I don’t believe in ghosts but...

[Becomingbatshit]

Hear me out here.

I do not believe in ghosts at all. But we moved recently into a Victorian house and DS’ room is above mine. Without fail, every night around this time 21.30-22.00, there is a very loud THUD from directly upstairs. As if DS has fallen out of bed. 10 seconds later the baby monitor switches on and he is sitting up (in bed - didn’t fall out), awake. Last night this happened at 1am.

It’s always 1-3 thuds which seem to wake him up. Once or twice it has happened and he hasn’t awoken and slept through. But usually...

WHAT IS THIS?!? Ghosty ghost?!

DH never hears it as he’s asleep or downstairs so it could also be me losing my mind. Very clear loud thud though...

[Quillink]

Are your boiler and carbon monoxide detector OK OP?

[Becomingbatshit]

Are your boiler and carbon monoxide detector OK OP?

Yes! Both brand new!

Dog just started freaking out about nothing too.

Could be birds but doesn’t explain the running noise

This is what came out of chimney

[flooredbored]

The chimney thing makes me think it is some kind of vermin.

[NearlyGranny]

Squirrels? Are there trees around your house? One would be enough. Squirrels can have a routine of visiting your loft.

[NearlyGranny]

DD2, alone in her new house with new DH working away called the local police out one night to check her loft. It sounded like a person but it was a raccoon. Not in the UK, obvs.

[Ifonlywecouldwishuponastar]

Hi op. When my parents had their first house this happened to them. They were watching tv to hear banging upstairs. The spare room light would also switch itself on and other weird things happened. After they moved, the same thing happened to the next people. It scarred the new people to the fact the ladies husband put suitcases up against the bedroom door. The people after that couple got a priest in. It's since been lived in with the same occupants since 2001, so I'm guessing having the priest in helped....

[Wagsandclaws]

I can't understand how, upon agreeing that he heard clanging nosies that's your DP went back to sleep! 😱

Even if he wasn't scared my DH would have had his arse kicked out of bed to 'investigate' as clanging noises in the middle of the night aren't normal nor sound like wood contracting.

The chimney thing, could be anything including rodents, I wouldn't worry about that but yes I'd do a recording tonight if possible.

I grew up in a haunted house so no scepticism from me but rule everything else out first ...

Good luck!

[Becomingbatshit]

DH refusing to give up his phone this evening but says he will tomororw night.

Will get one of the builders Monday to come and inspect the chimney and the loft.

[edwardcullensotherwoman]

What did you hear on the recording?
I would bet it's mice, rats or birds in the loft, but I also grew up in a haunted Edwardian house so no skepticism from me until you've had the attic checked.. I want to know what you heard on the recording though!

[Orangesandbananas]

Following cause I'm curious to find out what it is.

[RyanBergarasTeeth]

Im also. Curious here.

[Becomingbatshit]

DH going to loft today to look

[Becomingbatshit]

The phone recording is useless because DH removed from room when he got DS and brought him into our bed. It needs to be in the room without DS otherwise impossible to tell what the banging is

[TerrapinStation]

Has lockdown brought out all the ghosts, what's with the spooky goings on?

[Ponoka7]

Tell your DH that he's got to get on board with this, or you'll start to feel like you are starring in a production of 'gaslight'.

Get him to watch 'The boy' and read him stories of people living in lofts without the owners knowing, if a supernatural happening isn't enough to interest him.

[Ponoka7]

TerrapinStation, i have seen enough evidence over the years that we can manifest things through stress.

[CandyLeBonBon]

No suggestions op but equally interested in finding the cause!

[homeschoolchaos]

The stuff coming down the chimney is normal for an older house. Happens from time to time (happens more often if there are animals living in it though). It wouldn’t worry me.

Is this the first time you’ve lived in an older house? They can be weird and make weird sounds. Ours does. But it feels quite calm and after 6 months I think it’s just us. (I’m a very level headed sciencey type but I lived in a very strange house as a student, and had some strange experiences as a child).

Are you doing ok mentally at the moment? I think being stressed heightens the chances of perceiving a supernatural experience (be that one that is ‘real’ or ‘imagined’ - I’m still not sure whether my own experiences were real or whether they were a manifestation of my own stresses at the time).

The sound of an old house settling can be really worrying, especially if you’re already stressed. Our house makes noises sometimes, some are heating, some are timbers cooling after a hot sunny day. The other day I was sure I heard a glass smash in the night but nothing to see in the morning - I was half asleep and worried a little about burglars but decided to wait for the alarm.

I actually came on here to suggest it was your child rolling out of bed and getting back in. Both of ours did that, and I remember one time in a holiday cottage when I heard an almighty thud (DH had gone to get secret fish and chips). I raced upstairs to spot my child wriggling his way up onto the bed.

[cretelover]

Holy shit hope you get to the bottom of it

[Quillink]

I once lived in a house where rats used to run around on the roof. They were incredibly noisy and it sounded like footsteps amplified into the floors below. If the builders and recording don't find anything you might want to consider getting a pest controller out to take a look.

[Becomingbatshit]

The stuff coming down the chimney is normal for an older house

Even though it was swept 3 months ago by a professional chimney sweep?

I grew up in an Edwardian house so I know about the creaking and the noises. But, as I said, all the plumbing and heating is new. We had the house gutted and renovated so there shouldn’t be bizarre water noises from an old tank or any of that. It’s also been totally rewired. There’s also a difference between misc house noise and what sounds like running footsteps.

I resent questions about my mental health as well - wtf is that about. My husband can also hear the noises! I am completely fine. Actually I’m a SAHM so has been quite nice to have my husband at home in lots of ways - certainly not overly stressed. Not responding to any more comments about that; it’s actually quite rude and gaslighty.

Will let everyone know if something in loft and what happens with recording tonight.

[Vodkaforbreakfast]

We get our chimney professionally done twice a year (it’s obligatory where we live) and still get random crap coming down it every now and then.

Hope you find some answers!

[2pointfourmonkeys]

Hi Op. hope you're ok.

We live in a victorian semi town house and theres technically no attic. Chimneys are topped and have been for years.

Last spring i got totally freaked by the sound of something moving around above our room, where there is a small void for the gable but not a room. It sounded very like someone walking around. Turned out we had a slipped roof tile and a squirrel had moved in. God they sound like humans at 3am.

We also still get allsorts of crap from our chimneys, no idea where it comes from.

That said i also believe that we had someone else living here for a while after we moved in. It disappeared all of a sudden and then my 3 year old told me the old lady has decided we can live in her house now and she's moved out

Hope you get some answers x

[Becomingbatshit]

Thank you @2pointfourmonkeys - a lot of people mentioning squirrels. Will have a lot.

Reminds me of that Hysterical podcast in the US where two policemen went and tried to get a squirrel out of the attic and ended up ruining the house 😂🤷🏻‍♀️

[OldQueen1969]

Hi OP,

Have been following this thread with interest as I too have lived in a Victorian property, a flat above a shopping arcade on the SC.

We lived in it twice for various reasons too mundane to mention, but both times we had plenty of weird experiences, including noises from the attic in the wee small hours so loud my ex DH, a big hairy biker, called the police. This wasn't as big an over-reaction as you might think - in some flats like ours there aren't actually fire breaks separating them - in another flat we lived in on the main road round the corner you could go from one end of the road to the other through the attigs IYSWIM. So it seemed possible that someone could have been up there having gained access from another flat. Anyhoo, police went up, had a look around - turns out we did have sealed attics and there was no sign of anything remotely animal or human. They did suggest squirrels but it was a quite towny area with few trees nearby, and I would have expected to have heard them more than once. Very odd indeed - sounded like furniture being moved and dragged. If squirrels wear hobnail boots I could get behind it a bit more.

My DS was about 6 when we moved in the second time, and we moved out when he was about 15. While younger, we once found him downstairs in the morning under the dining table with the chairs pulled in around him. He said he had seen a Victorian lady sitting in front of the doorway to the bathroom. The bathroom had been a bedroom in the past and was quite big; I acted unsurprised and as non chalant as possible and advised him to say hello next time and not worry, but we wondered about the history of the place and why the bathroom door had a bolt on the OUTSIDE......

I twice saw what I thought was my son - once dancing in front of the TV as I passed the lounge door going into the kitchen, but when I stepped back to say "Cool moves dude" he wasn't there and the TV was off. Another time, sitting on the sofa just inside the door reading a newspaper, he crawled past me and I looked up to speak to him - again, nothing there - this was in broad daylight, middle of the day and I was of course sober .....

We had a very shy black and white cat, and one day my Mum and I were having a cuppa mid-morning and a chat in the lounge. We had one of those vibrating stand on things for exercise - my ex DH had been in a sever bike crash before we met and was always trying out things to improve his pain from the injuries - this gadget had been used a couple of times then became the home of the cat igloo which sat on the plate. As Mum and I were chatting, DCat suddenly, and uncharacteristically started stalking from the door into the room. We were surprised but didn't do anything as it was unusual for him to grace us with his presence and didn't want to scare him off. he did the whole ears back, belly to the ground thing into the middle of the room. As he got near to the cat igloo, my Mum and I both heard a weird almost electronic laughing sound - DCat took off like a Harrier Jump jet and left the room at speed without touching the ground. My Mum was the least woo person in the world but confirmed she had heard the noise too, so I said it must be one of DSs toys having a glitch, and very matter of factly checked in, under and around the cat igloo. Nothing to be found........again, broad daylight, sounds of bustle outside, utterly baffling.

I think because we just behaved as though we had invisible lodgers and weren't particularly bothered, any activity was quite mundane. The people who moved in after us however, who didn't know any of this, fared less well, with heavy objects, and once a knife being lobbed around. To my knowledge the flat has been "exorcised" at least twice since we left. I'm quite into the "woo" now, and would love to go back with equipment and see what happens.

Finally, I try to think in terms of ebergy and everything in the world being somehow connected - sort of quantum physics stylee although I know I will be told I don't understand true QP, which I don't but some of what I have read seems plausible. I remain an open minded skeptic really - there are more things in heaven and earth and all that jazz....

Good luck OP - looking forward to seeing your updates.