Epworth Rectory

One of the most famous cases in the annals of noisy ghosts is when the Reverend Samuel Wesley and his family visited a priest in Epworth in 1716. Among the 19 children of Reverend Wesley who witnessed this phenomenon were John and Charles, the founders of Methodism and the authors of some of the most beloved hymns of the Christian world.

On the first of December, children and servants began to complain about the terrible moans and mysterious knocks in their rooms. They also claimed that they could hear the sound of footsteps going up and down the stairs at any time of the night.

The noises followed a pattern that rarely changed. They started in the kitchen, then suddenly flew up to the bed, knocked on the leg, then on the head.

One of the girls stated that she had seen the ghost of a man in a long white coat dragging on the floor. Other children claimed to have seen an animal that looked like a badger running out from under their beds.

Then, when the Wesleys got used to their strange visitor, the riots stopped as suddenly as they had begun.