I don’t actually have any direct experience with anything spooky to share with you, so instead I’m going to tell you a true story about what happened to a friend of mine when her family moved into a new house in London.
Wendy (not her real name) comes from a large family and her parents decided it was time to move to a bigger house to accommodate them all. They found a house perfect for their needs on a newly built estate and soon moved in. Everything seemed fine and they were all happy with their new home but then little problems started to appear. It all began with the usual things: lights flickering, appliances switching on and off, and it was explained away as faulty wiring in a new house. However, it wasn’t long before things began to escalate. Footsteps were heard in the hallway in the middle of the night, despite the fact the hallway was carpeted and all the family was in bed. The following night, a ball could be heard bouncing along the hallway and duvets were pulled off beds. The episodes continued night after night and soon the entire family were starting to freak out. The children refused to go to bed alone and it wasn’t long before they were all sleeping in the same room downstairs.
A chance comment from a neighbour revealed the family weren’t suffering alone. The neighbour, not a big believer in the supernatural, finally decided to call in a medium and it wasn’t long before he reported sensing a number of presences. Impressed, Wendy’s family invited him into their house and he told them he could sense the presence of children, which explained the bouncing ball episode, and the presence of an older man who seemed to be searching for them. The medium called forth the spirit of the man and managed to reunite him with his children, after which there were no further incidents.
Wendy’s mum did some research into the area and later found out the entire estate was built on the site of an old workhouse which explained the numerous hauntings and unrest. The workhouses were built to offer relief to society’s destitute and life there was deliberately harsh to act as a deterrent. For many, ending up in the workhouse was the ultimate degradation.
For more information, visit: The Workhouses
Posted as part of the Cybercruise Halloween Event
Scary! I’m not sure that I would be able to stay in such house - not much sleep there, I would become a wandering ghost myself!!!! *giggles*
By captain lifecruiser
on 10.23.07 6:46 pm | Permalink
What a spooky story! fortunately with a happy end but such night activity would have driven me crazy! (and I would have been terribly scared). Glad the family found a sound solution…
Happy Halloween! cheers! well: champagne isn’t everybody’s taste. That means there is more for us during the party
By mar
on 10.23.07 7:03 pm | Permalink
That is good that they found out what was going on! It is so creepy when homes are built on burial sites or sacred sites. :eek!:
By Sword Girl
on 10.23.07 7:39 pm | Permalink
I can’t imagine that it could really happen, unless there is something real in the house like a cat or pigeons or bats but not ghosts even from a workhouse !
By Gattina
on 10.23.07 8:50 pm | Permalink
Scary. You definitely found something to say that fits the topic.
By thebluestbutterfly
on 10.23.07 10:24 pm | Permalink
I wonder why most such stories are from UK and US? I know there are stories from more traditional Catholic countries as well, but those stories had a purpose: To frightend people (servants/slaves/poor people) away from stealing - like this one:
http://www.conchaytorousa.com/wines/diablo.html
By TorAa
on 10.24.07 3:54 pm | Permalink
Wow, that put a shiver down my spine. I was expecting a more mundane ending somehow, like a visiting cat
By A.
on 10.25.07 10:17 pm | Permalink
Scary story, brrrrrrrrr.
I sat waiting for a friend to come home in a house that 3 friends had recently moved into. The back door kept opening on its own accord and slamming against the wall, even though I had shut it tightlly. This happened several times, and there was no wind outside.
The door opened once again, while I sat waiting in the living room. I heard heavy footsteps walk in and up to the bedrooms on the floor above, and waited for my friend to come down. She never did.
Moments later my friend came home, and I told her what had happened. She went upstairs thinking it was one of the roomates, and no one was home but us.
Another occasion a call came on the phone for the roomate whose bedroom was downstairs. The one who answered the phone called to the girl to answer the phone and she came screaming upstairs. She said she had been talking to him on her bed and then heard his voice call her from upstairs.
Another night 2 of us were watching TV, and it began shutting on and off on its own, and switching channels on us. Then we started hearing footsteps walking around, and we were the only 2 in the house. We ran outside and sat on the steps and kept hearing the TV going crazy from outside. Everyone moved out days afterwards.
Deborah’s last blog post..Bats Not the Insidious Creatures of Myth - Bracken Bat Cave
By Deborah
on 10.28.07 12:44 pm | Permalink