h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

We do! Apparently we have three ghosts/spirits or whatever they prefer to be known as who visit us every evening. They don't live in our flat, but they do like to visit! We've always known that there was something in the flat but never knew what.

A friend of my fiancé visited us yesterday and apparently made contact with this spirits (she's a psychic or medium). They turn up just after dusk and leave just before dawn. They are a husband and wife. He died in around the late 940s in his late 50s and she died in the late 920s in her 30s. We don't know their names, although his begins with an "S". He was, apparently, an oxherd. We don't know her occupation although we know there were no children.

They lived in the village and were buried in the local church graveyard - which makes sense since parts of our church date back to the 9th century. We don't know why they visit our flat because it is on the first floor and the Lord of the Manor (or sheriff or King's man) lived on the site, more or less, so in life they would have been regular visitors to this area.

They can't materialize but they do try communicating - cold spots which move about, tappings on the walls, things dropping etc. They talk to us but we can't hear them. They also touch. Happily they seem to be a friendly couple with no malice in them, thankfully.

The third ghost is a wild dog. But he's not a regular visitor. The other flats in our block also have spirit visitors but our married couple only visit our flat and no where else. Can't think why.

a few years back I lived in a house haunted by very noisey neighbours.

does that count?

I imagine they would be more annoying than our ghosts!!

Wulfric, I don't believe the story that your psychic friend told you. If your spirits are indeed an oxherd and his wife, they certainly wouldn't have any idea of what year they lived in, probably not even what century. See can you get the psychic to relate some of their actual language to you and see is it a language that was being spoken at about that time.

It's an interesting point - would an Anglo-Saxon ghost speak only Anglo-Saxon? Or do they get more knowledge once they're dead?

I remain slightly sceptical about most of this, even though there is something in our flat.

Wulfric- anyone who claims to be a psychic needs medical help.
There are no haunted houses and no ghosts in RL o.k? Hope that helps.

Bornonthe20thAugust,

Can you provide an alternative explanation for the manifestations in Wulfric's house, then?

land of s and roadworks*

explain that too!


* melody "land of hope and glory"

Concerning the dates, I should have explained this.

The male spirit said he was born during the reign of King Alfred and died in the reign of king someone-or-rather-whose-name-I've-forgotten-at-this-moment. The female spirit said she was born in Alfred's time and died during the reign of King Æthelstan. It didn't take too long to look up the dates these kings reigned for. They knew their ages and viola! The dates are, of course, approximate.

I admit I would be happier if they could reveal something more detailed about the period of history which isn't common knowledge. It might lend more weight to what the psychic told us.

sugestion:
can you do some research in a liberary to find out who lived in the house or area in that time!

just an idea!

We holidayed in a haunted house and (shameless plug) A714728 is an article I wrote for the Post.

As I wrote under my previous user number, before forgetting my password , a little update is that we have been back to the pub mentioned at the end many times since and there has been an odd atmosphere on a number of occasions.

We already know about the history of the area. The flats are only 40 years old. Before that the land was used for farming for about three hundred odd years. Before that it was part of the estate of Baddow Hall, where the Earl of Essex lived for a while, apparently. The next use of the land is in the Anglo-Saxon period when the Lord of the Manor had his land there.

As far as anyone can tell, though, no actual houses or dwellings have ever been built on the site of the flats.

what about graveyard?

in that time people were often burried on their own land, at least if they were rich. graveyards are forgotten.

may be it was a place a forgotten cottage for personnal.

you should remember there were fires at that time that erased complete records of the places.

Pleeeease!
"Can you provide an alternative explanation for the manifestations in Wulfric's house, then?"

Well, lets see. What have we been told:
cold spots which move about, tappings on the walls, things dropping.

Tappings on wall: Plumbing, neighbours (its a flat)!!
Cold spots: Er, plumbing. Central heating, Delusion
Thing dropping: Living in a flat, kids, animals.

Last but not least: Simple, bloody, common sense. There are NO Ghosts there are NO haunted houses- there are however, simple explanations!
There are too many gullable people about looking for exotic explanations to fill their boring mundane lives.

That is such an arrogant and s**tty attitude Bornonthe20August. Even if you don't believe in it, you don't have to put people down for doing otherwise.

Wulfric - what's the layout of the flat like? Is it quite angular, or quite a basic shape? Are you sure you aren't using your imagination a little too much? If you live in a flat, are you on the top floor/ground floor? If on the top floor, it sounds a little suspicious that spirits would travel *up* things. Especially a wild dog...doesn't really follow in with their pattern they followed during their life. Some people believe ghosts are like grooves on a record - ingrained into a setting that they follow over and over again...

My friend's dad exorcised a ghost or spirit from a house in a street where i used to live.(he was the vicar of the local church).
My dad had actualy been asked to come and listen to the strange noises at the time and he admits that it was the strangest and scaryest thing he's ever encountered.He says he left by an upstairs window in his haste to retire from the house.

We've got a ghosty. It's nicknamed Mother Duck, coz it mothers us. If we have the TV or stereo on late on a weeknight (after 0030 ish) they turn off, then turn off again. I've left washing up in the bowl for days without water, been out to the garden, and found the bowl full of hot water. I never make the bed, but I've come home and found it at made up, complete with corner of the sheets turned over. The landing smells of pipe smoke sometimes, cherry pipe smoke, sometimes despite the fact that Bruce and I only smoke fags, and we don't smoke upstairs at all anyway. Doesn't bother us much, unless we've watching something particularly good when the TV switches off!

Saturnine,

It's quite a basic box shape - perhaps it reminds the ghosts of their simple wooden dwellings which would have been box shaped as well.

I have considered the usual explanations for the noises, etc., and in most cases that's the answer. But there are one or two things which normal everyday (or everynight) explanations can't answer. The tapping on the wall comes from outside - we're on the first floor and their are no windows on that wall, no trees nearby, no buildings and nothing for any nocturnal animals to get a purchase own. I have been told by someone who knows such thing that concrete doesn't make that type of tapping noise!

The cold spot has a diameter of about 2-3 feet. It generally moves from the corner of the room to the sofa (about 12 feet diagonally) and then moves to the centre of the room. It will then move through the hall and into the bedroom, but the pattern isn't fixed. I can't think of anything natural which will do that.

I'm not at all convinced by the wild dog spirit thing. The other two ghosts I'm still not sure about, to be honest. I wouldn't believe it at all if it wasn't for the following facts: the previous owners also had strange things happen. The flat above me, next to me and across the hall on the first floor all have odd things happen. But none of the other flats do. Also the stairwell. If me or my fiancé are in the kitchen, hallway, and living room we're conscious of someone watching - can't explain it, but there it is.

I must admit to not knowing the first thing about how ghosts and spirits move. It's never been a subject I've been interested in up to now!

Saturnine- Do you, with all your 18 years of wisdom know what the expression "The pot calling the kettle black means?"
When it comes to attitude: yours stinks!
At least I don`t get personal as you seem to love to do.
For instance- one of you many offensive postings:

Here is how to learn how to write poetry -

1. Get a pen and some paper.
2. Find a thesaurus.
3. Pick up copies of Allen Ginsberg's, W.B Yeats', Sylvia Plath's, Byron's, EE Cummings' poetry, plus other big books of assembled stuff.
4. Read them.
5. Now f**king go and write your own you lazy c**t.

For this information, I have now deducted £50 or $75 from your account.

Please come again.

Before you complain about the mote in my eye, remove the beam in your own!

Why is it that people always go and find quotes to attack me...and take them completely out of context!! What a phenomenon! It really is quite remarkable.

However my point still stands Bornon20August. It's still rude and s**tty. And obviously because you felt you needed to go and scrutinise every one of my posts to call me a hypocrite...you must agree...