Woman forced to give up spooky rocking horse that 'moves from room to room'

A haunted rocking horse with a spooky history, previously owned by a renowned medium, has been sold to a museum of the occult in Las Vegas for £1,750

A spooky haunted rocking horse believed to move by itself from room to room has been sold - after its owner became a Christian.

The creepy item was bought by the museum in Las Vegas for £1,750 even though its estimate was only £300.

It was once owned by leading medium Dick Godden - but now has been handed over to experts after its current owner converted to Christianity

Mr Godden’s great-granddaughter Kelly, who inherited the antique, said: “One day my great-grandma Irene came home to an empty house and the horse had been moved into the middle of the living room.

“She assumed one of my cousins had been playing on it but it turned out that they hadn’t been near the house.”

The next day, the couple returned home from work to find the rocking horse in the hallway – again, no one had entered the house all day.

During one trance, Mr Godden raised the spirit of a little girl named Angela – and she cheekily admitted to playing on the horse, and hiding a doll around the home - including one hiding place so high an adult would be unable to reach.

Kelly, 36, now of Ashford, said: “I remember going from our home in Hampshire to visit my great-grandparents when I was about seven.

"It was a three-storey house and the top bedrooms always felt quite eerie. I remember feeling uneasy going up and down the steep narrow staircase on my own to the top floor where the horse was kept.

“We have had the horse since my daughter was a baby, it’s why my grandad (Dick’s son) gave it to me, but she has never been drawn to it or interested in playing on it.”

Kelly’s mother was also into spiritualism. Kelly was just 15 when she was introduced to her first séance.

But she renounced it when she became a Christian - which prompted her to decide to give up the item.

She said: “I’ve never seen the rocking horse move rooms.

“However, the horse lived on the landing and there would often be the sound of someone walking around upstairs.

“On more than one occasion I would hear a huge bang from one of the rooms upstairs.

"Thinking it was something falling off a window sill I would rush up there and absolutely nothing would be out of place. It did make me wonder.

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“I couldn’t put it up for auction without telling people its history, just in case it went to a family with children. I thought it might be good for someone who runs a spooky escape room.”

Dick Godden investigated the paranormal in the UK in the early 1970s - including an apparition inside what had been the Electric Cinema on Grace Hill, Folkestone, which is now flats.

Along with the dimensions and cursory description, Canterbury Auction Galleries’ lot summary reads: “Note: The vendor's [great] grandfather was a trance medium/ghost hunter in the 1940s, and the horse was used for seances.”

A spokesperson for the auctioneers said: "The supernatural element of this item has not determined the estimates put on it."

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