In what has become one of the most defining British ghost stories of the last century, the seemingly remarkable events at a council house in north London has inspired films, stage plays and endless conspiracy theories.

During the 1970s, a family became the subject of national attention after a series of terrifying incidents at their home at 284 Green Street, Enfield. Dubbed the Enfield Poltergeist, images showed a young girl levitating while a recording was taken of a raspy voice claiming to be the ghost of a man who had previously died at the property.

Speaking to The Independent, a Daily Mirror photographer who visited the house regularly between 1977 and 1979 has recalled his involvement with the Hodgson family, and his own theory behind the events at the property.

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After arriving at midnight in August 1977, he and his colleague were taken to the kitchen while Penny Hodgson and her children were brought into the room.

“Suddenly all these things started flying around the room, it was really unnerving. I got struck above my eyebrow with a lego brick with some force,” he said. “The kids were just in such a state, screaming and crying, it was horrible looking at the pictures.

“I was looking out for it, there was no way any of them were doing it,” he said. “I was watching everybody through my camera and no one was doing that, they couldn’t have just flicked it with the force that propelled itself across the room.

“They would have had to swivel around and thrown it over their head, it definitely wasn’t them.”

After his pictures were published, Mr Morris spent the next 18 months visiting the property and photographing the strange goings on.

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On some occasions, chairs would fall over in closed rooms while knockings could be heard on the wall. During overnight stays with members of the SPR, Mr Morris would leave his camera in the children’s bedroom with a long cable down to the kitchen while an audio recording was taken.

“As soon as you heard anything in the room, I’d take a lot of pictures,” he said. “You didn’t know until the next day what you’ve got.” It was through this approach that the images of Janet Hogson, 11, supposedly levitating in the air were taken.

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Rather than believe it was the work of a ghostly presence, Mr Morris, now aged 69, believes that the incidents were connected to Janet, who was at the “epicentre” of the supernatural behaviour.

“My theory being an onlooker there was that it was coming out of Janet,” Mr Morris said. “She’d got to school and things would fly out of the classroom or she’d go to the shops and tins would come off the shelves.

“That was some kind of force that we don’t get yet and maybe we won’t in my lifetime. It was some kind of kinetic energy coming out around her, it sounds daft but that’s the theory.”

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