The Ongoing Mystery at 30 East Drive

Once known as the Black Monk of Pontefract's House!

15 min readJan 21, 2023

Pontefract

Pontefract is a historic market town located in West Yorkshire, England. It is situated about halfway between Leeds and Wakefield to the East and has a population of around 30,000 people.

The town is known for its rich history, dating back to the 11th century when it was a fortified castle town. It played an important role in the Wars of the Roses and was held by the Royalists during the English Civil War.

Pontefract Castle, once one of the most important castles in medieval England, is now a ruin, but it is still possible to visit the castle and learn about its history. The town also has a strong cultural and arts scene, with a variety of festivals and events throughout the year and a number of museums and galleries.

30 East Drive

The house

30 East Drive, located in Pontefract, West Yorkshire, UK, is a semi-detached house that has gained worldwide notoriety for being one of the most paranormal houses in the United Kingdom if not the world.

The house itself is a double-story, brick home that is located at the top of a small hill and on a corner block right next to a roundabout (traffic circle), on the North East side, and another larger roundabout is situated at the opposite South West end of the street.

Interesting to me is the placement of the home, why? I am not sure, just an intuitive feeling. In Colin Wilsons book Polteregeist! He states that Ponterfract in Latin means ‘broken-bridge’ and that the home is situated on a hill where there was once a bridge atop a small stream.

History

30 East Drive is said to be placed right near the town's old gallows where a Cluniak Monk was said to have been hung for the rape of a minor in the time of Henry the Eighth (1509–1547).

The Monk component is likely just a story, and no evidence has ever been found to support this. Colin Wilson does a minor debunking of ‘the monk’ in his book and explains that there is no known history of any Cluniak Monk, not least one that raped a minor or was executed. Yet the ‘Monk’ factor is likley what has led to many of the stories, books and videos about a ‘Black Monk’, more on this in a bit.

The home was a common build at the time that it was constructed, which is information that has been hard to come by, the best I have been able to uncover is that it was likely built in the mid to late 50’s or early 60’s and has since had several owners throughout its history. Although much of the paranormal activity occurred when the Pritchard family lived there.

The Pritchard’s

The house first gained attention in 1966 when the Pritchard family moved in. The activity began almost immediately.

The Pritchard family consisted of Jean and Joe Pritchard, their son Phillip (15), and daughter Diane (12).

From information available, Joe Pritchard may have initially worked at the Pontefract coal mine known as the Prince of Wales Colliery. It was a coal mine that operated for over 130 years and only recently closed in 2002. Joe eventually ran a pet shop in town.

Jean was a stay at home mother, Phillip enjoyed art and books when he was not attending school and in the later years had begun working in his fathers pet shop and Diane was a typical adolescent girl beginning to find her way in life.

The seemingly intelligent phenomena at the home seemed particularly interested in Diane, the girl.

Phenomena

The beginning

The Pritchard’s reported the paranormal occurrences such as objects moving on their own, ghostly apparitions, and unexplained noises which were all on the lighter end of the paranormal stick. This all happened began to happen immediately upon moving in.

One weekend in August 1966 shortly after moving in Joe, Jean and Diane went away on a trip during a bank holiday, Phillip was home with his grandmother Mrs Scholes who was watching him. This is where it all began.

That afternoon while milling about the house Phillip noticed a white powder began to descended from the ceiling and began to cloak the lounge room that Grandmother Scholes was sitting in. It looked as if Phillip was playing a prank with white flour on his grandmother it was so dusty and thick. Both were baffled by this obviously.

Over the course of next 12 or so hours, they experienced the ongoing white powdery dust seeming to fall from nowhere, perfect circles of water appearing on the linoleum, a green sludge that was foaming from the taps, pot plants that started to float around all on their own and some sort of tea loving consciousness was attempting to make itself a cup of tea by mixing the tea and sugar in the prep area of the kitchen.

This was so abnormal, paranormal that Mrs Scholes hailed a family member and neighbor that lived across the street and then several more people.

The night ended with wardrobes dancing around on their own and a wedding photo of Jean and Joe being slashed and thrown to the ground as if in some kind of warning. Mrs Scholes and the boy decided enough was enough and went to sleep with the neighbours.

Some of this phenomena was witnessed by the neighbors and other family members of Mrs Scholes, a young plumber from the water board that was sent to inspect the taps and was also witnessed by the towns local ghost afficianado that was summoned in the middle of the night to come and consult the family.

This was the Pritchard families introduction to what they thought was a ghost which they eventually named ‘Mr Nobody’ but ended up having to change to ‘Fred’ because it sounded quirkier and not so creepy.

The Mayhem

Suprisingly after that first holiday weekend drama the phenomena seemed to have stopped for 2 years. It is reported in many places that the phenomena ceased for 3 years, but this is inaccurate. Colin Wilson confirmed this in 1980 when he interviewed the family.

The paranormal phenomena began just as instantly as it had stopped 2 years earlier one day when Jean was having a conversation with her mother Mrs Scholes.

Mrs Scholes explained that she had been hearing and feeling things again, she was swiftly dismissed by both Joe and Jean only for the phenomena to come back with a blast that evening.

Jean was redecorating Dianes room and so painting tools and materials were scattered around upstairs. Jean cold not sleep, she was tossing and turning in bed when she heard a racket starting up. When she went to inspect the noises, she witnessed the wall paper flying around, and paint buckets being thrown across the room and at the walls. This woke the whole house up and the events continued into the night.

The family reported this to anyone that would listen and seeing as the town was the kind of small place in the 60’s where everyone knew each other, mostly, they all listened and many witnessed the events themselves.

Some of the neighbors and even the local mayor were family members or had connections to the Pritchard’s and virtually all of these people including local vicars and priests all witnessed the events first hand.

While much of the paranormal phenomena and activity was harmless and even amusing at times. The other side of the events had a creepy and somewhat sinister feel.

In order taken from books and reports, the more creey events are as follows:

photo’s being slashed;
wooden grandfather clocks being thrown and smashed to pieces,
entire dish sets being dumped onto the floor only not being broken,
a wooden stand and electric sewing machine once pinned Diane, at the time 14, to the stairs, and then that same night as she lay in bed her clothes were thrown off the bed, and the mattress, while she lay on it was pulled off the bed and levitated into the air. This happened several times during the night,
Chichen sandwiches were once thrown behind the TV set and huge monster-like bites had been taken out of them while the lights were going off and on and pillows were thrown around,
A friend of the family, Rene Holden, was once hit in the face with a cushion and said she felt as if ants or bugs were crawling through her hair. She had made her hair up for a ladies night event that evening,
Joe’s sister ‘Aunt Maude’ was once visiting and wanted to see the paranormal activity for herself, the aunt was a non-believer and kept saying that it was obviously pranks by the children. As they sat in the kitchen by the fire, the lights went out, the fridge door swung open, a jug of milk levitated over Aunt Maude and was dumped on her head as if completely intelligently controlled and aware of the conversations, people and situation,
One time eggs, secured inside a wooded box, and sat on by Jean, had de-materialised from inside the box, re-materialised in the middle of the room in front of the occupants, and were destroyed and smashed in front of them,
People often became sick and unwell at the property,
Diane once had a table drawer rammed into her,
A brass crucifix flew across the room and stuck to Diane's back as if magnetized into position,
Gold inverted crucifixes were sprayed on the walls and doors,
Joe was once tormented inside of the homes coal cabinet so much so that it was a life altering event and its reported that Joe had since wanted to move out. The information surrounding this incident is unclear because Joe did not like to speak about it, but the rumours as reported by Richard Estep are that it may have been physical in nature.

All of these incidents and many others unreported here culminated fantastically one day and as if the intelligence was enraged or wanted to leave on a high just before it exited again for some time! Diane was making a coffee in the kitchen when she was suddenly being dragged up the stairs as if by a huge invisible force. Both Jean and Phillip witnessed this and said it looked like an invisible hand was around her throat and was yanking her from one angle and another hand was pulling her cardigan from the front. They both ran up the stairs to try to pull Diane back down and Phillip commented that he noticed when he had the thought of touching the invisible phenomena, that is when it let go!

The Black Monk

The events reported almost never seemed to show any appearance of a culprit. It was almost always invisible in nature. However toward the end of the saga several people including Phillip, Rene Holden and the family’s neighbour all said they saw a cloaked black disembodied type of figure, a monk perhaps.

This figure has since been seen over the years by various investigators and ghost tourists as well Patrick Jackson author of Quantum Paranormal a book that Patrick calls ‘A 21st Century Analysis of the Paranormal Phenomena’ and one in which he spends a significant amount of time investigating 30 East Drive with a more modern approach.

Patrick described the ‘black monk’ instead as a ‘black mass’ at the property. He was not able to capture footage of it that I have seen but has done some ofhis own investigations on others photo’s.

Patrick sepreatley reports that he says he saw what appeared to be a black monk in his own town, not Pontefract. The correlation shouldn’t exist but yet it does somehow. Maybe space and time interact in ways we simply do not yet understand.

Media

Since then, the house has been the subject of numerous documentaries, movies, and books. In 1995, the television show “Most Haunted” aired an episode featuring the house, Colin Wilson wrote the book ‘Poltergeist!’ and published it in 1982, Richard Estep focused a chunk of his book ‘Trail of Terror:’ (2018) on the property and he also co-authored another book called ‘The Black Monk of Pontefract’ (2019) with Bil Bungay who at one time owned the property.

The movie When the Lights Went Out (2012) is a movie directed by Pat Holden which was based on 30 East Drive and the Pritchards experience at the home during the 60’s and 70’s.

Worth mentioning again is Patrick Jacksons book Quantum Paranormal which I reviewed here for anyone interested. We will focus on some of Patricks work next because I think there is something to it and it is worthy of further investigation.

Investigations

‘Most Haunted’ a UK TV series did a 2 part investigation into 30 East Drive in 2015 which you can also find on YouTube. In it you can see marbles are thrown at the crew, a knife is placed in the couch cushions which seemed a bit setup if I am honest, and black figures are seen in windows, plus more.

Richard Estep conducted his own investigation as part of writing both his books on the property. Richard stayed at the house with a few friends and investigators and things did go bump and scratch in the night while he was there.

Fellow investigator Charlie described being grabbed at the ankles and pulled backwards and then a sensation ran across his back. When they inspected by pulling his t-shirt up they found this:

Another of Richard’s invetsigator friends Lesley became sick while she was at the house on Richard’s second visit and this is reported to occur to many people that have investigated the property or stayed there over the years including the Pritchards, their friends and visitors as well as Patrick Jackon.

Patrick suspects that the feeling is due likely to a type of radiation sickness or something related and interestingly Patrick has published a similar photo of a three-pronged back marking in his own book and shown below:

The issue with Patrick’s image is we don’t know who it is of, when it happened or anything really and this was my frustration with Patrick’s work, is that he begins doing really good work but then starts to throw in images and evidence with zero reference and then begins to try to tie massive topics together such as UFO’s, spheres/orbs, and hauntings all into one.

Theories

There are several theories as to why the house behaves the way that it does.

Some believe that it is due to the death of an alleged monk in the area, while others believe that it is due to the presence of a poltergeist, a type of spirit known for causing disturbances and moving objects.

Most of the theories I encountered are of the above breed. All somewhat ghost or poltergeist related. The most interesting of theories in my opinion is that of Patrick Jacksons and without blowing my own trumpet too much these much some of my own thoughts although Patrick and disagree down a fairly obvious line.

Patricks theory boils down as; extraterrestrial beings use houses like 30 East Drive as data upload centres. The orbs and spheres observed at 30 East Drive and many other ‘haunted’ locations are actually a type of AI powered drone of sorts that work in a wider global network to both protect and extract from the Earth genetic materials. The hauntings and paranormal phenomena are a way for the ET/AI to scare the inhabiting humans into moving or going to check out the disturbance while the data is uploaded from another area of the home where radiation may be present.

You’ll have to read Patricks book for the full hypothesis.

I think that Patricks idea touches on something that may have some merit, a string or piece of fibre that needs to be carefully pulled on. The issue is Patrick makes huge leaps without sturdy stones to stand on. He doesn't; just lightly pull at the thread, he yanks on it as hard as he can.

If not spirits or ghosts…what?

Many investigators over the years have caught electronic voice phenomena (EVP) at 30 East Drive.

The sounds which you can find examples of on YouTube do not seem organic, but then again, how would an organic ghost sound? Well for starters, a ghost wouldn't have vocal chords so I doubt that they can make sounds in the first place. But yet the sounds continue to happen, words can be heard, the names of tenants and invetigators are often said, and often, as with much of the phenomena at this house, it seems intelligent in an odd kind of way.

Patrick Jackson believes that this is evidence of an AI type of technology that is pulling from data sets what it thinks we should hear.

Sickness

What other things are intelligent and can produce sounds?

Many if you think about it. But even though parrots might come to mind, when you take all of the phenomena in and look at it as a whole, not much seems to make sense, parrots might be able to make human sounding noises, certain breeds of dog can do the same, but humans don’t become sick while in the vicinity of the animals which throws the idea that some kind of organic thing is doing this out for the most part.

People do get sick at the house. This is well documented. I do wonder if there is a type of unseen technology used that is making people sick, perhaps maybe a targeted microwave device? We know these things exist.

These similar sickly feelings have been described and reported sometimes on camera by investigators at The Skinwalker Ranch too interestingly enough.

Energy depletion

While the Pritchard’s lived at the house, they reported their energy bills halved when the phenomena had stopped and more recently others have reported similar with their phones and battery guages showing a depletion of energy. Richard and Patrick have both reported similar cases as have others in far and away places like, again, Skinwalker Ranch.

During that same afternoon, we experienced everything from our smartphones being completely drained from about 80% charge to zero to other electromagnetic anomalies, even acute medical episodes that attended the incidents that occurred on that fateful day.

Hitchhiker effect

The effect can be described as the phenomena latching onto certain people, and basically following them home and tormenting them for some time.

Patrick Jackson describes taking months to begin to recover from the property and only feeling normal again after a year. During that time he says his walls were scratched on, his ears were whispered in and more.

The hitchhiker effect has been described at other similar properties such as the well known Skinwalker Ranch in the US.

Copycat

Fred, the black monk or whatever you want to call it is said to have copied or acted out things that the tenants had spoken about. The slashing of the Pritchards wedding photo only occured after the local ghost hunter described it as something that poltergeists do, the inverted crucifixes only began to be painted once vicars and priests had entered the home, and the sludge that came out of the taps only happened after the plumber arrived.

There are many more examples of this type of copycat activity at the home.

Could ‘The Black Monk’ be the same? A copying by the phenomena? So much emphasis has been put on ‘Black Monk’ that perhaps whatever this intelligent mysterious phenomena is, it copies it and displays it for all to see as maybe a kind of communication? Or is it something simpler, but that we do not yet understand, like some kind of consciousness reflection which is energised by the minerals in the area from the coal mine and perhaps has something to do with the underground streams?

Who knows.

Conclusion

Despite a lack of concrete evidence, 30 East Drive remains one of the most well-known ‘haunted houses’ in the United Kingdom and continues to be a source of fascination and intrigue for those interested in unsolved mysteries, the paranormal and now even UFO’s.

While some may be skeptical of the paranormal claims associated with 30 East Drive, the house has certainly made an impact on the field of paranormal research and has become a staple in the history of haunted houses in the United Kingdom. Whether or not the house is truly haunted, or has some other kind of intelligent trickster playing funny and sometimes scary buggers, it remains a fascinating location with a rich history and a legacy that continues to captivate people to this day.

What happened to the Pritchard’s?

Joe died, the kids moved out and Jean stayed in the home until she was elderly, eventually moving a short distance away.

The home is now listed on many adventure style booking sites and now comes with reviews such as this one below from ‘Clare’ on Tripadvisor:

This was my first ghost hunt and I was not disappointed. The house has such a creepy atmosphere which I loved about it. We were lucky to have some activity, EVPs, a door opening, knocking and the torch coming on and off responding to questions.

If you’re interested in staying the night, I believe bookings are organized through this company here.

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