HAUNTED WIRRAL: The Rock Ferry exorcism

In this latest tale, Tom explores the strange case of the Rock Ferry exorcism...

A few years ago, an old Wirral man named Dominic passed away, and weeks before he died he told me a story I had been chasing for over a decade – the strange exorcism of a wealthy man’s daughter at Rock Ferry.

I had heard fragmentary details of this strange episode, but Dominic had worked at the house where the exorcism had taken place as a butler and had witnessed the terrifying events there firsthand.

The story then: in the summer of 1951, a successful exporter named Douglas resided at a rather gothic-looking villa in Rock Park, Rock Ferry, situated on the riverfront.

The villa, like many of the other listed buildings in the area, was constructed from blocks of sandstone excavated from Storeton quarry in the 1840s, and this ancient stone allegedly triggered the supernatural incident which took place in the villa in June 1951.

A window cleaner named Johnson noted the ‘snake’ carved into one of the sandstone blocks of the house one morning next to the upstairs window of a bedroom where Douglas’s 22-year-old daughter Gillian slept.

Gillian leaned out of her window and ran her fingers over the bas relief snake, and a friend of her father – a Llandudno businessman named Campbell who held an interest in palaeontology – had a look at the snake in the stone and declared it to be an unusual fossil which should be removed and donated to a museum.

Gillian would not hear of it, and said the snake would be her lucky totem.

Gillian showed Wendy the snake and stroked it as she said, “I want Stirling to be my husband and I want to have his baby.”

Stirling was a dashing young Liverpool man who worked for the girl’s father, and Wendy said that wishing on a fossil smacked of paganism.

That evening, Gillian doubled up with crippling stomach cramps and the family physician Dr Maple was sent for.

He saw that Gillian’s stomach had ballooned to such an extent, she looked like a pregnant woman about to give birth.

Then the physician felt the little kicks, and he recoiled in shock.

He asked Gillian: “Are you pregnant, my dear?”

Gillian shook her head and cried in agony, and her ‘waters broke’.

The doctor went outside the room and cried to the butler Dominic: “Summon the midwife!”

The old midwife delivered something that looked like a baby, but it didn’t feel real, and it was as white as snow. It moved but had no heartbeat, and the midwife made the sign of the cross and left the house.

The ‘baby’ walked about the room, and Dr Maple then noticed the way Gillian’s behaviour had undergone a sea change. She swore loudly, spat at him, and began to rant about the church.

Maple left the room and told the girl’s father a priest was needed, for Gillian seemed to be possessed.

Seeing his daughter in convulsions upon her bed, and hearing the awful blasphemies she was screeching, Maple sent the butler Dominic to find a vicar or priest to deal with this terrifying condition afflicting Gillian.

Dominic was gone for some time, as most of the reverends he talked to refused to come out to tackle the alleged possession.

A Catholic priest – Father Fausto – and a nun named Sister Raphael – arrived at the house. Fausto was a visiting Catalonian priest who brought a Gladstone bag crammed with the tools of the exorcist’s trade, and he was even equipped with chains and ropes to restrain Gillian.

Douglas was instructed to stay away while the exorcism got underway, but Dominic the butler was posted outside the bedroom door.

Sister Raphael prayed at the foot of the bed and after bounding Gillian to the bed in chains, Father Fausto began the Rite of Exorcism.

The ‘baby’ entity fell down in the corner and withered.

Fausto asked the demon to give its name, and Gillian said, “Jack the Ripper” and laughed hysterically.

“In the name of Jesus Christ you will give me your name, demon!” Fausto cried.

Gillian’s mouth opened wide and out came a huge snake – which spoke.

It cracked macabre jokes and tried to undermine the priest’s faith by telling him about contradictory passages in the Bible.

“Your name is Nahash isn’t it?” Faust asked with a smile.

“The old serpent from the Garden of Eden!” Faust bravely laughed, and he dipped the aspergillum in a small bucket of holy water and flicked it at the ancient serpent.

The entity writhed and screamed in agony with bulging red eyes.

One of the chains binding Gillian to the bedstead snapped and just missed the nun.

There was a loud crash outside the door. Dominic could not believe his eyes.

It looked like a horse covered in blood, as if it had just come from the knacker’s yard, and it was blocking the stairs.

A minute later this supernatural apport vanished.

The ‘serpent’ slid out of Gillian’s mouth and hid under the bed, but it was never found, and the young lady eventually returned to normal.

The block of sandstone with the fossilised snake was removed from the building and returned to Storeton quarry.

Gillian attended church every Sunday after the possession, and later married Stirling.

Tom's latest book Haunted Liverpool 29 is out now on Amazon.