Spooky 'Speriences
I have been a believer in ghosts for as long as I can remember, certainly from a very young age. I think there is a slightly psychic thread running through my mums side of the family, and I have also over the years had some premonitions which have come true.I wanted to record these somewhere, so I don't forget them as much as anything.
My first ghost
The first odd experience I can remember was when I was about 5 and my family were living in our "old house"- the one we lived in until I was 7 and we moved to the house which is now mine. I was sure I saw a foot disappear round the corner at the back of the house- as if someone had just rounded the corner and the last thing you was was their back foot. I mentioned it to my mum, and we went and investigated- nothing there. But although I was only 5, I can still see that foot clearly.
Teenage ghost
All was quiet then until I was about 12/13. I had a fascination for graveyards as a child, I would draw them, make models of them and whenever we went anywhere I had to visit the local church to poke among the gravestones. I had a fascination for ghost stories as well, I was always borrowing books about them from the library and have a fair few at home.
So one summer when I was about 12, I had 2 schoolfriends round on the last day of school. We had broken up early, my brothers school didn't break up until about 3 and my mum and dad were both out at work. (These days it wouldn't be allowed for kids that age to be home alone but when I was a child we lived in slightly safer times). So it was just the 3 of us in the house. All of a sudden one of my friends, Beverley said "I don't want to worry you but I am sure I just saw someone walk up your stairs". We went and had a look, but couldn't see anyone, or hear anything. So we went back into my bedroom, carried on chatting and the next thing..... the toilet seat banged. We all jumped out of our skins, went and investigated.... and again there was no-one there and the toilet seat hadn't moved. We were spooked for the rest of the afternoon until my mum came home.
College years
The next one was when I was at college and I just woke up terrified for no reason one night. I lived in the college hall of residence for my first year. I woke up with a real feeling of something not being right. And of course, like you do when you wake in the night I *HAD* to go to the loo. I fought the feeling as I just did not want to get out of bed and walk down the corridor. In the end I had too, I was a quick as I could be and I couldn't wait to get back into my room. Nothing else happened and I went back to sleep. But two days later there was a thankfully not serious fire in the building so I think my uneasy feeling was actually a premonition. I never felt spooked in that building again.
Haunted place of work
Roll on a few years to my previous job, where I was based in a hospital, doing the admin work for providing wheelchairs. This would have been about 92/93 time. We were doing some overtime to get all our old card records put onto a database. So I went in one saturday and I was the only one in the building. I was OK until mid afternoon when I suddenly felt spooked and was sure there was someone on the other side of the office door. I went and investigated- no one to be seen. I had a wander round the building- still no-one. But I just felt sure I was not on my own. In the end I locked myself in the office (quite what good that would have done when ghosts can often pass through walls I don't know!) and by 4pm I was so scared I had to sign off and go home.
A couple of weeks later I went in on saturday to do some more overtime and this time my good friend and work mate Val was with me. The first odd experience that day was that when I went to the ladies, the seat on the loo was up. Now us women never leave the seat up! I asked Val if she had been in there and left the seat up- she had been in and definately left the seat down! Again we were the only ones in the building. As the day went on, we kept hearing odd noises, going to investigate....and no-one else was in the building except us. At all. All day.
(On investigation I found out that the building was rumoured to be haunted by the Dr. who had set up a disabled living assessment centre there. He had been seen on a number of occasions after he died. Also one night, someone felt a hand on their shoulder. They shrugged it off... then remembered that no-one else was in the building).
Shotover Hill, Oxford
The next incident was in the summer of 1995 on Shotover Hill, near Wheatley, Oxford. I went for a walk with my friend Anne. It was a very hot summers day. So to escape the heat part of the walk was along a wooded path. I saw a jogger in the distance, but somehow could not focus on him properly, and although he was walking and we were jogging, he didn't pull away from us. Then he vanished. I thought he must have turned off down a side track or something, although when we got to where he had vanished there was nowhere he could have gone. I didn't say anything to Anne at the time as it didn't 100% register that there was anything odd about the man. It was only when we got home and Anne's son Graham asked where we had been that we discovered we had both seen something odd. Graham said "the ghost has been seen there again". So I mentioned my odd jogger- and Anne had seen him as well, and seen him vanish, but again she hadn't said anything as it hadn't registered that there might be something odd. We discussed what we had seen- and apparently the ghost seen there is a jogger who apparently hanged himself. We have been back to the lane since and nothing odd happened the second time.
St. Ives, Cornwall
September 2003. I went on holiday to St. Ives in Cornwall with Ann (different Ann!). We went on a ghost walk one evening with Ian Addicoat. There were 13 of us on the walk and Ian said that whenver he had 13, odd things happened. The first thing was in a lane, where one member of the party felt as if she had been pushed. Right where a grey lady was said to appear. A little while later we were on "The Island", the headland with the chapel on it at St Ives, and Ian told us to listen carefully as we walked down a lane as we might hear noises we wouldn't expect to. As we walked down I was sure I could hear horses hooves. I listened carefully to everyones footsteps, but the sound was definately most like horses hooves. We were all very quiet listening out, and it was very clear. We went down onto the beach where Ian started telling us the tale of the lane, and it involved a horse. It was only when he had finished telling the story that I said I had heard hoofbeats in the lane... which is the sound which has often been heard. We were not told this before hand and I had not done any reading up about St Ives ghosts. But I definately heard horses hooves!
My ghost cat
To follow- my ghost cat.Ann and I are also going on a ghost weekend at Craig Y Nos castle in Wales at Hallowe'en 2005... who knows what might happen?
Ghostly Links
Richard Felix (Historian from MH)
page created 10th Jan 2005 by Jackie.
Last update 11th Jan 2005.
Ghost gifs came from Animation Library