The Enfield Poltergeist
📅 1977–1979 · 📍 Enfield, London, England
A single mother and her children in a north London council house reported knocking, flying objects and a growling voice. Investigators spent two years there; the case inspired The Conjuring 2.
What happened
In August 1977 Peggy Hodgson, a single mother living in Enfield with four children, called the police after hearing knocking and seeing a chest of drawers slide across the floor. A police officer said she saw a chair move on its own.
Over the next two years the family reported furniture moving, toys being thrown and bedclothes pulled off. The focus was 11-year-old Janet, who was photographed apparently being thrown from her bed and who spoke in a deep, gruff voice claiming to be a man who had died in the house.
Maurice Grosse and Guy Lyon Playfair of the Society for Psychical Research investigated for months and believed many of the events were genuine. Other investigators were unconvinced, and the children were caught faking some incidents. Janet later said that some of it was faked but not all of it.
Timeline
- August 1977The Hodgsons report knocking and moving furniture; police attend.
- September 1977Maurice Grosse and Guy Lyon Playfair begin investigating.
- 1977–1978Photographs of Janet “levitating” and recordings of “the voice”.
- 1979Activity fades away.
- 2016The case is dramatised in the film The Conjuring 2.
🔍 The evidence
- Hours of audio recordings made by investigators, including the gruff voice.
- Photographs taken by a Daily Mirror photographer.
- Statements from a police officer, neighbours and journalists who visited.
🤨 The skeptic’s view
- Investigators caught the girls faking some events: a video camera in the next room recorded Janet bending spoons and trying to bend an iron bar herself.
- Skeptics argue the “levitation” photos show Janet jumping, and that the voice was produced with practised false vocal cords.
Related reports on the map
News stories that mention this case and reports from the area around Enfield.
Bexleyheath Woman Claims Rolf Harris's Ghost Made Her Draw a Sketch While Asleep
A 59-year-old woman in Bexleyheath, southeast London, has told the Daily Star Sunday that she bel...
Shadowman on Jack The Ripper Walking Tour
I took a guided walking tour while visiting London, so headed towards Whitechapel to join the gro...