Episode 9 Haunted Houses Part 2

Hello everyone, my name is Karen Swanston.

My name is Grim Moon.

Welcome to Lights on Still Scared. Each week we delve into ghost stories, hauntings, folklore and paranormal mysteries, sharing the tales, legends, and experience that continue to fascinate us. So whether you're a believer, a sceptic or simply curious, settle in and decide for yourself. Because after what we're about to tell you, you might just leave the light on tonight.

You can hide from what's already here. Something in the dark remembers me. No matter what I do.

It's not so much a house, it's an attic.

Mm-hmm. Yeah.

Barkley Square. In Mayfair, which is a very nice part of the So yes, number 50 Barkley Square. So yes, a grand Jew listed Georgian house, it's meant to be the most haunted house in London. Became famous during the Victorian era due to the reports of supernatural activity, which Victorian era, they were really into their spookies back then, weren't they?

They did like the spookiness.

So uh the haunted legends and most stories are focused behind the attic room, as I said, and uh the stories vary. Um, some claim it's a young woman who committed suicide uh after abuse from a relative. Sounds quite horrible. Even more horrible, a child murdered in the house. Yeah. Or a man was imprisoned in the attic and went insane. Right. Again, there's no historical evidence supporting these stories.

Yeah.

So, yeah, so the most likely source of the haunted reputation is from a Thomas Myers who uh lived in the property from 1859 to 1874. And following a failed engagement, uh, he became a recluse and is known for sleeping during the day and staying awake during the night. Well, that's not usual.

A lot of people do that when I was an art student.

Rarely leaving the house and allowing the property to fall into disrepair.

Right.

Well, that sounds like a bit of a depression there going on. Yeah, yeah. Um, but then I suppose they're saying strange noises, unusual lights, and local gossip contributed to the house. Yeah. Sinister reputation.

No, I can see. Yeah.

So famous ghost stories, apparently a Lord Lord Littleton Island. Littleton, yes.

That's a terrible name. Yeah, I know the guy.

Well, not don't know him, but I know of him. It's all that arsen's milk I've been bathing in. But anyway.

So you've got a you've got um a portrait in the attic.

I have indeed. Uh wee bit wee bit wrinkly.

Uh so he allegedly spent the night in the attic and claimed to encounter a terrifying apparition. Right. And reportedly fired a pistol or shotgun at it.

Yes.

Yes, you do. Yes, indeed.

Yes, he might have left a hole in the wall, apparently. Well, I mean, if it's a ghosty, it would have gone through.

Um and there was a maid, apparently, that entered the attic room and allegedly emerged insane and later died.

Yes.

So they all go a little bit bonkers in this house by the looks of it. Uh but then there's no verified evidence that supports this account.

Right.

I think the most famous one though is the story of the two sailors who spent the night in the house. Um, one allegedly died after seeing a monstrous figure, and the other fled in terror.

Yes, that's that's when I read that as a kid, I kid you not, that terrified. The nameless horror of Berkeley Square.

So, yes, I mean a lot of it they say, and it's all comes down to historian folklore, everything documented effects. Yeah. So the rare book dealers, Mags Brothers, occupied the property for approximately 78 years. The company became closely associated with the building its ghost stories. Um so they left in 2015.

Oh, okay. I didn't realise they'd left. I thought yeah, we've got something new in there.

And they relocated. So now apparently the current ownership has been vacant since February 2020. Got yeah. And number 49 and number 50 are now being part of a combined renovation project. So apparently that what they want it to be is a spa place.

A what? A spa?

A spa, luxury wellness destination. They are proposing spa treatments, hydrotherapy pools, physiotherapy services, massage therapies, yoga and mindfulness spaces. And it's going to be a private members um membership club.

How long will that last?

Lovely. So were you there doing your yoga downward dog in the attic, then? Might be a bit interesting. So yeah.

There's two things I like to say. One, that that's a shame in a way, because I'm uh from the photos I've seen of Mags Brothers, it looked great. It was lovely. I mean, I'm certain, I could be wrong, but I'm certain that might be brutally done up and ruin the beautiful.

Yeah, I mean the fact that they've next door as well, they're gonna be knocking them through and yes, what a shame.

Also, if there is any genuine spookiness there, will it not sort of rustle things up a bit?

It will rustle things up, I'm sure it will. Because that's usually what happens is you know, redevelopment and everything usually upsets the spooks.

Oh yeah. I I read an article about this not not so long ago, and and I wished I could remember the details, but it was online and it was interesting, because this guy had gone right into the old history of it, and um it potentially was haunted. I mean, I know there's you've as you mentioned, a lot of these quite famous stories with sailors and stuff like I come in sailor stories was something that was put around by Ellie O'Donnell or somebody like him at the time, Victorian ghost hunters. It was kind of because there's been no I think people researched the fact, you know, I think they had the name the ship, I can't remember the name of the Neptune or whatever, but I can't remember if that's the right name, but they did research it and found it was no such ship, so all this kind of seems a bit kind of tenuous. But I believe that there was a couple of deaths in the building, and b because of that, the story kind of came up from that. I mean, there would have been, I suppose, deaths anyhow, but the Mags brothers themselves, they on their website there was a couple of pretty interesting stories, so they did, I think, have a few experiences themselves.

That doesn't surprise me at all.

It's got the age, it is huge. There has to have been people passed in it, the servants probably they ain't have a very good time, among many other things. Um so yeah, I don't know. Yeah.

And if those stories about all the suicides that are in this particular attic uh are true, then that would contribute towards, I suppose, yeah, the haunting us as well.

Absolutely. Uh I'm gonna talk about somewhere completely different. I'm gonna talk about Scale House in Orkney, so we're getting f very far up north there. We're going a bit far north Griffiths. Indeed. Now I've not been to Orkney in my life. I I'll be honest, I know a lot of people have and they recommend it, and maybe one day I will. I mean, it looks like a pretty amazing place, but I've not been. But this building called Scale House, which you can see online, it's rather nice. It's a 17th century building, but it's next to Scara Bray, and I think a lot of people go there and they visit, and I think you can there's a obviously a restaurant, what have you, you can stay there as far as I'm aware. It's uh it's like um I suppose a house you could visit and have a look around. It's a historic house if that's the right word to use. So Scarabray is the main draw, I guess, for it. Um it's quite interesting when you see the aerial views of it. You've got this Neolithic site right next to you know this 17th century building. But there's a lot of stories there uh from it, and I and I did speak to several guides recently, and I was passed on a few wee nuggets, which is rather nice. Always love it when people tell you stories, but nice, isn't it? Accommodating. So, probably one of the most interesting ones recently was a new worker there, a guide, and he was wondering about the building, and apparently at one point there's a rather long corridor, which uh, you know, is is obviously of a certain age, and he was walking around, and there was a woman coming towards him wearing a long black dress with heads down, and he passed by and he said hello because he thought she was like, you know, there for a reenactment, and then went downstairs and commented, Who was that person in the black dress? They were they were slightly rude for not and which woman? The one for the reenactment, oh there's no reenactment going on. So this was like a random but but interestingly, completely solid, you know, and and brushed by literally an inch from them. So that was quite an interesting one. Um there's another one which is quite interesting. This is a woman called Tina, uh huh. Told me this story. So they're a gardener employed there. Now in winter time, obviously obviously there's less garnering being done. So basically the garner's job is now to go in the house and do all the repairs. Right. And uh there's also things like leaks and such in these big houses. So anyway, he's got to walk about and check all these things. So he goes up and he checks out these different rooms, and he went to what's called a long room, which I believe is like one of the main halls there where you know we've been the masters hang out, as it were. And there's a little ante-room off it, um, and there's a set of stairs. So he went up the stairs and at least another little random room, which is empty, another look around, all is good, and he goes back down. And as he's walking down, he hears uh behind him an ominous creaking sound, like that. So he goes back up, just thinking the door swung open, but it's not. So that's very peculiar. So he goes back, tets the latch, it's one of those outside latches, click, click, nothing there, goes back, and the ominous creak goes again like that. So again he goes back up.

Like the sound effects.

Yes, he does. Yeah, do you like that? Can do all sorts really. So he goes back up, he folds a bit of newspaper up, shoves it under the door, and creaks again. And um doesn't go back up this time and runs because there's no way it should have opened. But it hadn't opened, it was just like it was like I was like a phantom door, a ghost door. A ghost door. But the other one was not doing very much. But my favourite, I have to say, was that recently there was a young woman who'd gone there with her child in a buggy and was having a look around the house. Um, seemed really interested in you know history, because we were chatting to the guides and they were what a lovely person, chat chat, chat. And this woman then went into the dining room, which was just off the main entrance, and then heard this great but horrific screaming. I'm not gonna do that by the way, thankfully.

Well, we did it. Yeah, go for it.

Urg. So the woman comes running out terrified, absolutely hysterical. And so she went in there and she was taking a photograph, and this girl appeared in the lens, ran right up to her and put her face against her, which was really terrifying, and she pulled away and there was nothing there.

Oh, that is creepy.

Yes, so she's still freaking out by this point. So they get her sitting down, she's quite hysterical, and they ask her about uh what what she looked like, and she said it was her. So they point this picture of a young girl in the room who coincidentally was the previous owner, Elizabeth Scarth, who'd actually just passed away. Really? Yeah, which is a really cool story. Yeah, she was very upset about that. I will be up. So so the young ghost. Yeah, I know, because that was pretty wild. So that that's um Scale House. Interesting. Interesting. So yeah, they've got like multiple spirits there. There are others, there was a few others that they did mention, but that's the ones I thought I'd share with you today. Because uh certainly the ghost one, the girl on the camera. I thought I don't like sooner than that.

No, I don't think I would like that.

I mean, she didn't want to photograph taking it.

Oh that would explain it. I just say that our our our chance to doing a scream there sounded more like a couple of pirates. Well that could be for a future we could save that for later. Yeah. Right. We're going to granny's house now.

Who's granny?

My granny. Oh, your granny. My granny. We're going off.

I was intrigued, but I thought it was granny's house. This is some famous building they should know about. We're very good.

Did you go like to go to your granny's?

I did like to go to my granny's. Thank God it was no ghosts. It was cake and tea, if I remember.

Yeah, well, there's cake and tea at my granny's, but I didn't like going there.

All right. No problems.

Yeah, yeah. So my granny lived in an old Victorian house. She lived in Sutton.

Sutton.

Sutton. So my nice Midserry accent would say Sutton. Does that have anything to do with Sutton? Coalfield or that's completely a different piece. But then my South London accent will also come in and say Sutton. So it depends on who I'm talking to. I'm going to Sutton or Sutton. So we're going to Sutton.

Okay. Arsenal's okay.

So Sutton is like it used to be Surrey or Class to Surrey, but now I think it's more like South London, it's considered to be. And it's under Greater London there as well.

Okay.

So yeah, so she lived in this little Victorian house. It was built in 1892, if I recall. And it had, you know, that because I it had the the year on the wall, and it had the name. I think I was trying to debate this with my cousin. It's either Ringfield or Ringville Villa. That could be important. Anyway, where Granny's was, I hated that house. I really like that house. The hallway, no matter what, if it's a boiling hot day, it would be freezing cold. You know, where the breath would be like that. Um, I hated the hallway, I hated the landing, I hated the stairs, I hated the back room. I did not venture upstairs at all unless I really, really had to. The only time I would willingly go upstairs was to admire a rather fetching poster of Spandale Ballet that my cousin had on her hall.

Got you. They wore line cloths. Spandel balls. Sorry. Let me get my words out. Spandale ballet wearing line cloths. They wore line cloths. Now to a young. Sounds like gold to me.

You had to say it.

That's all I can think of. I was under under duress here.

So yes, so you you know, um an impressionable teenager, yeah. We used to just stand and stare at that poster. Not that I like particularly Spandale Belly, but yeah, we just stood there. But I did actually see if I can now I'm going off topic, but I did actually see if I can track down that poster online. Oh right, yeah. I did manage to find it. And apparently, if you had the original poster, because it was in Smash Hits. Oh, Smash Hits.

I do remember Smash Hits.

I mean, it's the posters that had two dogs. I think Thompson twins were on the other side.

Well, I was a little bit older, so I didn't I didn't quite do the, I was kind of I was like coming up, I didn't do the Smash Hits on the Meldy Maker for me.

But I get a little bit so so yeah, apparently it's worth £500 if you had the original one.

What the magazine?

No, the the poster. Just the poster. God. Yeah.

Go keep an eyes out for that.

Apparently the loincloth, if you find one of them, a few more extra journals on the end.

Cloth gate.

Yeah, so anyway, so I rarely went upstairs unless I really really had to and uh admire that poster. So um, yeah, so um the house uh where am I now?

See, I've got a lot of a spando valley, man.

So yeah, so I checked the records. Now, um no, I'm I'm jumping ahead of myself because I'm all of awful now, middle-aged woman. So let's get on to the story first and then I'll go back to um who occupied it first because that's all connected, I think. Yes, that's it. So we can get my words out now. I'm calming down. It's all good.

Normal service has been resumed.

So anyway, so according to my cousin and my aunt, because I've spoken to them separately on this, because we I used we just say I didn't like the house and all that. And what they used to say was if they were in the lounge, they will hear a creaking up above, which was my grandmother's bedroom. Right. The floorboards will creak, right, and then they'll hear noise uh like footsteps along the landing. Okay, and then they will see like a a shadow figure come down the stairs. Yeah, several times apparently this shaggle figure. So sometimes he wore a top hat and a coat, right? Or the other time he wear a bowler hat. Okay, you know, come down the stairs and he'll turn right and go into that back room, which which I didn't like. So um, and what I felt also was interested, which the name might say why, the neighbor, which we used to call Auntie Rose, which I vaguely remember Auntie Rose, but yeah, said she used to see him emerge through her wall.

Oh, Crones, okay, right into her house incredible.

What we were debating was as it says villa, yeah, was it one house at one point? Yes, and that's where he came through.

Very confusing.

So anyway, done a little bit of delving, and the first occupant of the house was a Mr. Arthur Bennett and his wife Elsie. And they had the house in 1893, so that's the year after it was built. Okay, and he was an insurance clerk.

Okay.

So he was middle class. Yeah. So apparently in in that time period in that class, because he was insurance clerk, he wore a war bowl hat. And if he was going to the theatre, he would wore a top hat and a little key. And the chances are he probably would have gone off to London, because London Sutton Sutton sea uh Saturn then, it was Saturn. Um train station was built in 1874, so he probably worked in London, socialized in London, hence why he had a cape and the old roller. So um and I couldn't find anyone else up until 1960, which is when my granddad brought it.

Okay. But the clothing, the description would be a guy from that era.

Yeah, yeah. So um, I mean, I couldn't find anyone else, but then I suppose, but then the house would have been kept in the family. True. So that's probably why. And then my aunt wipes up. My dad used to wear a bowler hat. I wonder if it's him. Really? Possibility. Yeah, I suppose. It might be. Hopper might be him.

Maybe or it could be the same entity. Yeah.

Even I suppose people did wear top hats even into the early 1900s, didn't they? I mean, it wasn't just Victorian, but Yeah.

So I didn't I mean it it goes to all the places where I didn't like in the house. Um, I didn't like the back room, and apparently my great aunt died in that room, and my granddad died in the other room as well, in the main room as well. So, yeah, so that's an interesting little one. Can I tell you about Uncle Jack now?

Oh yeah, please do, yes, please do.

My Uncle Jack. Now I vaguely remember Uncle Jack. My dad was very particular as to who we actually visited, I think. Because all the family, I'm thinking, who's them? I don't know them. Yes. My cousin told me this story. So my Uncle Jack was my grand's cousin.

Right.

Um, but they got on quite well, and when his wife passed away, he used to go around there for tea. He was quite partial to her fairy cakes, and uh and he used to do a special knock on the door.

Did he?

He did. He done three knocks on the door. Um, every time, so she knew it was him.

Right, yeah. That makes sense.

Apparently he was he was a bit of a joker, and he used to say to her, When I die, I'm gonna haunt you.

Nice. He was a man of his word, boy.

And the day he died, my grand apparently quoted, Oh, it's such a shame he's not gonna visit again.

Really? So he wasn't accusing him of being selfish, but was he?

Well, anyway, so apparently the still my cousin told me was there she was in the house on her own. Um and she was up in the bedroom. Now I don't know what she was doing. Perhaps it's not best we know, considering she was probably staring at the poster of respect, but mesmerized. I'm gonna get in so much trouble. Um Anyway, whatever she was doing, she was laying on her bed and all of a sudden she heard I'm pausing considering where we are, we might hear it. She probably words to that effect. Oh golly gosh, Martin Kemp, what was that?

Yeah.

She was rather quite shocked as to what it was. And when my gran and my aunt come in, she said, Oh yeah, I heard this. She said, you know, they said, Oh, yeah, we hear that all the time. Really? Yeah. She said, Yeah, she said no. And she said, Why didn't you tell me? She said, Well, we didn't want to frighten you. So, yeah, so that that was Granny's house. So it would appear that a few years after my grand died, it did change hands a couple of times. It could have been the house market and stuff like that.

Isn't that interesting? I love the personal stories like that because it's like everybody always thinks, Well, of course, it's got to be that big old castle. And it's like, how many people have actually had experience that's been a little bit more?

So it'd be interesting, uh and I won't know now, but uh, it'd be interesting to we'd see whether the top hat man comes down the stairs still or good God.

Do you wonder, do you think maybe the the two buildings well replaced an older building, or do you think it would have just been that building in two halves?

Well, it there's a I suppose the time period would suggest that that guy was from then from when it first built. The fact that he goes through walls is interesting because that would indicate perhaps it was one house, but all the houses were all split into two. Yeah. So it could be that at one point they were all the houses in that row.

Yeah.

Uh were one and they've been now put into two.

Yeah.

Um, yeah, strange. Or he just fancied going to see Auntie Rose.

Yeah, yeah. I know it's weird because I think a lot of people get freaked out by the idea of seeing a spirit. But I suppose with somebody you, you know, you liked or knew you, it's probably less. Well, it still might be frightening, wasn't it? I think some people don't like the idea of it at all. I mean I quite like I quite like that. You know, I think some of the items they're written on the ground, I'll be admitted as a regular.

I suppose if if you know the person, then that could be a comfort, couldn't it?

Yeah, it could be. Um but but sometimes depending on. Yeah, really.

Or a coach or a monk.

Indeed, oh pesky monks, gosh, I was this woman I knew who she used to see apparently see a monk in her bedroom.

Oh no.

Yeah, but it was like in fact it was a few people in the same street, saw the same thing, but the area was actually um owned by our bro, the Abbey, so there was monks there all the time, but they just randomly popped up in people's houses. You know, council houses again, so it just randomly pop up. And people were like like terri uh terrified, you know, because it's so random and unexpected.

Yeah.

And of course a lot of parents were like, Well, it's just a dream. It's just a dream, you know, and kids are like traumatized for life. I've had so many comments from things on Facebook, for example, people go, Oh, yeah, I remember that as a kid and rule book. Parents would just sort of say, you know, get a grip, child, you know, kind of blame me, you know. You wouldn't forget it, would you?

No. No.

What can you do?

I know from it as parents. Yeah. There you go. Traumatised ten-year-old.

Well, I'm gonna talk about a place called Ardahe Lodge, which is near Fort Augustus. Uh it's demolished, this building, by the way. But in the early 50s, very famous story. Uh in fact, a newspaper article that said the housekeeper frozen horror at the site of the crawling ghost.

Oh.

Yeah. So so Ardache was a remote 18th-century hunting lodge in the Scottish Highlands, and would have remained anonymous but for all these creepy events that happened. So the doctor, and he was just a graduate called Dr. Peter McEwen, and his wife and young family lived there. I think they must have had a bit of money. They seem to be quite well-to-do. And I haven't seen them interviewed, so they're pretty well-to-do, I think. And uh they wanted to get uh some staffing, so they got a couple come up from London, and I'm sure I'll get the guy remembering the guy's name. Oh yeah, uh William and Frances MacDonald. So they arrived from London. Now it was a heck of a long journey, so by the time they got there, the you know, they were obviously worn out, and people suggest because the woman was worn out, she was so fragile and hadn't rested properly. But anyway, they they sat in the chat and they got good references from them, and so that was all very good. But then, very soon after they'd gone to bed, the McCoeans were woken up by the the the the new arrivals chapping on the bedroom door, sort of like slightly anxious, saying, We're hearing these knocking sounds, we're hearing those weird sounds, and and so that they were like, Oh, I'll come with you and have a look. So they all went through and had a look, and uh search revealed nothing, so they retired for the night. Around 20 minutes later, the McDonald's were then back at the door of the McEwan's insisting there'd been further noises, you know. Baby's exhausted by this point, and um so they said, Look, we'll have a different room. So they moved them to a different room, and that was all good and put fresh linen in and all that kind of stuff. And then the woman said that she was in the room. Quote, she was in the room. Right. So they were all kind of who's she, you know, kind of thing. And she was pointing, then asking if everybody could see her. So the McEwens were like, uh, no. But this woman's getting more and more sterile that there's a woman in the room. So they all downstairs, cups of tea, whiskeys, chats, a rational fear now creeping in, and she's describing seeing an apparition of a woman with long straggly hair wearing a hat with a shawl upon her shoulders, and she stared that the woman appeared to be shielding her face with one hand and beckoning with the other. So really didn't know what to suggest, so they decided then to move the couple into the room next to theirs. So they all agreed, they all settled down again. So you know, this is the middle of the night by this point.

Yeah.

And um again there was another commotion, and the woman who'd come from London, uh, Frances, was now claiming that she'd seen an early uh uh an elderly woman crawling across the floor towards her. Oh like crawling on her hands and knees with a candle ahead of her like that, and um pointing at space, and the homeowners were like freaking out, obviously, but they couldn't see anything. So um this was this was what they did. So they were put into the parents' cottage to sleep for the rest of the night. So Pierre McCune was a member of the Psychical Society, made inquiries and spoke to a neighbour nearby who had known the previous owners, and they had been they'd been an elderly couple, and the latterly the woman had become uh had suffered from dementia and had become partially paralyzed, and her husband had tried to help her, but she would get up in the middle of the night and crawl about the house, convinced there was treasure under the floorboards, like that, the candles. So it was quite creepy. Anyway, the other thing was so this woman had died about 1950. So anyway, they'd sort of have an investigation, so they got people along to investigate, and um the the people from Psychological Society were literally watching over Frances as she was lying in her bed, but she kept on these vivid dreams and was shouting out things, and she would shout out things like, you know, the rose tree neglected, it's coming, you know, just random words like that. And uh when they asked the gardener about a rose tree, he said, Yeah, there was a rose tree there, uh, and it had been the previous owner's favourite tree, but it had been chopped down, which had obviously upset her. So there's always been this debate: was Frances actually a medium psychic? Was she just making things up or delusional? But yeah, they went back home. They were there literally two or three days and off they went back to London because of this woman uh because she couldn't sell, she was hysterical, she was terrifying everyone else. So Peter, who's the McCun's the late the owner, relocates the ballater, and the house fell into disrepair, it was demolished in 968, and that was it. But in the area, the garden is still there, so it's a garden essentially with no house. Yeah, there a ghost, a spirit of an elderly woman, has been seen by locals wearing hat picking flowers for the basket. So interesting story was so you know, was such a big thing that on the 28th of January 1977, the story of the crawling ghost was immortalised by the BBC in a paranormal docudrama series entitled Leap in the Dark, which is very good by the way, and it starred Neil McCarthy and Jacqueline Pierce. Jacqueline Pierce, both both great genre actors from sort of spooky things. He was in The Reptile. Peter McCarthy's been in tons of things, clash the titans, really good actors. I really enjoyed it. I thought it was good. It's slow, it's 1970s, slowburn, spooky. I thought the acting was good, it's atmospheric. But what's interesting is they interspersed with the actual acting bit, they interviewed the original Garner, original locals, the nanny, I believe, was interviewed, and the doctor who owned it, and they all gave very credible accounts of this thing. So potentially it was a genuine haunting, but they couldn't say it, only she could, because I guess she must have been psychic.

Yeah.

So that was that. Dacky Lodge.

Lovely.

I know. Well what's the one? It's creepy, though. It's on YouTube.

Yeah, I'll have to have a look at that.

That's a grand old, good old little docudramer, that is.

Right. So we're we're back in London now.

Are we now?

No, we're a little bit further from San. Uh we are off to Cock Lane.

Ah, no, yes, I that's a very very infamous Portuguese case or something, is it? Ghosty stuff.

Ghosty stuff, yes. Um it's 90 it's not 1972, it's 1762. Yes, uh so yeah, so we're in London, 1762, and it's one of the most famous ghost stories in British history. Yeah, allegedly, yeah. So it involves a dead woman of supposedly returning from the grave, accusing her former lover of murder. And the ghosts become known. Now I must admit the ten-year-old of me chuckled away. I'm chuckling no, don't scratch him fanny of cockle. Some could say get queen with that, but you get anyway. Uh well stop, behave.

Okay.

When I saw that I was like, Oh, blindly, don't, please don't. That story, as I was known as okay.

Um anyway.

Professionals and retards.

Oh, we're back, we're back with the room. So who was Fanny?

I don't want to know.

Okay, so she was Ross's lions. Uh she was the sister of William Kent's deceased wife. Um and after his wife died, Kent and Fanny became a couple and they lived together as husband and wife. Oh, yeah, excuse me. Oh, yes. Uh and they couldn't legally marry because in English church law it was forbidden for marriage to a deceased wife's sister.

Really? That you would use us.

Yeah, that would be changed 20th century, actually. Oh yeah, yeah. Well um so their relationship was considered scandalous by some people, and some sources suggested that she was actually pregnant when she died, although historians are not certain. Okay. So um so they lived in lodgings on Cock Lane. Compose yourself. I mean I mean Yeah, she contracted small pops in 1760 and died after really all this, which is not a nice way to go. I think that's I think that's an illness that's more or less been eradicated in this country, anyway. Um, so doctors considered the death a natural death, so there was no investigation, no accusation of poisoning, and no ghost stories at that stage. So um the future murder accusation only appeared two years after her death. At the time she died, no one publicly claimed that she'd been poisoned.

So was that published in a was that a story that went round, or was that actually published in the papers?

This is what's what's the story. Right. So all of a sudden, two years later, there's suddenly a ghost appears accusing him of murder.

Right.

And apparently it was Richard Parsons' daughter that accused him of murder.

Oh, gotcha.

Who said that it was the wife that appeared to her, yeah. Um, said he murdered me and by poisoning me and all that. So um she was the daughter of Richard Parsons, who was the parish clerk and the former landlord of the house where uh Fanny lived and died. Um and they became in a dispute, him and William, uh, probably over money, um, but there was a bit of blab blood going on there. So strange noises started to begin early 1762, reports of scratching sounds, hence the word. Yeah, I'm not gonna say it because a knocking noise heard around the house, and the activity seemed to centre around Elizabeth, um, who was also known as Little Parsons, apparently.

Little Parsons.

Little Parsons, yes. So the ghosts apparently would communicate with people, visitors were asked questions, the ghosts would answer through knots and scratches. That's interesting. Oh, one of the earliest famous examples of spirit communication through Cope Knox. Yeah. I suppose that's where they all got it from. So obviously Victorians used that in seances yesterday. And the ghost eventified herself as Fanny and claims that William Kent poisoned her with arsenic.

Okay.

So one of the stories was she was going to appear at her coffin on the anniversary of her death.

Yeah.

Um, so investigators and spectators went along to the vaults of St. George's Church in Clockwell and waiting for the supernatural sign. Did she appear?

No.

No.

Well, worth a try, though.

It's worth a try. So uh rumours continued. So on the 25th of February, 1762, Kent and several witnesses went to the church vaults and had the coffin open to prove uh that Fanny Body was still in there. It is a bit. So yeah, so they discover the coffin being unscrewed and the decomposed remains being viewed by those present. So, you know, she was decomposing, she wasn't. She wasn't.

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

So yeah, so she wasn't tampered with. She there was no evidence of being poisoned or no evidence of being murdered. So yeah. So they seem to think that it was all a hoax and the evidence increase points to Elizabeth, who said that yeah, investigators conclude that noise was being produced naturally.

Do you think they were trying to get rid of uh trying to get their hands on um property or something?

Probably what it was. Um so I mean they believed that she was not acting alone, so um the blame then mostly fell on her fell on her father, and he was later imprisoned for his role in the fraud. Really? So they're saying that it was fraud, so not exactly a ghost story as such, but a bit of a scandal.

Yeah. But I mean, um to do but I'm assuming the house is now gone. I'm assuming. I don't really I don't know. I don't know, actually.

I've never really I didn't look into that actually.

I wonder if it would I wonder if it would be um well, I don't know, I wonder if it was something there. Who knows?

So I mean that the they're saying, you know, if if it was true, then would that mean that um Elizabeth was a medium?

Mm-hmm.

That she could communicate with the dead. I mean there's no nothing to say that she actually carried on talking to other spirits or anything.

Well, it's like the template for all the spooky stories of its elk that's followed. So, you know, um I suppose if it is a fake, then somebody's gone a bit of effort to create something that would th there was no presidents before it. So I don't know.

So I mean if it's all all a fake, then uh it's probably because he wanted to get back at the Fanny's husband.

Yeah, yeah.

Um it's all money and everything. So interesting story. Yeah.

Oh yeah.

And yes, the name is quite amusing.

It was it was an amusing name, and I mean I'm ashamed of myself for even laughing.

I don't drink a glass of water. I promised myself I wasn't going to.

I feel miserably. Yeah, let's make a more any more uh ghosters any names roughly in that neck of the woods, as it were, we should avoid indeed.

I really do think that we should avoid that.

Yeah, I've got a few here. I'm gonna no, I'm not, thank God.

I'm just glad I didn't wear um unwaterproof mascara.

Yeah, so I've got a few stories. I've got a couple here. Well, a couple, excuse me. A couple I talk about. I've got one from a place called Duff House. You're being a Duff House. So Mike Duff. North of Scotland.

No, no.

So Duff's House is a really nice Georgian, but it's a very beautiful building. It's got like a double, I don't know, it's an architectural term for it, but I'm going to describe as a double staircase to the front. It's very grand and sweeping, it's very, very uh beautiful. It's owned by the Duff family, obviously. And uh it's an eastern coast of Scotland, but it's had lots of different uses. Uh I mean it was obviously a family home for years, decades in fact. It has an ice house out in the grounds, which are rather nice. It had a lot of servants there. It was also used uh for prisoners of war in World War II, and um it was actually all ruined as well, like literally not that long ago in the grand scale of events, what was was semi-derelict because nobody put any money into it, and um so I think I'm gonna say National Trust. See that well, see that in Historic Scotland, but it is it's been done up, it's it's really beautiful, it's big, uh, it's got some rather nice paintings and furniture. I was invited up there a few years ago to work. Quite lucky. I was doing a project. I was looking at um the Garner's Diaries Um because the Garner apparently had an affair with one of the owners and uh one of the owner's daughters, and which was scandalous, and been you know told to leave the area rather quickly afterwards. But it's got some spooky stories. Um so basically, um these are they so staff have claimed to have heard children crying, there is a ghost of a boy apparently being seen on the back staircase, there is portergeist activity outside. You have things like you know, you've got like um a golf course nearby, so a guy's sitting in his car, has the boot of his car opened, slammed shut, runs out, nothing there, disappears rather quickly. You have a witness who I spoke to uh who asked me not to mention her name, which is fair enough, but she said when she was 15, herself and friends went to the local disco and met two boys. Oh I know, and they were returning from Disco through the woods at Duff House, and they saw the figure of a woman who she who they describe as having smoky edges, sort of like rippling, I guess, and it was like a trail coming out from behind her dress just going through the woods. So the two this the two boys actually screamed and ran off and left the two girls, which I think was very chivalrous. Um but yeah, walking down the gravel path, which was uh interesting. So you've got a green lady type figure as well. Probably my favourite story is from this lady called Pauline who got in touch with me chatting about stuff, and she said that her it would concern her auntie. So this is going back a few years, this is going back to when it was such a semi derelict. And what you used to do, the kids used to break in and go up to the roof. So I hang out, and you know, it was very dangerous, but it's got a flat roof, I believe. You can walk about so the kids are there mucking about, and they went down and One of the lower floors, and this woman appears. This woman, like sort of like semi-translucent ghost woman, and came towards her auntie, and her auntie walked back in terror and put her foot through the floorboard and went crunch and nearly broke her ankle. So absolutely turning, very badly twisted ankle. Once she sort of basically crawl away, and the woman vanished. So that's Duff House. Nice place. I mean, worth a we look. Um they've had investigations there. Ghosts of soldiers have also been seen because during the Second War, it was j I think it was German prisoners of war there. And it was actually ironically bombed. So basically their own troops strafed the buildings. Quite a few people passed away, I believe. So anyway, it's it's worth a look. It's one of these places they get overlooked because you know they don't they don't really can make a big deal of the ghosty stuff, but there's they have had a few of the odd occasion there and they do Halloween things there. I think it's really cool. Worth a wee look, I think.

Yeah, nice. Yes. So where are we going now?

Well, I've got more if you want me to. I've got a couple here I could delve into. I've got a nice little a nice little one from Aden Country Park, which is rather nice.

I've got a I've got I've got a little one here.

Ooh, what have you got?

We're off to Cambridge.

Okay, Cambridge it is.

Cambridge it is, yes.

Yes.

Well, going to a little place called Canbourne. Okay. Which is about eight miles west of Cambridge. I don't know that at all. No, it's a relatively new little town. It's about 20 years old, I would say, and it's where we used to live before we moved back up to Scotland. Very good. So we rented this house. It was a nice house, so it wasn't very old, but ten years old, something like that. It was a nice four-bedroom house, it had a carport, it had a garage. Now the garage I did not like. I refused to put that car in the garage. I just left it in the carport. And if I had to go into the garage, used to run in the car, especially the back. Never like that. No. So yeah. So anyway, one evening we're we're sitting watching Telly, and it's like a summer's evening, and our lounge was at the back. Um, and we had like French windows, big slidey door things at the at the back there. Um, so it's a nice view of the garden, and we're watching Telly, and suddenly I've seen the Harbigo looking to see. You've seen something out there. What was he looking at? And just as I looked, I saw this man at the back of the garden walking. He had I could describe it, he had a little flat cap on, he had like a tweet jacket on, welly boots, he had those big, what they mutton chops.

Yeah.

And he walked across the back of the garden and into the garage and disappeared into the garage.

Slimy.

And I thought, what the fuck? Excuse my language.

And did you think it was a real guy, though, to begin with, or did you just realize him?

I knew well, as soon as I saw him disappear into the garage.

I think he was going through the door. No, literally disappear into the garage. Okay, yeah.

But I mean I mean he was solid. Solid to me. It's not interesting. And he um said to me, Did you see that? What did you see? I saw an orb. I saw a man.

Oh, Craiggy. So he saw the orb.

So he saw an orb.

Oh, I wish you'd seen the man. Yeah, that would be interesting.

So I thought part of me thought, well, at least I know why I don't like the garage now. And I thought, well, I make inquiries, well, I'll do a little bit of research as to what it was, that area, and it was farmland. The whole of that area was a farm at one point where they've built Canborn on. And that particular area where the house was apparently was where the stables were.

Oh, okay.

So I suppose he was an old farmer looking to do his stables. But I just thought that would explain why. And I was a bit curious the other day. I I looked it up on Google. You know the Google map things, you can actually zoom in. You can zoom in and they've actually turned the garage into like a little annex.

Really?

With a creepy farmer.

Dolly sound of that very much.

No.

That's wild, isn't it? That always makes you worried. You know, what happens in the future? Does the ghost disappear or is it so hang out and then turn the place into something? Like I don't find I really do not fancy that spa treatment weekend at Berkeley Square. I think that's just like a least relaxing place ever, isn't it? It would, wouldn't it? Yeah. It would. But would you I'd be interested to see what happens there, actually. I really would. Um we're going to Dundee now.

Oh, we'll have to Dundee.

So Dundee, um, this is what I describe as the creepy student story. Oh, okay. For want of a better word. But um, it takes place it's quite an old story. It was 1974. It was an Arcadian called Charlie Brown who was a student nurse, and she shared a flat with a pal called Gil Bruce. They were friends, they became flatmates, and they took up residence in a tenement in Morgan Street. Now I have no idea if Morgan Street is as was, I really do not know because I don't know do not know Dundee particularly well, but it would be interesting to see because it's a pretty horrible story. But um, so they'd been in the flat for a year, and you know, this is nothing had happened, which is always disconcerting. So, you know, rather than it's happening at the beginning and getting worse, it just nothing happened. But then a year later, out of the blue, these kind of weird events started to happen, and it all began one morning when Gail was unable to sleep. Uh, she became aware of someone walking around in the bathroom next door, and after some time, you know, was curious, and uh she went to have a look to see if it was empty there, was nothing, and the front door was locked, so nobody'd gotten in, so she was a bit puzzled, and then she climbed back into bed, and then noticed what was described as a figure of an elderly woman leaning over her flatmate who was still sleeping in the other side of the room, uh, a figure that she described as oozing a feeling of evil. Oh. I know. So she noted that the woman appeared to be whispering something in her flatmate's ear, so she could not make out the words. So moments later the figure then vanished. The flatmate never woke up at that point. So later that day, on returning from work, she then spoke to her flatmate, who was quite shocked to hear the news, because she'd been completely unaware of it. So sometime later a second incident occurred, again while Shirley was in bed, and in this instance she became aware of something, though it was the sound of footsteps which appeared to be coming from the kitchen. So she assumed it was her friend, so she then tapped on the wall to get her attention, but heard nothing back. So she looked, that's a bit strange. So then, without warning, she heard what was described as a terrifying volley of battering and clawing sounds at the wall like properly, like somebody tried to break through the plaster. She later described it as being so frantic she feared that she would whoever it was would come through the wall. Her frightened flatmate, who'd been in another part of the flat, then appeared from a dis different part, quickly joined her in bed, where they both cowered until the noise abated. So the girls were now at their wits' end, they grabbed a few belongings and quickly left the flat. It was only on the way out they realised that they'd left the keys, and so momentarily returning, they switched on the living room light, and a big blue flash went like that in the air. Um it was later noted that the Dundee Royal Lunatic Asylum once stood on that spot. Oh so they're tempting to think, or so they say, that perhaps it was them that was you know somebody cloned in the street. Yeah, I don't know. But um anyway, there is a really interesting book uh by a guy called Jeff Holder, called Portergeist over Scotland, and he covered a very interesting piece of historical evidence connected to the area that on the 30th of January 1933, three elderly sisters were noted as being found dead at the house on Morgan Street. Emily, Martha and Jesse Miller, all victims of gas poisoning, were found in bed in a chair and one in front of the stove, respectively. And could this terrible accident have been the catalyst for the phenomena? Anyway, we do not know if the phenomena's continued after that. It did not, as far as we know, extent of the tenants who'd moved on, but whatever it was did appear to be angry and possibly malicious and was pumbling the wall, pummeling the wall.

Yeah.

Creepy.

Yeah.

Not kind of thing you want to have when you're a student.

Well, no.

Or anytime for that.

No.

I know.

Right. Should we go off to Wales now?

Wells, okay.

We're going off to Wales. So Newton House. Yeah, this um near my Welsh ancestors will be turning in their grave. Langelio.

Who was that?

I have no idea. Do apologize if anyone's Welsh. Anyway, so this house, it was um the estate was been occupied for over 2,000 years, uh, with evidence of Neolithical, Iron Age, Roman and medieval settlements. So it's got quite a bit of um history going on there. Um this house was built in 1660 by William Rice, whose family claimed to descend from the Welsh ruler Lord Rice, situated near Dinefur Castle. Oh god. Um, a 12th century stronghold of Lord Rice. I really must polish up on my Welsh, I think. Um surrounded Parkland was redesigned in the 18th century by the famous landscape architect Lancelot Capability Brown.

Oh, yeah, I've heard of him.

I've heard of him. Extensively remodeled during the Victoria era of 1855, given its current gothic revival appearance. I think it's quite a nice looking place as well. And it fell into decline in during the 20th century due to financial difficulties, and then was brought by and restored by the National Trust in the 1990s, and now it's known as one of Well Smith's known houses and attractions. So you can go and have a wander around Newton House as you should. And uh the reported ghost is there is Walter the Butler, which is very nice.

The butler?

The butler. The butler did it.

What the butler saw.

Well, he saw the butler. So reports include smell of tobacco and pipe smoke in empty rooms. Would that mean you'd be smoking in duty?

Maybe. Maybe.

Unexplained footsteps and voices, lights switching on and off, and the feeling of being watched in the form of servants' areas. Generally regarded as a friendly and harmless ghost. So that's okay. And then we have a white lady, frequently reported, um, seen walking through corridors and storeways, and often associated with a tragic romance and loss. So she seems a bit sad. And then there's Lady Eleanor Cavendish, local legend claims that she was murdered after rejecting a suitor. That's a bit rough. God dear. Reported phenomenon includes sudden cold spots, feeling of choking and presence around the neck, unease around the main staircase. So would that indicate that perhaps she was strangled?

Yeah.

Oh, and then we've got haunted children. Don't like haunted children. Reports of a ghostly girl moving through rooms. Suddenly witness witnesses describe the figure disappearing suddenly. So, and apparently it was investigated by paranormal researchers since 1980. Okay. And featured in the television ghost hunting programmes, including Most Haunted. Investigators and visitors have reported unusual experiences helping to build the house's haunted reputation. Mmm. So it's a bit of a bit going on there. Not many spookies by the sounds of it, considering it's history.

Yeah.

So yeah, so I mean those who poo-poo the ghosties say it's possible explanation, it's all building acoustics, drafts, temperatures, fluctuation, uh, lighting effects and shadows, suggestion, and expectation influenced by the house reputation. So yeah, it goes either way. Not a big big lot there, but water is apparently the most famous one there.

So of all the the stories you've mentioned today, is there any one of those locations you'd like to visit, as it were, to do an investigation?

I quite like to see Newton House, I must admit.

Because that's kind of a bit of an unknown quantity, maybe. Yeah. So I always find that quite interesting. I mean, there's I suppose there's an expectation that comes with something that's always in the papers or been mentioned so many times. So that might be potentially less disappointing in a sense because you're gonna go there fresh.

Yeah. East Drive. Not sure. Not sure if I want to go to East Drive. I mean, uh it a lot of people now in the paranormal feel go off to East Drive, don't they? So there's a lot of investigations going on. Yeah, so it'd be nice to go somewhere where that's not so much documented.

I must admit, I would. There's one place out of those I would for me, and I know it's it's been uh it's been everywhere for since forever, but I would like to go I would have liked seen Berkeley Square. Just a curiosity. I even as the bookshop, just as a bookshop, you know, like old books, it would look great. But well, you can always everything changes, doesn't it?

You can't these places just you can always go and book yourself in for a spa when it happens.

Shortest visit ever. It won't be cheap either, I'm sure.

No, I'm sure it's not.

Yeah. Well, I've got a story. Um, again, it's from my home city, but this is less like a tower, this is like a Victorian villa, a place called King's Gate. I live in a uh an area near King's Gate, and it's it's a nice street. So basically, you've got at the bottom end like a big row of tall houses, like they're three stories high. They're really really nice, they're flats, a lot of them now, but um, you know, they're pretty grand. Like the house numbers, you know, one of these, it's it's never been mentioned basically, but you know, it we know it's in that block. And it was actually written about I never uncovered this at all, nothing to do with me. It was Stories Unearthed by a guy called Norman Adams, who I really like as an author, and he he passed away a few years ago, but he wrote quite a number of really good books. In fact, he was the guy who inspired me. He wrote a book called Uh The Haunted Nuke, which I think is a really it was the only Aberdeen ghost we got ever out there, I think, at the time. So I really liked his stuff. And he'd interviewed the people who lived there, which is even better. And so, anyway, this guy had lived this guy he interviewed had lived in this beautiful Victorian villa with a communal entrance hall, which had an antique cabinet on the side, and um some really, really beautiful uh ritual features. However, there was a ghost, also they allege, that um would scream like like a proper hideous scream, which multiple tenants heard, which was really disconcerting, because they'd go investigate nothing there. So the guy who um was interviewed was called Walter, who's a businessman, and he'd barely set foot in the door when the first indications of something uh that was wrong became obvious, and on that occasion he had invited a colleague along to see his new abode, and she had accepted. And inside the elegance of the surroundings was uh a really awful smell coming from the bathroom, like a deathly smell. So the barbic he was a bit kind of like I guess embarrassed. He was like, So they're trying to work out what I says. I mean they were all it's not me, but I'm just waving the newspaper around. Um but at least no one could see. So he thought, was it potentially the carpet? Who knows? But anyway, it wasn't. So there's the smell remained, however, um it would come and go, so randomly disappear and disappear. So one time he was having a bath and the volume of the music system went shooting up from the room next door, like really loud, so he'd sort of jump out because he thought, well, your neighbours are gonna be freaking out about the noise. Uh, and this was the kind of stuff that was happening fairly regularly, and it was quite funny because the song he was listening to was the The Carpenters. Easy listening, you know, uneasy listening. So when he was leaving the flat one time, he quickly returned to pick up his bank card, and in doing so saw what was described as a solid-looking woman polishing the oak dresser. She kept her back to him, but he had a clear view and described her as having her hair in a bun and wearing a long dress and being around the age of twenty to thirty, and she vanished after several seconds. Sometimes later, a friend named Ross uh stayed over and was peacefully relaxing upon a camp bed in the lounge when he heard the sound of horrendous screaming coming from the hall. So he ran downstairs and saw nothing. In a further instance he described uh witnessing a glass candlestick being literally chopped in half and then flung through the air, which landed on the floor. Was the ghost angry? Was this question they were asking? Um certainly he felt like he'd done nothing to offend it, but this was the feeling that he had perhaps intruded upon something. Anyway, so the conversation with a neighbour revealed that she too had heard the screams and found nothing. And in speaking to third neighbour, he was surprised to see that she had experienced the occasional visit by Jane. Jane was the name she'd given the ghost. Oh, they'd been seen in different rooms. So during the conversation he was told that the spirit was prone to play with her late cat's ping pong ball. So late cat's ping pong ball was kept as a wee memento inside a dish, and it was not uncommon to find it removed from said dish and placed in the middle of the room. So this was what the neighbour was saying. They would also hear doors banging and slamming shut, but they were all coming from different places at the same time, which is really odd when nobody was around. So yeah, it's an odd one. But basically, uh they couldn't work out who or what was causing this. What was interesting, though, that Walter confessed to have seen another spirit in the same area. When he was entering his house at one point, on several occasions, he looked up and noticed a figure of an elderly woman seated at a window in the adjoining property looking at him. And he thought, well, why is she why does she keep looking at me? Was she was she being nosy? So this was so regular, he began to feel mildly arked, and he did say he thought she was being nosy, like staring out at him. So he he he made inquiries uh to his neighbours who'd lived there a lot longer than him and said, The woman in the chair, do you know who that is? What woman in the chair? The one next to her, oh she died. So I don't know. But yeah, this Jane, it was it was odd because it never the screams were heard and they were meant to be really disconcerting, but there was never anything found. And the neighbours had all seen the same thing, and and and the story as I say was written probably about 20 years ago, so I really don't know if there's been anything further than that. And I did a kind of vague idea where the house was. It it could be one of five, right? I didn't want to knock on the door. I did think about it. I seriously thought about going up at some point saying, Have you seen this book? Did you know your house is in it? But you don't want to do that because people like really I didn't see that book at all. And I've just spent £200,000. Thank you very much for moving in there, and I'm not gonna enjoy staying here much longer. But yeah, so I would be curious to see, because you know, I like a good uh I like a good ghost, especially when you see a ghost rather than just slamming doors, because incident there, which is good.

I think I've only got a couple to go. I think I've got two to go.

Two to go.

So it's one that I've got. So we met a ten-year-old Karen. Oh yeah, yeah. We're not gonna meet a six-year-old Karen.

Okay.

What was six-year-old Karen like, do you think?

Uh she was worse than the ten-year-old aware of stuff that was going around.

She was a weirdo, she really was. No wonder she used to be bullied, I don't believe. So, anyway, so we're in Leatherhead back again in Leatherhead.

What is?

So we're in Church Street, which is just around the corner from the creepy church.

Ah, okay, yes, yes.

So mum was a home help, so she used to go in to old people's houses, do a bit of cleaning, do a bit of shopping. Yes. Uh, have a general chat. So it must have been like summer holidays, and I remember it quite. And I was tagged along with her at this particular point, and she was visiting an old lady, which I've visited a couple of times. An old lady that lived in a row of cottages. Now there were four cottages, and they were apparently called mansion cottage, and they still exist.

Mm-hmm.

And she lived in the N cottage, and the other three were empty.

Right.

So this particular time she said to me, Oh, go to the shop. So off strange, weird six year old Karen goes skipping down the path. And for some reason she's turned. Um And I think it was the second second cottage um I've turned and in the window is this woman with a very high neck blouse on, a grey skirt, and her hair up like Edwardian type.

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

So I thought, okay, hello. Um went back after I'd been to the shops and I said to my mum and the woman about it.

Yeah.

And the woman, I I don't can't remember what she said, but she was quite dismissive.

She wasn't buying into it.

She wasn't buying into it. And I thought, okay, well, I can't say anything again. And and from that time onwards, I've when I saw anything, I never used to tell anyone. And you can even tell my mum and dad. So I thought, hmm, that's weird. Anyway, so I'm in my twenties and we were talking, me and Mum were talking about ghosties and stuff like that. And I happened to mention seeing this woman. Because obviously the the house was empty.

Yeah, yeah.

And she said, Oh yeah, she said I saw her as well. And she said, And the out and the old woman used to see her as well. And she's the rumour was it that there was apparently a woman had hung herself there years ago.

Yeah.

But I couldn't find any records of anything. So apparently these cottages are very old. Number one and number two have timber framing dating back to the 17th century and earlier. And obviously they're all grade two listed as well. And I think it possibly was that one a few years back. About two years ago, two, three years ago, it was up for sale.

Really?

And I thought were you tempted? I was tempted. I thought, do I have a cheeky little trip down to Leatherhead? I thought, nah, better not. So, yeah, so that was it. So you've you've met ten-year-old Karen and six-year-old Karen.

I think it's a good idea if you've got houses for sale to sneak in and pretend you're interested in buying it. It's a good way of having a look around, isn't it? You know? I mean that's the only way you're gonna get in there, you know.

Yeah, but it it's interesting that my mum turned around and said, Yes, she she saw her, and I thought how rude.

But they kind of kept it. I I just like the way some I suppose maybe they were looking out for you, but some parents kinda keep it themselves, and then when you get you get the information like, wait a minute, you know, I want to Yeah, you made out that I was telling pokey parts. Yeah. Oh, I know, I know. It's it's it's grim. I remember one funny story about uh it was about a castle, but uh it was about Glam's castle, and this woman had seen a a ghost of the castle, and of course she was a kid and got got roasted by the teacher. The teacher was fuming because they'd been lagging behind, and she was like, It'd even gone as far as a contact and the parents saying, Your girls are you know, it was it was this woman and her pal, those girls are out and out liars, they made this up, blah blah blah. And uh the girl was adamant she'd seen what she's seen, and and later on there'd been a documentary and as an adult which she'd seen, and it described exactly the same thing she'd seen because she approached her mum and said, You know, I told you so.

Her mum was like kind of yeah, but yeah, quick to dismiss. Yeah, I mean Gladys is quite haunted, isn't it? It's got quite a few ghosties.

Quite a few ghosties, aye. Now, um I've got a story here from Shetland again. Well, I not Shetland again, but we were in Orkney, so this is a little bit further up Shetland. Uh this is the old schoolhouse, and I'm gonna probably massacre the pronunciation, but I'm gonna call it Oliberry, which I think is what it is, which is just outside Lerwick, and it's a poltergeist encounter from the late 1880s concerning a family home of a local teacher, Mr. Manson, and so it did not come to the wider public's attention until 1959, when it was reported in the papers.

Yeah.

So I was kind of interested because I remember reading a um I was a forum in Shetland, and all these guys were going on about the the Oliberry Porter guy, strongly Shetlanders talking about this thing that had happened, and I had no clue about this at all. In somebody's eye, I was scared. I remember hearing it in the news, and uh I couldn't sleep because the story of the wee kids with scratched faces, and I was like, what's all this about? So I got in touch with a local uh story in there, and he sent me through like a a copy of this letter he'd got with a so written I don't know when it was written because it's on date, it was an old letter, obviously, and it was purporting to tell the story of the of this thing. His name's Brian Smith, that's right, Shetland Dominity Trust. Very nice guy. Anyway, he gave me this paper and and I was looking over it and it was you know, trying to decipher it because the writing was very nice, you know, I'm not used to good writing today, but it was interesting. So basically, in a nutshell, this Manson family, it's an unfortunate name to say they're not related. But I'd moved in uh to the old schoolhouse and they had a neighbour called Mrs. Nicholson who was noted noted as being belligerent and an unforgiving character. Oh. So for starters, you're getting this feeling of them not getting on anyhow. And apparently, according to what the rumour was, Mrs. Nicholson had used a an obscure grimoire procured by her merchant seaman's son while abroad, and she placed a curse upon the mansons. It was said the book's introduction contained an ominous disclaimer stating that Whosoever readeth this book shall not enter the kingdom of heaven. Oh this could all be just hogwash, but that's what they said. Soon after lots of weird stuff happened in the house. The first being that the Manson children ran to their mother with blood streaming down their faces, as one of them did, initially convinced that the deep scratch has been caused by a tussle of some description, the children retained their innocence under questioning, and the frightened child backed up their story. Backing up the story was unable to describe what had happened or how he got the scratches, but they just appeared in the inside of his mouth. Then portal geist activity broke out in the house, uh which commenced with crockery flying from the shelves of a dresser, and soon after their clothing was found to be shredded by claws. So Mrs. Manson, while working in the kitchen, heard a noise coming from the passageway and on going to investigate sent something in one of their bedrooms, and so stealing herself, flung open the door, only to find the air full of floating feathers while the pillowcase had been torn, so it was like a wee snowstorm. And um whatever it was was systematically destroying their clothes. They initially had barely an undamaged garment between them. So despite the canvas, the parents never actually witnessed what was causing it. However, the children then ran in on several occasions shouting Da Blackman, Da Blackman, which obviously in Shetland means the black man, or a man in black had been seen. And who this was, the black man was, has remained a mystery to this day. So then the maid was targeted, and the maid would be grabbed and physically assaulted to the point where they asked a local blacksmith to come in and pit his strength against the entity in which he got the maid to sit in his knee now, okay guys, while he held her tight. And this was supposed to be a show of strength, according to the story, but we'll say that anyway. But uh the ghost obliged by plucking her from his grasp and throwing on the floor. She was scratched and attacked on several occasions. It was noted as saying when leaving the property and reaching the gate, all the activity would stop. So um it turns out after all of this that Mrs. Manson had had quite enough, and one day seeing Nicholson outside hurled a piece of burning coal at her.

Oh.

I know, which set fire to her much, which is the cap. And then she shrieked at Nicholson, proclaiming that if she'd a knife upon her, she would have cut her, which alluded to the fact that apparently if you cut the witch the curse is gone.

Right.

So uh at the end of the day, um there was two schools of thought. They thought it might have been a trow, which I think that's the right pronunciation, because a folkloric treats are like a troll, peculiar to the Shetland Isles. It's an entity that destroys household objects. Probably unlikely. But a visiting Pac-Man describ who came along said to the owner, Mrs. Manson, that to get rid of the curse she'd have to draw blood from Nicholson, and apparently attacked Nicholson with a knife, slashed her, which the activity stopped. That's the story, but it's been one that's locally discussed up there for years, barely known anywhere else. Yeah. And as I say, I got that letter from the guy, and it was written, I think probably but it looks about 1920, sort of re-iterating story, which would have been quite new at the time, I suppose, only 30 years old or whatever. But anyway, it's remained a mystery. Was it a curse? Was it a little old nonsense? I really don't know, but people say that it happened.

Yeah. That's that. Yeah, well, my final one.

Very good.

A little short one. Now, it comes from a friend of a friend. My friend said to me, I've got a ghost story for you. Very good. Very good. So she has asked me not to have mentioned any names, so I wasn't. Oh, that's true. Uh, but it's in the Ellen's Grove Lone area, which is not that far from where I live, just off the Last Wade Road.

Okay.

And this lady's husband apparently was a builder and built their house. So I think she's saying that, you know, it's a new build. So there's nothing going on. Uh one night apparently she's in bed, and then she saw a centurion at the bottom of her bed. Oh, okay. As you do. So she told her husband, and he went, I don't believe that, you know. So he didn't believe in stuff like that. So he was very he poo-pooed it.

He did.

He poo pooed. And one night she saw it again, and then was aware that her husband had gasped and shoved his head under the guns.

Sorry.

When she asked him what he saw, he said, Centurion at the bottom of the bed as clear as day.

There you go. I'll teach him.

So I thought Centurion? Flaswede Road. So yeah, that they did have a fort. Well, Elgin Ho, is it?

Oh, yeah, yeah. Elgin Hoch.

Elgin Hoch. Yeah. Yeah. Elgin had a Roman fort there, which is a few miles away. And uh yeah, they were there from the late first century, around 7987 AD. And they had essential military installation and would have been around that area. So they would have had like patches of the soldiers all around on that grass. So I thought, well, that's that's fascinating that that actually does corroborate where he would be there. So isn't that strange?

I like I like a good Roman ghost story.

It is, yeah.

There's one from Creef as well.

But I thought, well, I do know that was where we are used to be all fields. And I do remember years and years ago when I used to drive around, there used to be nothing but farmland.

Yeah, yeah.

And when they excavated the area for like the area where my house is, they found Jacobite bullets, buttons, and uh what else was it? Coins. So they were there and opposite was the mines.

Okay.

So I after seeing the ghosty of the farmer, I'm thinking, am I gonna see a ghosty miner or a Jacobite soldier? And now I'm thinking, Am I gonna see a centurion?

Who knows? Who knows where this might be? I'd say what I would do. I'd get a metal detector, that's what I'd be doing. It would be great. Things like that. Wow.

So yeah, so that's a little one that I thought was fascinating because the history corresponds to what she actually saw.

Yeah, yeah. It's good stuff. It's good stuff. Well, thank you. Thank you for all those today.

So I hope everyone enjoyed our story, and we do apologise for our sniggering.

I know, are we keeping the sniggering? Are we keeping the sniggering? We'll discuss this later.

We should discuss this later. If the cut sniggering is cut out, you miss the sniggering.

Yes. Indeed. It was great. Enjoyed it. I haven't had a laugh like that in a while. I think I nearly did myself a mischief, I have to say. But we composed ourselves and carried on.

The professionals we are. Indeed.

Well, everyone, that's all from us now. We hope you've enjoyed joining us for another journey at the paranormal. We will be back next time with more ghost stories, hauntings, folklore, and mysteries from Britain and beyond. But until then, keep the lights on and stay scared. Thank you.

Every corner whisper secrets of the choices that I made. There's a tapping at the window, though the wind is standing still, and a chill runs down my spine like something moving at its will. I tell myself it's nothing, just the creaking of the floor. But every night the silence feels louder than before. You can hide from the sun. No matter what I do, that feeling doesn't go. Maybe it goes to meet a few but happy night eyes where I feel the present drawing. You can say there's no thing, but tell me if that's not quite funny.