Readers Stories
Our Haunted Welsh Farmhouse When buying a property you get a surveyor to see that everything is structurally sound, and your solicitor takes care of the legal work. What you don't normally do is ask a paranormal investigator to check if you have the odd spook or three! We moved in our North Wales farmhouse in 1997. It soon became clear that we appeared to have a lodger in the form of a ghostly monk! I saw this apparition on about five occasions; my youngest daughter saw him once; and our son, now 17, who has Down's Syndrome, claimed to see him frequently in his bedroom! It was not long before stains in the form of writing, and carvings of words and religious symbols started to appear on the walls of the house, both inside and out. One minute they were not there, the next they were, WEIRD. Naturally we thought we were the victims of a hoax, but every time we came up with a theory it was disproved! Visitors to our home frequently went home with a little souvenir in the form of ghostly Welsh graffiti on their belongings! As you can imagine this was not always entirely welcome. A friend, visiting from The Netherlands, found the word ‘MYNACH’, which is Welsh for MONK carved into his lap top computer, he was not amused, to say the least! In the end the monk was threatened with the bell, book and candle brigade if he did desist in handing out autographs! That seemed to do the trick, and as far I am aware, nobody else has been favoured in this way. In addition to the calligraphy, we are treated to footsteps up and down the stairs, and things that go bump, day and night. We also hear voices; but the words are not discernible. In 2001, just before his 16th birthday, our son announced that the monk was going to a 'happy, smiling place', because our son was now too old! It did appear that our monk had passed on to haunting new. We were not lonely for long; there was soon a new spook on the block in the form of a heavily pregnant young girl. The word Jane began to appear all over the place, so putting two and two together, we supposed this to be her name. Leaning against the wall of our house is a tombstone, of unknown origin, with this inscription, Jane Jones Aged 15 1778. The face of a girl materialised on the stonework of the fireplace, in our lounge, on May 25th 2002. From certain angles the face is quite pretty! My son says that it is the face of Jane. We have been favoured with the attentions of a ghostly cat; we have not seen it. However, my husband and I have felt it jump on to the bed and mew and purr! When the light was switched on there was nothing to be seen. Our own cat was out on the three occasions that this has happened. We verified the fact by calling the cat in, the doors and windows were shut, and there was no way he could have sneaked in or out! The latest recruit to our happy band of spooks is a teenage boy, my son has seen him once and so have I. As the name Tom has started to appear on the walls, we think it is safe to assume this to be his name. The apparitions I have seen do not have the classic transparent persona. My spectres appear to be flesh and blood people for the second or so that I see them. It is the moment my brain kicks in, and I realise that I could not have seen what I thought I saw, that I imagine the event to be paranormal. The ghosts seem to have a fascination with computers and happily mess around with them until they crash. Messages have been sent out in Welsh to folk on the address book, we are not Welsh, do not speak the language, or understand it. My husband's computer has been back to the store so many times with faults, that seem to rectify themselves as soon as they leave the house, only to re-emerge when it is plugged in again! The computer was rebuilt, new motherboard, case etc and still it misbehaves! One positive outcome of all this activity is my sudden and very unexpected artistic talent! I have never been remotely artistic in the whole of my life before my 50th birthday in 2000. I was persuaded to give digital art a try, and much to my surprise, and that of my family, I appeared to have a talent for it. I still pinch myself each morning to ensure that I am not dreaming - people actually want to buy my pictures! In the early days, it was just as if a presence was guiding my 'mouse' hand as I created my work. I am convinced that the atmosphere in our house has released something in me, which enables me to produce my pictures. The media have taken an interest in our remarkable home, and to date we have done five TV films and I have appeared on a couple of chat shows, which were quite fun. In 2000 we contacted a researcher at a university department dealing in parapsychology. He has been on the case for two years now. The results are inconclusive. A joint paper was published in the SPR Journal in October 2002. Fortunately our haunting is friendly and at no time have we been frightened. Providing it continues like this, we will be happy to play host to our unusual houseguests!
Rose-Mary G. Photographs relating to this story can be found in our 'Ghostwatchers' section photo gallery.
If page is loaded out of
frames click Here
|
