If you’ve been reading my blog for a while, you may remember we have visited the Devizes area before. It’s quite the paranormal hotspot thanks to it’s long and, at times, bloody history.
This time we are in this middle section of Wiltshire and I’ll say no more as the owner wishes to stay anonymous. You’ll be hearing about some ghostly activity in a private, unassuming residential property. A haunting in a family home. Not all paranormal happenings occur in ancient castles and manor houses, as we know!
The lady who kindly emailed me her story is called L.
This is her story:
We’re watching you…
I want to tell you about some experiences I have had in our current home. The house we live in was built in the late 1940s, and we have lived here for fourteen years, moving in when our kids were approximately 6 and 4 years old. Initially the house was very dated, think dark wood and flowery carpet and funnily I had only viewed it once, saying that if I saw it a second time I would back out! The initial feeling was having bitten off a bit more than we could chew and just feeling extremely watched and quite uncomfortable…
One evening, I was shutting down the fire and, as I turned around to walk out of the lounge, I felt as if the back part of the room was shrouded in a black cloud, which was coming rapidly towards me. I put my head down and ran out of the room sharpish! It felt similar to the scene in “Woman in Black” where the man is looking down the corridor which is gradually getting darker and darker the closer it gets to him.
Our stairs have two dog legs and one evening my daughter was walking up them whilst eating a biscuit…. she suddenly turned around and ran back down the stairs, coughing on her biscuit and bright red in the face. She said she had just seen a small boy peaking around the top dog leg at her as she walked up the stairs!
Myself and my husband were sitting in the lounge one evening with a view of the hallway door in our peripheral vision. Something human sized flitted past the door that caused us both to look up. We both saw it at the exact same time. Both children were upstairs. I checked.
My son, S, was about 5/6 at the time and was upstairs. I suddenly heard him calling me urgently. I went upstairs and he was stood in his room, very scared, with his wooden sword and shield held up defensively. Upon questioning, he said that he had seen a little girl with very long hair walk past his doorway (definitely not my daughter).
The hallway can seem quite active and it’s not unusual to be stood in the kitchen and to think someone has walked into the lounge. Or to be in the lounge and to think someone has walked into the kitchen. All in your peripheral vision of course, which is fine by me, I have no need to get eyeball to eyeball! I believe I have a haunting in a family home.
My husband has been stood in the garden and whilst looking up at our bedroom window, said he say someone walking backwards and forwards extremely quickly… both kids swear blind it wasn’t them.
We used to have a Victorian wardrobe in our bedroom. I kid you not, one night, bang on 3.00am, the door on this thing swung open, complete with Hollywood sound effects. My husband (very sceptical) sat bolt upright and said something along the lines of, “…crikey, what on earth was that?!” I was weirdly calm and just got up to have a look. There actually was a soft shoe caught in the door, which of course could simply have been the practical explanation. With the temperature cooling, the wood would contract which would force the door to open…. I get that. But bang on 3am!!! I think someone was having a laugh… although clearly not my husband!
In general, the feeling in the house is calm and has gotten more friendly the longer we have lived here, although at night it can feel a little uncomfortable. Because I have my interest in the paranormal it is easy to put everything down to this but, fortunately, I am also very logical and analytical (yes, a Virgo!)
My husband quite often falls asleep on the sofa and has said that he feels sometimes that he is being watched and also that something doesn’t want him to go upstairs.
We have attempted to sell the house twice but each time, although we have had an interested party, we have been unable to find anything that we like more… to the point where we have said to each other the house doesn’t want to let us go.
What do you think?
It definitely sounds like there’s more than one spirit in that house and I can totally see why it would feel uncomfortable at times. A true haunting in a family home, keeping a close eye on the family. Maybe they are earlier residents who are reluctant to leave. I’m not sure I’d remain so calm about living there as L and her husband seem to be.
I love hearing of people’s personal stories. L has had another experience of living in a haunted house and we’ll return to that soon. It’s definitely worth a read.
You can subscribe to get notifications of new ghost stories from Weird Wiltshire in the pop-up box.
If you’ve had a spooky experience of any kind, please get in touch. I’d love to hear from you.
