0:10

In April nineteen ninety nine. An

0:12

auction room in Birmingham is packed

0:14

with people. Tim Chiltern

0:17

waits unexpectantly for the lot

0:19

he wants to bid on. At

0:22

the back of the room, a television camera

0:24

crew were setting up. Tim

0:26

wonders what on earth they're doing there.

0:30

A man in his mid forties with graying

0:32

hair, Tim had become despondent

0:34

with a stressful career as a management

0:37

consultant. Having quit

0:39

his job and determined to stay

0:41

out of the corporate world, he was looking

0:43

for some other way to make a living.

0:46

He loved small period buildings

0:49

so decided to try and find one he

0:51

could fix up. But after six

0:53

months of looking for one in London, he

0:56

hit a dead end. What

0:58

he wanted was something stone built

1:01

with a south facing garden, at

1:03

least two bedrooms and a workshop.

1:06

Then Tim came across

1:08

Lot sixty, a two

1:11

hundred year old former stonemason's

1:13

residence called Lowe's Cottage

1:15

near Birmingham in England.

1:18

The description in the catalog included

1:20

a ground floor sitting room, first

1:23

floor kitchen, lobby, dining

1:25

room and a bathroom. There

1:27

were three bedrooms on the second floor

1:30

and a large garden with two brick

1:32

built workshops. It was

1:35

everything he was looking for. Set

1:38

in the small Derbyshire village of Upper

1:40

Maybury in rural northern England,

1:43

Lowe's Cottage was very much a fixer

1:46

upper, but Tim was up for

1:48

the challenge. The day

1:50

before the auction, Tim Chiltern

1:52

arrived in Derbyshire and met with the

1:55

selling agent to view the cottage.

1:57

As the agent drove him there, Tim

2:00

couldn't help noticing that some of the

2:02

names along the way seemed

2:04

a little macabre, like Hanging

2:06

Bridge and gallows Tree

2:08

Lane. The house itself

2:11

was named after a nearby iron

2:13

age, burial Mount, according to

2:15

the agent. Then finally

2:18

they were there. Lowe's

2:20

Cottage was located on the edge

2:23

of the picturesque village, and when

2:25

it came into view, Tim

2:27

was delighted with it.

2:29

It was almost too good to be true. He

2:31

thought that such a character ful

2:33

old property would come up for auction.

2:37

Things only got better when he took

2:39

a look inside. It

2:41

was a little garishly decorated, but

2:44

nothing a few licks of paint wouldn't fix.

2:47

The delightful views of the Peak District

2:49

hills from the kitchen window only

2:52

added to the charm, only

2:54

one thing had seemed slightly off.

2:57

The agent asked him not to make a video

3:00

of the interior of the cottage. In

3:03

any case, Tim was sold, he

3:06

would make a bid on it The

3:08

following day. At the auction house, Tim

3:11

notices a strange buzz go around

3:13

the room as Lot sixty is called.

3:17

The bidding goes quickly, and within

3:19

minutes, Tim Chiltern is

3:21

the new owner of Lowe's Cottage.

3:25

As he leaves the auction room, still

3:27

glowing with pleasure at his success,

3:30

Chiltern is steered into an ante

3:32

room where the television crew and

3:34

a pack of journalists quickly descend

3:37

on him. Tim barely has

3:39

time to think before a microphone

3:41

is thrust into his face. So

3:45

says a voice from somewhere, what

3:47

does it feel like to be the new owner

3:50

of the most haunted cottage in

3:52

England? You're

3:55

listening to Unexplained and

3:57

I'm Richard mc lean smith.

4:07

Despite a few misgivings in light

4:10

of the ghostly revelation, Tim

4:12

Chiltern soon moved into Lowe's

4:14

cottage. On arrival,

4:17

his collie dog, Scion, was

4:19

uneasy entering the house and

4:21

found it hard to settle over

4:24

the next few days, lights apparently

4:26

switched on and off by themselves, the

4:29

temperature in certain rooms would

4:31

suddenly drop for no obvious

4:33

reason, and the TV repeatedly

4:36

turned itself on. At

4:39

night, Tim heard a gentle rustling

4:41

sound coming from somewhere,

4:44

and the landing light often refused

4:46

to turn on. Even weirder,

4:49

his flashlight that he checked was working

4:51

every day, mysteriously failed

4:54

to work whenever the lights gave

4:56

out. Generally, Tim

4:58

felt fine in the house, except

5:00

for the ground floor stairs, where

5:03

he later said something felt

5:06

very off. It was as

5:08

if the house had a mind of its own

5:10

and was capable of changing moods.

5:14

In time, his neighbours brought

5:16

him up to speed on the cottage's

5:19

considerable reputation according

5:22

to local law. In the eighteen sixties,

5:25

Lowe's Cottage had been home to a milkmaid

5:28

named Elaine Harry and her boyfriend,

5:31

Joseph Phillips. Elaine

5:33

was employed by a local farmer who

5:35

was rumored to have taken a fancy to

5:38

her. When Elaine spurned

5:40

his advances, the farmer strangled

5:43

her in a fit of jealous rage,

5:45

then buried her in the basement of

5:47

what was now Tim's cottage.

5:51

In another version, Elaine was locked

5:53

in the cellar and left to die

5:55

of thirst. When her

5:57

boyfriend Joseph found out

6:00

about what had happened, he was said

6:02

to have hung himself in a fit of despair,

6:05

right over the spot where his beloved

6:08

had died. The

6:10

history of the cottage after that is hazy,

6:13

but in recent decades it had been

6:15

owned by the same family. The

6:17

only surviving members were two

6:19

sisters, Susan Melbourne

6:22

and Sondra Podmore. It

6:24

had been their childhood residence and

6:26

they returned to live there when their father

6:28

passed away around nineteen seventy.

6:32

Then in nineteen ninety three they

6:35

put the cottage up for sale. By

6:38

then the property was in a dilapidated

6:41

state and in need of considerable

6:43

renovation, but it was quickly

6:45

snapped up by a young, fresh

6:47

faced couple, a nurse

6:49

named Josie Smith and her

6:52

husband Andrew, who was a builder.

6:55

Together they moved in with their three

6:57

children. Andrew

7:00

began work immediately on the house, while

7:02

Josie juggled her nursing with

7:05

looking after the children. The

7:07

couple were hoping to fix the house up

7:10

then flip it quickly for a hefty profit.

7:13

But not long after they moved in, they

7:15

began to feel uncomfortable. Both

7:19

Josie and Andrew were utterly

7:21

convinced that there was something

7:23

else living in the house with

7:26

them.

7:36

It was a few weeks after moving in that

7:39

Josie first noticed the unusual

7:41

cold spots that emerged in

7:44

random places on hot days.

7:47

Not long after, the couple apparently

7:50

observed the strange haziness

7:52

in the air for the first time.

7:55

The peculiar mist was described

7:57

as being about the size of a person

8:00

and was even said to move around

8:02

the house. Andrew claimed

8:04

that one time he tried to walk

8:06

through it, only to find it resisted

8:09

him, as though it were made of some entirely

8:12

different substance. He

8:14

said it smelt like rotting

8:16

flesh. Josie

8:19

is said to have woken up with the distinct

8:21

feeling that something was pressing

8:24

against the bed, making it difficult

8:26

for her to breathe. A

8:29

friend who belonged to a spiritualist church

8:32

arrived one morning to try and clear

8:34

the air for them. With a bowl

8:36

of water and a wooden cross,

8:38

they moved through the house, sprinkling

8:41

the rooms with water while reciting

8:43

a prayer. According to Andrew,

8:46

it did nothing but provoke a foul

8:49

stench that made every one feel

8:51

ill. Josie

8:53

later told a TV documentary crew

8:56

sent to investigate the house that

8:58

a short time later she witnessed

9:01

a figure she described as wearing

9:03

a gathered blouse tucked into

9:05

a floor length skirt. The

9:08

figure walked across a room

9:10

and disappeared into a wall. After

9:13

conducting some research on the history

9:16

of the house, the documentary team

9:18

discovered that it was built by a local

9:21

stonemason called William Frith

9:23

in the early eighteen hundreds.

9:26

Local church records showed that at

9:28

least two of his children had

9:30

died there, Lucy at the

9:32

age of eighteen and William

9:35

at age eight. The

9:38

smiths persisted with renovating

9:40

the cottage, but even when there

9:42

weren't ghostly sightings, electrical

9:44

appliances would often break down,

9:47

and household items apparently

9:49

disappeared, only to reappear

9:51

later in the most obvious places.

9:54

On occasion, there were sudden,

9:57

strange temperature drops in one

9:59

part of these and water

10:01

would suddenly appear and begin

10:03

trickling down the walls. When

10:06

a plumber was called in, they found

10:08

no apparent cause, and

10:10

there weren't even water pipes in the walls

10:13

where the water had inexplicably appeared.

10:17

On another night, for once, everything

10:19

seemed calm in the cottage.

10:22

The Smiths put their three children to bed,

10:24

then a couple of hours later, went

10:26

to bed themselves. A

10:29

few hours later, according to

10:31

Josie, she felt something

10:33

cold touch her beneath

10:35

her night dress. Then all

10:38

of a sudden she was struggling to breathe,

10:40

feeling as though someone had stuffed

10:43

a cotton rag into her mouth and

10:45

put their hands around her neck as

10:48

she struggled and flailed her legs

10:50

against her husband, Andrew

10:52

woke up with a start to find

10:54

his wife clutching at her neck,

10:57

struggling and thrashing as though

10:59

she were being throttled. It

11:01

only stopped when I shouted no. Josie

11:05

said. They were so spooped

11:08

that they immediately woke up the children

11:10

and fled the property. On

11:12

returning to the cottage a few days

11:14

later, the Smiths finally

11:17

decided to seek help. Josie

11:26

and Andrew turned to their local church

11:29

for help. Thankfully, the Church

11:31

of England had an exorcism committee,

11:33

with a designated team in every

11:36

diocese to deal with the kind

11:38

of disturbances they were experiencing.

11:41

A few weeks later, Reverend Peter

11:43

Mockford, the vicar of Blurton,

11:46

a small parish near Stoke on Trent,

11:49

arrived at the property. He

11:51

began by interviewing the smiths about

11:53

what exactly had happened. Mockford

11:57

was keen to assess the story's veracity

11:59

and interviewed the couple separately to

12:02

see if their stories aligned. Much

12:04

to his surprise, they did.

12:08

Then he turned his attention to the cottage

12:10

itself. Mockford

12:12

reported noticing a pungent odor

12:15

that seemed to follow him around, as

12:18

well as a war that appeared to

12:20

weep with a trickling dampness

12:22

when he placed his hand on it. When

12:25

he later performed a blessing on the house,

12:28

the smith said that it seemed to them

12:30

that the entire cottage got visibly

12:33

brighter and the atmosphere

12:35

felt suddenly lighter, but

12:38

the effects were short lived. After

12:41

only one quiet night, the

12:44

creeping presence returned

12:46

with a vengeance. The

12:48

usual sudden pockets of cold

12:50

air weeping walls, and

12:53

the strange mist was said

12:55

to return, and a tape player

12:57

began turning itself on. It

13:00

would only stop when it was unplugged

13:02

from the wall. Then

13:05

their immersion heater blew up.

13:09

Reverend Mockford returned three

13:11

more times, but despite seemingly

13:14

bringing an end to the disturbances

13:16

on each occasion, the Smiths

13:19

said the ghostly effects always

13:21

returned. During

13:23

his last effort, the Smiths

13:25

and the reverend gathered in the living

13:27

room to begin another exorcism.

13:30

As the minister started his prayers,

13:33

Josie and Andrew played tapes

13:35

of religious music to accompany him.

13:38

No sooner had they started, a

13:40

floorboard was said to have begun

13:43

creaking loudly upstairs. This

13:46

was followed by a rushing sensation

13:49

that apparently came at the side of their

13:51

heads, along with a feeling

13:54

that smoke was spiraling

13:56

up their noses. The

13:58

couple claimed they tried other

14:01

solutions, including consulting

14:03

other religious practitioners, so

14:06

called spirit mediums and paranormal

14:09

experts. One

14:11

such group was a combined team from

14:13

the Tame Side and Oldham Paranormal

14:16

Research Association and members

14:18

of Manchester's Aerial Phenomena

14:21

Investigation Team. The

14:23

group arrived late one afternoon,

14:26

but what they described was a small,

14:29

gloomy cottage with dampness

14:31

filling the air. They

14:34

also began by interviewing Josie

14:36

and Andrew again. After

14:39

finding the couple credible, the

14:41

team conducted a quick tour of the house

14:44

and garden but found nothing

14:46

unusual. As night fell,

14:48

they set up video cameras downstairs

14:51

and upstairs, equipped with voice

14:53

activated audio recorders, as

14:56

well as passive infrared detectors

14:59

and temperature monit. Then

15:02

they began their watch. It

15:10

was around midnight that the Smiths

15:13

went to bed. As they

15:15

slept, the investigation team

15:17

inspected the walls but found

15:19

no evidence of the strange water said

15:22

to spontaneously weep from certain

15:25

spots. They checked their

15:27

equipment every hour, but detected

15:29

no unusual temperature readings,

15:32

bad odors, strange sights

15:34

or sounds. At

15:37

five am, some of the team

15:39

headed into the cellar, where they

15:41

quickly spotted beads of water

15:44

on a back wall. When

15:46

they wiped them away, the beads

15:49

came straight back. However,

15:52

the team concluded that this was

15:55

simply caused by the warmer damp

15:57

cellar air condensing on the cold

16:00

surface of the wall. It

16:03

was just after seven when the Smiths

16:05

got up and came downstairs.

16:08

Josie was disappointed to learn

16:10

that the team hadn't found anything, telling

16:13

them that perhaps the ghosts had stayed

16:15

away to make them look stupid.

16:19

But what the team had found and

16:21

didn't mention then was a large

16:23

pile of letters and newspaper

16:25

cuttings that the Smiths had collected

16:28

lying on the dining room table. It

16:32

included dozens of letters from

16:34

newspapers, magazines, and

16:36

TV producers or offering

16:39

to pay the Smiths handsomely for

16:42

their story. As

16:44

it turned out, having invested

16:46

so much in renovating the property,

16:49

the Smiths were struggling to meet their

16:51

mortgage payments. Though their

16:53

initial claims that the house was haunted

16:56

might have been genuine, it

16:58

was clear that much of what they sae set had

17:01

most likely been made up in

17:03

an effort to help pay for it all. Far

17:06

from attracting buyers, however, unsurprisingly,

17:10

all the talk of ghosts trying to

17:12

strangle them in their beds had

17:14

the complete opposite effect. Having

17:17

bought the house for around forty thousand

17:20

pounds, the property's valuation

17:23

had sunk to only twenty five

17:25

thousand. Left with

17:27

no option, the Smiths tried

17:29

to refinance the mortgage on the home,

17:32

but the bank turned down their request.

17:35

At their wits end. The couple

17:38

then did something radical. They

17:41

sued the previous owners for

17:43

failing to disclose that their

17:45

house was haunted. The

17:47

sellers, sisters, Sandra Podmore

17:50

and Sandra Melbourne, both asserted

17:53

that they had never in over twenty

17:55

years of living at the property, experienced

17:58

anything out of the ordinary. In

18:01

response, they countersued the

18:03

Smiths for a sum of three and a half

18:05

thousand pounds, an outstanding

18:07

amount they were still owed for the property.

18:11

There was an unusual case, the

18:13

first lawsuit in England regarding

18:16

the claimed existence of supernatural

18:18

forces since the Middle Ages.

18:21

It was going to be very difficult

18:23

to prove. At

18:34

Darby County Court in January

18:37

nineteen ninety nine, Judge

18:39

Peter Stretton sat down to

18:41

rule on the case, despite

18:44

being unfamiliar with court procedures.

18:46

Andrew Smith represented himself

18:49

and his wife at the hearing. Both

18:51

he and Josie described the

18:54

various events they had experienced.

18:56

Then they called on Reverend Mockford,

18:59

who'd performed the banishment prayers,

19:01

to give evidence. The

19:04

vicar told the court that in his

19:07

opinion, there really was paranormal

19:10

activity at Lowe's cottage,

19:12

but Judge Stretton wasn't convinced.

19:16

The Smith's case wasn't helped when

19:18

Thomas Dillon, the council for

19:20

the former owners, got the smith

19:22

to admit they'd read about similar

19:25

hauntings in the novel The Amateurville

19:27

Horror, implying that the Smiths

19:30

had used this to help them make

19:32

things up. Dylan

19:34

also claimed that the couple had

19:36

a record of running away from

19:38

their financial problems. Mister

19:41

Smith, he said, had been declared

19:43

bankrupt after a failed business

19:46

partnership and had five previous

19:48

county court judgments against him

19:52

for his part. In his final statement,

19:54

Andrew Smith told the court, There's

19:57

simply no way I would put my family

20:00

through all this just for three and a half

20:02

thousand pounds. In

20:04

the end, Judge Stretton dismissed

20:07

the claims of ghosts, stinking

20:10

mists, and weeping walls

20:13

as hysteria and lies, refusing

20:16

to believe that the house was haunted. He

20:19

ruled in favor of the former owners

20:21

and ordered the Smiths to pay

20:23

the outstanding amount owed on Lowe's

20:25

Cottage to the sisters, along

20:28

with a thousand pounds interest and

20:30

legal costs of twelve thousand

20:32

pounds plunged

20:35

into negative equity. The

20:37

family were forced to vacate the property

20:39

and were later rehoused by Staffordshire

20:42

Council in a nearby town. Then,

20:46

in nineteen ninety nine, after

20:48

a few months to let the press coverage

20:50

die down, the cottage was

20:52

put up for auction when it

20:55

was snapped up by one Tim

20:57

Chiltern. Chiltern

20:59

was a deeply spiritual man who

21:02

for a while had considered training

21:04

to become a church minister. As

21:07

time went by, he and his

21:09

colleague Scion seemed to make

21:11

peace with the house. The

21:14

unexplained incidents dwindled, until

21:16

finally he claimed they ceased

21:19

altogether. Tim

21:21

spent a happy four years at

21:23

the cottage before renting

21:25

it out. In late January

21:28

of two thousand and five, the

21:30

Sheffield Paranormal Investigators,

21:32

a group for people who believed in psychic

21:35

phenomena, decided to spend

21:37

a night at the cottage. According

21:40

to their reports, it was an

21:42

eventful one.

21:49

The six person team, which included

21:52

self described mediums and parapsychologists,

21:56

arrived at the cottage a little before

21:58

ten pm. They were

22:00

met by Tim Chiltern, who showed

22:03

them round the house and filled them

22:05

in on some of its history. When

22:07

he left. The investigators

22:09

split into two teams.

22:12

In Team one were Mick, Brenda

22:14

and Richard, while in Team two

22:17

were Mikey Gaz and Steve.

22:20

Team one was soon reporting

22:23

strange readings on their e m F

22:25

meter, designed to measure electromagnetic

22:28

force in a downstairs room

22:31

used as an office. The

22:33

meter swung too wildly they set

22:36

for the low amount of electrical wiring

22:38

present in the room. When

22:41

they switched on their video camera, they

22:43

claimed then to see orbs

22:46

in the view finder. Richard

22:48

described sensing a boy of around

22:51

thirteen, as well as a woman

22:53

of around sixty with gray

22:55

hair arranged in a French platte

22:58

wearing a high collared dress.

23:01

Brenda said she saw several

23:03

small children dressed in pinafores,

23:06

while at the same time experiencing

23:09

strange fluctuations in air

23:11

temperature. Around

23:13

eleven p m, Team one

23:16

moved to the main bedroom, where,

23:19

like Josie Smith had described, Brenda

23:22

claimed to feel something pushing

23:24

down on her face and neck as

23:27

she sat on the edge of the bed while

23:29

the EMF meter continued

23:31

to fluctuate wildly. None

23:34

of the Sheffield paranormal investigators

23:37

saw the strange stinking mist,

23:40

but claimed to sense a number of other presences

23:43

at the property, including a young

23:45

boy from the seventeen hundreds and

23:48

a violently angry man from

23:50

the early nineteen hundreds. Sadly,

23:53

however, none of this was

23:55

caught on camera. To

23:58

this day, Tim Chiltern stands

24:00

by everything he claimed took place

24:02

at the cottage while he lived there. As

24:05

he described it in one article in

24:07

twenty twenty one, it felt

24:10

almost if Lowe's Cottage had

24:12

a personality and was testing

24:14

him in some way. Looking

24:17

back on it all now, however, he

24:19

has nothing but fondness for the place.

24:23

A few weeks before the auction, Tim's

24:26

father encouraged him to buy the

24:28

property, believing it could be the

24:30

answer to getting his life back

24:32

on track. A short

24:34

time after that, he died.

24:36

Unexpectedly, Lowe's

24:39

Hall proved to be the first

24:41

of many period properties that

24:43

Tim would go on to redevelop in

24:45

what has turned out to be a

24:48

long and fruitful second life,

24:51

just as his father had seemingly

24:53

prophesied. This

24:58

episode was written by Diane and Hope

25:01

Unexplained as an AV Club Productions

25:03

podcast created by Richard

25:05

McClain Smith. All other elements

25:08

of the podcast, including the music are

25:10

also produced by me Richard McClain

25:12

smith. Unexplained.

25:14

The book and audiobook, with stories

25:17

never before featured on the show, is

25:19

now available to buy worldwide. You

25:21

can purchase from Amazon, Barnes

25:23

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