• We have updated the guidelines regarding posting political content: please see the stickied thread on Website Issues.

So we have moved house

J

jeff544

Ephemeral Spectre
Joined
Aug 30, 2005
Messages
299
We moved 3 weeks ago into a very old house - 16th century thatched with beams everywhere. It is lovely and so far seems to have a very welcoming atmosphere.

There have been a couple of odd occurencies I can report. On one of the first evenings here, I was in the living room on the setee on my own. Totally knackered. I looked up and had the impression of a very short dumpy woman with a hat on standing behind the armchair opposite. The hat was not fancy, and that is the only thing I can accurately describe apart from the overall size and gender. It was gone in an instant. I put it down to tiredness.
One day when I was in here on my own doing some work and tidying away while Mrs 544 was shopping I heard voices from the living room and discovered the television was on. It has nerver done this before or since but it is getting on a bit...........
The house has a lovely feel which has been commented on by all our visitors including my mother who claims to 'feel atmospheres' and just because it is old does not mean it is hideously haunted :D The people we bought it from were here for 24 years.
As always I will keep an open mind and report anything significant. BTW we have a dog and now 3 cats (2 recent additions) and particularly the dog, they all seem very happy here.
 
It sounds a lovely place, (I am envious) but please do keep on reporting anything Fortean that happens!
 
Ohhh yes, we'll need full run-down of all incidences of spookiness, no matter how trivial, please. :D

I've lived in my current house (1950s concrete!) for about 20 years and it has a few nice quirks. It once knocked a builder into the bath. 8)
 
It once knocked a builder into the bath.
Click to expand...

Escargot - is there a thread of your experiences in your house, (and elsewhere) anywhere on the FT? I remember reading your mentioning a place with an eerie atmosphere that you didn't like going to (with your dog?) and about your daughter in the Floating Downstairs thread, but I have never come across the builder being knocked into the bath!

And Jeff544 - I second that - any incidences, please.
I have at times been talking to people and (if I know them well enough) might just drop in something about ghosts. Mostly they say 'No,' and then sometimes you get, 'But there was that time when...' and they come out with a list of 'Fortean'-type things which may be explainable, but are always really interesting. At times I think we tend to push things we can't explain into some little compartment in our minds.
 
Thank you both for your comments. So far nothing whatsoever to report.

We were chatting to an old chap that lives nearby recently and he asked if the previous people had told us about the ghost :shock:
He had a bit of a twinkle in his eye and I think he was mucking about. I did not want to start homing in on it in case the others present thought me a bit weird - plenty of time for that later :lol:
 
The year before last I fulfilled a long held ambition and spent a year living on Dartmoor. I rented a small flat within a long farmhouse that had been split into four homes. Like the OP, the place was oozing character, with huge, low wooden beams, the original fireplace complete with bread ovens and a granite staircase.

The place had a good atmosphere - mostly. It had recently been refurbished with double glazing and good insulation yet sometimes the bedroom would be icy cold - so cold I would breathe out mist. Yet downstairs my log fire would roaring, and the bedroom door open. It was quite unsettling, and I would put on the gas central heating which would eventually warm the room. It was truly quite odd, and like I said, unsettling.

Then one evening I was sat facing the open kitchen. A litre bottle of olive oil was on the counter. It had been opened and some used. Right in my line of sight, the lid jumped off in a graceful ark and landed gently on the kitchen floor! It didn't bounce or roll - it was just like someone placed it down gently.

After my shock - blood ran cold sort of thing - I investigated, and to this day I have no explanation. If the lid had just dropped off, hit the counter and bounced on the floor, that would have been one thing. But the way it flew so elegantly and landed so softly... just bizarre.
 
I lived in a 16thC thatched cottage for a while, with similar experiences, no horrible atmospheres or spookiness but lots of little oddities occurring.
 
From the 'Scariest fortean thing that has ever happened to you' thread -

This happened in front of me but didn't scare me, although it terrified the other person present.

A builder, Nick, was doing some work for me. The day before, something spooky had happened which had unnerved him. (My house didn't like him!)

Nick was screwing a hinge onto a door. He leaned it against the wall, at about a 30 degrees angle, turned his back to it and announced that if anything else scary happened he'd walk out.

Just then, I saw the door lift off the wall, hit him in the back and knock him into the new bath which I'd just had delivered. :D
Click to expand...

Here's what'd happened the day before -

My house has a phantom drip, about which I think we have a thread hereabouts.

Something drips from the ceiling now and then. It's not water or bits of plaster - it's icy cold if it falls on you and looks like wallpaper paste.
It vanishes as it hits the floor or someone's head or, on one memorable occasion, a tray of Chinese takeaway food!

If ectoplasm existed I'd say our 'drip' fits the bill.

On that day, Nick had replastered the kitchen ceiling and we were standing admiring it when a HUGE glob of drip emerged from the ceiling, hung for a second and then dropped, splattering on the floor and immediately disappearing.

Nick assumed there was a leak from somewhere (as he was halfway through replumbing the bathroom!) but there wasn't - it was just the drip.

He did what others have done at my house - climbed up to feel the ceiling - dry - felt the floor - dry - and ran upstairs to check the taps - all off.

Nick was terrified. Took a LOT of persuasion/bribing to get him to stay. Then next day he got knocked into the bath! :lol:

Lots of people have seen and investigated the drip, including my younger son who is currently doing a PhD in particle physics. Not a gullible type of bloke!

The drip follows my elder daughter around and once appeared in Welsh campsite toilet. There's loyalty for you. ;)
I've even felt it on my head in a supermarket, then looked around and spotted her. Weird.
It has a particular appearance for her, which is described elsewhere on here.
Click to expand...
 
Yup, it does make the odd appearance. We're used to it. :D

The above incidents happened when we were having alterations done.

One night, after the kitchen was ripped and we couldn't cook, we had a takeaway. As it was being carried through to the remains of the dining room on a tray, a really huge drip fell from the ceiling in the usual place, splattered all over the meal and disappeared. Didn't even hold us up. :lol:
 
It really bewilders me that it just vanishes - you would expect some sort of residue. But if it disappears, no-one could even collect a sample to try and test what it was -- so all I can think, as you mentioned, is ectoplasm.

I've read about odd issues and drips of water, even various types of oil, but not something that disappears.
 
My ex, who was then a high school science teacher, and my younger son, who's now a postdoc physicist at CERN, saw the drip many times. It even landed on the ex's head.

I think it was taunting them. :lol:
 
Anyway, where's jeff544? We need to hear about more house spookiness. :D
 
Escargot's elusive drip sounds really odd - wouldn't fancy that in my place :shock: Would love to know what it is.

Things quiet at our place - getting to know the neighbours - next door have been there for 27 years. People don't seem to move away much. As I may have said the people we bought off were here for 24 years.

Just one small thing, mrs 544 is a light sleeper, we both are but she is more so. She has woken me up several times to ask what I am doing (Ooo er missus) Thinking that I am awake and poking about round the room, which I have not been. It just occured to me that the previous people used what is now our room as a spare room and slept in the smaller room that we did not think really lent itself as a main bedroom. Don't know why that was.
I have to maintain the point that neither us or anyone who comes to the house have anything to say except how warm and welcoming it is. Our Daughter and a work colleague slept there the other night to look after the animals as we were away, Our Daughter slept in our room, and as far as I can tell there were no rattling chains.
As I said, I will keep an open mind. I don't want us to be haunted but we seemed to be in our old (but newer) house on and off to no ill effect so we'll see how it goes..........
 
the previous people used what is now our room as a spare room and slept in the smaller room that we did not think really lent itself as a main bedroom. Don't know why that was.
Click to expand...

There could be a quite mundane reason, but I also wonder why!

I have read reports of people living in old houses with ghosts and calling them 'friends' so I think it is possible that a place can be haunted but not have a bad atmosphere - and then you sometimes hear of houses where everywhere was pleasant except this one room/passage .

Thank-you for keeping us updated. Your house does sound lovely!
 
Just a quick up date here, all quiet. We have had several overnight visits from family & friends and everyone who has stayed has commented on how well they slept and what a nice atmosphere the house has. I have to stay away from home quite a lot for work, and my wife does not have any problems being alone overnight.
One night recently our elderly Border terrier woke us up barking which is very unusual. We went down to see him and he settled back down quickly. He knows not to make a fuss unnecessarily so must have been disturbed by something. I doubt it was anything sinister though.
A thought just occured to me. Our old house was built in the mid 30's and had only one family in it before we moved there in 1991. We had loads of strange things happen most of which I have mentioned elsewhere here over time. Whenever we made major changes in the early days there would be an oddity upsurge.
Our present house was built around 1600 as far as we can tell. Maybe the history is soooo long that any activity is diluted with time. Like why would any residual past resident from say, the 1930's be bothered about what happens when there is so much history before THEIR time? I hope that makes sense.
 
My current home (15 years) had the drip and even the occasional inexplicable small puddle. Once it realised I wasn't going to act on the wind up it kind of gave up.
Mind you it wasn't just drips, nothing dangerous but getting goose bumps just reflecting on it :(
 
Well last Saturday we thought we had entered the world of oddness at last :shock:
First we were having lunch in the dining room when we heard a loud thump from the living room. My wife has a large (full size) ornamental hat made from coloured glass. (actually looks nicer than it sounds ;) ) Which lives on top of a low chest of drawers. This was now laying on the floor in front of and about 3 feet away from the chest of drawers. The right way up and undamaged. We think it was the cats that did it somehow, but could not believe it did not break. The floor is carpeted.
Then while having dinner later there was a crash from the kitchen. A small mirror had fallen off the wall. this too was not damaged in any way. On inspection we found the cord on the back of the mirror was fitted very flimsily and would have given way eventually although we have had it for about a year.
So a bit alarming, but quiet ever since.
 
You're haunted by the spirit of... gravity!
 
Might have something to report:
On Sunday I was over at the neighbour's across the road. We got to know them very quickly after moving in. Out of the blue he asked me if we had seen the ghost yet :shock:
I said no, but please do go on. Apparently the lady before us saw the figure of a woman in a long dress walking up the stairs. Only once and a fairly long time ago. We have 2 stair cases, as this used to be 2 cottages before. One only goes up to our bed room from a small hall way off the living room, and the other from another room to the rest of the upstairs. I don't know which stairs it was, but I bet it was the one to our room. The place I had the impression of seeing the woman in the hat when we first moved in is actually underneath those stairs, and it could explain why the previous people seemed to have made an illogical choice of bed room. We were going to knock the wall down to the small hallway to make the living room bigger, but changed our minds before we moved in. I do remember the lady we bought off seemed more relieved than one would expect when we told her about our change of mind. The stairs would have gone straight out of the living room if we had.
Apparently a woman who passes by regularly walking her dog knows all about this, I will try to catch her..........
 
I can't believe it has been so long since updating this...........No real events to relate until now, we are very happy in the house and have had some building work done with no noticeable spectral activities associated!
Yesterday I was introduced to a decorator who had regularly done work at our house for the previous owners. The FIRST THING he asked me was whether I had seen 'the lady on the stairs yet?' I said no, because strictly speaking I am not sure I had. I asked him in a light hearted kind of a way if he had. He said yes. Once. :eek: He just said he briefly saw the vague figure of an old lady coming up the stairs - I presumed he used this perspective because he was already upstairs.
I did ask him which of the 2 staircases it was, and he confirmed it was the stairs to our bedroom. He then told me that he had since seen a photograph of our house taken in the 1930's with an old lady standing by the front door, and he would say that the figure on the stairs could have been her. I am not so sure about that though.
When I got home and told Mrs 544 she then told me that she had seen out of the corner of her eye not long ago what she thought was someone coming round the corner at the top of the stairs. (She was in the bedroom at the time also)
But wanted to know which staircase the alleged haunting was associated with before saying anything.
I don't know. Maybe I have seen her. I would like to know more now, especially see that old photo. Will post anything I find out. I have to say, there is no 'atmosphere' and it continues to feel peaceful and happy.
 
Cool ... perhaps you should set up a camera? .... keep us posted.
 
Great to have the update - and congratulations to yourself and Mrs 554 on living in such a house!

more please :)
 
For some reason it sounds scarier to be at the top of the stairs while the ghost is advancing up them than if you were at the foot of the stairs and she was going up. But you say you feel peaceful, so if it is a haunting and not some weird trick of the building's construction then it'll be entirely benign.
 
Frideswide said:
Great to have the update - and congratulations to yourself and Mrs 554 on living in such a house!

more please :)
Click to expand...
Thank you. We feel kind of privileged, what with it being grade 2 listed & thatched. It feels like we are just the 'guardians' for the time being.

I am going to catch that dog walking woman one day, and have a chat with her. I will have to allow a fair amount of time, she can talk a glass eye to sleep apparently.;)
 
Great posts--will follow reading them. Your house sounds charming and it's lovely to read about the peaceful spirit or timeslip portal or whatever is going on. Thank you, I love your concept of Guardians, of that old, old, house.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top