As you will all know, I once lived in a 'haunted' house for around 6 years. We eventually moved from the house not due to its haunting properties, but because my mother had a baby at 40 years of age and we had run out of bedrooms!

I was the eldest child and only girl in a family of 6 children, yes I had 5 brothers. So bedrooms were in short supply. We had 3 bedrooms upstairs, including the dreaded 'box-room' in which I had my ghost experience. I refused to sleep in there as I got older. So my father turned the downstairs dining room into a bedroom for me.

When I was 17 years old, I had a friend called Nicki - we were almost like sisters. I spent time at her house (she lived with older parents and had a grown up brother). Her house was a haven away from younger brothers. But on one occasion and this was her only time spent overnight, we had been out to a party and arrived back home around 12 am. I had a double bed downstairs in the converted bedroom and she decided not to drive home. She had prewarned her parents that she might be staying. We stayed up chatting until about 1 am then retired to bed. I suppose we had been asleep for an hour when we heard 'running' up the stairs and down the stairs. She prodded me and asked what was going on. I had not prepared her for our unseen visitor.

It was then that I told her that the house was strange and might be haunted. She freaked! We lay there in the dark listening to the commotion outside. A door closed to the front room and we could see under the bedroom door that the light in the hallway had come on. Nicki by this time was freaking out badly, saying she wanted to go. It was much too late and I persuaded her to stay. In all this time, nobody upstairs asleep had got up, which seemed odd. I was used to things being strange and funny noises but these noises were LOUD. We both crept out of bed and slowly opened the door. The noise stopped and there was no light on. We went back to bed and lay there talking gently and reassuring ourselves. Suddenly there was a super huge SLAM of the back door. I could feel Nicki shaking under the covers - still everyone in the house slept on oblivious of what was happening. Then we heard the kettle being filled up from the kitchen tap and the gas being turned on - it was like a dream but so scary. By this time, it was around 4 am and we had had about half an hour's sleep.

Well to get to the end of the story. We could not sleep at all - we kept the bedroom light on and waited for dawn. Miraculously by the time dawn came, the commotion had died down and the house was quiet. In around 4 hours we had heard, footsteps, muffled talking, lights going on and off, doors slamming and a kettle being put on. When my mother got up around 7 am, she went crazy at me! 'Do you know that we have slept all night with the back door unlocked and open?' Despite my desperate pleas, she did not believe me!!

Oh and Nicki never did stay at my house again!! Wonder why?

Oh Gerry, that must of been very frightening for you both.

Did your family take pics in the house? And if so, did anything unusal show up??

How absolutely terrifying, Gerry! And when it's your home, you've nowhere to go, to get away from it, have you? No wonder your friend never stayed again!

Karen, I really was not interested in the paranormal then, just getting a boyfriend, lol!! I used to go out a lot and so was not really peturbed about the events. Plus NOBODY ever talked about it - I thought it was me!! Since about a year ago, we have started to talk and boy, was I surprised about what other members of my family remember. I think because we had to live there (you are right Gwinni) we had nowhere else to go, you sort of put up with it. I hated it but I was able to get out and away from time to time. that is why I spent most weekends at Nicki's house. We never took any pictures, never felt the need to - but now I wish I had!

I am hoping in the next month or so to revisit with my brother our old childhood houses and 29 Prince John road will be one of them. I am taking my camera with me for definite. I will only be able to snap the outside of the house, but wonder what I will get when I connect up to my computer!

You never know!

My God, I would have been terrified. You jogged my memory there as I have experienced some similar stuff to that ... but not all in one night, and nowhere near as intense! Did any of your family ever see anything in that house Gerry?

Well, doggies, Gerry, I would have moved in with Nikki and her parents. That would have been a little too much activity for me. Of course, I would have probably been standing in my doorway screaming for my parents. If I've got to be scared and miserable, I want to share the experience with the rest of my family.

I hope you get some good pictures of your old homes. I can't wait to see them. Doing that is a great idea. If no one is living in the houses, you can always creep up to the windows and snap a few pictures. The ghosts deserve to be surprised after what they put you through.

Booklady wrote:

Well, doggies, Gerry, I would have moved in with Nikki and her parents. That would have been a little too much activity for me. Of course, I would have probably been standing in my doorway screaming for my parents. If I've got to be scared and miserable, I want to share the experience with the rest of my family. I hope you get some good pictures of your old homes. I can't wait to see them. Doing that is a great idea. If no one is living in the houses, you can always creep up to the windows and snap a few pictures. The ghosts deserve to be surprised after what they put you through.

I must admit I did spend a lot of time at Nicki's house. When you are a teenager I think you take these things in your stride and just get on with life. We rented the house and had nowhere else to live so we just couldn't leave. I did tell my parents and I was under a doctor for quite a while because I was a nervous wreck but everyone talked about hormones and not entities!!! I was quite a morose teenager full of angst and always writing morbid poetry, I am wondering if I attracted some sort of negative energy. But I clearly remember seeing a tall man dressed in a black coat and wearing a type of top hat standing at the foot of my bed and just looking at me My mother remembers being pushed into the wall as she walked up the stairs and somebody standing very close to her.

I am going to go and speak to her again today and try to find out if she remembers anything else.