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?

[Kathyis6incheshigh]

I just read that as 'stuff up our conks'. You are in the music industry, right?

[LittleBellatrixLeBoot]

Farking 'ell - would it be worse to have live rats, dead rats, or ghost rats?

[whomovedmychocolate]

Yes Kathy See previous comments on why talc experiments are bad!

[whomovedmychocolate]

Ghost rats that steal chocolate - definitely!

[Aitch]

By whomovedmychocolate on Thu 16-Aug-07 22:59:01
Okay, I'm still not convinced it has a spiritual explanation but what do I say to the smell?

(Can't quite believe I'm asking how to phrase a greeting to an odour ).





i think we have covered this, have we not? i believe the phrase that the catholic church advocates is 'wotcha cock'. it was on the exorcist and everything... (or was that 'your mother sucks cocks in hell'?)

[Kathyis6incheshigh]

just seen talc comment - LOL!

[BBBee]

I read in a book about smell ghosts. What you have to do is say in a low respectful voice:

"I respect you and acknowledge your presence but now all I have to do is....the shake and vac and put the freshness back - do the shake and vac and put hte freshness back."

[Aitch]

ROFL

[whomovedmychocolate]

Okay how many of you are now picturing me in a pinny vacuuming the studio with the cat playing the grand piano while Caspar the friendly ghost farts in the corner?

[whomovedmychocolate]

Aitch - I'm a secularist though - I guess I'd have to say: 'your mother (who is no doubt a lovely woman), enjoys physical pleasure in a hot airing cupboard. '

[WideWebWitch]

You have completely put me off buying a 400 yo old house

[whomovedmychocolate]

WWW - probably best - you get very acquainted with spiders, bats, mice, scuttling things, woodworm, antique dust, lead pipes/paint.

Also you have to run the gauntlet of the listed building office if it's listed and the planning dept have a special misanthrop they keep on staff just to fox you if you want to do something silly like repair a broken window!

[whomovedmychocolate]

I'm going to bed now. Tomorrow I will try talking to the smell (if I can do so without ROFLing).

I'm surprised none of you thought to parp this thread and then pretend it was the ghost. ;)

[IsabelWatchingItRainInMacondo]

Erm, I keep thinking about your thick stone floor. I have a friend that lives in what looked like an old mansion (now converted to flats). After joking with an elderly neighbour about building a swimming pool in his garden, the old man told her, but you can not dig here young lady, this used to be a leprosary, there is people buried in this garden and under your house. She said that they went to check the foundations and all the former sellar has been covered with concrete to prevent people digging up the lepers' bodies when everyone had forgotten about them, they also found a staircase that just "sinks" into the concrete floor. So... what I am trying to say here is... as concrete is a relatively new invention, would it be possible that the thickness of your floors is there to prevent digging up an existent burial?

Important people was buried in churches in the past, although 1866 is, I believe, too recent for that. Did anybody die during the siege? is it possible that the village has decided to hide the fact that they went too far? Whomever wins the war, gets to write the history of the place, wonder if there's something else about it, do you know where the baptists moved to?. Is it possible that the bus with tourists that come to visit once a year is actually coming to see what they believe is a shrine for their martirs? do they come always in the same date? and finally.... WHY ON EARTH I AM TELLING YOU THIS? I guess I spent too much time telling ghost stories by the bonfire at scouts camps


Having said all that rubish... I still think that nothing of the above explains the odour in your place .

[whomovedmychocolate]

IWIRIM - well yes it's always possible we will never know the full truth of the building and that's probably a good thing lest we discover it was a medieval swingers club or something!

Also I wouldn't put anything past the builders we had here last year although I did inspect the foundations prior to concrete pouring (more because I was concerned they weren't deep enough) - we had a small extension put on the back. The backfill under the floor is a mixture of stone (big bits) and rubble. Then a foot of concrete - that's under the extension, I assume the rest of the chapel has the same TBH.

The smell isn't in the new bit as well though.

I do think there might be someone in the back wall for some reason, not because there is anything ghostly there, but I've always thought that wall is a bit too carefully put up, with the only straight line in the place. Also the wall looks different IYSWIM. But I don't propose pulling it down to check. I guess a wall is a good place to hide a body though. Yuck! Wouldn't fancy my eternity being holed up inside the outer wall of a drum booth with hairy blokes making a racket next door! No wonder he/she is making a stink!

[whomovedmychocolate]

BTW no they aren't martyrs - much worse... folk music fans!!!!

[Rumpel]

My personal theory is that we only know what a tiny percentage of our brain is capable of and we know for a fact that it has energetic cycles/waves. Energy cannot be destroyed - only transformed. Eveerything (particularly traumatic events) leave an imprint (like a faded photograph) in the energetic atmosphere. Some of us just happen to tune in (our brain waves happen to synchronise at that moment in time) to the photographic imprint of past times. This can be auricular, olfactory or in sight - remember we experience life through all of our senses.

I would suggest you buy a smudging stick and try smudging the house - this will hopefully cleanse it. Or you could try wearing a clothes peg as a nose adornment

[whomovedmychocolate]

A smudging stick??? Could I just give dd a crayon and leave her next to the white walls instead.

I got the neighbour to try and take her dog in this morning but it bolted before we could get it through the door . But I still think it's got a rational explanation!

[expatinscotland]

Dogs won't go in places taht are dodgy.

I'm telling ya.

[elesbells]

whomoved. agree with expat, dogs do sense these things, blimey its spooky.

[indignatio]

Talk to the smell ...

Seriously, go into the room, light a candle and politely ask the presence (smell) to leave.


What do you have to lose ?

Don't say your credibility - You've already blown that by starting this thread.

No-one is watching and cyber world only knows what you tell it.

[expatinscotland]

But maybe it can't leave because it's buried under the house!

[whomovedmychocolate]

No smell as yet today but will ahem, talk to it, should it arise! I'm more and more convinced it's a dead pigeon somewhere.

[Aitch]

in which case if it's a boy pigeon the greeting wotcha cock becomes all the more apposite.

[expatinscotland]

How about seeing what the dog does if you carry it in there?

Nah, that's animal cruelty.

Maybe leave a bar of soap out for the deid person to have a wash?