A Spooky Childhood

I always had a huge interest in ghosts and all things spooky whilst I was growing up.  I had an idyllic childhood, living in a beautiful house on a working farm in rural Somerset.  My family had owned and run the farm for over 100 years, so it felt like it was a part of me.  Disused lofts and outbuildings provided an adventure playground for my three brothers and me, and the generations worth of old farm equipment and random junk meant that my ancestors still seemed tangible somehow.

The farmhouse was, in the oldest part, over 500 years old.  Originally the building would have been just a simple one-up, one-down affair, and over time the house was considerably lengthened, and eventually another limb added to the side to make an 'L' shape.  The oldest part of the house was barely used; the lower room was used as a dumping ground, and the upstairs was the spare bedroom.  This bedroom was huge, with a single bed and a double bed adorned with ancient candlewick bedspreads.  In the corner of the room sat an imposing wardrobe made of dark wood, which was enormous and had carvings of knights standing guard on the doors.  My parents informed me it was hundreds of years old and was originally used by knights for keeping suits of armour in.  I used to have all kinds of nightmares about things living in that wardrobe.

The double bed  in the spare room was the unofficial trampoline (this was years before everyone had a real trampoline in their garden because you could buy then for £60 in Asda).  I would spend hours jumping up and down on that bed but sometimes, for no reason at all, the hairs on the back of my neck would stand up and I would leap off the bed and cover the 20 metres or so of hallway away from the room in about .4 of a second.

Years later, when I was 10 years old, my youngest brother was born and my parents decided to rearrange all the rooms to make more space.  Because the end bedroom was so large and completely redundant they decided to divide it up into two rooms, I would have one and my older brother would have the other.  Because my old bedroom was earmarked for the new baby my dad got an uncharacteristic shifty on with getting my new room ready.  It had new pink everything - I chose the carpet, the wallpaper, the furniture and I absolutely loved it.  I moved in straight away, and my brother's room had not even been started as there was no rush for that.

The first night, I was trying to get to sleep but there was a noise keeping me awake.  It was a heavy breathing sound, like a man makes when he is asleep, and it sounded so close, almost like whoever it was was lying next to me.  There was definitely no-one in my room and my nearest 'neighbour' was my middle brother who's room was a good distance down the hallway (it was a very large house).  I lay there paralysed in fear, literally too scared to even go and tell my parents.  The next day I tried to explain what had happened to them and they obviously thought my mind was playing tricks on me.

This breathing happened pretty much every night.  After about six months my big brother moved to his room next door, and after his first night there he came to me, white as a sheet, and told me how he'd hardly slept due to there being a breathing sound in his earhole.  I was quietly satisfied to know it was not just me going mad.

Probably the other most notable thing about being in that room was when I was about 13 years old, and I was lying on my bed reading one evening.  In the corner of my room I had a large desk, of the MDF variety which had shelves all up one side and overhead.  It was attached to the wall with rawl plugs so it was very secure.  It had all kinds of books, ornaments and general nick-nacks on it.  I was lying there quietly reading, when all of a sudden there was an enormous bang and EVERYTHING, literally, everything, had come off the shelves and was lying on the floor of my bedroom.  I flew down the hallway and down the stairs and informed my parents what had happened.  They just looked at me like I was nuts and assumed I was playing some kind of trick.

To be continued when I am more awake....