Main photo by Ben McCloskey on Unsplash
Ghost stories come to me in two main ways! Either someone I’m chatting to discovers I’m the creator of Weird Wiltshire and proclaims, ‘I’ve seen a ghost!’ Or they take time out of their day to send me their personal story. Either way, it’s always a privilege. Each story is different and interesting.
Today, I want to share the experiences of a couple of ‘Weirdos’ (as I like to call all of us here on this blog) who have been kind enough to share them.
One of them even comes all the way from Brazil and was shared with me by Joana. She moved to Wales to be with her husband David just earlier this year. They came along to one of the History and Mystery Walks at Avebury and following our lovely day together, she emailed me her story and one from David.
Joana’s Story
‘I have a ghost story from Brazil that I would like to share with you: when I was around nine years old, I went to the countryside in São Paulo state with a friend and her family. Her grandmother lived in a tiny city and from time to time, she would gather a few people in her place to talk to the spirits. Both the grandmother and the mother were clairvoyant.
My friend and I were always afraid and didn’t understand what was happening, so we would stay outside the house when this kind of meeting happened. Then one night, everybody was already sleeping, but I couldn’t, I was still very impressed about the energy that it was still in the house and I remember that both dogs continued barking throughout the night like they were feeling something was different. And then at one moment I looked to the door and I saw someone standing there watching us, it was a woman, tall and strong, and she had a kitchen tool on her hands, like the one that you use to make gnocchi or bread, and she was like guarding us, it felt that way. It was all dark, just the light from outside the house but I had the feeling that she had a slavery background. I closed my eyes so many times imagining that she would disappear at some point but no, she stayed there for a long time.
The next day I told everyone in the house and my friend said that she saw a man guarding us too, he was thin and was seating in a stool. We could have imagined all of this because of our creative minds but you feel the vibe of where you are different at these moments.’
Following Joana sending me this story, her husband David put his own experience down on paper, so to speak (it was by email)! This is another tale from outside of Wiltshire as this happened to David as a child in Northern Island.
David’s Story
‘I lived in a small town in Northern Ireland called Donaghadee, where there was no cinema, so a friend’s father made a small cinema in his garage. Every Saturday night, we would go there. The cinema only holds 20 people. To get there, we had to walk through a golf course. One night, walking back from the cinema, my friends and I (we were thirteen at the time) were joking and laughing. In the distance, a white figure, a very bright white figure that looked like a fisherman with its hat and long coat, was moving quickly, like at a running speed but was hovering for 100 meters. Then it disappeared over the moud. At first, we were shocked for ten seconds and then curious, and we said to one another, ‘what is going on?’ We tried to chase it after it disappeared. Every Saturday night, we would go the same way home from the homemade cinema and talk about it, but it never came back.’
This was emailed to me by ‘D’. An interesting one from a pub up near Swindon.
D’s Story
I worked up at the Fox and Hounds in Wroughton for a time. A very creepy place to be alone in. The hotel at the back was originally a barn and it often smelt strongly of burning and I would go and investigate to find nothing on fire. It turned out that the barn/cottages had burned down in the 1800s. I often heard walking on the stones outside of the hotel part but when I looked out of the window, no one was there. I had a full view of the side of the building and stones and there were no guests staying at the time. In one particular room the old-fashioned wall alarm clock went off even though the time or alarm time wasn’t set. I ran so fast out of that room! There was also a set of bum prints like someone had sat down on the bed that I’d made two minutes before and no one had entered the room (I was in it the whole time). There were all sorts of noises coming from rooms that were empty and locked. Also, there was just the feeling of being watched. The landlord at the time also heard a crying child in the attic, though I never heard that myself.
Scott’s Story
It’s been a while since we heard from Scott. He was here on Weird Wiltshire to tell us a ghostly tale involving a recently deceased person back in June 2023. You can read it here.
Before we jump into this tale, which doesn’t involve a ghost, I want to talk a bit about coincidences. Personally, I think sometimes the ‘universe’ intervenes in our lives as we need to be guided down as certain path and face up to situations that we must resolve in order to move forwards. Having met Scott and spoken to him about this, I believe this is a classic case of the universe giving him the nudge he needed. It set him off on a new path to explore his spirituality and to deal with a tragic incident buried back in the past. So, whilst many coincidences are probably just that, I feel some events are more than coincidence. Some sort of spiritual intervention? Or fate stepping in? I’m not sure. Have a read and see what you think.
*THIS IS QUITE A SAD STORY*
I will try to keep this story as short as possible as it dates back over 40 years ago.
So, I am one of four boys. I have two older brothers and one younger brother. Leading up to my younger brother’s birth, myself and my other brothers went to stay with some family friends. Not the same family friends, we were split for a short while when my mother was admitted into hospital to give birth. My father had to continue working and it was impossible for him to juggle work and home life at the same time.
My new brother was born in the 24th June, my mother and brother stayed in hospital until the 29th June. At this point we had all been away from home for some time and we were all eager to come home. When I went back to where I was staying after school with my older brother we were told we could return home.
Excitedly we set off, which was a five-min walk. When we arrived, we could see that my father’s car was there. We walked through the back gate as we always did. We hardly ever used the front door. Even visitors would come through the back but it was locked. We knocked but no answer so we proceeded to the front door.
Knocked again on the front this time. Still no answer, then my father came to the window and told us to leave. He didn’t even open the door. He just shouted at us through the window to go. With that I got upset as we’d not been home for ages and it felt like we weren’t welcome anymore. In hindsight, as an adult, I now realise that he meant for us to just go and play for a bit while they settle my brother into his crib or feed or whatever they were doing.
So, my older brother and I set off, not really sure where to go. We decided we should go back to where we had been staying until we knew we could definitely come home. I was seven at the time and my brother was eleven. As we approached a main road to go back to where we had been staying I saw a friend of mine Ryan (a kid I had been at nursery school with). He was with his younger brother Barry.
Now I remember Barry being born as his birthday was the day before mine in December. When Barry was born just before Christmas 1977 his mother brought him up to the nursery so that we could all see what a baby looked like. As it was Christmas, it was a special occasion and I remember it well.
This particular day when I spotted Ryan and Barry, I couldn’t wait to tell them that I now had a baby brother. I called out Ryan’s name. They were both in the other side of the road. With that Barry started running towards me and my brother. Ryan was calling him and we were yelling at him to stay with put. But he just kept running and stepped out into the road across to where me and my brother were. When he was almost at arm’s length I said ‘You should’ve stayed with your Brother.’ With that, he turned and ran back towards his brother and was struck by a car and fatally killed.
As you can imagine, life would never be the same again for both families and anyone who witnessed the tragic incident. It affected my relationship with my parents, Ryan’s relationship with his parents. It was a real terrible tragedy.
Fast forward 39 years to 2020. My mother had been fighting breast cancer for four years. Once lockdown restrictions had started to lift she organised an afternoon tea party for some friends as a kind of farewell as she knew she was terminally ill. The person who hosted the afternoon tea was Ryan and Barry’s cousin Lisa. She brought all her catering equipment and staff to my mother’s house and served afternoon tea.
In 2021, my mother became bedridden, her wishes for her funeral wake was to have Lisa host an afternoon tea for all the mourners. My mother sadly passed away on 11th June 2021. My father contacted Lisa and asked if she could cater for my mum’s wake. Lisa agreed and said ‘Don’t worry what date it is, I will fit it in no matter what.’
So, my father went to to the funeral directors following my mother’s passing and the nearest date for my her funeral was 29th June. The very same day as that tragic incident. Not only that, the wake was to be held at Barry’s cousin house in a marquee.
None of this was pre-planned. It was just the way it all worked out but I couldn’t believe the coincidence of it all, especially after all these years.
I started counselling not long after my mother’s funeral as it brought all those dreadful suppressed childhood memories back to me. I went for 14 months, and it changed my life immensely. I feel like it set me on a new spiritual path and that somehow the coincidence happened as it was time for me to deal with the tragedies of the past. My life is better now and I’m enjoying my new journey. How it all turned out; it’s remarkable.
That’s it for reader stories for today. I’m busy working on other stuff behind the scenes but I hope to be back pretty soon to tell you all about Berry Pomeroy Castle!
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Don’t forget; I’m always on the lookout for spooky and weird stories from Wiltshire and beyond. If you have a tale you would like to share I’d love to hear from you. Contact me here.
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