Sunderland poltergeist drama which is being investigated again 180 years after it first terrorised Wearside

A Sunderland poltergeist saga which has intrigued Wearside for more than 180 years is back in the spotlight.

Historian Stephen Miller wants to get to the bottom of the 1840 case in which a Hendon Road family was terrified by a spirit. It knocked on walls, made noises like thunder and caused water to appear from nowhere.

The case made national headlines when a Sunderland youngster called Mary Jobson was ill in bed. She was only 12 when she started to see visions of Jesus.

This was just the beginning and her illness was accompanied by poltergeist activity such as knocking and a disembodied voice. The voice took on thepersona of many entities including God, Jesus and the Virgin Mary.

The story was published by prominent local figure, Dr William Reid Clanny who was a physician to the Duke of Sussex and was also senior physician at Sunderland Infirmary.

He produced a report which was called ‘A Faithful Record of the Miraculous Case of Mary Jobson’.

The book provided multiple witness statements for the range of paranormal activity taking place. They included celestial paintings appearing from nowhere, predictions of the assassination of Queen Victoria and beautiful music being heard.

Stephen Miller, from the Poltergeist Project podcast has taken on the story to finally get to the bottom of what was going on.

He said: “The Poltergeist Project aims to investigate historic paranormal stories from across the UK. The Sunderland story stood out to me as being so unique and very well documented. Clanny’s book is a fantastic piece of social history, revealing lots about the lives of the working poor of Sunderland in the early Victorian period.”

Mr Miller added: “Whether or not God was performing miracles or someone was playing tricks, poltergeist or not, remains to be seen.”

He told the Sunderland Echo: “I started the project earlier this year after a lifetime of interest in the paranormal. I knew there were some interesting, little known, historic cases out there that I could perhaps tell differently with my perspective and skills as a historian.

“Having started with a story in Keighley and then the City of London I was looking for a story for series three. I only engage with cases which I think have some mystery to them, which are hard to explain away as a sceptic.

“After weeks of trawling through old newspaper archives and websites I came across the Mary Jobson story and instantly knew this one was for me! It's so well documented through Clanny's book and I love the local history around it.”

The Sunderland Poltergeist has been released as a free podcast series and is available now on all major platforms.