Adisham is a small, secluded Kent village lying to the north of the M2 between Canterbury and Dover. Number 3 Church Lane is a semi-detached, brick-built cottage situated adjacent to the 13th-century Church of the Holy Innocents, near the end of a quiet country lane on the edge of the village. Since 1953, this had been the happy, tranquil home of Joe and June Orchard and, later, their son David (seen opposite). That changed in 1976, when a bizarre and terrifying phenomenon invaded their lives.

'The force', as June soon named it, appeared to gradually feel its way into the Orchards' lives through phenomena that could quite easily have been blamed on faulty equipment: the domestic lighting would suddenly dim and the vacuum cleaner and spin drier would cut off and surge into life seconds later.

On the morning of Monday, 1 November 1976, Joe Orchard was at work with the Water Board and June was renewing the wallpaper in the bedroom when David, on his half-term holiday, called out to say that there was water on the floor of the living room.