“Want to come and release a ghost?” asked Margo Williams. Most days that’s what she did. She pulled on anorak, grabbed bag stuffed with wads of paper, pencils, sharpener and a thermos. Off out in search of the unlucky dead trapped in a haunting.
Ghost on the Staircase
I followed Margo Williams into a haunted house.
Watched while she went to work.
She smiled, friendly warm and comforting to the distressed householder and her family, disturbed by a cold and frightening shadowed figure in the house; most often seen on the staircase.
Not at all the dark sombre ceremonial of the black-clad priest conducting the Bell Book and Candle ritual banishment of the demonic entity back down to hell.
Pink woollen hat removed so as not to muffle sounds, big handbag close and open, Margo sat on a step halfway up the stairs; hushed everyone so she could listen, poised ready with sharpened pencil and a clutch of half page size scraps of paper.
Moments later, the pencil flew across the paper forming weird lines of joined-up writing.
What Just Happened on the Staircase?
Five minutes or so later, the writing stopped. Margo collated the sheets of paper into sequence and read aloud the deciphered dictated message to the owner of the house.
First an introduction, a name.
Followed by an apology from a man who built the house a hundred years before. He spoke of regret for the frights and inconvenience caused by his continued presence in the building.
The former owner, now its supernatural sitting-tenant, expressed frustration at the circumstances of his haunting. The burden of a troubled conscience poured out, repeated cruelty to members of his household, long gone and forgotten by the living. He seemed to assume that was the cause of his curious incarceration.
The message concluded with his astonished description of the sudden appearance of lights, and distant voices calling to him. A moment or so later, the communication ceased.
The family gathered in their living room, mum, dad, two children of teenage years. Everyone listening to the polite confession.
"Has he gone?" was the question everyone wanted to know.
Exorcism, Hallucination or Release?
A month later I contacted the householder and asked if there was any difference in her home?
All quiet, was their response. No sign or sight of shadowed figure on the stairs.
Had he gone permanently? Or had everyone experienced a group hallucination, and the power of Margo Williams' presence and intervention changed the expectation, and therefore the experience?
That would probably be among the psychological non-surviving spirit conclusions.
It did not seem so one-dimensional. When I spoke to different family members, each expressed their own experience and fears of the same dark glowering man-sized presence in the house. Possible of course, that each of them wove into the ghost story, identifying with it in their own unique way.
But that wasn't the impression I received. Those individuals, like most people I meet, seemed sufficiently self-aware to know truth from make believe in most situations. A shared misunderstanding remained possible, but it did not seem to fit the people I met or the consistency of their accounts.
That was how Margo worked. Cheerful, sensitive and discreet. She had lots of Thank You letters from satisfied customers.
Nothing theatrical in what she did; didn't charge a fee for her services, only the cost of her bus-fare in getting to the site. Margo didn't drive.
Often accompanied by friends, media reporters and interested observers. Some days she engaged with ghosts stuck out in the wild, on lonely paths through woods; edge of a field, even a beach. Sometimes ghosts attached to pieces of their poignant past. Buried treasures, unexpected anchors in the afterlife retrieved on the direction of the deceased individual who lost them way back when it mattered.
From my first experience watching Margo at work, it seemed important to document what she did, who she helped, and where.
The Margo Williams Clairaudient Archive
I accompanied Margo for many years; researched archives and records whenever names were spoken and records might reveal identity. Old houses kept the best records of their residents.
Margo had already produced a series of small books during the 1970s and 80s describing her work of rescue and release, and unearthing "finds" as she described them; accompanied by friends and willing helpers.
Now out of print and unavailable, this current digital archive aims to restore these fascinating case files for wider access. The purpose is preservation not persuasion.
Investigating the Investigator
Also included in these archives is the period during the 1970s and 80s when Margo Williams and her scientist husband Walter became famous in world media.
How they were twice invited to present their findings to a collection of scientists gathered at PSI conferences.
How the couple attracted the special interest of senior members of the parapsychology departments at Edinburgh and Virginia university. In a paper published in the Journal of Psychical Research the authors declared the Williamses' evidence as from non-paranormal sources.
Margo Williams the Later Years
Margo's work continued throughout the 2000s up until her passing in 2009. This archive also includes investigations I encouraged her to engage in, especially some of the UKs most famously haunted landmark and historic buildings.
These include the Tower of London, Hampton Court Palace, Canterbury Cathedral and Glastonbury; and many others. Where possible I identified the dead; their stories and settings.
What they had to say about life and death was often surprising, sometimes humorous, occasionally moving, and frequently thought-provoking.
For seventeen years I watched Margo Williams at work. Some of the names she spoke were identified. Many remain unknown. Some stories were tragic, others humorous, and many unexpectedly moving.
This archive exists to preserve those voices, the investigations that followed, and the questions they continue to raise.
Whether one sees these accounts as evidence of survival after death, unusual experiences of consciousness, or simply remarkable pieces of social history, they deserve to be recorded rather than forgotten.
Continue the Investigation
Nick Hammond
Nick Hammond
