings on to put in mildly?
- Oh definitely, yes. My cat picks up on it, not me so much. But, uh, when we started digging the garden
we came across this stone here. And if you dig actually down, it's a flight of stairs.
We got down to about four stairs and then we stopped. - I gather we
are actually standing on an old, what seems to be an old graveyard, which is part of a
ruined church just over in the distance. - Definitely. Well, there's actually an old grave there
but it hasn't actually got the top on it. But it's half in my garden and half in next door's.
My neighbours on the other side have actually found headstones in their garden, so yeah. - Did it have any inscriptions when they found it?
'The Reverend John Smith and Family' Like, this actually goes back.
Everybody kept telling me it was probably something from the war, probably, but I don't think it is.
Because we actually put water in there. - Yeah. And, um, it went and went and went and went
for about eight hours, and we never ever found out where the level was. - Right.
So I think this could probably be an old crypt, but uh. - Just going back to what you said about war, something from the war.
Wasn't there a date on this headstone that they found? - Yeah, it was the 1800s.
Well, it couldn't really, that sort of rules out that particular grave. - Well, the thing is that the
only thing that could have happened is when they dropped the bombs on Hornsey Station.
Shrapnel. But I mean, I don't actually see how a whole headstone... - Yeah. could actually come to light.
This next clip shows Mr. Farrant and Pauline inside the house,
and while talking, rapping noises can be heard. Now it can’t be ignored that during the opening
seconds of the first clip I showed, there were loud noises coming from a neighbouring house,
so it would be fair to argue that the noises heard in the next clip could be coming from the same
place; something that David Farrant is quick to acknowledge in the video. But he later wrote in his
2014 blog that all the people present that day felt extremely unnerved by the sounds.
In case you’d like to view the entire video, I’ll leave a link in the description.
Well, in the 1920s this would be a family house, whereas now it's been split into four flats.
But this whole floor was one room, so I should imagine the ground floor was probably the cellars,
upstairs were the bedrooms, but this was sort of a dining room-cum-kitchen.
Of course, that wall wouldn't have been there then, would it.
So, I mean, I've got a living room, bathroom and a kitchen so...
Yeah that's interesting, because you said about the other corner we were talking about just now,
but didn't you say there's also something in the hallway out there? - Yeah. In the hallway,
I mean there there's a cold spot there which is continuous. I mean the only person who picks
up on that is the cat. - That's where the cat used to sit, and its hairs used to rise up on its neck?
It doesn't seem to bother it so much now, I think it's got used to it
As you said, it's probably, without being frivolous...
a friendly ghost. - I think it is now. I mean I know, like, the the house was exorcised years ago.
But, I mean, there's never a problem now. - One thing I mentioned, because I'm not quite
clear on this; you know when the vicar was called in back in the 1920s? Were there any
further problems, to your knowledge, after he finished the [inaudible]? - Nobody knows. Nobody knows.
It would be rather difficult to find out, then, wouldn't it?
Well unless... - All we can do is talk to people in the present time. We can't go back in time and ask.
Well, I mean, unless anybody was living around here at that time, but I don't know of anybody.
I just wanted to... I think we've gone over most things, but is there anything else at all you
can think of that's happened? - Not really. You know, I mean, other than sometimes it's very
cold but I don't really take any notice of that. I mean, as long as I don't get any
aggravation. Which I don't, I mean... I like the place. I mean, it's um.
It's a question of... that you've learned to live with it. Would that be fair to say? - Well, obviously yeah... I'd like to know what that noise was.
Probably the ghost! - That's why I stopped. I'm just presuming it's somebody outside doing some work in the garden.
While I was reading about this case, I did wonder if there had been reports of a haunting at the
house prior to 1921. So I made contact with Della Farrant, the widow of David, and author
of 2014's Haunted Highgate, which features the Ferrestone Road case. According to her own
investigations, there was another uncannily similar incident at a house in the same area in 1915.
The only vague notes from the time mention ornaments being knocked from shelves, tapping and
crashing noises, and an incident involving a knife which was found with its blade buried in a door.
It's unknown if the house in question was 8 ferrestone Road, as the full 1915
investigation was never archived. If you're wondering about hauntings and experiences at
the house since 1999, you're not alone. I couldn't find anything after David Farrant's investigation,
but i did attempt to contact the current occupants on the 13th of November 2021.
At the time of the final edit of this video, which is the 27th of December, I haven't had a response.