Newly-Built Haunted Houses?

[DrPaulLee]

Until 1968 the area in which I live was nothing but fields and yet there are about 6 or 7 houses with spooky behaviour. One of these may be due to a resident who lived in a house from 68-72 and died elsewhere two years later but the rest make me wonder where they came from

 

[Floyd]

Does anyone else find that the notion of a modern haunted house makes it seem more 'troubled' than say an old Jacobean one?

 

[Carl Grove]

Until 1968 the area in which I live was nothing but fields and yet there are about 6 or 7 houses with spooky behaviour. One of these may be due to a resident who lived in a house from 68-72 and died elsewhere two years later but the rest make me wonder where they came from

I think hauntings have more to do with earth energies than human activity, although obviously if things start to happen in a new build the people will be interacting with the energy and maybe even amplifying it in some way.

 

[catseye]

My daughter's new place (the one with the creepy back bedroom that I don't like) was built on virgin farmland, although this was in the 1890's. So not a new house, but a new site.

 

[bugmum]

My daughter's new place (the one with the creepy back bedroom that I don't like) was built on virgin farmland, although this was in the 1890's. So not a new house, but a new site.

It's that whole argument about whether any land in the UK can truly be considered 'virgin' - even if it was farmland a hundred years ago, who knows what was there a thousand years ago?

 

[Tempest63]

Don’t know if this counts but the block of maisonettes I grew up in was built between the 50’s and 60’s on the site of a former church.
We moved in, in 68 when I was 6 year’s old.
We experienced stuff every day and whilst I am now a big sceptic there are numerous times I think back and wonder WTF caused that.

 

[Salmonellus]

There's been a lot of posting here about the importance of the site of a haunted house. Essentially, the assumption is that a house becomes haunted because of the history of the land it's built on.

I do wonder if there are other factors involved. Forgive me if I get a bit vague and rambly, but here's an idea of mine:

- what if design and layout are important? Perhaps there are factors in the geometry of a building that allow things to happen, or at least facilitate things happening. I'm thinking about factors like the dimensions of rooms, the relationships of corridors to living spaces, the placement of windows and doorways, etc.

I can't be very specific on all of this because it's not something that's been looked into a lot. But perhaps it should be.

One thing that makes me speculate on ideas like that is that many years ago I tried to learn to play the pipe organ. This got me interested in the design of organs and organ pipes. And when it comes to organ pipes, there's one critical factor that determines whether a pipe will voice at all, and what note it will generate if it does voice, and that is the geometry of the space inside the pipe. Okay, that's a rather stretched analogy, but all the same, maybe there's something in it.

Another factor could be the materials a house is built from. One extreme example: I remember reading Harry Price's book on Borley Rectory, specifically one anecdote. After the fire and the demolition, a local bought some bricks from the Rectory and built a garage. Despite being well designed and soundly constructed, apparently the garage spontaneously collapsed immediately after being build. That's one extreme, but perhaps materials can also contribute to the 'psychic resonance' of a building.

 

[maximus otter]

There's been a lot of posting here about the importance of the site of a haunted house. Essentially, the assumption is that a house becomes haunted because of the history of the land it's built on.

I do wonder if there are other factors involved. Forgive me if I get a bit vague and rambly, but here's an idea of mine:

- what if design and layout are important? Perhaps there are factors in the geometry of a building that allow things to happen, or at least facilitate things happening. I'm thinking about factors like the dimensions of rooms, the relationships of corridors to living spaces, the placement of windows and doorways, etc.

I can't be very specific on all of this because it's not something that's been looked into a lot. But perhaps it should be.

One thing that makes me speculate on ideas like that is that many years ago I tried to learn to play the pipe organ. This got me interested in the design of organs and organ pipes. And when it comes to organ pipes, there's one critical factor that determines whether a pipe will voice at all, and what note it will generate if it does voice, and that is the geometry of the space inside the pipe. Okay, that's a rather stretched analogy, but all the same, maybe there's something in it.

Another factor could be the materials a house is built from. One extreme example: I remember reading Harry Price's book on Borley Rectory, specifically one anecdote. After the fire and the demolition, a local bought some bricks from the Rectory and built a garage. Despite being well designed and soundly constructed, apparently the garage spontaneously collapsed immediately after being build. That's one extreme, but perhaps materials can also contribute to the 'psychic resonance' of a building.

Like “550 Central Park West”, Sigourney “Dana” Weaver’s address in Ghostbusters:

“RAY No! Nobody ever made them like this! The architect was either a certified genius or an aesthetic wacko!

PETER Ray, for a moment, pretend that I don't know anything about metallurgy, engineering or physics and just tell me what the **** is going on.

RAY You never studied. The whole building is a huge super-conductive antenna that was designed and built expressly for the purpose of pulling in and concentrating spiritual turbulence. Your girlfriend, Pete, lives in the corner penthouse of Spook Central.”

https://movies.fandom.com/wiki/Ghostbusters/Transcript

maximus otter

 

[Carl Grove]

Don’t know if this counts but the block of maisonettes I grew up in was built between the 50’s and 60’s on the site of a former church.
We moved in, in 68 when I was 6 year’s old.
We experienced stuff every day and whilst I am now a big sceptic there are numerous times I think back and wonder WTF caused that.

The most puzzling part of that post is that you experienced stuff every day(!) but are now a sceptic! Why would that be?

 

[catseye]

There's been a lot of posting here about the importance of the site of a haunted house. Essentially, the assumption is that a house becomes haunted because of the history of the land it's built on.

I do wonder if there are other factors involved. Forgive me if I get a bit vague and rambly, but here's an idea of mine:

- what if design and layout are important? Perhaps there are factors in the geometry of a building that allow things to happen, or at least facilitate things happening. I'm thinking about factors like the dimensions of rooms, the relationships of corridors to living spaces, the placement of windows and doorways, etc.

I can't be very specific on all of this because it's not something that's been looked into a lot. But perhaps it should be.

But this doesn't explain why identically constructed houses can have such a different...atmosphere, for want of a better word. Otherwise all houses on these identical housing estates would be haunted, if one is.

 

[Feech23]

I watched an interesting one there on the RTE archives regarding a haunting in Longford, Ireland in the 1980's. I expect these houses were not long built perhaps in the 1960's.

https://www.rte.ie/archives/2015/0314/686918-haunted-house-in-longford/

 

[RaM]

There was a very big pub about 2 miles from here that was owned by Jimmy Clithero
a few years ago it closed and a gated community of 4 or 5 big houses built, one of
those is said locally to be haunted by little Jimmy.

 

[Carl Grove]

I watched an interesting one there on the RTE archives regarding a haunting in Longford, Ireland in the 1980's. I expect these houses were not long built perhaps in the 1960's.

https://www.rte.ie/archives/2015/0314/686918-haunted-house-in-longford/

Just odd noises, it seems, was enough to drive the family out and lose their council house. New tenants were quickly moved in.

 

[Feech23]

Just odd noises, it seems, was enough to drive the family out and lose their council house. New tenants were quickly moved in.

The neighbours seemed spooked by it too.

 

[Salmonellus]

Like “550 Central Park West”, Sigourney “Dana” Weaver’s address in Ghostbusters:

“RAY No! Nobody ever made them like this! The architect was either a certified genius or an aesthetic wacko!

PETER Ray, for a moment, pretend that I don't know anything about metallurgy, engineering or physics and just tell me what the **** is going on.

RAY You never studied. The whole building is a huge super-conductive antenna that was designed and built expressly for the purpose of pulling in and concentrating spiritual turbulence. Your girlfriend, Pete, lives in the corner penthouse of Spook Central.”

https://movies.fandom.com/wiki/Ghostbusters/Transcript

maximus otter

Love the quote, and it was a great movie.

I don't know if they had any actual input into the idea. I'd still like to see more scientific research done into the structure and layout of haunted buildings.

 

[Salmonellus]

But this doesn't explain why identically constructed houses can have such a different...atmosphere, for want of a better word. Otherwise all houses on these identical housing estates would be haunted, if one is.

I'm not trying to claim that there's only one factor at play in haunted houses. I do accept that there's more than one variable.

My ideas are a bit vague, I admit!

The history of the site may well be one factor. (the conventional explanation) Quite apart from history, the site may be important in the development of anomalous phenomena because of other factors - 'earth energies', ley lines, and other things that we don't quite understand. And perhaps, in fact, a site with a history may well have that history because something about that site may have facilitated odd things happening. One example that comes to mind is 'breakdown spots' - specific areas of a road where lots of mechanical breakdowns seem to happen. Perhaps there's an influence on human behaviour too.

The possibility that the design of a house may facilitate anomalous phenomena happening is one that I like. (And I do say 'facilitate' rather than cause.)

And of course one of the most important parts of the loop is the human being that experiences the phenomena. Our minds pick up all the other influences and drive a lot of what happens. Seems to work better for some minds than others.

So I don't see identical buildings having different atmospheres as problematic.

 

[Floyd]

Don’t know if this counts but the block of maisonettes I grew up in was built between the 50’s and 60’s on the site of a former church.
We moved in, in 68 when I was 6 year’s old.
We experienced stuff every day and whilst I am now a big sceptic there are numerous times I think back and wonder WTF caused that.

Have you told us about these experiences? And if not, why not!

 

[Sid]

Don’t know if this counts but the block of maisonettes I grew up in was built between the 50’s and 60’s on the site of a former church.
We moved in, in 68 when I was 6 year’s old.
We experienced stuff every day and whilst I am now a big sceptic there are numerous times I think back and wonder WTF caused that.

That makes you a wobbly sceptic!

 

[Carl Grove]

I'm not trying to claim that there's only one factor at play in haunted houses. I do accept that there's more than one variable.

My ideas are a bit vague, I admit!

The history of the site may well be one factor. (the conventional explanation) Quite apart from history, the site may be important in the development of anomalous phenomena because of other factors - 'earth energies', ley lines, and other things that we don't quite understand. And perhaps, in fact, a site with a history may well have that history because something about that site may have facilitated odd things happening. One example that comes to mind is 'breakdown spots' - specific areas of a road where lots of mechanical breakdowns seem to happen. Perhaps there's an influence on human behaviour too.

The possibility that the design of a house may facilitate anomalous phenomena happening is one that I like. (And I do say 'facilitate' rather than cause.)

And of course one of the most important parts of the loop is the human being that experiences the phenomena. Our minds pick up all the other influences and drive a lot of what happens. Seems to work better for some minds than others.

So I don't see identical buildings having different atmospheres as problematic.

The question of house design is very interesting. I believe feng shui experts make a fuss about having doors and windows etc. in certain locations to facilitate the energy passing through smoothly. German dowsers of the 30s (and still today, I think), and the Russian experts, also have a concept of dangerous energies building up in a house if it is wrongly situated with regard to the earth currents. There are a couple of contemporary articles here that suggest the concept is also recognised by at least some official agencies:

 

[Tempest63]

Have you told us about these experiences? And if not, why not!

I’m pretty sure I have posted some of these experiences on the board, not as a narrative of what were minor everyday occurrences, interspersed with some pretty odd, sometimes scary events, but more as snippets that fitted into a specific topic.

 

[Tempest63]

That makes you a wobbly sceptic!

I was a confirmed believer, based no doubt on early experiences, but I didn’t have such an enquiring mind when we lived at that place and took everything at face value. As I grew older I started questioning things and became a sceptic. The older I get the more sceptical I become.

 

[Tempest63]

This is the place in question. Was a 4 bedroom when we lived there but the lounge photo suggests the dining area has been partitioned off to form a fifth bedroom.
https://themovemarket.com/tools/propertyprices/flat-22-barker-house-congreve-street-london-se17-1td

Edit. When we lived there it was a council owned property, since then it has been bought off the local authority and was last sold in 2005. It has subsequently increased drastically in value so I assume the current owners do not have the same experiences that we had or I guess they would have cashed in and found somewhere quieter.

 

[Tempest63]

what if design and layout are important? Perhaps there are factors in the geometry of a building that allow things to happen, or at least facilitate things happening. I'm thinking about factors like the dimensions of rooms, the relationships of corridors to living spaces, the placement of windows and doorways, etc.

Is this not the theory behind Feng Shui? You make adjustments for the structure to let the dragons pass through rather than them becoming trapped.

Another factor could be the materials a house is built from. One extreme example: I remember reading Harry Price's book on Borley Rectory, specifically one anecdote.

There have been many stories/anecdotes over the years regarding people reusing building materials and introducing a haunting to a “new build” due to the materials incorporated.

 

[Sid]

Is this not the theory behind Feng Shui? You make adjustments for the structure to let the dragons pass through rather than them becoming trapped.

There have been many stories/anecdotes over the years regarding people reusing building materials and introducing a haunting to a “new build” due to the materials incorporated.

Maybe it's got more to do with the actual ground that the building sits upon?

 

[Tempest63]

Maybe it's got more to do with the actual ground that the building sits upon?

Barker House was built on the site of a former church. There were old black and white photographs in the window of the local undertaker of some grand funerals taking place at the church. It was later pulled down and the block of maisonettes was built in its place. There were childhood rumours of people digging up parts of old coffins when gardening but the old photos only ever showed the front steps of the church and there didn’t appear to be a cemetery attached to the church.

 

[Ghost In The Machine]

My husband works at a place that has two main buildings that are sort of twins of eachother. Probably built somewhere between the 1980s/90s, I'm not sure - but they have no real age to them.

The buildings are just metres apart from eachother and on land that was formerly agricultural, with no known buildings on them in the recent past. They're large, light, airy buildings that are just bland modern structures.

We used to go and do something there at night, weekly, with friends, after the public left the buildings - as we had a set of keys and the owner allowed us to be on site. Anywhere between 4 and 6 or 8 of us. Nobody else on site and we were behind a big, closed gate so no public there or even close. The building we met in was the less "scary" building although as time went on, several of us, when alone on the ground floor, heard a man's voice singing - coming from the closed-down cafe area. This might be at 11 at night or later with everyone in the building on the upper storey and accounted for and no strays. I was the first to hear it, then over time, others did or did at other times when nobody else was in the building. Apparently, it was thought to be a person who had volunteered there and died a few years earlier who was a sort of known fixture but I'd no idea the time I heard it.

But the terrifying building was the other one, that remained closed up. (We had the keys but nobody wanted to step foot in it). It sort of generates, at night, this feeling that is so terrifying, we'd dare eachother to go and look through the plate glass door and see what was going on inside. Something horrific about the feeling of that building. I've helped open it up in the morning, several times when my husband was duty manager, and having to walk through there even in broad daylight, to turn on the lights - you feel like you're being watched. The other building we know to be "haunted"? Not so much.

Both are boring, anodyne, totally un-scary looking in daylight and I did enquire and was told there wasn't anything there other than a field til the 1970s and those buildings slightly postdate that.

Tl;dr - two identical buildings, new-ish, boring looking, side by side. One is genuinely haunted and not at all creepy. The other, nobody has ever had a paranormal experience in, but has a horrible atmosphere. Land underneath just arable field til within living memory.

 

[Carl Grove]

This is the place in question. Was a 4 bedroom when we lived there but the lounge photo suggests the dining area has been partitioned off to form a fifth bedroom.
https://themovemarket.com/tools/propertyprices/flat-22-barker-house-congreve-street-london-se17-1td

Edit. When we lived there it was a council owned property, since then it has been bought off the local authority and was last sold in 2005. It has subsequently increased drastically in value so I assume the current owners do not have the same experiences that we had or I guess they would have cashed in and found somewhere quieter.

It depends (like a lot of things in the mysterious part of the world) on time, place, and people. Some people are so unperceptive that they could live in a tremendously active place and never know it.

 

[Carl Grove]

A

My husband works at a place that has two main buildings that are sort of twins of eachother. Probably built somewhere between the 1980s/90s, I'm not sure - but they have no real age to them.

The buildings are just metres apart from eachother and on land that was formerly agricultural, with no known buildings on them in the recent past. They're large, light, airy buildings that are just bland modern structures.

We used to go and do something there at night, weekly, with friends, after the public left the buildings - as we had a set of keys and the owner allowed us to be on site. Anywhere between 4 and 6 or 8 of us. Nobody else on site and we were behind a big, closed gate so no public there or even close. The building we met in was the less "scary" building although as time went on, several of us, when alone on the ground floor, heard a man's voice singing - coming from the closed-down cafe area. This might be at 11 at night or later with everyone in the building on the upper storey and accounted for and no strays. I was the first to hear it, then over time, others did or did at other times when nobody else was in the building. Apparently, it was thought to be a person who had volunteered there and died a few years earlier who was a sort of known fixture but I'd no idea the time I heard it.

But the terrifying building was the other one, that remained closed up. (We had the keys but nobody wanted to step foot in it). It sort of generates, at night, this feeling that is so terrifying, we'd dare eachother to go and look through the plate glass door and see what was going on inside. Something horrific about the feeling of that building. I've helped open it up in the morning, several times when my husband was duty manager, and having to walk through there even in broad daylight, to turn on the lights - you feel like you're being watched. The other building we know to be "haunted"? Not so much.

Both are boring, anodyne, totally un-scary looking in daylight and I did enquire and was told there wasn't anything there other than a field til the 1970s and those buildings slightly postdate that.

Tl;dr - two identical buildings, new-ish, boring looking, side by side. One is genuinely haunted and not at all creepy. The other, nobody has ever had a paranormal experience in, but has a horrible atmosphere. Land underneath just arable field til within living memory.

Any objection to giving us the exact location of these properties? There may be other reports from the wider area as well.

 

[Frideswide]

there didn’t appear to be a cemetery attached to the church.

depending on the date of the church... in church burials?

 

[Sogna]

I don't know if I've posted this before but I have a friend whose husband is convinced that their house is haunted, although it was the first house on the site. It is in a row of older houses but is only about 25 years old. My friend thinks the site was previously a tennis court attached to one of the older houses. Her husband saw someone in the bathroom when he was in the shower, although there was definitely no one else in, and he thinks it has a strange atmosphere. It doesn't seem to have been a particularly happy house for her and her husband, but her children love it and resolutely refuse to move out!