Spiders blamed for creepy nursery rhyme that terrorised Ipswich residents

Remember the movie Arachnophobia? Well, that's got nothing on this story.

A cluster of spiders (that's their collective noun) have been terrorising a street in Ipswich - but not by appearing in bathtubs or spinning dense layers of cobwebs that get stuck in your hair.

No, it's down to a creepy nursery rhyme. We told you this story was like a horror movie.

According to the Ipswich Star, a mother and her two children living on Bramford Road in the Suffolk town was being tormented on a nightly basis by a very creepy version of "It's Raining, It's Pouring."

The song could only be heard in the distance and a recording shows that it is barely audible, but is still very unsettling and would give even the bravest of individuals nightmares.

After, months (yes, months) of being frightened and not having a clue what was going on, she finally decided to report it to Ipswich Borough Council.

Other residents are said to have reported the sound.

Speaking to the Ipswich Star:

I started to ask myself why I was living with this when I could do something about it.

The anonymous woman, added in an interview with the BBC:

The first time I heard it it was the most terrifying thing ever, I went cold and felt sick, and thought 'what on earth was that?

Eventually on 12 September, after the eerie music started playing again for reportedly "every two to three minutes", the woman and team from the council managed to determine that the music was coming from the direction of Europa Way, a street adjacent to Bamford Road.

The scene of the scary tune was found on the Farthing Road estate where the music was blaring out of a loudspeaker that was fixed to a unit on the location.

What? Was this some sort of evil spider colony intent on ruining the lives of the good people of Ipswich?

The explanation is actually a lot stranger.

The song is said to be used as a deterrent to would-be trespassers, but was constantly going off as the spiders were crawling across the CCTV motion sensors and setting off the alarms.

A spokesperson from the site said in a statement:

The sound is only supposed to act as a deterrent for opportunistic thieves that come onto our property, and it’s designed only to be heard by people on our private land.

We are now aware of the problem - the motion sensors were being triggered by spiders crawling across the lenses of our cameras and it looks like we’ve had it turned up too loudly.

We’ve spoken to the resident who brought it to our attention and adjusted it so this shouldn’t happen again.

The volume has since been lowered and can no longer be heard from the woman's house.

A spokesperson from the council added:

This is unique in our experience - it was difficult to believe a nursery rhyme would be playing in the middle of the night.

We did hear the nursery rhyme playing from an industrial premises and it sounded very eerie at that time of night.

The story has since become something of a viral hit, perhaps based on people's fear of spiders and creepy songs.

HT Ipswich Star

More: Don’t watch this video if you are scared of spiders​