Hallowe'en is almost upon us...

[JoceAndChris]

Excellent. All genius is a bit mad.

I get that same feeling too, at the old butler sink in the scullery particularly. My scepticism tells me it has more to do with my longing to be transported into the past than an actual plague of ghosts, but, whether the explanation be psychological or metaphysical it's a good, spine tingling feeling. And it's for this reason that I overwhemingly want to cling to the vestiges of the past within the cottage - if I modernise that scullery, the ghosts will go.

I've been cleaning and cleaning the floor, with the distinct impression of not being alone. It's so nostalgic to me to see the splatters of the different generations, and because I know a lot about the history of the house I can work out who had what colour when, (going by all sorts of visible clues all over) and I can have a little moan to Charlotte (1900) about all the candle wax spilt there and another little moan to the un-named soldiers billeted in that room in the First World War who have left the clear marks of hob nailed boots. Where do they rest? What were their names? I'd love to know.

I've found white, green, buff, blue, green, in that order. Of course I think my colour scheme is the best so far, though the blue of the 19th C is really, well, peacocky!

People have died and been born in that room, and those events leave indelible marks- whether in imagination or actuality perhaps does not affect the reality of the experience.

 

[wobs]

Excellent. All genius is a bit mad.



I've been cleaning and cleaning the floor, with the distinct impression of not being alone.

It's not a horse is it?
http://www.thenorthernecho.co.uk/features/letters/4701331.Horsing_around/?ref=mc

 

[JoceAndChris]

:lol: No, it's not a horse. But I can tell you I've had some very strange nostalgic yearnings for the brown horse who went into my ceiling- or rather, his fur did, and if I ever get my horse, he will be brown, like that one.

 

[Gareth Hughes]

I've been cleaning and cleaning the floor, with the distinct impression of not being alone.

Hmmmmm. You may not want to read this...

http://throwpots.com/belmez.htm

 

[JoceAndChris]

:shock: :shock: :shock: :shock: :shock:

Oooh thAt was a good one! Been checking round the floor, no faces at the moment. Hopefully some might appear when it's dry?

I've found lots of bones in the garden though, the chickens keep digging them up! Plus some other strange objects that I really should photograph and get Flyfisher to identify.

 

[Gareth Hughes]

The most terrifying thing about Halloween here is the number of small people who come to the door expecting sweets and shouting 'Trickertreet!"

When it comes to kids, they all look the same to me, but I get the sneaking feeling that some of them come to the door more than once... :|

Here's a simple educational video to get you round that...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-u0RQkj3Tic

(and gosh, doesn't Hugh laurie look young there?)

 

[Flyfisher]

Of course these days you'd be arrested and put on a national register for even touching the kids. :roll:

There are some wonderful old Fry & Laurie sketches on YouTube and, yes, they do look rather young these days.

Here's a great 'period' sketch: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2un9rO2ZF4g&NR=1

 

[Chris1roll]

My wife and I share our farmhouse with my parents (we have half each, its a cross-passage house) We have deeds that go back to the mid 17th Century, and have found evidence of a much older, possibly medievil structure having stood here before. I've lived here for all bar the first 18 months of my life.

When my sister and I were young we used to have an old man come into our bedroom (stop it!) and tell us stories.... She seems to remember that a lot more vividly than I can.

I have several times seen a man wearing a long coat, like a trenchcoat and a wide brimmed hat - one time he was stood in the doorway to my right when I was doing my homework on the kitchen table, I was not in the slightest bit scared...other times he tends to appear outside when we have new stock arrive, or if we bring in or turn out the cattle, its like he is taking an interest.

Lots of people have heard voices, and names being called out. Some of these names are the same as people who used to live here, they are buried in the graveyard in the village.

My wife, independently of my mother commented that very often she could smell lavender on the landing - something my mother has noticed for many years. There isn't a sign of any lavender anywhere and the floorboards have been up for work so many times and there's definitely nothing under there.
In fact we had commented that the 'activity' seems to increase if we are doing any DIY...

Through the past 27 years, I have only felt scared once. That was early last year, we were both in bed asleep at around 2 am when someone started rattling on the door. I woke up first and thinking someone was trying to rouse us for some emergency, I called out hello, the rattling stopped and then started again. I turned the light on and the door was... vibrating would be the only way to describe it, we have plank and ledge doors with thumb latches and the door was moving very rapidly back and forth and the latch was rattling... by this time we were both awake. I put my hand out and pressed the door against the jamb, and there was no pressure behind it, the rattling stopped. I then whipped the door open and at that moment the door at the bottom of our stairs started doing the same thing! At the same time my brothers stereo turned itself on and woke him up....
We then spent the rest of the night trying to sleep but wide awake, and with a sock jammed in both of the doors so they _couldn't_ rattle, and the next day I got some draught excluder to make them a tighter fit....

As I have said i have only felt scared once, and in fact it was only after the event then, I think that anything that is present here is friendly, certainly after 27 years you would have thought we would know if it was otherwise!

Chris


ETA oh, and my father has experienced phenomena too...
He had gone to bed, leaving mother fallen asleep on the settee.
in the morning he came down to find her still, asleep on the settee; "oh, so you came down again" he said... no, she had always been down there, hadn't been up at all, mum explained....

Whilst he was in bed someone had come in and sat on the edge of the bed!


Previous occupants of the house evidently believed in such things, there is a witch mark on the beam in my parents living room, and we found a book and a shoe under our staircase.

 

[Gareth Hughes]

I have to ask, what was the book? had it been hidden in the belief it was a bible by someone who couldn't read and therefore didn't know?

Of course, if it was "Here Comes Noddy" it puts a different slant on it.

I see a lot of witchmarks in my job. They obviously work because none of the owners has ever said they've seen a witch - and have also seen quite a few outlines of shoes cut into lead roofs "for luck" - not so lucky the poor building owner whose roof leaks because the outline has partly cut right through...

I had an encounter with Shuck about 6 years ago but that's the limit of my direct experience I think. I didn't know at the time that the place I saw it had a history of such sightings. :shock:

 

[JoceAndChris]

Chris - thankyou for sharing your story, how brilliant is that. Your house sounds- and looks - amazing too. Sitting here feeling very very jealous that it's nearly Halloween and I'm 36 and I've never seen a single ghost. Who can I send my complaint to?

Gareth, please can you explain a little more about your "Shuck"? What you have said is so very tantalising!

 

[Gareth Hughes]

http://www.hiddenea.com/shuckland/blickling.htm

I was the contributor of the story at the bottom of that page. I really can't adequately describe how normal it all seemed at the time, and how I suddenly realised how not normal it actually was. One thing I would add now is that it didn't "walk" off the road - it just moved sideways as though it was on wheels.

 

[FamilyWiggs]

I'm 36 and I've never seen a single ghost. Who can I send my complaint to?

 

[Chris1roll]

I have to ask, what was the book? had it been hidden in the belief it was a bible by someone who couldn't read and therefore didn't know?

Of course, if it was "Here Comes Noddy" it puts a different slant on it.

I see a lot of witchmarks in my job. They obviously work because none of the owners has ever said they've seen a witch - and have also seen quite a few outlines of shoes cut into lead roofs "for luck" - not so lucky the poor building owner whose roof leaks because the outline has partly cut right through...

I had an encounter with Shuck about 6 years ago but that's the limit of my direct experience I think. I didn't know at the time that the place I saw it had a history of such sightings. :shock:

Unfortunately the paper had all rotted away, and/or the mice had had it. What was left of the paper crumbled at the slightest touch, we saw a date somewhere in the region of 1800 on one fragment - of course that could mean anything. It could well have been a bible. The remnants of the leather binding and the shoe are now in a box in the cupboard formed under the stairs.

The house has been altered in various parts by various occupants so many times, I keep expecting to find more stuff whenever I do more work, but the best I have managed is moving a piece of twig under the landing floor only to discover it was a rats foot skeleton.....

 

[Gareth Hughes]

I think I've recommended this site more than any other, please do report your finds, if you haven't already.
http://www.apotropaios.co.uk/
This is the classic work, for anyone who wants a bit of reading material, though now it's a bit old hat (something else to bury under the floor, perhaps)
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Archaeology-Ritual-Magic-Ralph-Merrifield/dp/0941533263

 

[Chris1roll]

Will do, I'll also try and get a decent photo of the witch mark - its hard to photograph on the limewash though.

 

[JoceAndChris]

Please do photograph the witch mark.

Robin- who is that lady?

This thread is shifting the balance, I now believe in ghosts more than ever!

 

[MdB]

Robin- who is that lady?

RaG - Mrs P - that brought back a few memories.

She is even more scary now...

 

[Chris1roll]

Well these are my best attempts.
The flash just whites everything out, and its damn hard to hold the camera steady up in the air for a sufficient shutter speed without it. thankfully the ceiling is so low I have to duck under the beam.

Hopefully you can see the three intersecting circles with two straight lines running through them.
They look uncannily similar to this:

that is on the ritual marks page of the aporopaios site.

 

[FamilyWiggs]

She is the redoubtable Nadia Popov from Rentaghost.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rentaghost

 

[jocelyn plummer]

I've just realised that we had those witch marks on our bressumer beams in our 11thc house in the Holy Land-- goodness me :roll: