The Enfield Poltergeist is the most extensively documented poltergeist case in British history, centred on a council house at 284 Green Street, Brimsdown, Enfield, between August 1977 and 1979. The case involved single mother Peggy Hodgson and her four children — daughters Margaret and Janet, and sons Johnny and Billy — and was investigated over roughly 14 months by Society for Psychical Research members Maurice Grosse and Guy Lyon Playfair.
Reported phenomena
Peggy Hodgson first contacted police in August 1977 after her children reported furniture moving on its own and knocking sounds from the walls; the attending constable reported seeing a chair slide across the floor, though could not determine whether it moved unaided. Over the following months, an estimated 2,000 individual incidents were logged by more than 30 witnesses, including furniture moving and spinning, small objects such as marbles and building blocks being thrown (reportedly warm to the touch afterward), knocking and scratching sounds, and reported levitation, primarily centred on 11-year-old Janet Hodgson.
In December 1977, a deep, gruff voice reportedly began speaking through Janet, unlike her ordinary voice, identifying itself as Bill Wilkins, a man said to have previously died in the house.
Investigation
The case reached the Society for Psychical Research after a Daily Mirror journalist contacted the Society's secretary in early September 1977. Maurice Grosse, who had recently joined the SPR and had experienced a series of events he considered meaningful following the death of his own daughter (also named Janet) in a motorcycle accident the previous year, took on the case, visiting the house for the first time on 5 September 1977 and remaining involved for over two years. He was joined by writer Guy Lyon Playfair, who brought experience investigating poltergeist phenomena in Brazil. Grosse maintained detailed logs, extensive tape recordings, and attempted documentation using the technology available at the time; he later remarked on the phenomena's apparent timing, noting that incidents consistently occurred only when investigators had left a room.
Scepticism and admitted deception
Not all investigators were convinced. SPR members Anita Gregory and John Beloff found evidence suggesting Margaret and Janet had faked incidents for the benefit of watching journalists, and other academic sceptics reached similar conclusions. Grosse and Playfair themselves acknowledged that the girls had, on occasion, attempted to trick investigators, but maintained these were isolated incidents that were quickly identified and admitted to by the children, describing it as an unsurprising response to watching adults document and react so intently to their behaviour. Janet later stated the children had faked events "about two percent of the time." The family and their immediate neighbours maintained that the core phenomena they experienced were genuine, and those who knew Peggy Hodgson personally vouched for her integrity.
Legacy
Playfair's 1980 book, This House Is Haunted: The True Story of a Poltergeist, remains the primary detailed account of the case. It was dramatised by Sky Living in the three-part 2015 miniseries The Enfield Haunting, starring Timothy Spall as Grosse and Matthew Macfadyen as Playfair, and has since been cited as an inspiration for elements of the wider The Conjuring horror film franchise. The case remains a central reference point in discussions of Poltergeist phenomena and the broader question of how RSPK cases can combine genuinely puzzling elements with admitted, isolated deception.