Haunted or Just Hazadous? Residents in Uk’s Spookiest Cities Urged to Call an Electrician, Not a Ghostbuster This Halloween
Residents in the UK’s most haunted cities have been warned they may be more in need of an electrician than an exorcist this Halloween.
Cities including London, York, Liverpool, Derby and Oxford have been revealed as being some of the most haunted in the country, according to family history website Findmypast.
However, safety experts at Electrical Safety First are now warning locals in these cities that their ghostly goings on may actually be because of something far more frightening.
FLICKERING LIGHTS:
“Flickering lights, and lightbulbs blowing might all be stereotypical scenes from a Hollywood Halloween film but the reality is you’re probably suffering from dodgy electrics,” Richard Harvey, Electrical Installation Safety Engineer at Electrical Safety First comments. “Whilst the idea of a ghost may seem suitably terrifying to most households, the reality of faulty wiring can have much more frightening consequences.”
Analysis of more than 67 million historic newspaper archives by Findmypast reveals the cities across the UK with the most mentions of hauntings.
London, Bristol, Oxford, Manchester, Nottingham and Cambridge all feature within the top 20 haunted cities across the UK, with residents being urged not to dismiss signs of dodgy electrics as simply something spooky this Halloween.
GREEN GOO:
Households in these cities are also being warned to look out for a green slime-like substance that maybe oozing from their plug sockets, light switches or light fittings and heavy discoloration.
Photo credit: Bright Spark Electrical Services
“It may sound like something from the 1950s blockbuster The Blob but a green goo-like substance oozing from your plug sockets, light switches or light fittings is far more likely to be linked to deteriorating wiring than a mutant invasion,” Richard Harvey adds. “When green goo appears, it can adversely affect the components within your sockets and other electrical accessories and leave you exposed to risk of electric shock in the future. It is mostly seen in wiring predating 1960 and is a chemical reaction between the plastic and copper.”
UNUSUAL SMELLS:
Experts are also warning households about odd and unexpected smells in the home.
Smells such as sulphur are stereotypically associated, in movies, with the paranormal but households are being warned that burning smells or a smell similar to that of fish could actually be due to the socket outlets and other electrical accessories or equipment overheating and burning.
“Look out for discoloration of your sockets, especially if it’s accompanied with a slight fishy smell,” Richard Harvey adds. “If your socket outlets are turning yellow, they are likely overheating.”
The top 20 most haunted cities in the UK according to Findmypast:
|
London |
1 |
|
York |
2 |
|
Liverpool |
3 |
|
Birmingham |
4 |
|
Derby |
5 |
|
Oxford |
6 |
|
Manchester |
7 |
|
Glasgow |
8 |
|
Chester |
9 |
|
Leicester |
10 |
|
Newcastle |
11 |
|
Bristol |
12 |
|
Edinburgh |
13 |
|
Lincoln |
14 |
|
Leeds |
15 |
|
Westminster |
16 |
|
Cambridge |
17 |
|
Nottingham |
18 |
|
Belfast |
19 |
|
Canterbury |
20 |
“If you live in one of the UKs most haunted cities this Halloween and something goes bump in the night you might want to consider hiring a registered electrician instead of a ghost buster,” Richard Harvey commented. “A registered electrician will be able to ensure faults in your property, such as flickering lights, burning plug sockets and loose connections are identified and rectified, so that they don’t present a risk of electric shock or fire in the future. You can find a competent electrician who is registered with one of the recognised competent persons schemes such as NICEIC, SELECT or NAPIT by using our Find An Electrician Tool.”
Signs your house is haunted by dodgy electrics:
- Lights that continue to blow or flicker – If you’re constantly finding yourself in the dark, there is a possibility a loose connection is at fault rather than a ghost.
- An unpleasant smell similar to fish – Whilst unpleasant smells such as sulphur are often associated with hauntings, an unwelcome smell, similar to fish, can often be associated with the burning smell of sockets or plastic. Don’t overlook it, report it immediately to your landlord.
- Green goo oozing from the sockets or other electrical accessories – Unlikely a mutant invasion and more likely a chemical reaction linked to old wiring that can adversely affect components in your sockets and other electrical accessories.
- The electricity keeps tripping – If the protective devices in your consumer unit such as RCDs continue to trip the reality is far more concerning than the paranormal. Tripping electrics are an indicator that your circuits are overloaded or that the wiring in the property is deteriorating.
Notes to editor:
- Electrical Safety First is the UKs leading consumer safety charity dedicated to reducing fires, injuries and deaths caused by electricity in the home.
- The British Newspaper Archive (BNA) is a joint project with the British Library to digitise their extensive historical newspaper collection. Findmypast scans and publishes this data, which includes linguistic analysis and transcription of the millions of articles contained within the newspapers, enabling search and browse of this collection online.
- Findmypast’s data team ran queries against the BNA data for the 76 cities of the UK, alongside the keyword ‘ghosts’. The city search was adjusted to exclude natural language, surnames, stem words (e.g. ‘Bath’ vs ‘Bathroom’) and unrelated returns. The resulting count was weighted against a median average population size of each city between 1861 and 2021. To avoid skew, 3 cities were removed that have less than 10,000 population – Wells, St Davids and St Asaph.
- 1 – Newspaper archives hosted on Findmypast website, drawing from the British Newspaper Archive in partnership with the British Library
- 2 – In order to reflect population change over time, the data uses a median average population figure, taking the midpoint between the earliest available UK Census data from 1861, and the latest figures in 2021.
- 3 – 1,544 mentions of the keyword ‘ghost’ were found in articles also mentioning ‘Ely’ – based on an average population of 17,280 between census results in 1862 and 2021, this is 8.9 mentions