Haunted house

[Ori82]

My mum told me about the house her and my dad lived in before I was born. It had a high wooden balcony overlooking the hallway and an abandoned nursery on the second floor.

She said both her and dad were creeped out by the place - they were renting at the time. She said three times she saw the figure of a woman wearing a black cowl, above her on the balcony, with a pale face peering over the railings. Each time she saw her, the woman moved closer and closer, from the balcony (first time,) to the landing (second time) and then the third time she was standing on the stairwell, coming down the stairs.

The nursery had old wallpaper and was always freezing cold. Neither of them would go in there - it had a bad feel apparently.

My dad interrupted the story at this point and said that he would purposefully wait after finishing work (he was a teacher at a local college) until he knew mum would be going home so they could go to the house together. He said he would always try never to be there on his own. He's not the kind of person to believe in supernatural things and he's definitely not easily spooked. I've never heard him say anything like this before.

They moved not soon after mum saw the woman with the pale face for the third time coming down the stairs. She said she couldn't sleep there anymore.

Have you ever been in a haunted house or experienced anything strange? What's the creepiest thing that's happened to you?

Popsicle, that is very interesting!

Very old house, much altered but the core is original. Two bedrooms which we all avoid going in to if we can help it, always put the light on first before we do, and do not use because they 'feel bad'. A guest refusing to stay again after staying in one of those rooms and having an item of clothing go missing. Another guest seeing someone walking along the landing. Noises in the night when everyone is in bed - particularly doors opening and closing. Things going missing and turning up days later somewhere odd or never turning up at all. Most recently, a woman in clothing from a past era seen walking across the dining hall. I can't explain it.

In our kitchen I've seen so many people out of the corner of my eye who aren't there, that I've stopped looking.

Lights go on and off. Doors open and close. Kids electronic toys get turned on and off randomly.

Nothing feels unpleasant however. House has a lovely feel to it.

A young girl died in our house a generation or so ago. When we moved in I used to say hello to her when we went into her room, it just randomly felt like the right thing to do.

My grandma worked at an old Georgian farm house as a housekeeper when me and my cousins were little. The owner’s wife died and then he died. The family asked my grandma to stay in the (massive creepy) house and look after it until it could be sold. She’s the biggest sceptic ever but something frightened her there and she asked family members to take it in turns staying with her.

Loads of stuff happened.

Knocking on the bedroom wall (where the owners wife used to lay banging on the wall when she needed something).

My uncles dog walked into the hallway, started shining, pissed itself and then slithered around the edges of the main living room crying and urinating, shaking uncontrollably.

My young cousin who was 4 at the time ran upstairs and then came down crying saying that the lady upstairs had pulled faces at him for being noisy.

My older cousin went playing in the out buildings and then came back having pissed himself. He was completely white and shaking. Said he had to go home right away. Wouldn’t say why. Refused to step foot in the place ever again and still won’t speak of it 35 years later. If someone brings the house up in conversation he makes an excuse to leave the room.

Oh and my own experience ... I got taken there just before it was sold. It was empty of furniture by then and just a massive mess. I went to play in one of the bedrooms where there was a massive Georgian fireplace. I took one look at it and went cold, felt sick, felt absolutely terrified but couldn’t stop looking at it. In the end one of the adults pulled me out and shut the door. I still dream of that room and everytime I think about it the feelings of absolute terror come flooding back.

It’s been bought and sold so many times since then I’d love to speak to the past owners to find out why they sold it.

What exactly is an 'abandoned' nursery?

And why didn't she refer to the every room in the house and indeed the house itself as 'abandoned'?

I lived in a haunted house. Centre of Liverpool...veey cheap rent...the atmosphere was electric but it didn't feel bad...there was a presence though.
When i started a new job at a school someone asked me where I lived and the first thing she sad was " xxxx ( another colleague)used to live there ...it's haunted...she saw a man walk through the wall! "
I never saw anything and wasn't scared as my living flatmates in other houses were far scarier!

I've told this story on another thread but I can;t find it now. Anyway, I don't believe in ghosts but this did give me - and my dad - a bit of a wtf moment a while ago.

When ds was little, he and I moved back to live with my parents in their house when my marriage ended. Ds's bedroom was at the back of the house and used to be my grandmother's bedroom. He was a shocking sleeper and would get up several times a night. Once he started talking he used to talk about the 'bad lady' who came into his room at night and would wake him up. At the time, I assumed it was my mum coming into his room at night to check on him, and I used to get quite cross with her for waking him up. She always denied it though!

Anyway, ds moved out of that room once he got older and my mum sadly died in 2016. I'd completely forgotten about the 'bad lady' story, but last year my 6-year-old nephew came to stay and slept in ds's old bedroom. The next morning, my dad and I were talking to him in the kitchen and I asked him whether he had had a good sleep. 'Well', he said (you know that really matter-of-fact way small kids have sometimes!), 'I did but I was really cross when that lady came in and sat on my bed and woke me up.'

My dad and I just looked at each other like WTAF

The room doesn't have any weird atmosphere although the house is always very cold and dark. Oddly enough my mum did die in the room that is now my bedroom, and there's definitely no haunting there! But who the heck is the 'bad lady'?

@WorraLiberty

What exactly is an 'abandoned' nursery?

And why didn't she refer to the every room in the house and indeed the house itself as 'abandoned'?

Ha! I was just reading through before posting the same question. I’m sceptical, and it does nothing to change that position when people do have strange experiences, when they’re peppered with fanciful emotive suggestions like, “abandoned nursery”.

I’ve had a couple of strange experiences. Lived in a shared house at university with 5 other girls as part of a halls of residence complex. My room was on the top (third) floor and it was always much colder up there than the rest of the house. There was a fire door which led up from the middle floor landing to our floor and I repeatedly saw a man with a hat on it standing behind the door. If I looked at it directly, he was never there, but out of the corner of my eye, he always was. My then BF, now DH, had the same experience and is a totally un-woo vet.

I didn’t mention this to my flatmates for months, but when I did, they all had their own strange experiences in the house too. There was also a day when we all
came running out of our rooms because we could hear screaming coming from one of the bedrooms but there was nobody there. Freaky. Even though the halls were quite modern, there had previously been a very old settlement on the site.

More recently, I had a more comforting experience. Back in April I had a late miscarriage with twins. As I lay in bed, sobbing my heart out at 3am, I felt my late grandma with me. I could feel her holding my hand with her crooked, arthritic fingers as clearly as I could feel DH’s actual presence next to me. She was with me that night, I’m sure of it.

I’m very sceptical but even so have experienced things I can’t really explain.

For example, in my old flat I would often hear breathing in my bedroom. It weirdly never bothered me at all. One day I was out shopping and my sister, who was temporarily staying with me, was in my flat. When I came in through the front door she jumped and looked startled, and asked me when I’d gone out. I said I’d been out a few hours and she frowned and said “but I thought you were asleep, I could hear you breathing.”

I laughed and said, oh no, that’s just The Breathing, and it utterly freaked her out, but at least I know it wasn’t just me hearing it. Same flat, when my now-husband first moved in, things went missing and never turned up again, even when we moved out and cleared the place.

Ha! I was just reading through before posting the same question. I’m sceptical, and it does nothing to change that position when people do have strange experiences, when they’re peppered with fanciful emotive suggestions like, “abandoned nursery”.

I know, it sounds like a horror writers retreat...

I don't know what I believe about ghosts but have never actively sought paranormal experiences iykwim. We're currently moving out of a flat where things have been a little....off. we have doors that open constantly, not just a little draft type thing but the handle turning and then fully opening. Both my husband and I have had the same experience of a random dog toy being dropped to our side despite being metres away from any shelves or where they have been placed. Over Christmas we were walking out dog through the fog and someone directly behind us whistled for him.

I am not going to miss this place

It is that feeling of being unwelcome and not alone in those rooms, to the extent that I find myself apologising out loud if I have to go in. As I said, I can't explain it. We all independently felt it and had no prior knowledge of the house to plant any seeds, but have since been told that others have experienced it too. With one DS's room, he says mostly it feels perfectly fine but sometimes it very suddenly doesn't. The 'grey woman' who was seen on the landing was going from one of the bedrooms we never use towards his room. It has no near neighbours but the nearest house makes you feel uncomfortable even from the outside. When I asked about that one locally, I was told that the previous occupant moved out sharpish because she felt so uncomfortable - again, feeling unwelcome and not alone, but also a strong feeling of being watched.

It is not as bad as it used to be, so maybe 'they' are getting used to us, or it is has just become our new norm!

My cousin is 8 years older than me. When he was 3 or 4, he used to sit at the bottom of my grandmas stairs and talk to someone - when asked he used to tell everyone “I’m talking to the old man”.

I used to do the same thing In the same spot, at the bottom of the stairs when I was about the same age, and when asked I would tell everyone “I’m talking to the old man”

I don’t remember talking to him and neither does my cousin but it wasn’t a nice house to be in. There had been several deaths there that I’m aware of, including a suicide and also an attempted murder.

I refused to believe in ghosts before but we've had strange noises since we've been in this house. It's a Georgian house, unusual style, small 2 bed on 3 floors. Have heard clicking noises that seem to come from thin air that I cant explain as they sound like someone snapping their fingers and its usually close by! Tapping, knocking and sounds like China or glass being tapped. Footsteps on the stairs which unfortunately are right next to my bedroom at night. Haven't mentioned it to my dd 13, but she has heard someone banging on the wall ( it was an outside wall with a brick wall behind it and ran to tell me she heard a weird knocking. I was terrified to start with but I ignore it now and not sure whether it's an unkind spirit or not, it's just there. Neighbor's have told me it was rented out by the owner when his wife passed away from cancer not sure if it's the lady that used to live here. When it starts to happen I just find the more I ignore it, the noises stop but strangely it only happens that I'll hear the noises from the 3rd floor.

I'd really love to hear anyone's thoughts on what the clicking/popping noises could be, they are so strange!!

I am very sensitive to spirit. I seem to have some psychic ability although I can't always control it, I can sometimes just know things and can see the future in dreams but not from my own free will. I do however, pick up very easily on ghosts/ spirits and that is something I've had from childhood. In my opinion, most places are haunted. It's more unusual for a place to have no attachment at all. Sometimes it can be an conscious spirit attached to a building, more commonly is that it's energies left behind and echoes of the past or an overlap into different times, past and future.

Nothing too scary, but in my childhood home I used to quite frequently get the sensation that someone was standing over my bed. My parents' room in particular had a strange atmosphere.

I used to do the same thing In the same spot, at the bottom of the stairs when I was about the same age, and when asked I would tell everyone “I’m talking to the old man”

I remember seeing a programme about ghost stories years ago and there was a case of a family who thought there were ghosts in the house, and a little boy visiting the house for the daughter's birthday party saw an 'entity' on the stairs. (The boy knew nothing about their previous experiences).

Bump

We lived in a very old farmhouse for 20 years, it definitely had a number of strange happenings:
MIL would say she could see a hooded figure at the end of her bed, from the knees up. DD slept in same room after MIL left and as a ting child would say there was a man at the end of her bed. She was too young to know about previous sightings.
One Christmas evening the tree started shaking violently and DH thought one of the cats was climbing it. He walked across to it, the shaking immediately stopped, no cat, nothing to explain it but as he turned round a standard lamp flew across the room from one side to the other. The light wasn’t plugged in, weighted base. DH is totally non woo but this seriously shook him up!
We were outside with friends and their teenage son went in to use the downstairs loo, which had a frosted pane of glass in the top half. He came out screaming a few minutes later asking who had pressed their face and hands against the glass whilst he was on the loo. No one had, we were all outside apart from him.
Things would go missing and turn up in the most unlikely places weeks later, definitely not DH or I and the DCs were little and couldn’t have reached some of the objects or places they were found.
We would hear footsteps coming up the stairs outside our bedroom. Stairs were carpeted but it sounded like they were on wooden treads. No central heating, stairs didn’t creak when walked on. This happened literally nearly every night, couldn’t work out where the ‘person’ went next as didn’t seem to come into our room or DD’s room opposite.
Oddly I was never afraid of being in the house alone. Present house is peaceful and bland in comparison!

A house we previously lived in, the man who built it had died in our bedroom. The kids were fine going in during the day, but would never go into the room when it was dark unless we were already in there.

We never felt anything bad though and figured if it didn't harm us I wasn't going to worry about it.

I change between being sceptical and believing. Just now, the dog has just gone to stare intently at the wall. We are living in a dead relative's old house.

@MitziK

I'll say my usual.

Ghost Cat.

Might be one of mine, no idea, but we frequently (we meaning me, DP and both DTwatCats) hear her thumping about and sometimes we feel her on the bed. Last heard her a couple of days ago jumping off the kitchen table - both DTwatCats had an alibi, as they were snoring next to me and, seeing as the back door was closed, it would have been pretty difficult for a common or garden cat to get and out. Well, they were until they heard it and pegged it into the kitchen to find out who was nicking their food.

I wouldn't mind a real cat visiting, either, but unless there's a secret military experiment specialising in cloaking devices for cats, it's our little Ghost Cat.

I have ghost cats too. They only make themselves known if I'm distressed or very upset but its a comfort knowing they are there.

I had a friend who has sadly since passed away but while I was at her house a few years ago, catsitting for her while she was away on business, I felt one of them get on the bed with me and curl up in the crook of my knees and settle down to sleep. As I had left them downstairs with only access to my friend’s room I assumed one had broken the barricade and got in with me so I got up and turned on the light to let it out – no cat!

Also, this didn’t happen to me but my sister and her DH live in an old terraced cottage, about 300 years old. I’ve told this story on here before I think but their kids are now married but when they were little would see an old lady walking up the stairs which my sister remained in denial about as she was terrified. Fast forward to about 8 or so years ago, kids long married, I had popped to my sister’s house with two friends of mine one afternoon – the friends and my sister didn’t know of each other before this point – to collect something and while I was in the kitchen and my sister was in the garage collecting the item, and my friends were stood in her lounge, my one friend said hello to an old lady who walked across the lounge and up the stairs. When I came back into the lounge she asked me if it was my grandmother and if she lived with my sister. She thought we were pulling her leg and went upstairs to check, she said she was a solid as a real person and wondered why she didn’t say hello back! Im assuming she’s stuck in some sort of stone tape theory at my sister’s who walks up the stairs now and again. Freaky!