The UK's very own answer to The Amityville Horror!
There are quite a few web-sites that feature this story but most of the details have been purposely kept secret to sell the book about the 'haunting', called 'Testimony'....of which I own a very tatty copy salvaged from a car-boot sale for 99p!
"For Liz and Bill Rich, two people trying to rebuild their lives, the house symbolized a new beginning, a haven in an enchanted landscape. But within weeks of their arrival, the enchantment turned to horror, and their blessed home became a malevolent prison.
Footsteps thundered along empty landings, apparitions inhabited deserted rooms; possessions flew, furniture moved. Bill's business collapsed; his son retreated into a blood-red hell, uttering demonic curses in a rasping, guttural, alien voice. The house consumed enough electricity for an office block.
Christians, spiritualists, dowsers and plain eccentrics tried to exorcize whatever malign influence had the house in its grip; each had a different theory, from unquiet spirits and ley lines, to a force from ancient Egypt. But each time the horror seemed to recede it returned, inexplicably...
This is a true account of what one family, and those around them, saw and heard and experienced. Read it - and decide what you believe.
And then try to sleep..."
Vista. PB: £4.99. ISBN: 0-575-60078-0
More information and an interview with the author ~
http://www.geocities.com/SoHo/Museum/5845/something.html
and another angle on this story is ......
'Seven years ago, a family moved into an old, remote farmhouse in the Brecon Beacons, a dreary section of the Welsh countryside. Bill and Liz Rich were impressed with the amazingly low rent being offered for the house, paying no attention to rumors that it was built atop an ancient graveyard. The house had a name, like all truly scary houses do. It was called "Heol Fanog," which means "Road to the Peaks." The Rich family was indeed about to embark down a road of sorts... but their destination was along a decidedly downward slope.
After a few months of peace and tranquillity in their new home, the Riches began to notice strange occurrences. The first took place as Mr. Rich, seated on his downstairs toilet, heard footsteps like hobnailed boots pounding across the landing. Soon afterward, the family claims, doors were slamming shut and objects were moving around of their own volition. Areas of extreme cold and terrible odours manifested themselves out of nowhere, and then vanished.'
Terrible odours?
Sounds like my hubbie
'The Riches' pets were next to be afflicted by Heol Fanog. Their dog, Bill, and their cat, Sheena, both went insane. Their goat, Lulu, trampled one of her kids to death. Their pig, Lucinda Ragwort Rigland, suddenly died for reasons that are just as mysterious as her name, and so did their guinea pig. Presumably, this death-stricken menagerie had nothing to do with the aforementioned bad smells.
Mr. Rich's 15-year-old son, Laurence, is thought to have become possessed by the house's evil. He grew obsessed with watching horror movies locked inside his bedroom, whose walls were painted blood red. The Riches finally sent Laurence off to live at a boarding house, hoping the separation could "save his soul."
Mrs. Rich said she twice spotted an apparition that looked like their landlord's mother. Mr. Rich saw a beautiful ghost he called the Spirit of Seduction, and a horrible seven-foot birdlike creature that resembled the Egyptian god Horus, which he thought was an embodiment of Satan. The couple also believed that the evil spirits of Heol Fanog consumed electricity, resulting in enormous power bills which the family refused to pay.
The Riches wanted to leave the house, but felt they couldn't afford more than the dirt-cheap rent they were paying there. So they commissioned a number of exorcisms and aura cleansings by priests and spiritualists, but nothing could vanquish the sinister presence. A psychic who investigated the house thought it was haunted by the victim of a 200-year-old murder. Another theory maintained that the Anti-Christ was channeling malevolent forces up from the ley lines that converged beneath the home's lavatory.
Mr. and Mrs. Rich wrote a book about their experiences, entitled "Testimony," and allowed the BBC to film a documentary called "Power Hungry Ghost." On the eve of the book's publication and the broadcast of the show, the Riches were dealt a final ultimatum:
"GET OUT."
This was a voice that the Rich family could not treat with the cavalier disregard to which they had grown accustomed. For the true identity of this speaker was beyond question:
"GET OUT. NOW."
This command was issued by the son of a spirit that haunted the house... the man who possessed in its entirety the cursed earth of Heol Fanog:
"YOU IDIOTS HAVE BEEN EVICTED."
This was voice of the landlord.
Phil Holbourn, the very much alive owner of the property, chose to give the Riches two months' notice to vacate. Holbourn's lawyer says that it was not an eviction, and that the book and documentary had nothing to do with the decision. Mr. Rich believes otherwise.
"The landlord has told me enough is enough," he says. "He does not like the publicity, obviously, because it is not in his interest. But I want to run away from this place." One has to wonder why Rich endured seven years of hell before arriving at that conclusion. Was it a noble self-sacrifice to spare other prospective tenants the ordeal of Heol Fanog?
"The truth has to come out, not least to protect future residents," Rich believes. "There should be a law against letting a property with a history of haunting."
There should also be a law against whining about your choice not to vacate such a godforsaken place. Until Holbourn gave them the boot, the only thing the Riches were interested in moving was their book.'
by D. Trull
Source: Electronic Telegraph.
© Copyright 1996 ParaScope, Inc
http://www.markchadbourn.com/extracts/testimony.htm
So....whaddya think?
Hammy x x x
