In 1949, the Ash Grove Poltergeist turned a quiet Leeds home into a media spectacle and one of Britain’s most debated ghost stories
In 1949, a quiet terraced house in Leeds became the centre of one of West Yorkshire’s most bizarre and unsettling ghost stories. Was it a classic poltergeist — or something more human and sinister?
In the autumn of 1949, strange things began happening at 11 Ash Grove, a modest property in Hyde Park, just off Victoria Road in Headingley, Leeds. What started as odd noises quickly spiralled into a full-blown haunting that gripped the city, baffled police, and made newspaper headlines across Yorkshire.
A House Under Siege
The house was recently purchased by Mr and Mrs Haithwaite, who moved in during mid-September. But the honeymoon period didn’t last. Mrs Haithwaite described hearing “peculiar noises” from the very start. Within weeks, the disturbances escalated.
Electric light bulbs unscrewed themselves. Plant pots were found balanced precariously above doors—then came crashing down. Locked doors opened on their own. Slippers moved under tables. Footsteps echoed at night, and a ghostly female voice was heard shouting through the house.
She also witnessed a hand clutching a hammer vanish into thin air.
Electrician Mr C. Cliff, hired to do work on the property, reported finding light switches dunked in paint, tangled wires, and even a washbasin relocated to the stairs. One near miss saw a falling plank narrowly avoid striking him in the head.
The Haithwaites were so frightened they left the house and stayed with friends. Police were called. Two officers spent over an hour scouring the house with torches, but found no intruder—and no explanation.
Media Circus and a £5,000 Challenge
As stories of “the Ash Grove ghost” spread, the case attracted national media attention. The Yorkshire Post, Yorkshire Evening Post, and the Bradford Observer all covered it extensively.
Crowds gathered outside. Reporters and curious onlookers flooded the street. At one point, magician and mind-reader Maurice Fogel, in town for a theatre performance, showed up to debunk the haunting. He staged a midnight séance in the attic, tied up with ropes and watched by photographers and members of the Leeds Psychic Research Society.
The séance featured a tambourine that trembled and even flew across the room. When asked to identify itself, the supposed ghost knocked out the name: HOUDINI.
Fogel, unimpressed, called it all “bunkum” and offered a cheque for £5,000 to anyone who could prove the phenomena were genuine.
Meanwhile, life at No. 11 was becoming unbearable. Objects continued to fly through the air. A jug was seen leaping from a hatstand onto the stairs. Bottles crashed. Lightbulbs exploded. Even a vicar turned up with vestments in hand, ready to perform an exorcism.
Eventually, Mrs Haithwaite had had enough. “We sell,” she told a reporter. “You can have the house at any price.”
The Official Verdict: No Ghost Here
After several days of headline-making chaos, the Leeds C.I.D. stepped in. Officers spent hours reconstructing events inside the house. They threw bottles, tested doorways, and examined possible hiding spots.
In the end, Superintendent T. Bowman declared the case closed: “There is no ghost.”
Both the police and the Haithwaites concluded that the disturbances were the work of a human prankster—though no one was ever identified or caught.
What Really Happened at 11 Ash Grove?
To this day, the truth behind the Ash Grove poltergeist remains a mystery. Was it an elaborate hoax? A cry for help? Or something more spectral that simply slipped away under the harsh glare of police torches and press cameras?
No one has reported hauntings at 11 Ash Grove since, and the house eventually returned to normal life. But for one brief, chaotic fortnight in 1949, this quiet Leeds street was the epicentre of one of Britain’s strangest poltergeist cases.
What do you think went on at Ash Grove? Tell us your thoughts in the comments section below!
