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Chapter 1: What is the purpose of this special case update episode?
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Hello, I'm Danny Robbins, and this is a special Case Update episode. So, yeah, this is a chance for us to go into some aspects of the investigation in a little bit more detail and answer a few of your questions. Firstly, thanks for all the emails so far. So many brilliant questions and theories coming in.
Chapter 2: Why didn't the Hitchings family move out of 63 Wycliffe Road?
Dan from Austin, Texas, asks... Why didn't the Hitchings move out of 63 Wycliffe Road after the furniture started moving about and Shirley levitated above her bed? That's a great question. And I think the answer is really, would you want to be forced out of your home? It's interesting how often in poltergeist cases, the family do stay there determined to stick it out. It becomes like a standoff.
Um, he also asks, did Harold Chibbett use any audio or visual recording equipment? Um, Unfortunately not. This is 1956 and those kind of things just weren't easily or cheaply available back then. Later in the case, Chib does get hold of a camera and you can see some of the photographs that he took on the BBC website.
Now, quite a few of you are asking about the key that Shirley found in episode one. We heard Chib questioning the family.
So, where do you want to start? The best place, I find, is always the beginning. I've read the newspaper accounts, but they're very sensational. I'd like to hear in your own words when you first noticed something odd.
The key.
Shirley found it.
End of January.
27th.
It was on my bed, sitting on the pillow. I'd never seen it before.
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Chapter 3: What significance does the mysterious key hold in the investigation?
There's underground lines around that area as well. You're not far from the River Thames and kind of busy docks and that sort of thing.
OK, this is interesting because we've got an email here from Jackie Gilmartin who asks if there were train lines near the property. She says, going from memories of my childhood, my aunt and uncle lived near a railway line and every time a train went by, the house shook, ornaments moved. And there is indeed a railway bridge at the bottom of Wycliffe Road.
Have a listen to this clip from when my producer Simon and I were recording there. Can you hear the train? Yes. It's very close. The train is just at the bottom of the road. That'll be going into Clapham Junction, which is apparently Europe's busiest railway station. Or maybe Britain's busiest railway station. A lot of Europe disagrees, I think. But it's interesting.
The train's really, really close. And one thing I have wondered is if the train's played any impact at all in the noises in the house. Because in my house where I live, I live up in northeast London, and one day we just noticed we could hear the tube and we'd never heard it before. And it was because they'd started doing some work on the line that somehow changed the way the tube ran under us.
And now every day we hear... And I just wondered if around that time in 1956, if there'd been any difference with the trains, if they'd done any work.
There's a huge amount of environmental stuff that could be causing the noise. And why couldn't that be a possible explanation? That there could be some building work or some sort of work that's going on underground or at a railway or somewhere nearby that's causing this sound, but then people quickly fixate on it happening at 63 Wycliffe Road and it takes on a whole other element.
That takes us on to a brilliant email from Emily Whitaker who says, I'm an environmental health practitioner and part of my training is around housing conditions as well as noise nuisance. I'd like to know if the house had a basement. If not, is there a sewer network running underneath? Could it be that engineering works were being carried out underground under the house?
The neighbours say the banging sounded like ripping up the floors, which could indicate a sense that it was the floor level creating noise or vibration. Noise disturbance is well accepted to be perceived as worse at night when other daytime incidental noises are gone. So firstly, no, there wasn't a basement, but Evelyn, you've been researching the geography of Wycliffe Road.
What do you make of Kieran and Emily's theories about underground noise?
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