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Uncanny (BBC Programme / Podcast)

Here is the chap from 'Haunted' magazine who was on the show:

https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1710287027009106078

Includes an image of the 1969 haunting report.

At the moment I live and work in Cornwall and in the past have stayed in a cottage not far from Horningtops, just a mile and a half away. It is a fantastic area and a great little scenic branch line runs between Looe and Liskeard.

I loved his case, although the regularity of the footstep and window activity also worries me somewhat as it does others on this forum. My parents lived in an old detached house in a North Devon village and we would sometimes hear unexplained, heavy footsteps from upstairs but at random times throughout the year. Very rarely if ever do you come across a Fortean phenomenon that you could seemingly sit and wait for every night, can anyone think of another...?

There is a quarry nearby that is now a waste recycling centre known as Lean Quarry so that needs to be discounted. Also the parking/yard area for the houses in the photo above and that match the description is up behind the house - at first floor level. We don't know if the householders had access to this yard back then. So it's possible someone was parking up there at night, in which case the window latch was actually the car door and then the driver walked off down the road. In this scenario the vibrations from the vehicle entering the yard and then turning around to reverse and park were what was felt at first floor level.

Which brings me to another question, how much noise does someone walking along a modern paved road make? Although women's shoes can make a lot of noise (heels) men's shoes not so much in my experience, so how could they hear the footsteps along the road from inside the house? Also, isn't quite a distance to jump at the front and wouldn't it make more sense to exit via the back of the house where the yard and garden are closer to window level...?

I don't disbelieve their experience but at the same time I can't help feeling they constructed a narrative before exploring all the possibilities and they don't appear to have sat upstairs and waited for Jack to appear either.
 
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escargot said:
:nods: Definitely.
They're not scary. Techy saw one in the spring and followed it thinking it was going to the same place as he was; got there, door locked, nobody else present.
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Oooh. What did the ghost look like? Where did it happen?

On the point of why ghosts scare people, on a certain level I think, no matter how rational we think we would try to be if we found ourselves face to face with one, we wouldn't have any confidence that we knew what it might do or could do. Ghosts don't obey the laws of physics as we understand them, so they undermine our sense of what is real and what is possible, and therefore the fact that we are seeing one forces us to question everything we think we know. Mind you, I do that all the time anyway.
 
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Well the building is now apparently divided into two properties and the left hand cottage is now called 'Kits Cottage' (listed as semi-detached).

Interesting to note that there is scaffolding up on the building and also two wall supports visible in the right hand cottage, is there a subsidence problem here?
 
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Paul_Exeter said:
Very rarely if ever do you come across a Fortean phenomenon that you could seemingly sit and wait for every night, can anyone think of another...?

There is a quarry nearby that is now a waste recycling centre known as Lean Quarry so that needs to be discounted. Also the parking/yard area for the houses in the photo above and that match the description is up behind the house - at first floor level. We don't know if the householders had access to this yard back then. So it's possible someone was parking up there at night, in which case the window latch was actually the car door and then the driver walked off down the road. In this scenario the vibrations from the vehicle entering the yard and then turning around to reverse and park were what was felt at first floor level
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That sounds like a very plausible explanation. It would also explain the regularity and predictable timing of the sounds. Perhaps someone worked a late shift and returned home, or left for work at this time.
Paul_Exeter said:
Which brings me to another question, how much noise does someone walking along a modern paved road make? Although women's shoes can make a lot of noise (heels) men's shoes not so much in my experience, so how could they hear the footsteps along the road from inside the house? Also, isn't quite a distance to jump at the front and wouldn't it make more sense to exit via the back of the house where the yard and garden are closer to window level...?
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^This^ I couldn't figure out how they could hear the window open and then hear someone running down the driveway either. I can understand that they heard the noises inside, but did they stand in an open doorway to know that footsteps were walking away?

And when they did invite friends to see if they experienced the phenomenon, why did he run and lock the door? After living with these sounds, he really thinks locking the door will do anything? Or was there another reason?

His actions at this point are a little suspect imo. Why did he build up the story to friends and bring them over to experience the phenomenon only to prevent them from investigating?
 
What I should mention here is that you can't expect paranormal sounds to behave like normal sounds. Sometimes it seems like they are not real sounds at all, although the witness interprets them as sounds. Voices and shouts can be heard by one person, but not by another. Sounds of a party in full swing may be heard by someone in a building, but nothing heard outside, or vice versa, and sounds commonly stop as soon as the door to the room that is apparently emitting the noises is opened. There are cases of booted footsteps being heard walking across bare wooden floorboards - from rooms that are carpeted. I suppose what I am saying is, if you accept that paranormality exists, don't accept that it obeys the laws of physics - if it did, it wouldn't be paranormal.
 
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I'm slowly making my way through Danny's book. It's got some great stuff in there but the writing style is a bit grating for me, too informal and chatty, and the narrative bounces all over the place from chapter to chapter, interrupting the flow of the story being told. Most of the footnotes are just flippant jokey comments that add nothing - but not all of them, so I have to check them all anyway... I am digesting the book in chapter-sized chunks, as much as I can tolerate in one sitting - but some of the stories really do give me the chills!
 
SimonBurchell said:
What I should mention here is that you can't expect paranormal sounds to behave like normal sounds. Sometimes it seems like they are not real sounds at all, although the witness interprets them as sounds. Voices and shouts can be heard by one person, but not by another. Sounds of a party in full swing may be heard by someone in a building, but nothing heard outside, or vice versa, and sounds commonly stop as soon as the door to the room that is apparently emitting the noises is opened. There are cases of booted footsteps being heard walking across bare wooden floorboards - from rooms that are carpeted. I supposed what I am saying is, if you accept that paranormality exists, don't accept that it obeys the laws of physics - if it did, it wouldn't be paranormal.
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Okay, good shout, you have restored some of my faith in this case. So are we looking at a genuine ghost/poltergeist here but then as happens with so many of these cases the 'human factor' seems to distort and - dare I say - elaborate upon the goings-on...?

I do feel the whole 'Uncle Jack' tale that so conveniently moulded itself around the goings-on needs to be treated with caution, not least because Jay was a direct descendant of the man, the property was still in the family and yet she appeared to know nothing.

So if we ignore 'Uncle Jack' for a moment then it is either seismic/vibrations from a human source or genuine paranormal activity
 
brownmane said:
And when they did invite friends to see if they experienced the phenomenon, why did he run and lock the door? After living with these sounds, he really thinks locking the door will do anything? Or was there another reason?
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When I told a group of colleagues that I'd just seen a ghost, one of them ran off in a panic and hid behind a locked door! :chuckle:
 
Also have to say that's a nice coincidence that in this "building site" property that was only partially habitable, Jack's room was above the sitting room and looking out over the road. Moreso as it presumably wasn't their bedroom. This doesn't discount poltergeist activity but rather the 'Uncle Jack' story

Have to say I normally love hearing about these types of experiences and this is intriguing and charming yet there seems an underlying dramatic narrative that seems more human than poltergeist. Maybe we will learn more to dispel my doubts, I hope so.
 
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DrPaulLee said:
I mean expecting it to appear at the doorway after hearing footsteps coming down the stairs.
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I agree, sitting here now, in daylight, with a fairly busy street outside. At night, in the dark, with weird ghostly noises intruding and dust drifting down from the ceiling, who knows what I would expect. However, going on past form, I suspect that I would get up and open the door myself, rather than locking it. I'd have to know.
 
DrPaulLee said:
I'm struggling to remember any ghost that manifested in such a way. When a spook is heard approaching a door, there is nothing to be seen if the door is open, or is opened (by the witness or the phantom).
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There was a series on ghosts presented by William Woolard. I caught them on repeat and enjoyed them.

One of the cases was someone in a room where the window looked across to a different wing of the building. They could see someone over there and knew that nobody was meant to be there. Then the figure moved down their wing, presumeably shoing up in the windows?, and the observer got the impression the odd figure had spotted them watching.

Then they got the impression that the figure was on the other side of the door.

I guess the observer opened it and saw... something, because the re-enactment still gives me goosebumps amd I haven't seen it for years!

Must be online somehwere?

Edit to add:

Just looked at a synopsis, link below, and I can't see which one it would be. So maybe not the William Woolard series?

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Ghosthunters-DVD-William-Woollard/dp/B00006RHTI
 
Frideswide said:
There was a series on ghosts presented by William Woolard. I caught them on repeat and enjoyed them.

One of the cases was someone in a room where the window looked across to a different wing of the building. They could see someone over there and knew that nobody was meant to be there. Then the figure moved down their wing, presumeably shoing up in the windows?, and the observer got the impression the odd figure had spotted them watching.

Then they got the impression that the figure was on the other side of the door.

I guess the observer opened it and saw... something, because the re-enactment still gives me goosebumps amd I haven't seen it for years!

Must be online somehwere?
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I think it's on YouTube. I watched it fairly recently, and you've just reminded me that I want to watch it again!
 
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