Hi all, first-time poster here. I found this forum a few months ago and have been reading (and loving) all of the 'It happened to me!' posts since! So I thought I should share some of my own stories...
My most significant paranormal experience so far happened fairly consistently over a span of 16 years (until we eventually moved out of the house). Multiple events, multiple witnesses, no real pattern but just lots of different things. I'm going to try and get down as much as I remember, but first let me give you a bit of info on the house in question:
So the house is in Lancashire and was originally a council house, which means it was identical in size and shape to most other houses on the street. Downstairs the front door opened into a hall with two small closets and the stairs, then off from that was the living room to the left and the dining room straight ahead, with a kitchen inbetween these two rooms.
Upstairs was another small closet then a long landing which had my parents bedroom then my bedroom on the left, and a separate toilet, then bathroom, then my sister's bedroom on the right. There was also an attic, but I don't remember ever going up there.
The house itself wasn't very old, possibly 1940's, although I don't know for sure. I'm also unaware of any particularly tragic events in its history. It was just an ordinary, nondescript, semi-detached family home.
Like I said, there was no real pattern to the events so I'm just going to list them by type:
1. Auditory events
One of my earliest memories is of me and my sister, when we went up to bed, being terrified of walking past the bathroom. We've discussed this a lot over the years and we both have a recollection of hearing someone snoring or breathing heavily in there when we walked past (and we were the only ones upstairs).
As a child I was also woken a few times by the sound of someone singing in the dead of night. It was always a female, rather operatic voice, doing scales (my mum was in no way an opera singer!)
When I was a little older, early teenage years, I recall several times waking to use the bathroom and as I reached the top of the stairs I could hear sounds from the kitchen as if someone was slamming cupboards and smashing plates. Now my parents relationship had always been fairly volatile, so the first couple of times I heard this I feared that they'd had a fight and one, or both, of them was out of bed and taking their anger out on the crockery. But upon checking their bedroom I'd always find them both fast asleep. And of course, in the morning, no evidence of this mayhem would be visible (or at least, none that I'd ever been aware of. I'll come on to my parents reactions later). Possibly related to this, I used to have a recurring nightmare that 'stick men' would come into our kitchen at night and go through all of our cupboards.
2. Sightings
These were far fewer in number than the auditory and other events, in fact I can only recall two times that I ever saw anything and one time that my sister, who is three years younger than me, did.
My first sighting occurred the same day that my parents brought home a beautiful, antique wardrobe and chest of drawers from Warren & Wignalls (auctioneers, in case people haven't heard of them). Now I have no idea if this had any connection to the sighting, but I thought I'd mention it just in case.
So it was 5 am in the morning and I know this because, up until the age of about 6 or 7, me and my sister were so terrified in that house that we refused to sleep alone. So we'd share a double bed in my room until my parents came to bed, then I would get in with my dad in our parents room and my mum would get in with my sister in my room. Then when my dad got up for work at 5, he'd wake me and I'd go and squeeze in with my mum and sister.
So he'd just woken me at 5 and I was settling into the bed in my room when all of a sudden the room started to look 'weird', as if it was filled with thousands of tiny, twinkling stars. As I continued to stare out I saw two people enter the room - a woman and a girl. I can still remember them clearly to this day. They were dressed as if going to a wedding or formal event. The woman was wearing a dusky pink coat and matching hat with net veil, kind of like what the Queen Mother used to wear. The girl had long blonde hair and was wearing a red dress. They came in through the door, moved across the room from right to left and then disappeared through the far wall.
My second sighting occurred when I was a little older. I forget where my dad was working at the time, but wherever it was, he had to get up super early to get there. So, because my mum didn't want to be disturbed, my dad slept in my sister's room and she slept with either me or my mum, I forget exactly who now (we did eventually stop separating our parents at night and managed to sleep in our own rooms). Anyway, it was the middle of the night and for some reason I was going into my sister's room where my dad was asleep (I think this might have been one of those nights that I heard the noises in the kitchen and wanted to be sure neither of my parents were up). But as I moved through the door and into the room, I caught a glimpse of what looked like a person (not my dad), kneeling at the foot of the bed. I shot out of there pretty quickly after that and retreated to my own room to hide under the covers! The next day I mentioned it to my mum but she insisted I had just seen a pile of clothes on the floor, which I know it couldn't possibly have been.
My sister's sighting happened in broad daylight, on a weekend morning when we were both sitting up in bed and drawing pictures. Suddenly out of nowhere she just yelled "There's a man at the door!" I couldn't see anything but she described him as a tall, blue man and she was absolutely terrified.
3. Moving objects
This was by far the most common type of occurance, doors opening and closing on their own, objects disappearing and reappearing or changing position in a room when nobody was looking.
The one that still scares me the most when I think back on it was witnessed by both myself and my dad. My parent's bedroom housed the cistern cupboard (where the water heater was kept, for anyone who doesn't know what one is). My mum's side of the bed was right next to this cupboard, with just enough room for a person to walk between its doors and the bed. I was sleeping on her side of the bed, my dad on his own side, when suddenly we were both awoken by the sound of the cupboard door slamming shut (they were never left open because the rest of the cupboard became a cluttered mess of stored towels and blankets). But the thing that truly scares me about this event was my dad's reaction. There appeared to be no confusion on what the noise might have been or what might have caused the door to slam like it did, he simply leaped out of bed and pushed me over to his side, then laid himself down between the cupboard and myself. It was as if he'd seen it happen before or it was a familiar occurence to him. It also confirmed for me that I hadn't dreamed or imagined it.
Another moving occurance involved a record player I had when I was a teenager. I was alone upstairs doing something in my room. I left the room briefly to use the bathroom and when I returned a couple of minutes later, my record player and both of its speakers had shifted onto the middle of my bed.
My mum once bought a new dress in the sales and initially hung it in one of the downstairs closets, where we kept the coats. That dress disappeared from inside the closet and was never seen again.
4. Other stuff
The upstairs corridor ended at a solid wall, with the doors to mine and my sister's rooms facing each other at right angles from this wall. Many different visitors to the house remarked over the years that there was a cold spot at the end of the corridor. Interestingly, I used to have another recurring nightmare that, at night, a window would open in that wall and all kinds of creepy figures would climb out.
So I mentioned briefly about my parents reactions to all of this. Sadly, they're both no longer with us, so I can't ask them for any confirmation. But I believe that my dad had experienced things in that house as well, he just kept it to himself. As for my mum, although she had a huge fascination with ghosts, she always brushed off mine and my sister's many tales, no matter how scared we were. Thinking back now I wonder whether, as the family member who spent the most time alone in the house (she was a stay at home mum until me and my sister were teenagers) she did this as a coping mechanism?
One more thing to add about my mum though, is that a few years after we'd moved out, she bumped into our former neighbour while out shopping. Apparently during the course of their conversation, that house came up and my mum claimed that the neighbour told her "We always knew about that house but didn't want to say anything to you while you was living in it in case it scared you"!
So that's my story and, looking back, I almost find it impossible to believe that we stayed as long as we did! But then fleeing in the dead of night is for hollywood movies, with a mortage taken out by my parents to eventually buy the house, I guess they just had too much invested there to simply walk away.
Would love to hear what you all think about my experience and thanks for reading!
My most significant paranormal experience so far happened fairly consistently over a span of 16 years (until we eventually moved out of the house). Multiple events, multiple witnesses, no real pattern but just lots of different things. I'm going to try and get down as much as I remember, but first let me give you a bit of info on the house in question:
So the house is in Lancashire and was originally a council house, which means it was identical in size and shape to most other houses on the street. Downstairs the front door opened into a hall with two small closets and the stairs, then off from that was the living room to the left and the dining room straight ahead, with a kitchen inbetween these two rooms.
Upstairs was another small closet then a long landing which had my parents bedroom then my bedroom on the left, and a separate toilet, then bathroom, then my sister's bedroom on the right. There was also an attic, but I don't remember ever going up there.
The house itself wasn't very old, possibly 1940's, although I don't know for sure. I'm also unaware of any particularly tragic events in its history. It was just an ordinary, nondescript, semi-detached family home.
Like I said, there was no real pattern to the events so I'm just going to list them by type:
1. Auditory events
One of my earliest memories is of me and my sister, when we went up to bed, being terrified of walking past the bathroom. We've discussed this a lot over the years and we both have a recollection of hearing someone snoring or breathing heavily in there when we walked past (and we were the only ones upstairs).
As a child I was also woken a few times by the sound of someone singing in the dead of night. It was always a female, rather operatic voice, doing scales (my mum was in no way an opera singer!)
When I was a little older, early teenage years, I recall several times waking to use the bathroom and as I reached the top of the stairs I could hear sounds from the kitchen as if someone was slamming cupboards and smashing plates. Now my parents relationship had always been fairly volatile, so the first couple of times I heard this I feared that they'd had a fight and one, or both, of them was out of bed and taking their anger out on the crockery. But upon checking their bedroom I'd always find them both fast asleep. And of course, in the morning, no evidence of this mayhem would be visible (or at least, none that I'd ever been aware of. I'll come on to my parents reactions later). Possibly related to this, I used to have a recurring nightmare that 'stick men' would come into our kitchen at night and go through all of our cupboards.
2. Sightings
These were far fewer in number than the auditory and other events, in fact I can only recall two times that I ever saw anything and one time that my sister, who is three years younger than me, did.
My first sighting occurred the same day that my parents brought home a beautiful, antique wardrobe and chest of drawers from Warren & Wignalls (auctioneers, in case people haven't heard of them). Now I have no idea if this had any connection to the sighting, but I thought I'd mention it just in case.
So it was 5 am in the morning and I know this because, up until the age of about 6 or 7, me and my sister were so terrified in that house that we refused to sleep alone. So we'd share a double bed in my room until my parents came to bed, then I would get in with my dad in our parents room and my mum would get in with my sister in my room. Then when my dad got up for work at 5, he'd wake me and I'd go and squeeze in with my mum and sister.
So he'd just woken me at 5 and I was settling into the bed in my room when all of a sudden the room started to look 'weird', as if it was filled with thousands of tiny, twinkling stars. As I continued to stare out I saw two people enter the room - a woman and a girl. I can still remember them clearly to this day. They were dressed as if going to a wedding or formal event. The woman was wearing a dusky pink coat and matching hat with net veil, kind of like what the Queen Mother used to wear. The girl had long blonde hair and was wearing a red dress. They came in through the door, moved across the room from right to left and then disappeared through the far wall.
My second sighting occurred when I was a little older. I forget where my dad was working at the time, but wherever it was, he had to get up super early to get there. So, because my mum didn't want to be disturbed, my dad slept in my sister's room and she slept with either me or my mum, I forget exactly who now (we did eventually stop separating our parents at night and managed to sleep in our own rooms). Anyway, it was the middle of the night and for some reason I was going into my sister's room where my dad was asleep (I think this might have been one of those nights that I heard the noises in the kitchen and wanted to be sure neither of my parents were up). But as I moved through the door and into the room, I caught a glimpse of what looked like a person (not my dad), kneeling at the foot of the bed. I shot out of there pretty quickly after that and retreated to my own room to hide under the covers! The next day I mentioned it to my mum but she insisted I had just seen a pile of clothes on the floor, which I know it couldn't possibly have been.
My sister's sighting happened in broad daylight, on a weekend morning when we were both sitting up in bed and drawing pictures. Suddenly out of nowhere she just yelled "There's a man at the door!" I couldn't see anything but she described him as a tall, blue man and she was absolutely terrified.
3. Moving objects
This was by far the most common type of occurance, doors opening and closing on their own, objects disappearing and reappearing or changing position in a room when nobody was looking.
The one that still scares me the most when I think back on it was witnessed by both myself and my dad. My parent's bedroom housed the cistern cupboard (where the water heater was kept, for anyone who doesn't know what one is). My mum's side of the bed was right next to this cupboard, with just enough room for a person to walk between its doors and the bed. I was sleeping on her side of the bed, my dad on his own side, when suddenly we were both awoken by the sound of the cupboard door slamming shut (they were never left open because the rest of the cupboard became a cluttered mess of stored towels and blankets). But the thing that truly scares me about this event was my dad's reaction. There appeared to be no confusion on what the noise might have been or what might have caused the door to slam like it did, he simply leaped out of bed and pushed me over to his side, then laid himself down between the cupboard and myself. It was as if he'd seen it happen before or it was a familiar occurence to him. It also confirmed for me that I hadn't dreamed or imagined it.
Another moving occurance involved a record player I had when I was a teenager. I was alone upstairs doing something in my room. I left the room briefly to use the bathroom and when I returned a couple of minutes later, my record player and both of its speakers had shifted onto the middle of my bed.
My mum once bought a new dress in the sales and initially hung it in one of the downstairs closets, where we kept the coats. That dress disappeared from inside the closet and was never seen again.
4. Other stuff
The upstairs corridor ended at a solid wall, with the doors to mine and my sister's rooms facing each other at right angles from this wall. Many different visitors to the house remarked over the years that there was a cold spot at the end of the corridor. Interestingly, I used to have another recurring nightmare that, at night, a window would open in that wall and all kinds of creepy figures would climb out.
So I mentioned briefly about my parents reactions to all of this. Sadly, they're both no longer with us, so I can't ask them for any confirmation. But I believe that my dad had experienced things in that house as well, he just kept it to himself. As for my mum, although she had a huge fascination with ghosts, she always brushed off mine and my sister's many tales, no matter how scared we were. Thinking back now I wonder whether, as the family member who spent the most time alone in the house (she was a stay at home mum until me and my sister were teenagers) she did this as a coping mechanism?
One more thing to add about my mum though, is that a few years after we'd moved out, she bumped into our former neighbour while out shopping. Apparently during the course of their conversation, that house came up and my mum claimed that the neighbour told her "We always knew about that house but didn't want to say anything to you while you was living in it in case it scared you"!
So that's my story and, looking back, I almost find it impossible to believe that we stayed as long as we did! But then fleeing in the dead of night is for hollywood movies, with a mortage taken out by my parents to eventually buy the house, I guess they just had too much invested there to simply walk away.
Would love to hear what you all think about my experience and thanks for reading!
