Fire Poltergeist. United Kingdom

In Battersea (London), the Hitchings family was disturbed for four months by outbreaks of fires and phenomena such as tapping, the feeling of ghostly fingers pulling on clothes on the body.

Most worryingly, the harassment seems to have focused on their daughter Shirley. In one case, Shirley's boat caught fire. In another, the ghost apparently put her clothes on an electric stove and turned on the appliance, even though the power was turned off.

A poltergeist named Donald followed Shirley to work and scared her colleagues. Finally, the spiritualist Harry Hanks held a seance in the house, and the activity of the ghost stopped.

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80-year-old Englishwoman Shirley Hitchings, the famous owner of the "scariest house in Britain", for the first time in many years told about how her family was persecuted by a poltergeist, and once even moved with her to a new house.

She shared her story due to the fact that a documentary podcast about these events will be released on Radio 4 in a while. Shirley's childhood home is located in the Battersea area of south London. She said that she encountered an otherworldly force when she was 15 years old. One day she discovered in her bedroom an ornate silver key that did not fit any lock in the house and which was seen for the first time by members of her family. According to Shirley, then her family woke up to a loud rumble that seemed to come from the walls and ceiling. That's how it all started.

According to the woman, strange events took place from 1956 to 1968 – objects flew around the rooms, mysterious knocking was heard, a fire was kindled for no reason. So, one day the clock fell off the shelf, the slippers moved around the room, and the chair rose into the air. The poltergeist was nicknamed Donald, and, as Grandma complains, he became like an annoying brother to her. According to her story, once her family poured holy water on her to protect her from the "devil", but Donald got even more angry from this and tore the curtains.

Hoping to drive away the poltergeist, the grown–up Shirley invited a medium - the wife of her colleague - into the house. But the session, according to her, did not help. The situation in the house attracted the attention of the police and even local authorities. Newspapers began to write about Donald, and these publications were noticed by the famous ghost hunter Harold Chibbett. After examining the house, he told the family that, in his opinion, Donald was a restless spirit that haunts a particular person and causes physical disorders. Some supporters of paranormal phenomena believe that this type of mystical activity is most often "triggered" by teenagers going through puberty, because they emit "the purest vital energy" that feeds poltergeists.

According to Shirley, Chibbett tried to get in touch with the poltergeist using cards with letters, and the ghost allegedly responded by writing in children's doodles: "Shirley, I'm coming." According to her, Donald "demanded" a pen to communicate.

"He [the ghost] was like a bully, demanding, telling people what to do. He took all my old dolls that were stored in a trunk in the attic and brought them down. He cut off their heads, tore pieces of cloth from my clothes and left notes in which he ordered them to sew dresses from this material. If someone angered him, he wrote: "Punish" on a piece of paper, and you knew it was waiting for you that night," Shirley is quoted as saying by The Sun.

According to the Englishwoman, the ghost also scared off her suitors. And when Shirley got married in 1965 and moved to West Sussex, the ghost allegedly went with her and told her in new messages about what her parents were doing. According to the story of an elderly woman, Donald "fell silent" in 1968 — he left the last message to her parents saying that he was leaving them alone. By that time, the family was already so used to the ghost that Shirley's mother burst into tears, but she and her father were happy. However, there is no evidence that the poltergeist Donald really existed.