Unhappy Houses & Odd Happenings

[Mythopoeika]

Found out something the other week in general conversation that we didn't know about. Not long after we moved in the elderly couple next door both died the same night. We both heard the lady coming home after an evening out bidding someone good night. That was all we had to tell the Police when they asked after arriving in a flurry including a Mortuary Van or whatever they call them and then body bags being loudly carried down the stairs and out to the van you couldn't miss that. We somehow were led to believe that the man who was a rather large hefty chap had suffered a heart attack and fell onto his tiny wife as she slept. Apparently not so. He murdered her then had a heart attack. It was in all the local papers and we missed it as we led very busy lives and obviously it wasn't the done thing to ask the family what happened. We just accepted it as being a double tragedy. I didn't have much if anything to do with them both she was a nice lady but I really didn't like him one bit from the outset. The thought that this happened the other side of our bedroom wall where our beds were situated gives me the creeps and makes me wonder how we never heard a thing as it was a domestic. All these years and we didn't know.

Edit to add OMG just remembered the large warm patch that I used to have on my side of the bed there...brrrrr!

How horrible! Gosh.

 

[Vida Loca]

I know it is isn't it. Gave me quite a shock. Thankfully house no longer my problem I won't be going back there ever again.

 

[Dick Turpin]

I got chatting to my newish neighbor the other night whilst taking out the wheelie bins.

She moved in about 2 months back but is very quiet and keeps herself to herself, so I hadent really had a chance to talk to her properly.

Anyway, I asked if she has settled in okay and she said she was a little apprehensive about moving into a property that was so old, I asked why and she told me she dident take too kindly to ghosts.

I assured her that the previous neighbors hadent mentioned anything to us regarding ghosts, and that we certainly hadent experienced anything of that sort and she looked relieved.

Intreiged I asked her to elaborate and she told me the following tale.

18 months back her and her Hubbie parted company after 30 odd years marriage, the house was sold and she rented a small period property about four miles away from where we are now.

From the beginning she had trouble, subtle at first like items being rearranged on her mantel peice each morning, or the kitchen tap turning on by its self that sort of thing.

She was more disturbed when one morning she was awoken early and went downstairs to find the TV in the living room and the radio in the kitchen both on.

The final straw however, was when one afternoon she was sitting in her kitchen chatting with her niece, when a freshly washed up tea cup, leapt from the sinks drainer, flew across the room and smashed on the opposite wall missing her nieces head by inches - she literally moved out there and then.

Sod that eh.

 

[escargot]

I got chatting to my newish neighbor the other night whilst taking out the wheelie bins.

She moved in about 2 months back but is very quiet and keeps herself to herself, so I hadent really had a chance to talk to her properly.

Anyway, I asked if she has settled in okay and she said she was a little apprehensive about moving into a property that was so old, I asked why and she told me she dident take too kindly to ghosts.

I assured her that the previous neighbors hadent mentioned anything to us regarding ghosts, and that we certainly hadent experienced anything of that sort and she looked relieved.

Intreiged I asked her to elaborate and she told me the following tale.

18 months back her and her Hubbie parted company after 30 odd years marriage, the house was sold and she rented a small period property about four miles away from where we are now.

From the beginning she had trouble, subtle at first like items being rearranged on her mantel peice each morning, or the kitchen tap turning on by its self that sort of thing.

She was more disturbed when one morning she was awoken early and went downstairs to find the TV in the living room and the radio in the kitchen both on.

The final straw however, was when one afternoon she was sitting in her kitchen chatting with her niece, when a freshly washed up tea cup, leapt from the sinks drainer, flew across the room and smashed on the opposite wall missing her nieces head by inches - she literally moved out there and then.

Sod that eh.

I'd live there.

 

[hunck]

Does anyone have any stories about poltergeists/things being thrown actually hitting people? They always seem to "miss by inches".

 

[Dick Turpin]

That chap from the Daily Mirror got hit in the eye by a peice of Lego, in the Enfield case.

 

[joeosker]

Yes, agree on the stone tape. It's weird in that I don't believe in gods, or spirits as such - I mean, I can't bring myself to believe that humans have a spirit that survives death, I think the supernatural has to be some kind of anomaly of physics, a non sentient recording, usually - but I do believe in a kind of pagan idea of 'spirit of place' which is different. There are some places (I'm looking at you, Cornwall) that have a huge spirit of place, for whatever reason. Parts of York the same. And the place where I live, now. It's benign feeling to me but I'm not sure it would be to everyone. Sounds stupid, I know.

The road were I walk my dog has a kind of 'nowhere ' feel to it , just houses on both sides ,

 

[Scribbles]

I used to walk my dog around this new estate before I recently moved here, and I used to feel watched. My paranoid mind would often wonder what to say if anyone challenged my right to be here (yes, really).

Only it wasn't paranoia. Since moving here I joined the local Street Watch team (in the hope of meeting neighbours and making friends). They've all got cctv and the WhatsApp group is full of rants about people not living on the estate being on the estate. There's constant sniping and nastiness, and complaints about petty things blown out of all proportion. I'm not intending to make friends out of any of these people.

 

[PeteS]

I used to walk my dog around this new estate before I recently moved here, and I used to feel watched. My paranoid mind would often wonder what to say if anyone challenged my right to be here (yes, really).

Only it wasn't paranoia. Since moving here I joined the local Street Watch team (in the hope of meeting neighbours and making friends). They've all got cctv and the WhatsApp group is full of rants about people not living on the estate being on the estate. There's constant sniping and nastiness, and complaints about petty things blown out of all proportion. I'm not intending to make friends out of any of these people.

Doesn't sound like the friendliest of places. WhatsApp has got a lot to answer for imo.

 

[Vida Loca]

That chap from the Daily Mirror got hit in the eye by a peice of Lego, in the Enfield case.

I know I shouldn't laugh but...

 

[Frideswide]

I know I shouldn't laugh but...

Mea culpa

 

[Vida Loca]

I'll get my coat...

 

[ScottishAndy]

This got me thinking about an experience a few years ago. It's about the time I didn't move into a haunted house, a sort of "It didn't happen to me".

Until a few years ago I worked for the UK arm of a large company with bases around the world. Although based in Scotland I regularly travelled to the head office in London. About 9 years ago I was put on a project that had me based in London for 9 months. I didn't want to stay in a hotel/serviced apartment for such a length of time and began looking for alternatives. Coincidentally I ran into an old school friend who had also temporarily been relocated to London (totally different company) and we decided to get a place together.

One place we looked was near Wapping, I'm guessing it had been a factory or warehouse etc. at some point but had long been converted and split into a number of "townhouse" style flats on two levels. We viewed it one evening late in January with the estate agent. A couple of things struck me as odd:

1) The flat was empty. If you know the London property market, you'll know that flats are in high demand and will usually go straight from one tenant to another. All the other ones we viewed were in the current tenant's last weeks.

2) There was a pile of mail by the front door, but with a lot of different names.

3) The flat seemed very cold.

Overall both of us felt the flat, felt odd, unwelcoming and sad and quickly disregarded it. We eventually went for a modern flat, which had no stories of note at all.

About 4 years after this I was down at a London colleague's leaving party, where she had invited a number of friends from outside work. I got chatting to a guy, and was sure I recognised him from somewhere - eventually I twigged that he was the estate agent that had shown us around years earlier.

When I told him the connection he laughed and said that it was good we had ended up not taking it. Apparently no tenant had lasted long in that flat before moving out complaining of odd experiences. The owners apparently lived abroad and had bought it as an investment, they had by now worked their way through most of the local estate agents changing regularly as none of them could find a tenant to stick.

A lucky escape perhaps!

 

[Dick Turpin]

This got me thinking about an experience a few years ago. It's about the time I didn't move into a haunted house, a sort of "It didn't happen to me".

Until a few years ago I worked for the UK arm of a large company with bases around the world. Although based in Scotland I regularly travelled to the head office in London. About 9 years ago I was put on a project that had me based in London for 9 months. I didn't want to stay in a hotel/serviced apartment for such a length of time and began looking for alternatives. Coincidentally I ran into an old school friend who had also temporarily been relocated to London (totally different company) and we decided to get a place together.

One place we looked was near Wapping, I'm guessing it had been a factory or warehouse etc. at some point but had long been converted and split into a number of "townhouse" style flats on two levels. We viewed it one evening late in January with the estate agent. A couple of things struck me as odd:

1) The flat was empty. If you know the London property market, you'll know that flats are in high demand and will usually go straight from one tenant to another. All the other ones we viewed were in the current tenant's last weeks.

2) There was a pile of mail by the front door, but with a lot of different names.

3) The flat seemed very cold.

Overall both of us felt the flat, felt odd, unwelcoming and sad and quickly disregarded it. We eventually went for a modern flat, which had no stories of note at all.

About 4 years after this I was down at a London colleague's leaving party, where she had invited a number of friends from outside work. I got chatting to a guy, and was sure I recognised him from somewhere - eventually I twigged that he was the estate agent that had shown us around years earlier.

When I told him the connection he laughed and said that it was good we had ended up not taking it. Apparently no tenant had lasted long in that flat before moving out complaining of odd experiences. The owners apparently lived abroad and had bought it as an investment, they had by now worked their way through most of the local estate agents changing regularly as none of them could find a tenant to stick.

A lucky escape perhaps!

Nice story Andy. Would have been interesting had you taken that flat and what you may have experienced.

A few years back a guy at work was renting a flat in Muswell hill, north London. The lease was up and the landlord wanted him out, so he and his girlfriend began looking elsewhere.

A letting agent showed them around a newly decorated flat which was a lot cheaper than other flats of its kind in the area.

They liked the flat but felt it had a certain depressive atmosphere about it, so declined it.

They told the agent this, and the agent said he understood and that although he hadn’t told them before, but was legally bound to do so had they had taken the flat, it was the actual flat that Dennis Nielsen had commited most of his murders back in the 1980’s.

 

[escargot]

This got me thinking about an experience a few years ago. It's about the time I didn't move into a haunted house, a sort of "It didn't happen to me".

Until a few years ago I worked for the UK arm of a large company with bases around the world. Although based in Scotland I regularly travelled to the head office in London. About 9 years ago I was put on a project that had me based in London for 9 months. I didn't want to stay in a hotel/serviced apartment for such a length of time and began looking for alternatives. Coincidentally I ran into an old school friend who had also temporarily been relocated to London (totally different company) and we decided to get a place together.

One place we looked was near Wapping, I'm guessing it had been a factory or warehouse etc. at some point but had long been converted and split into a number of "townhouse" style flats on two levels. We viewed it one evening late in January with the estate agent. A couple of things struck me as odd:

1) The flat was empty. If you know the London property market, you'll know that flats are in high demand and will usually go straight from one tenant to another. All the other ones we viewed were in the current tenant's last weeks.

2) There was a pile of mail by the front door, but with a lot of different names.

3) The flat seemed very cold.

Overall both of us felt the flat, felt odd, unwelcoming and sad and quickly disregarded it. We eventually went for a modern flat, which had no stories of note at all.

About 4 years after this I was down at a London colleague's leaving party, where she had invited a number of friends from outside work. I got chatting to a guy, and was sure I recognised him from somewhere - eventually I twigged that he was the estate agent that had shown us around years earlier.

When I told him the connection he laughed and said that it was good we had ended up not taking it. Apparently no tenant had lasted long in that flat before moving out complaining of odd experiences. The owners apparently lived abroad and had bought it as an investment, they had by now worked their way through most of the local estate agents changing regularly as none of them could find a tenant to stick.

A lucky escape perhaps!

I'd've taken that flat if there was even a WHIFF of a ghost!

 

[escargot]

Does anyone have any stories about poltergeists/things being thrown actually hitting people? They always seem to "miss by inches".

When I visited Barcelona a few years ago with Escette we took a tour of a Spanish Navy sailing ship and were slightly haunted. We had several cameras and phones between us but none would take a photo. We were the only people in one part of the lower deck when a small brass button - like a military shirt button - fell onto my shoulder, bounced off and hit the deck. I picked it up and still have it somewhere.

We are both willing to swear that we were alone. The button fell vertically onto my shoulder, it didn't hit my back. Seemed spooky to us! We were delighted.

 

[Scribbles]

My mom has always claimed to be sensitive to places, and I've often heard the tale of a house she and dad viewed when looking to move towns when I was just a nipper. I say they viewed it, but actually mom took one look through the kitchen window and refused to go inside.

I know which house it was, and it's a beautiful victorian property within walking distance of the town centre, but on the same road as a local nature reserve and close to a large municipal park with paddling pools, miniature golf, and a Victorian farm museum. Instead of that we got a boxy newbuild, on a boring housing estate, at least one bus ride away from anything slightly interesting. Thanks mom.

 

[ScottishAndy]

Much braver than I am!!

I'd've taken that flat if there was even a WHIFF of a ghost!

 

[Marwood]

They told the agent this, and the agent said he understood and that although he hadn’t told them before, but was legally bound to do so had they had taken the flat, it was the actual flat that Dennis Nielsen had commited most of his murders back in the 1980’s.

This reminds me of a job we did for a firm of solicitors at a bungalow under their supervision (I guess they were the family's solicitor and ended up as the owners).

A while before the job I was watching a tv programme dramatising murders. This story in particular interested me as it was fairly local. The son, Daniel Rosenthal, killed his father who lived in France and then, a little while after returning to Hampshire, killed his mother. Apparently he chopped her body up before disposing of her. The police searched the house and garden but found no trace of her (my details of the case are sketchy I'm afraid!). The murders both happened in 1981.

Fast forward 10-15 years later and a new employee of the solicitors requires a place to stay. Through a recommendation we got the job of clearing the garden (very overgrown) and levelling the ground where the police forensics had dug holes everywhere!

I'll never forget how creepy the place seemed to me, we were allowed into the bungalow to use the loo and I couldn't help thinking "he probably flushed his mum down here!"

Some years after there was a story on the local news about the place and one of the neighbours recalled someone moving in but not staying very long.

 

[Scribbles]

Nope, couldn't do a Murder House. Ghosts, yes. Murders, nopety nope.

 

[hunck]

When I visited Barcelona a few years ago with Escette we took a tour of a Spanish Navy sailing ship and were slightly haunted. We had several cameras and phones between us but none would take a photo. We were the only people in one part of the lower deck when a small brass button - like a military shirt button - fell onto my shoulder, bounced off and hit the deck. I picked it up and still have it somewhere.

We are both willing to swear that we were alone. The button fell vertically onto my shoulder, it didn't hit my back. Seemed spooky to us! We were delighted.

OK that's 2 incidents. Yours sounds more of a materialising out of thin air. I was wondering about the more poltergeisty examples & whether people have had things actually hit them.

 

[escargot]

OK that's 2 incidents. Yours sounds more of a materialising out of thin air. I was wondering about the more poltergeisty examples & whether people have had things actually hit them.

I can't actually imagine anything more poltergeisty than an object apparently 'materialising out of thin air' and landing on my shoulder.

 

[Lb8535]

I visited friends of friends once who were renovating a large older house and continuously found marbles on the floors where they had not been the day before. Kept a jar of them. I assume that was poltergeist activity even if none was actually thrown.

 

[IbisNibs]

Did they keep their marbles?

Seriously, did they have any pets that could have dug the marbles out from any odd corners? Not to question the perception, but just trying to cover other possibilities.

Escargot, if you find the button, could you post a picture of it? I'm wondering if someone might recognise it as being from a particular era.
Could it have been stuck up in the beams of the ceiling and fallen on you after getting loosened by the ship's motion?

 

[Lb8535]

I visited friends of friends once who were renovating a large older house and continuously found marbles on the floors where they had not been the day before. Kept a jar of them. I assume that was poltergeist activity even if none was actually thrown.[/QUOT

Did they keep their marbles?

Seriously, did they have any pets that could have dug the marbles out from any odd corners? Not to question the perception, but just trying to cover other possibilities.

Escargot, if you find the button, could you post a picture of it? I'm wondering if someone might recognise it as being from a particular era.
Could it have been stuck up in the beams of the ceiling and fallen on you after getting loosened by the ship's motion?

No pets.

 

[escargot]

Did they keep their marbles?

Seriously, did they have any pets that could have dug the marbles out from any odd corners? Not to question the perception, but just trying to cover other possibilities.

Escargot, if you find the button, could you post a picture of it? I'm wondering if someone might recognise it as being from a particular era.
Could it have been stuck up in the beams of the ceiling and fallen on you after getting loosened by the ship's motion?

The button is in my sofa-side drawer under loads of other stuff so I'll have a go at digging it out some time.

No idea how it came to land on my shoulder. If it was thrown someone has a good aim as it landed right on the top. If it fell from the ceiling, well, that's a one in a million chance!

 

[IbisNibs]

Oh! The dreaded sofa-side drawer!!! There is no hope of ever finding it again! You will find half your life in that drawer before the button reappears . . .

Consider the arc the button must have had, if someone had thrown it. To come down so steeply that it appeared to fall from the ceiling, the button would have needed to go steeply up to begin with. Going up steeply, it would have come down fairly close to the starting point of its trajectory. I imagine if someone had thrown a button like that so that it landed on your shoulder, the button could have hit the ceiling first (if they threw it like I would have) and you would have heard it go "plink!" against the boards. Unless, of course, the thrower had a good aim as you said. And ducked out of sight fast. And had a very michievious attitude toward total strangers!

 

[XEPER_]

I'm sure I posted the story about the attic in my mum's old house before. She was living herself, my brother was away with the army for months (this was bout 15 years ago I think). She couldn't really get up to her attic as the ladders were pretty unwieldy so she'd always ask me to get stuff or put stuff up if she needed it.
I went up one week and did something, then the next week she asked me to go up again. For some reason, the loft hatch wouldn't lift up, and I had to shove it quite hard. There was some old bag or something on top of it but I didn't think much of it and went up. I asked her if she'd been up there in the past week and she said no, and no-one else had either but hanging from the rafters by their heads were all of my brother's golf clubs, in a row.
It was as weird as hell, but my mum seemed quite pleased at the idea of a ghost.
Anyway, she's in a different house now and still gets me to go up in the loft if she needs anything so as I was there last week she asked me to put a bag of summer clothes up for storage. I duly went up and in the corner was a pile of weird debris - Scrabble sheets, from I assume the board game, which I never even knew she had up there, and also a record cover (LP) called "Thanks for the Memories" with strange kind of holes battered into it. I said it must have been a bird, but she was adamant no birds could get in (I'm sure they could if they wanted).
My mum doesn't even own a record player and hasn't done for decades, and I don't remember her ever owning any records so God knows where this LP came from, I've never seen it before.
It just seemed really weird for a bird, or squirrel even, to have pulled out little bits of paper like that and just left them lying there like that. My mum actually climbed up for a look and pointed out a big, man-sized dent in the foam insulation where it looked like someone had been lying!
Again, she thought it was amusing whereas I'd have shit my pants.
Here's a photo but I didn't want to get too close or make a big deal of it as my daughter was with me and I didn't want to frighten her!

 

[XEPER_]

also a record cover (LP) called "Thanks for the Memories" with strange kind of holes battered into it. I said it must have been a bird, but she was adamant no birds could get in (I'm sure they could if they wanted).
My mum doesn't even own a record player and hasn't done for decades, and I don't remember her ever owning any records so God knows where this LP came from, I've never seen it before.

Sent my mum a message about this last night - the record isn't hers, she's never seen it before....

 

[ShadyCavalier]

I used to walk my dog around this new estate before I recently moved here, and I used to feel watched. My paranoid mind would often wonder what to say if anyone challenged my right to be here (yes, really).

Only it wasn't paranoia. Since moving here I joined the local Street Watch team (in the hope of meeting neighbours and making friends). They've all got cctv and the WhatsApp group is full of rants about people not living on the estate being on the estate. There's constant sniping and nastiness, and complaints about petty things blown out of all proportion. I'm not intending to make friends out of any of these people.

Why on Earth did you move to the estate after feeling so paranoid about it?