“Since I was about 11-12 years old I’ve heard stories about a place in High Beach called “Hangmans Hill”. So one night me and my friend got in his car and decided to take a drive up to High Beech.

We asked a local about the legend and he told us about what had happened up Hangman’s Hill. We went to the hill and my friend stopped his car. After a few seconds the car started to roll, I thought it was my friend joking about until I realised his car was off. I decided to get out to see what happened, when I did, I felt very cold and being it was one of the hottest summers we’ve had I found this very odd.

After a few seconds I saw what seemed to be a shadow of a man standing in the woods and he was staring right at my friends car then looked directly at me and smiled.

As I watched him I realised he seemed to be making a pulling motion. I asked my friend if he could see him but he couldn’t. When I went to get back into his car I heard a laugh which seemed to echo throughout the woods. Me and my friend drove off after that, I looked back and could still see the man standing there. Possibly waiting for the next car or person to go the Hangmans Hill.

The one thing that I’ve always wondered about that night is what would of happened had I not gotten back in the car and me and my friend had stayed there.”

I have had a couple of experiences that have left me shaken up , and convinced that ghosts are a part of a science we do not yet understand. One of them occured when I was three and I was talking to someone who, my mum assures me was not there . She fled the house with me in tow .

I also was terribly frightened by the atmosphere changes and sense of dread in a place called Hillbark, Royden Park. The house built originally 1891, had been moved from it’s original site and rebuilt brick by brick approximately seven miles away on the site of an old tithebarn (1931 approx).

It has a rather imposing Mock Tudor edifice, but not what you would imagine as spooky in any way. Following the death of it’s owner in 1961, the house became a mental health facility for older people who had developed senile dementia. My office was a lovely sunny room, located through an oak panelled hidden doorway.

I had the residents participate in occupational therapy, and while I was in the room waiting for the staff to bring someone in, I had a feeling that there was somebody in the room with me. I couldn’t see anything, but I knew I wasn’t alone. I turned away from the room and looked through the window out over the gardens. It was a bright day and yet I was cold to the bone.

The staff were very busy that day and it took over an hour for one of the nurses to bring someone into me. In all that time I stayed frozen, looking out at the gardens. I couldn’t turn around. When I questioned the other staff, I found out that I was not alone in experiencing this. As my job at the time allowed me to move from facility to facility, I chose not to return to Hillbark. It is now a conference centre and hotel.

However, the my next job was in a home for the physically disabled and was in an old house in Arrowe Park, Upton. This home had once belonged to a member of the Hellfire club and the huge furnishings that once occupied the home now are kept in the Birkenhead museum. The carved wood fireplaces and various pieces are covered with imps, demons and fairyfolk.

When the house was being refurbished , the builders found a pentagram on the floor of the hallway. It measured about 20 foot on diameter. Anyway, there is a spiral staircase that the care assistants use to leave their belongings and no-one would change alone as it was rumoured that there was a ghost there. I never felt anything untoward there, but in another part of the building I did see a little girl pass by the doorway of one of the rooms and when I poked my head out through the door there was nobody there. It was a long empty corridor. All the rooms off it had to be unlocked with keys and used only for storage.

The one other place that I think I may have spooked myself was in Gwydir Castle, Llanrwst, Wales. The house is lovely and dark with a great history that is set up for you on recordings that are triggered as you go into a room. There is a lovely eerie feel to the place and you end the tour with a visit to the dungeons. I am afraid that I reacted to the set up. I ran up the stairs and into the sunlight like the devil was chasing me. Delicious!

I don’t think that there are ghosts around every corner (our last house had a body decomposing for a week following the owners suicide and in our present house the chap who owned it before us hanged himself from our loft hatch) but nothing nasty has leapt at me from either place, as yet. Actually , I’ve just remembered David and I used to blame the electrical equipment going funny on someone we called Brian.

However , I do believe that strange things happen, I just haven’t figured out what yet…..

I would like to tell of the experience my daughter and I had at Dudley Castle in October last year.

I had spent the day at the zoo in the castle grounds.We then went into the visitor centre where they have several rooms dedicated to the history of the castle, archaeological finds and it’s connections with Lady Jane Grey.

There is also a gift shop there.

It was in one of these rooms that we had an encounter with what we believe may have been one of the castle’s many ghosts.

My daughter and I were alone as my husband had taken our 2 youngest children to the sealion enclosure! We sat down on the slope leading out of one of the rooms so we could watch a short film on Lady Jane Grey we were about 2 feet apart, we both looked at each other at the same time as we had realised that there was an icy cold “something” between us it stayed for about 10 seconds and we felt it move away behind us and go down the slope towards the wall of the room.

We mentioned this to the castle staff and they confirmed that strange things often happen in the undercroft including things being moved around in the gift shop.

Station Hotel Dudley – Investigation 16th July 2004

I joined the team at the hotel at around 21:15 hrs and waited in the bar area until the remainder of the team was present. I then went on an initial sweep of the areas we were to be conducting vigils, being rooms 213,214, 217 and the cellar area.

Location Room 217
The spirit energy of a man coming in behind Tracy and Wendy located to the immediate left hand side of the door as you enter the room. This man tells me his name is Tony, of the modern era, being the 20th century, slightly bald and thin and wore a tweed jacket. He looks a little like John Inman of “are you being served fame” but a little fatter in the face and wore a brown jacket. He is a quite man, and mentions Mary and Michael, he is from the Midlands and feel this to be the Stoke area and lived near a railway line. He talks of trains and feel he had taken his own life, and mentions Millers Crossing, and am shown a stone bridge, red brick and feel this to have been the area where he would have taken his own life. He is mentioning Tracy and says he took his life due to financial implications. He mentions the name of Albert and the surname of Pearce (Pearson) and also the name of Jackie. (here he mentions some personal information which pertains to Tracy, a member of the investigation group) which was in the main part accepted by her.

Another energy near to the window about 5 feet 6 or 7 inches in height, very smartly dressed, a smart suit with silver pres stud buttons running down the front of a double breasted jacket or blazer. Feel the energy to be of a residual nature but associated with the hotel and around the late 50’s to mid 60’s. Looks similar to the Scottish jailer out of “Porridge” in appearance, but with fuller cheeks and feel a naval connection with this man. Very dutiful, punctilious, every had to be just right and would have been a stickler for this, pedantic person. I feel he would have been a member of the Hotel staff at some time, and perceive the name of George, and known for his “things had to be correct” attitude, and would have been a strong residual influence within the room and on the floor level in general.

A spirit influence of a lady a little like Thora hurd in appearance, though a little fuller of figure, and appears wearing an overall being of a pink/blue pattern and would have been a tea lady, and is telling me that she had problems with her lower legs, and would have passed to spirit with bowel cancer. She is talking of herself at this time, and she says she would have been heard, footsteps and rattling of tea cups, within this room in particular. She tells me her name is Rose and would have gone to the women’s institute for a cup of tea with her friend Margaret. She says that she would have known George, and that she would have been heard within this room, and talks of a story of the mirror in the room being shaken and footsteps at the door, but no one actually came into the room, and when talking about George mentions the surname of Meekin. Again I feel this lady to have been around the 50’s or 60’s, and feel she comes round the hotel because it was a favourite “haunt” of hers.

Cellar
The residual energy of a large man, a little taller than Tony (member of the group) he is clean shaven, rounded face and dark eyes, and appears to be a youngish man of around 30 to 34 years of age. I feel him as being a curt person, quite abrupt and would not have had many dealings with people in general and felt him to be local to this area, and feel to be around 1865-1870. Residual energy of a woman who would have been associated with the hotel, not a staff member and felt she would have died here, dark eyes, fair hair and wore a cap and gown, the type that people would have been buried in. I feel she did not die a natural death, I see her about 5 feet 6 inches tall, blonde hair, very dark eyes. I get the feelings of her being strangled, with a rope and not sure as whether this was a hanging or throttling. Feel the energy of this lady to have been walking around this area and that people would react to the energy and not necessarily been seen, and also sense this event would have been hushed up.

The spirit energies of two men are visible “via clairvoyance” they are showing themselves as darker shadows further down the corridor towards the barrel drop. The corridor gets cold and there is a build up of energy towards the far end of the barrel drop, this energy is in the form of a mist, being a purple black in colour. The first man is small and appears 17th century in attire, (1792 circa) wears a tricorn hat and his hair in a pony tail

At this stage movement can be seen as well as various lights appearing in the corridor and to this effect I decided to talk out loud, both for the tape and the people present, so they can get a better feel for what is occurring. Another man again wearing a tricorn hat 5 foot 8 inches tall, chubby man, very well dressed again of the late 17th century, this man is Spirit energy as he is now talking to me, and he says he was involved in the legal profession, judicial system. “some noises are now being heard as if someone walking passed behind us” again the temperature has dropped noticeably. Two male spirit energies are now stood right in front of me, and appear to be fascinated with what we the name of Thomas, a chronicler, the second was a proprietor of meats and fine wines. At this point there is a small metal barrel located in the corner of the corridor, and this was heard to move. These people would have got together as if in a secret society, to fix commodity prices and such. Have the name of James Soap who would have been a jeweller. I now move down the corridor with one of the members of the group and see if we can get further into the energies present. I then ask about this murder of the lady. The room becomes very dark, colder, more noises heard around the cellar to our front and to the back of us, with of the members being touched on the back.

I was told that the murder had something to do with a man called Thomas Green. I was then pushing as to what had happened, the location of Hardy Street was mentioned in regards to this. I then move further forward into the energies and take one of the members further into the corridor to see what may happen. The Spirit energy of a man is now right in front of me and is attired in the “David Copperfield” era wearing a top hat, a short jacket and well fitting trousers. This man I feel would have used a horse whip in order to get what he wanted. The lady with me at the time reported her right arm as “being on fire” I asked her to move to the opposite side of the corridor in order to ascertain if this was merely residual, the sensations she was having continued, she was very cold and appeared a little uncomfortable so we moved back to join the rest of the group. It was then that we noticed she had a long thing red mark down the length of her arm, from the elbow to just above the wrist. As I was asking for information about the murder, I also asked Joanne to do the same, when she was talking out loud, the spirit of the man was replying, he replied to her saying “yes bitch”

Room 213
There was the residual energy here of a man located very near to the window, and I also felt that the window would have been larger, and more arched shaped at this time. He wore a blonde wig, tied at the back with a black bow, his face was powdered white and had a small spot painted onto his left cheek. His attire was very affluent, being a cream beige quilted jacket resplendent with a blue and red swirl pattern, almost like thistle leaves in design. He wore tight trousers and shoes. I sensed this room to have been a lot larger and used for business meetings and such, for the room contained two large writing tables, of Georgian style.

Stair case
On the staircase at the rear of the hotel, towards the location of the bar, I was aware of the residual energy of a Victorian lady, she wore an ornate grey dress, which was of fine lace, the skirts being tied in a large bow to the rear, and a tight bodice up the front, and topped with a fine lace design in the chest area, and came tight up to the neck line. She had dark hair, brown eyes and wore a small black hat. I had the sense of her rushing up the staircase and the energy was very strong in this area and remarked that this lady would most probably have been seen

Restaurant
There was the residual energies in this room, one of a man who was very well attired, he appeared to be of the Victorian era, wore a dark evening jacket, tall collar and bow tie. He was balding on the head, his hair being fair in colour, he also wore glasses. I sensed that he would have been seen in this area, and had the sense of a lot of plants being here during this period, I also perceived the name of George.

Ball room
This area was a little disappointing for me, being that the hotel had an event which went on until 1 am in the morning and was still being cleaned and tidied up until 3 am in the morning. For myself this I feel ruined any atmosphere that may have been present. I only had the sense of the far wall having had a very grand façade, of green and cream in design and felt this to have been during the Victorian era, and was hearing the music from the Viennese waltz.

This report was compiled by Ian Doherty from www.aura-artz.co.uk

I’ve just been reading some of the stories on your web page about ghosts in Sheffield and one in particular grabbed my attention. The story was titled ‘Strange Feeling’ and it explained very well the feelings I felt when my girlfriend (at the time) and I stayed at a Hotel in the Broomhill area of the city. We were both students in the city at the time and as a treat after our exams we decided to have a meal in a restaurant and stay in a hotel. I found a hotel in the Yellow Pages called Westbourne House Hotel, on Westbourne Road and rang to book a room. When the day arrived we were both in high spirits (finishing our exams) and booked into the hotel and were led down stairs to our room. As the hotel (like most places in Sheffield) was situated on a hill the main entrance to the building was on the second level of the five on Westbourne Road. Our room was on the ground floor (one below main reception floor) opening out to the garden at the back of the property. The room was great and we quickly changed and went out for our meal.

On returning to the hotel we were both in high spirits and made our way down the stairs from the main reception to our room. As soon as we got into the room our moods changed to a sombre/depressed state. After a few exchanges we decided to call it a night and go to bed – I remember being very tired and falling to sleep straight away, only to be awaken by my girlfriend sat-up in bed crying. Asking her what was a matter she firstly gave me a strange look then went on to explain that I had been talking and swearing at her in my sleep in a very low voice, rough voice. On hearing this I was very confused, scared and shocked – I just didn’t understand what I’d done or said? She was confused because I just couldn’t remember saying anything. The really worrying part about it is I had my eyes open at the time. We discussed the incident the next day and her explanation of my voice and my eyes being open at the time was weird. I felt very disappointed that I’d ruined the night but just couldn’t remember saying or doing anything. OK – I’ll admit we had had alcohol that night, a bottle of wine with a our meal, (that’s all we could afford!) but I’m convinced something weird happen in the room. The mood change, feeling sleepy then waking up to my girlfriend crying explaining that I’d been swearing at her in a low voice with my eyes open.

After graduating and working around the South East for the past four/five years I now live and work in Sheffield and sometimes drive past Westbourne House Hotel and feel something weird about the place. I have never had anything like that happen to me before or since.

About three-four fears ago, during a nice bright summer, I was doing some research at Oriel College. Around lunchtime I was hungry so left the building to get some food.

After eating, as it was a nice day decided to take a walk around. I believe the location I ended up was Holywell Street, or that area. It was a long wide straight street that appeared to be closed off by some white fencing across the road to prevent traffic access onto what appeared to be water meadows. I was aware the main part of the city was to my right (to the south). There was a high wall along the street on that side. I had walked to the end and turned and was on my back, the wall now to my left.

I came to a part where there was an alleyway? to my left which had a pub or restaurent along it. At this point, I became aware of a man walking towards me, who was certainly very noticeable and out of place by his appearance. He was about 40 feet or so from me. A large man, about 6ft 5 or 6 ins, broad shouldered, narrow waisted, very tanned. Shoulder length black hair pageboy style, a short tidy beard goatee style. His clothing is what made him look odd. He had on his head an alpine hat made of felt or suede with possibly a peacock feather sticking out of it. A very voluminous shirt with long sleeves which looked as if it was made of a cream coloured silk, open at the neck to halfish way down his chest, no fastenings were seen so presume the shirt was put on over the head. over the shirt. he had on a sleeveless jacket or jerkin, looked made of brown suede. Trousers were tight like leggings coloured a dark browny grey, and seemed made of a thick wool. Shoes were of suede leather, no soles or heels but seemily wrapped around the feet and tied with narrow strips of leather for laces, the shoes were pointed at the toes. He had on a brown leather belt with a large buckle. Tied to the front on the mans right side was a leather purse/pouch. The man looked completely real and solid. I took him to possibly be an actor from a theatre who was taking a break, though it would have taken a lot of courage for him to walk around oxford city like that at about 1-30 pm on a weekday.

As the man walked past me, from the back, he had a knife/dagger tucked into his belt on the right side of his hip/backside. Would have placed him mid thirties. Up to this point, nothing caused me to consider I was watching something that may have not existed, it all looked so real, but then I looked at the other people on the street and there was quIte a few, I realised that no one else appeared to have noticed him. I looked back down the street towards the white fencing and he had disappeared.

Having only just walked along from there I knew there was no where he could have gone to, he had simply vanished.

I still think long and hard about this experience. I believe I saw the ghost of what can only be described as a 13th-14th century well-to-do male who walked out of his time into mine and then walked back out of it.

I should like to share with you some experiences of my husband and myself that fall into the realm of the paranormal. I should explain that we live in Newfoundland, where talk of “The Good People” and ghosts and such are the usual thing at parties and whatnot.

About ten years ago, my husband and I inherited a Victorian house (built 1893) from my husband’s uncle, who had just passed on. We had cared for him whilst he was ill, and, although he had been something of a recluse for most of his life, he became rather close to me during his final days.

Some other family members were in dispute about whether my husband and I ought to inherit Uncle Mike’s house, and for a time it looked as though we would have to remain in our very small apartment. Always an optimistic person, I began moving some of our belongings into “Mike’s House” in hopes that things would turn out for the best.

Well, one sunny afternoon, not long after Uncle Mike had passed on, I unlocked the front door of the house and Mike was sitting on the chesterfield! I had always been able to ‘see” ghosts and spirits, since I was a small child, and I wasn’t frightened. He told me that he would remain in the house until he was certain it had passed into our hands, and that he wanted us to love it as much as he had. True to his word, he stayed in the house for three weeks exactly, until we had the papers drawn up by a solicitor, and the house passed into our hands. On the day we moved in officially, Uncle Mike was gone. It was as if he had been looking out for us.

Another interesting thing occurred in this house one cold January evening. My husband had been watching the television in our bedroom whilst I attended an evening class, just up the street. I wear glasses, and as I came in from the cold, I had to remove them. As I walked up the stairs, I glanced up into the other room, which is my study, and saw what I thought was my husband in his pajamas. I couldn’t figure out why on earth he would be in the darkened room at this hour of the night (it was close to eleven!) As I got closer, I saw that it was the figure of a woman, in Victorian dress, holding a lamp. I opened my mouth to say something to her, and her form grew thin and vanished. It’s interesting to note that other visitors to my house have seen the figure of a woman in white going up the stairs, and our dog has oftentimes sat staring and growling at the staircase, when there isn’t anything there.

We have other ghosts here in this house: a pair of children, a boy and girl, who appear in Victorian clothing, holding hands. They most commonly appear at the side of our bed, and aren’t in any way threatening, but merely curious, or so it seems. My husband awoke one night to see the children standing by the side of the bed, gazing at him.

An interesting thing also happened on a trip to Scotland: we were staying in Aviemore, in the Cairngorms, and visited a stone circle. I am a practising Wiccan and have an avid interest in stone circles and such things, so I asked my husband to take a photo of me in the circle. It was one of the last exposures left on that roll of film, and we were eager to use it up. I stepped into the circle and he took the photo and we went back to our lodgings and thought no more about it until we had returned home, and had our pictures developed. In the stone circle picture, I am standing beside one of the menhirs, or upright stones, with my hands resting on it. From my shoulders and extending upwards for some ten feet or more, there is a column of white light. This occurs in *none* of the other photos on that roll – indeed, on none of the photos that we took on that trip, except for that one! I would be very interested to know what other people think the column of light is.

Warmest regards
JoAnne Soper-Cook
St. John’s, Newfoundland

I have had several extra-ordinary encounters in the U.K. and I am interested in knowing if other readers have also experienced phenomena at these sites.

December 17, 1997
Borley Church: across the street from what used to be Borley Rectory, at one time called the most haunted house in England. My friend and I drove from her home in Newmarket to Borley. It was about 2 or 3 in the afternoon, on a very clear, bright and cold December day. Since there was nothing to see of the rectory, we decided to walk around the church. Unfortunately, when we tried to go inside, the front gate/door was padlocked. My friend was not feeling well and it was very cold, so she returned to sit in the car while I spent a little time looking at the graves and walking around the exterior of the church. I noticed nothing unusual – and at the point, I didn’t know very much about phenomena occurring at the church – and photographs I took and later developed showed nothing out of the ordinary. However, while I was walking around the outside of the church, near the wall, I heard voices singing from inside – like a choir practicing. In fact, that’s what I thought “Oh, the choir must be practicing” and it took me a moment to remember that the church was padlocked – from the outside. There was no one in the church at the time I heard the singing. I’ve since read that the sounds of singing have been heard by other visitors to the church.

September 8, 1995
Middleham Castle, Yorkshire: While on holiday with a friend from Cumbria (whose flat is haunted) I visited the castle when it first opened in the morning, and walked about taping the interior walls and buildings, most of which are in ruins. While I was in the round tower, known as the Prince’s Tower – the site of the medieval nursery – I heard a new born baby wailing. The sound is caught on tape. The crying seemed to come from somewhere other than the Prince’s Tower, so I hurried out and went to see if there was an actual child crying. The only other visitors that morning besides my friend and myself were a young couple with two children – one of which was about 5 and the other about 2 or 3. And they were nowhere near the tower when I heard the child’s cry. Also, it was very definitely a new born babies cry, not a young child. I’ve not read of an other instances of ghostly phenomena at Middleham Castle, despite its great age and associations with Richard III among others.

Spring, 1994
Tewksbury Abbey: very near the site of one of the Wars of the Roses battlefields. Tewkesbury was the site of a very bloody fight between the Yorkists and the Lancastrians in the mid 15th century. The historical records says that several Lancastrians fled to sanctuary in the church and were murdered there by Yorkist soldiers – because the church was not technically a cathedral but an abbey, the Yorkists considered the right of sanctuary not to apply. One of the interior doors is ‘veneered’ with pieces of metal said to be armor and have been recovered by monks from the Abbey from the battlefield. There is a small room or chapel, at the end of the nave, in the corner, that feels very, very bad. I don’t know how else to describe it. I sat alone in this room for quite a while – a very oppressive atmosphere and I had the sense of some one or some ones hiding in this room and fearing for their lives. The church was re-consecrated in the 15th century after the battle, but I think some of the spirits of the men who were killed there are still there. In fact, George of Clarence – brother of Richard III and Edward IV, who is said to have been famously murdered for political treason by being drowned in a butt of malmsey wine, is buried in a crypt below the floor. I have not heard of any other stories involving this particular abbey and would be interested in hearing of any other incidents.

If you have had a strange experience at these locations please email Mysterymag.com

For many years during the 1970s and 1980s I was PR manager at Manns and Norwich Brewery in Northampton. Over the years I came to know The Daventry Express photographer Pete Spencer well. One day he called me about a pub at Braunston called the Admiral Nelson.

At that time, the brewery had just started an extensive refurbishment programme, which involved some structural changes inside the bar.

Pete had heard on the grapevine that several customers had reported seeing a ghostly presence during the time the building work was being done.

I spoke to the landlord who confirmed what Pete had heard and said there had been a number of sightings. Several were from people who had never been in the pub before – but all described a man in period costume with a blackened face a bit like a chimney sweep, with dirty clothes and a sooty appearance.

The landlord showed us where the sightings had occurred – and Pete took some pictures. We had a drink together, Pete and I had a laugh in the car park about ghosts, and we set off back to our respective offices.

Later that day Pete called me. He said he had just developed the pictures, and all had a large black smudge. A smudge he couldn’t account for. A smudge that was in exactly the same spot where the black-faced man had been seen. All this happened so long ago I’m afraid I can’t remember the year, or the licensee’s name.

But I wonder if Pete remembers the day he took those photos?’

I used to live in Crowstone Avenue of Westcliff-on-sea, Essex it was built around 1900-1908. In the mid 70′s it was converted into 2 flats. I know this because we did some research on the building due to the strange things that happened there.

We moved there in 1995, it was late October to be pacific. The flat had just been modernised with central heating, rewiring, kitchen and Bathroom. Right from the start things started to go wrong. We ordered carpets for three rooms, paid for them. Then a few days later found out that the company we had bought them from had the liquidators in. After a battle we finally had our custom honoured but we nearly lost both money and carpets through it. Two rooms needed lino. We went to a different place and sorted that out. Or at least we thought we had. When the fitters came to lay it, they would not do so because we had no hard board on the floor. Hence everything got held up while reappointing the fitting of this so as to lay anything on the floor.

Basically, the whole time we lived in Crowstone, we always felt that everything we tried to do had red tape wrapped around it. Even getting a water bill took the best part of 4 years. Something to do with new computer system?

Cars we had spent more time on the drive than on the road, yet mechanics could never find what was wrong. I might add that they were fine until we moved to Crowstone.

Apart from constant battles with everything, I developed severe depression and suicide attempts took place. By December 96, I was classed as unfit for work due to illness.

My partner also developed a mystery illness just a few months later. He suffered blinding headaches and started having black outs. He too got sighed off work for several months, went through numerous tests, medications that rarely had any effect and became depressed. In 97 and 98 I had 2 miscarriages. Finally was able to go full term to a difficult birth in November 2000.

Our beloved Border Collie cross was diagnosed with Cancer, was operated on but the cancer came back and eventually killed her. She was a very lively dog one day then gone the next.

Now for the haunted part; the spare room had a habit of putting its own lights on. It was a very cold room even after the Double-glazing was fitted. Towards the end of our time there, we had a friend staying in there. She kept an Iguana and 2 smaller Lizards that had their own Varian. The heat lights were on a timer, but frequently the timer got mysteriously changed and the lights failed to come on.

Over the whole of the flat, items of all sizes would disappear. Some would turn up, yet never in the place they were last seen and rarely in a practical place at that. The feeling of constantly being watched, shadows out the corner of your eye, yet when you looked in the direction, there was nothing there. Cold drafts that could not be explained. High bills that did not tally with the small use of power and gas. These too were checked for faults. Phone was reported to have been repeatedly used to unknown numbers and at times when we were not even there like holidays. Our friend was not even living with us at the time. A war broke out with B. T over that problem. It got to the stage that we were afraid to use the land phone and when we did logged all calls. We would go out and come home to find doors open and lights on. The p. c on and things changed on it. Smoke alarms would go off for no reason, not even toast cooking. A bike that stood at the bottom of the stairs one night mysteriously fell with a hell of a clatter. Why, we never did know, it was securely leaning up against the wall at the time and the dog was up stairs asleep in a closed bedroom at the time.

Voices calling us could be heard frequently. Many a time one or the other of us would go to the other and ask what we were called for, only to find out that no one had called in the first place.  The flat is vast, being a large house in it’s day. We always said that it was like living in a one-decked house because of its size. To this day a mystery bleeping sound like a smoke alarm down on its battery, was never found the source of. It would always be at night when we were asleep that it would start. One night we were determined to get to the bottom of it.

My partner got the ladders out and took all the batteries out of the 3 smoke alarms. Still we could hear this bleep. We pinpointed it to the loft, not that that seemed possible due to never had one up there, but in that flat, you never could tell what you would find. As soon as my partner went up in the loft, the bleep ceased. He searched but could not find any possible means for the bleep. He came down, it started again. He went up, it stopped, so as a test, he left the trap door open and came down, it started again.  We never knew what caused it and eventually, the bleep ceased to be heard at night or any other time, or at least while we were there.

It was not just our flat that had problems either. The down stairs flat had these mysterious things happen too. It seemed to be the whole house. The last straw was after my daughter was born though. I would be feeding her and suddenly she would seem to be looking up at something, smile at something, get distracted by something and follow whatever it was as if it was walking round the room. She too got numerous illnesses. Then one night when I went to put her in her cot, the mobile was moving as if a child was playing with it in the cot. I switched the light on only to find cuddly toys all over the cot as if a child was in there playing.

Another thing was an invisible car. Both our downstairs neighbour and myself would hear a car pull in the drive. And both of us had expected to see either one of our partners as the result. But no car would be in the drive when we looked and further more, no car in neighbouring drives either. Not a car to be seen.

When we decorated the bathroom, numerous tools went missing to keep holding us up. Then one morning as we were about to start pasting the paper in the kitchen, the door leading down to the garden steps slammed shut so hard that it shook the floor. It was a very still morning with no breeze, and as we were standing almost next to the door at the time, we would have noticed if someone had been at the top of the steps to slam it. The door opened out by the way and not in as usual.

When we put the place on the market, everything that could go wrong did, where selling it was concerned. Documents for the property went missing and forms had to be filled out again. The picture of the property got mislaid at the estate agents and was not in the window for days. When we asked as to why it was not shown, they thought that it had been put in the window. Good thing we were passing the agents in curiosity as to what the picture looked like.

To be honest we half expected to see an unknown face at one of the windows, but alas there was none.