Getting to bottom of ghostly goings-on

A HAUNTED farmhouse at the centre of a failed exorcism is still shrouded in mystery – and the man
whose family was terrorised by the ghosts is determined to solve it.

Folly Hall Farmstood on Leeds Road, Outwood, until around 20 years ago. Stories have circulated for decades of a ghostly figure known as ‘the woman in grey’, which is said to have haunted the building during the mid 1950’s.

Tony Morris, 64, remembers visiting his aunt and uncle, Walter and Ellen Beaumont, who lived in the farmhouse at the time. He described the chilling moment he first encountered the spectre when he was 12 years old.

He said “It was Saturday night and it was dark. To get to my auntie’s kitchen you had
to go through a big door in the garden wall and turn left. This figure was stood with its back to us in front of the kitchen door.

“It turned round and walked within about eight feet of us. It glided, there was no foot movement. It was shrouded from the top of its head right down to the floor and it was plain
grey. It never turned towards us so we couldn’t see any facial features.

“It wasn’t until it floated straight through the rose trellis that everyone looked stunned. We must have had it in sight for 30 to 40 seconds.”He said the family rushed inside as the apparition moved 30 feet across the garden towards an old summer house in the corner. A search party took torches into the garden but found no-one there. Mr Morris said the family endured the spectre inside and outside the house for years and even applied for permission from the Bishop of Wakefield for an exorcism

In an unusual move, permission was granted and the excorcismtook place - but the apparition continued to appear as many as seven
times a week, eventually driving Mrs Beaumont to a nervous breakdown and forcing the family
to move out.

Very little is known about the farm, which is now the site of a supermarket,
and Mr Morris is keen to trace its history. He said: “I believe a family called the Wrights owned the building at the time. It was divided in two and they lived in the other half so they must have rented it to my aunt and uncle.

“The house had big double doors between all the rooms as if someone wanted to stop things moving about – it was really weird. “We know of some of the people who lived
there but there are gaps, we don’t know if anyone died there. Maybe more of the building’s
history might come to light.”

FARMHOUSE: Folly Hall Farm, which
stood on Leeds Road, Outwood was knocked down
around 20 years ago.

GHOSTLY APPARITION: Tony Morris is
trying to trace the history of Folly Hall
Farm in Outwood and of a ghostly figure

that used to appear. w1152b744

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