The Black Monk is said to have haunted 30 East Drive in Pontefract since the 1960s when a family moved into the house. Now the house is fully booked all year around with visitors coming from far and wide to witness the poltergeist for themselves. We sent our spectre sceptic Sophie Mei Lan Malin to the 1950s style council house on the corner of a seemingly ordinary estate in West Yorkshire.
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00:0030 East Drive in Checkerfield Pontefract may look like just an ordinary 1950s council house.
00:09So all the kids are desperate to come in with me into the most haunted house here in the
00:14UK but apparently even Yvette Fielding left this place crying so we'll see if there really
00:21is the most aggressive spirit living here.
00:25After doing an article on the property a few weeks ago I was invited inside for a cup of
00:31tea with the proprietor Bill Bungay.
00:35Bill used to run an advertising agency in London and now he's a serial entrepreneur.
00:42Arguably one of his biggest successes is purchasing 30 East Drive for a small sum of £80,000
00:51because he said nobody wanted it 14 years ago.
00:55Bill had actually brought it to promote his film which is based on the house on the tale
01:00of the family called the Pritchards who moved in in the 1960s and then fled the property
01:07in the 1970s.
01:10This was due to one of the most aggressive poltergeists who live here.
01:16Everyone knows him as the Black Monk but locally he's simply called Fred.
01:23Now Bill has refurnished the property to its 1970s state and he says it's booked up
01:31for the next two years with paranormal investigators and groups coming here night after night to
01:40communicate with whatever may lie within this property.
01:46As I said the most haunted Yvette Fielding said that this property left her crying and
01:52there's even broken glass in one of the door frames from when one of her film crew fell
01:58into the door.
02:03This really is a place of many stories, past, present and I'm sure that there'll be many
02:12more stories to come in the future.
02:16Bill warns that those who want to stay the night do need to sign a waiver and he would
02:22actually warn people not to stay over.
02:25He admits that he's never slept the night at his own property for fear of what might
02:31happen when the lights go out.
02:36Fortunately the kids and I visited in the daytime so it didn't feel quite so eerie although
02:42the ambience really did.
02:45The old carpets, the musty smell, the cold bathrooms, it really did feel like something
02:55out of the past and the scary dolls did not help us feel comfortable at home with Bill
03:04at 30 East Drive.
03:08Sophie Malan, Mail In, reporting for the Yorkshire Post in Pontefract.