3 Richards Road

As an army child, my sisters and I lived in many different houses. I estimate I've lived in around 37 or 38 houses during my lifetime. Most of those houses haven't been in the least bit spooky or scary, but one house really stands out in my memory as down-right evil:

3 Richards Road.

From the outside it was an unassuming army barrack style house but on the inside it was cold, unwelcoming and down-right malevolent. I saw things and heard things in that house that still send shivers up my spine. Suffice it to say they were more demonic than ghostly.

When things got a little too scary I would climb into bed with my mum and dad. One night I woke up in my mum and dad's room floating face up, around an inch from the ceiling. I was terrified but completely unable to close my eyes. Then an elderly man with a long white beard walked into the room. He gently placed his arms under my body and carried me back into my own bed.

Another night, I was sitting halfway down the stairs (when I should have been in bed) listening to my parents talking in the living room. Suddenly I had an overwhelming feeling that someone or something was standing behind me. The next thing I recall is being shoved from behind and landing at the bottom of the stairs with quite a thump. I remember struggling to breathe where I was winded from the force.

3 Richards Road was one of those houses where something bad was always happening (including an accident which crippled my father for life). We lived there for around a year (possibly less) before we moved into a house where absolutely nothing out-of-the-ordinary happened. In fact I don't think we lived in a 'haunted' house again until we moved to Yorkshire which is where I spent the best part of my teens.

Friendly 'Hello' Ghosts

When we first bought our house which was once part of an old Victorian Prison, it needed a lot of 'cosmetic' work doing to it. I decided to take two weeks off work and commuted the 30-odd miles every day to make a start on some of the more labour intensive stuff.

On the first or second day I was up a ladder in the spare bedroom scraping artex off the ceiling when I distinctly heard a man say 'hello'. It was so clear and loud that my first thought was 'crikey, the postman has let himself in'. I scrambled down the ladder and raced downstairs but the house was empty. In retrospect the 'hello' definitely seemed to come from the doorway of the spare room and was the kind of hello that would preceed an introduction of sorts.

In any case I put the incident to the back of my mind and carried on with my work.

About a week later my dad came down from Yorkshire to help out with some of the joinery that needed doing. Whereas I was still commuting between the house and our flat in London, my dad decided to camp out at the house.

One morning when I arrived my dad had something interesting to tell me.

"I was in the kitchen washing my breakfast dishes this morning," he said, "when I heard a woman's voice say hello. It was so clear she could have been standing in the kitchen with me."

Needless to say I was a little freaked out. Having said that, everyone that comes to visit tells us how friendly and welcoming the house is. And for that we have our hello ghosts to thank, I believe.

The Coal Miner Ghost

At the nursing home in Batley where I used to work, there was a lovely staircase which overlooked the entrance hall. Once, when I was making my way up these stairs I saw a man in the lobby dressed all in black. Even his hands and face were black. After speaking to a few of the nurses, it transpired that there had once been an active coal mining industry in the area, and that the nursing home had once been a hospital.

Again, I only saw the figure for a fraction of a moment but my recollection of the man is that he looked lost ... as though anxiously waiting to hear some news. I felt sad for him.

Male Intruder - Ghost in My Bed

My boyfriend thinks this one is a bit weird but it did happen to me so here goes ...

One of the most embarrassing things that ever happened to me was when I was visiting my mum and dad's house years after I left home. At that time I was in my mid to late twenties and single.

That particular night I slept in the box room on a single bed and when I woke in the morning - facing the wall - I felt a large figure in bed with me, behind me in a classic 'spoons' position. It, whatever 'it' was, was awake and touching my body.

I wasn't asleep and I wasn't in one of those semi paralyzed dream states; this was a real sensation and although I felt sort of 'violated' - and of course frightened - I was tired enough to allow myself to drop back off to sleep.

Poltergeist Activity with the Goldfish

One of THE weirdest occurrences at my mum and dad's house involved my sister's goldfish, Kellogs.

One night, whilst lying in bed, I heard a really weird tapping noise outside my bedroom door. Upon investigation I discovered my sister's goldfish flapping around on the hallway floor.

It was only when I picked the goldfish up that I noticed my sister's bedroom door was closed. Furthermore, when I went into her bedroom I discovered the trap door on top of the fish tank was also closed. My sister was fast asleep on her bunk bed, so I have no idea how the fish found its way onto the landing.

Needless to say, after popping the fish back in its tank I spent the night safely tucked up in my sister's bed.

Oh, and poor Kellogs never made it through the night. We found him floating at the top of his tank the following morning.

Duvet thief

Some really strange things used to happen to me when I was a teenager living at home.

One night whilst trying to fall asleep, I felt my duvet moving down my body as though someone was standing at the foot of my bed slowly pulling it off. I can't remember how far I let the duvet go before I bolted - heart pounding - into my sister's bedroom.

Over the years people have offered various explanations, but the bed was completely level and most importantly, there was a footboard, so it would have been impossible for the duvet to simply slide off the end!!

Man in the Orange Suit - Ghostly Figure

My mum and dad's house in West Yorkshire is a post war build and isn't particularly spooky to look at, but some of my most profound ghostly experiences took place there.

As a night owl, I am usually the last one to go to bed, which means it's usually me who has to switch all the lights off downstairs - one of my least favourite jobs.

One night, in my early twenties, I was standing in the doorway to the living room looking in when I switched the light off - and there, standing inches in front of me in the darkness was a middle aged man wearing an orangey brown coloured suit. If I could put an era to him it would be the 1960s or 70s. He was there for a moment and then he was gone - but he was as clear as anything.

I raced up the stairs in super quick time.

Nursing Home Patient

When I was in my late teens and early twenties I regularly worked night shifts at our local nursing home for the elderly. The building was pretty spooky as it had once been a Victorian hospital. If you were looking down on it from above it would have resembled the letter H, with four wings.

One of the wings was refered to as the operating wing, and was by far the spookiest and coldest section of the nursing home, particularly in the early hours when we were doing our hourly rounds.

Luckily, this part of the nursing home is where the relatively self sufficient residents were housed.

One night, at around 3am, I was doing my rounds in this part of the home, when I noticed something odd at the far end of the corridor. I saw the door handle on one of the doors on the left of the corridor move down and then up as though someone on the inside was trying to get out. I knew for a fact that this room was unoccupied and immediately assumed one of the senile residents from one of the other wings had wandered into the room.

I hurried down the corridor and entered the room only to find it empty. However I noticed the rocking chair (an orthopedic one) under the window rocking slightly and thought the old dear might have wandered into the bathroom, which was situated to the right of the chair.

I can't tell you how frightened I was to discover the bathroom was empty too. The door handle and rocking chair had clearly been moving, which is exactly what I did - at top speed - out of the room and back to the nurse's station.

 

Carlinghow Nursing Home, the former Batley Hospital

Thank You from Beyond the Grave

West Yorkshire, 1995

When my best friend's father died suddenly in 1995, I found myself helping the family out by runnning errands, answering the door to visitors, making cups of tea, preparing snacks and generally being a shoulder to cry on. For three days I made myself available to help them come to terms with their loss. It was the least I could do for a family that meant so much to me. Resembling Norman Wisdom in both looks and personality, Dennis was a warm, hardworking family man; the life and soul of family gatherings. His death came as a great shock to everyone.

After three days it was time for me to say my goodbyes. But no sooner had I shut the car door and put the key in the ignition than I broke down. After three days of being strong, I found myself sobbing uncontrollably into the steering wheel.

A few minutes later, I felt someone put their hand on my shoulder and squeeze. Sobbing away I assumed my best friend had seen me crying from the living room window and slipped into the passenger side of the car to console me. After a few more moments, I lifted my head to acknowledge whoever it was who'd gotten into my car ... only to discover that the car was empty apart from me.

To this day I believe it was Dennis saying thank you and letting me know that he was okay and that I would be too.

Friendly WW1 Nurse

East Finchley - circa 2004

I was sharing a house with two guys and a girl in East Finchley. The house was an old Victorian terrace although it wasn't particularly spooky. In fact the huge spiders that appeared out of nowhere frightened me more than the house itself.

One evening after finishing in the bathroom on the first floor I was walking down the stairs and, for a fleeting moment, saw a young woman wearing a WW1 nurses uniform identical to the one shown in the picture. She remained at the bottom of the stairs long enough for me to do a double take, then she was gone. She didn't say or do anything. She was simply looking up at me with a friendly expression on her face.

Not the most exciting encounter with a ghost but definitely one of my favourites.