I smell dead people in the long gallery (not kidding and not funny)

[whomovedmychocolate]

I posted about this previously and it went away but the floods seem to have disturbed something.

Basically I live in a 400 year old house (gorgeous see my profile pics) and work next door in a converted chapel (baptist - wasn't a chapel for long because the villagers turned up with flaming torches etc.) but there are human remains in the gardens (I know because I dug them up ).

A few months ago a funny smell kept appearing. Now it's appearing daily. We have checked out the obvious (dead animals in the roof, infestations, blocked drains etc). but the weird thing is, the smell only comes on in part of a room (various rooms) and seems to move and then it goes.

Today it moved up the stairs and to the long gallery and whenever I go in there it disappears within a few minutes (oh and before you ask no, I do not go around with a can of Febreze or indeed 'ghost away' spray.)

The building spooks me TBH and I don't like to go in there on my own. But I don't believe in ghosts and rationally I think all that stuff is rubbish.

So I need rational explanations please. We have ruled out:

(a) creatures in the roof - no airflow through unless they were in air con vent which we checked today
(b) Sewerage plumbing issues - all checked out and also smell often occurs in parts of the building with no plumbing
(c) Electrical issues - all wires checked - nothing burning/shorting - even cleaned the light bulbs to check it wasn't a dust issue.
(d) creatures in the walls - walls are three feet thick, solid ironstone
(e) creatures under the floors - parquet flooring over stone - apparently it's two foot thick.

Anybody got any ideas?

[WideWebWitch]

No ideas but where's the pic of theh ouse?

[binklehasflipped]

what sort of smell?

[Wheelybug]

dunno. But would love to see the house... no piccies on profile,

[Aimsmum]

Message withdrawn

[FrayedKnot]

lol at us all nosing for the pics

What sort of smell is it? I mean does it smell like anything you have smelled before?

[Kathyis6incheshigh]

Oooh you've got a long gallery!!!!

(Sorry, don't believe in ghost type things so nothing useful to add there)

[whomovedmychocolate]

Hmm not sure why, have just put it to public.....can someone please have another looksee? Thanks

The smell is dead people. I've smelled it before and it smells like the sort of sweet off meat smell, like when you spill a lot of blood, sort of metallic but also sweet. It's making me feel sick remembering it. It's NASTY!

[whomovedmychocolate]

I have indeed got a long gallery - terribly posh I know but there is nothing else to describe it - it's only a bridge at the top of the stairs to the control room which is very long...oooh who wants to see pics of the building in question?

[wheresthehamster]

It's not fertiliser from nearby fields is it?
Only we nearly took our house apart looking for dead animals one year before we realised. Now it comes and goes and is sometimes only in one room or only upstairs.
Just a thought.

[Bluestocking]

The only pics I can see are of a baby covered in spaghetti - maybe your profile's haunted too?
The only (non-spooky) thing I can think of is the possibility that you have an oldfashioned light fitting somewhere that makes a funny smell. There was one of these in my grandparents' spare room and it really did hum.

[BettySpaghetti]

Can anyone else smell it or is it just you?

(I've seen the pics before and your website -its a beautiful place )

[Bluestocking]

I have to ask, how do you know what dead people smell like?

[WideWebWitch]

Lovely house.
This might be a silly suggestion but what about calling local vicar? I don't quite know how that conversation woudl go "hi, do you do exorcisms?" but maybe you could ask advice.

I don't believe any of this stuff, it must be a rat or bird or something. Is it really only there sometimes?

[expatinscotland]

It could still be creatures.

I work in a 300 year old building that's been many things in its past and has enormous vaults in its basement, some of which have been left in their original state.

NO PLACE is impervious to rats.

These creatures have literally tunnelled their way through stone walls a metre thick, they burrowed their way underneath the stone floor and did £25,000 worth of damage to the building last year. A bunch of 'em died in one of the unusued vaults - some have been redeveloped for use - and caused a nasty smell and bluebottle infestation.

[MyTwopenceworth]

damp?

It can be very hard to track down a smell, you can get wafts from time to time, you can also get used to a smell and stop smelling it, iyswim.

Has anyone visiting ever smelled anything?

[whomovedmychocolate]

It's only there sometimes and it's never in the same place. It doesn't seem to relate to the farming round here - you can't smell it outside and you can't smell it except where it is IYSWIM - it's like a three foot wide stink.

In answer to the question about dead people, I worked in a morgue as a work experience placement (yeah I know, I put on my form 'I want to work with people' - should have been more specific I know!)

[whomovedmychocolate]

Expat - ooh I agree and I'd prefer it was creatures. Other people have smelled it and have come to get me to show me and I've walked in and it's been horrible but the thing that spooks me is, they can smell it for ages, then as soon as I arrive and acknowledge it, it disappears. Either I hum really badly and it drowns out the other smell or I'm doing something that makes it go away.

[Idobelieveinfairies]

BLIMEY-no suggestions here but you are going to have to get to the bottom of this and come back and tell us!

Is the smell getting stronger with time??

How long have you lived there? and do you know who lived there before you??

ohhhhh-i love a good mystery!

[expatinscotland]

It's also been very wet and chilly this summer.

I went down to those vaults today, in fact, with a work colleage, and we couldn't get to the very back one for a large, rather deep puddle of standing water in there.

It smelled very, very dank.

[brimfull]

have you forgotten to remove your mooncup

[Idobelieveinfairies]

[whomovedmychocolate]

We've lived here umm four years or so - but the people who lived here before we know (actually one of them now lives next door - long story).

She is strangely reluctant to talk about the chapel. I think she didn't like it very much. I always feel watched when I'm in there and that's bloody ridiculous because I don't believe in all that ghostly mumbo jumbo. But perhaps it's infrasound or something because of the ironstone, that can make this seem spooky.

Or perhaps the smell is there all the time and I can smell it and that's why I get nervous?

Who knows? I do know I've got to go in there to do some work on my own from time to time so I need to figure it out.

[whomovedmychocolate]

ggirl - ROFL!

[expatinscotland]

Saying that, the building where I work is definitely haunted by at least two male entities.

One on the second floor in the northwest corridor and one in the basement.

[DoubleBluff]

I had a smeel that came and went it was a corroded light fitting as mentioned earlier. I was THIS close to drilling a hole in the wall as I was convinced there was something dead in there ( and I know THAT smell). Check your lamps etc?