The House Where a Ghost Walked Out of the Wall

Two women staying at Willington Mill had been terrified by something shaking their bed at night. The curtains kept lifting and dropping, but whenever they looked around, nobody was there.

They finally took the curtains down so they could see the entire room. On the following night, they woke to find a bluish-grey figure emerging from the wall behind their bed.

It looked like a woman, floating horizontally through the wall and leaning toward them. Both women watched as the figure slipped back into the wall and disappeared.

The Trouble Started With Strange Noises

The house stood beside Willington Mill, near Newcastle in northern England. It was a large, three-story home where Joseph Procter, a Quaker businessman, lived with his wife, Elizabeth, and their children.

Joseph operated the nearby flour mill with George Unthank. The family had settled into the property in 1835, expecting it to be an ordinary place to raise their children.

But during the following years, strange things began happening. They heard footsteps on empty staircases, knocking behind walls and loud banging from upstairs rooms.

Sometimes the sounds resembled furniture being dragged across the floor. On other nights, the family heard what sounded like children running through rooms where nobody was sleeping.

There were also coughs, groans and laughter. The servants became increasingly frightened, and Joseph struggled to keep people working in the house. The family searched for whoever might be responsible, but the noises continued even when they were certain the rooms were empty.

Someone Walked Down an Empty Staircase

One of Elizabeth’s brothers decided to spend a night at the house. He’d heard the family’s stories and wanted to find out what was happening.

While lying in bed, he heard somebody climbing the stairs toward his room. The footsteps were heavy, accompanied by loud banging against the banister, almost as though someone were striking it with a thick stick.

He waited as the sounds came closer. When they reached his bedroom door, he jumped out of bed and pulled it open.

The landing was empty. Before he could decide what to do, he heard the footsteps heading back downstairs. According to his account, he stood watching the empty staircase while the heavy footsteps and banging continued right in front of him.

He hurried to Joseph’s bedroom, and the two men searched the lower floors. They found nobody who could have made the noise.

The Guests Refused to Sleep There Again

Two young female relatives came to stay with the Procters and shared an upstairs bedroom. During their first night, they felt their bed rise beneath them.

They feared someone might be hiding nearby, perhaps intending to rob the household. Their screams brought people rushing to the room, but nobody could find an intruder.

The trouble returned the following night. This time, the bed shook while its curtains repeatedly lifted toward the frame above and dropped again.

The women decided to remove the curtains so they could see what was happening. That decision led to their terrifying encounter with the greyish woman emerging from the wall.

Afterward, neither wanted to sleep in the room. One moved to another part of the house, while the other went to stay with the mill foreman and his family. Joseph eventually stopped using the troublesome bedroom for sleeping and turned it into a storage room.

By 1840, word about the strange activity had spread beyond Willington. Among those who heard the stories was a young doctor named Edward Drury.

A Doctor Arrived With Two Pistols

Drury was curious about the haunting but didn’t believe the stories. He suspected somebody was frightening the family and wanted to catch them.

He wrote to Joseph asking permission to investigate. His original plan was to bring his watchdog, which he trusted to notice anything unusual.

Joseph agreed, although he warned that the noises were unpredictable. Drury might spend an entire night waiting without anything happening.

On July 3, 1840, Drury arrived with Thomas Hudson, a chemist from North Shields. He also brought two pistols.

Drury later explained that he’d considered showing one of the weapons to Joseph as a warning against playing tricks. But after meeting the homeowner, he decided that wasn’t necessary and left the pistols unloaded.

Before settling down, the men inspected the house. They checked the doors, searched the upstairs rooms and looked for places where somebody might be hiding.

They paid special attention to a small cupboard associated with earlier sightings. It was so shallow that neither man could imagine someone concealing themselves inside. Once they were satisfied, they took their places on the third-floor landing and prepared to spend the night.

Something Was Walking Around Barefoot

Shortly before midnight, the men began hearing what sounded like several people walking barefoot across the floor. The footsteps were clear enough to hear, but neither man could work out exactly where they were coming from. Soon afterward, knocking started close to their feet.

They also heard a strange, hollow cough from one of the upstairs rooms, followed by rustling along the wall. It sounded as though somebody were brushing against it while climbing the stairs.

Drury was getting cold and suggested going to bed. Hudson refused, saying he intended to stay awake until daylight.

Drury picked up a note he’d dropped and began reading it. After a while, he checked his watch and saw that it was ten minutes to one.

When he looked up, he noticed something moving near the cupboard.

The Woman in Grey Walked Toward Him

According to the account Drury wrote afterward, the cupboard door opened and a woman dressed in grey stepped into view. Her head was bent forward, and she held one hand against her chest as though she were in pain. Her other arm was extended, with one finger pointing toward the floor.

The figure began moving slowly across the room. Drury watched as she approached Hudson, who had started dozing. When the woman reached toward his sleeping companion, Drury suddenly jumped up and rushed at her, screaming.

But he never reached the figure. Instead, he collapsed onto Hudson and later remembered almost nothing of the next three hours.

Other people carried him downstairs while he was overcome with terror. Hudson confirmed that his friend had cried out and collapsed, although he hadn’t seen the woman himself.

Three days later, Drury wrote to Joseph describing how frightened he’d been. He complained of an unusual noise and difficulty hearing in his right ear. Whatever he’d expected to find at Willington, he hadn’t expected to end the night in that condition.

Four People Saw a Glowing Figure at the Window

Another extraordinary sighting involved four people watching the house from outside. One was a young female relative who had stopped sleeping at the Procters’ home. The others included the mill foreman, his wife and their daughter.

The foreman’s wife was the first to notice something unusual at an upstairs window. She called the others over, and they watched what appeared to be a man dressed in a loose, flowing white robe.

The figure seemed to float above the floor, moving backward and forward across the window. Each time it reached the edge, it appeared to pass into the wall before coming back into view. According to their account, they watched it for more than ten minutes.

Eventually, the man stopped moving and stood in the window. His body seemed to pass through the window covering, partly blocking the frame behind him.

The witnesses said the figure was glowing brightly enough to light the area around it. The foreman walked beneath the window twice, trying to get a better look.

When he looked again, the light had begun to fade. The bright white glow slowly turned blue as the figure stood motionless in the window.

Then it vanished, starting with its head and disappearing downward.