A new ghost sighting for you, just in time for halloween. Not a particularly exciting story mind you, and no spooky followups. Might not even have been a ghost.
This is something which one or other of my grandparents (I think it was my grandfather) saw a while ago. They told my parents, who told me but they wouldn't talk to me about it - I must have only been about 9 and wanted to know more but perhaps they thought I'd be scared or something. Either way they refused to answer my questions, but I've never forgotten it.
Therefore this is second hand, as remembered from about 20 years ago.
My grandparents lived until last year in an old ~16/17th century mill in Hampshire. They'd lived there about 5 years at this point. The grounds were more or less rectangular, house at one side, most of the opposite end fenced off as paddocks for horses. A river ran left to right across the middle between the two with one bridge. Much of the land between the river and the paddocks was overgrown and marshy.
Anyway, it was about dusk and my grandfather was working up in one of the paddocks when he saw someone standing at the edge of the fence, within the grounds - on the river side of the paddocks, probably about 40 yards away. He shouted a few challenges such as 'who are you?', 'this is private land' and so on, but the guy didn't say a word. Didn't even look round, just stood there.
Apparently my grandfather thought he was taking a short cut through their land on his way to a fancy dress party or something, because he was wearing odd, old fashioned clothes. A bit strange if he was taking a short cut since he'd have had to clamber through several fences and find his way through several large patches of very treacherous mud and ditches.
Their dog, an Alsatian, was also there. Now, since she was a guard dog, she was normally very good at seeing people (the house to the stables was a good 150 yards with trees in the way but whenever we'd arrive, there'd be a blur hurtling down the drive, barking insanely until she got to about 10 yards away and recognised us, when the barking would turn into slobbering and tail waving). On this occasion however, nothing. She didn't bat an eyelid. It was almost like she couldn't see him, which is probably unusual - I thought animals were normally sensitive to that sort of thing, or is that just cats?
My grandfather looked round to see why the dog wasn't barking at the stranger and when he looked back, he'd vanished.
As far as I'm aware, there was never another occurrence and noone ever looked into it. They never had any odd goings on in the house. I loved the house except for the attic. I really hated that room. If I was sent there to get something, I had an irrational fear that I'd get trapped there somehow and couldn't get out. It was really isolated there with a really steep staircase with a door at the bottom. With that shut, you couldn't hear any sound of life from outside. It was also exactly the same sort of attic which crops up in loads of horror films, which probably terrified me at that age (come to think of it, even now just remembering the room sends a shiver up my spine)!
Anyway. That's it. Might have been completely innocent and rational. Might have even been some sort of hallucination, but since they moved last December, I'll probably never know!
This is something which one or other of my grandparents (I think it was my grandfather) saw a while ago. They told my parents, who told me but they wouldn't talk to me about it - I must have only been about 9 and wanted to know more but perhaps they thought I'd be scared or something. Either way they refused to answer my questions, but I've never forgotten it.
Therefore this is second hand, as remembered from about 20 years ago.
My grandparents lived until last year in an old ~16/17th century mill in Hampshire. They'd lived there about 5 years at this point. The grounds were more or less rectangular, house at one side, most of the opposite end fenced off as paddocks for horses. A river ran left to right across the middle between the two with one bridge. Much of the land between the river and the paddocks was overgrown and marshy.
Anyway, it was about dusk and my grandfather was working up in one of the paddocks when he saw someone standing at the edge of the fence, within the grounds - on the river side of the paddocks, probably about 40 yards away. He shouted a few challenges such as 'who are you?', 'this is private land' and so on, but the guy didn't say a word. Didn't even look round, just stood there.
Apparently my grandfather thought he was taking a short cut through their land on his way to a fancy dress party or something, because he was wearing odd, old fashioned clothes. A bit strange if he was taking a short cut since he'd have had to clamber through several fences and find his way through several large patches of very treacherous mud and ditches.
Their dog, an Alsatian, was also there. Now, since she was a guard dog, she was normally very good at seeing people (the house to the stables was a good 150 yards with trees in the way but whenever we'd arrive, there'd be a blur hurtling down the drive, barking insanely until she got to about 10 yards away and recognised us, when the barking would turn into slobbering and tail waving). On this occasion however, nothing. She didn't bat an eyelid. It was almost like she couldn't see him, which is probably unusual - I thought animals were normally sensitive to that sort of thing, or is that just cats?
My grandfather looked round to see why the dog wasn't barking at the stranger and when he looked back, he'd vanished.
As far as I'm aware, there was never another occurrence and noone ever looked into it. They never had any odd goings on in the house. I loved the house except for the attic. I really hated that room. If I was sent there to get something, I had an irrational fear that I'd get trapped there somehow and couldn't get out. It was really isolated there with a really steep staircase with a door at the bottom. With that shut, you couldn't hear any sound of life from outside. It was also exactly the same sort of attic which crops up in loads of horror films, which probably terrified me at that age (come to think of it, even now just remembering the room sends a shiver up my spine)!
Anyway. That's it. Might have been completely innocent and rational. Might have even been some sort of hallucination, but since they moved last December, I'll probably never know!
