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The Haunted Cottage

 

This experience happened mainly to my mother on a family holiday in 2007. I am the oldest of four children and my mother and father took us on holiday to a small seaside town in the UK called "Old Hunstanton."

We stayed in a small cottage for a week and the cottage was the ultimate creepy cottage. At the time I was only 12 but I remember thinking how creepy the cottage looked. I researched the area afterwards and discovered the cottage was over a century old.

The things my mother experienced happened only at night time and she told us afterwards during the day she felt completely fine but as night fell she always felt uneasy and as if she was being watched.

She told us that when all us kids were in bed and it was just her and my dad watching TV in the living room, there was always a really pungent musty smell but only she could smell it and my dad said he couldn't smell anything. However, both my mother and father noted that during the evenings it was unusually cold in there. Now the UK isn't one of the warmest countries in the world but we had got lucky during that week and the weather was actually very good so the cold was quite strange.

Whilst the main experience happened to my mother (which I will get to soon) I did have a small experience myself. I woke up in the middle of the night needing to pee, my bedroom was directly opposite the toilet and the corridor was quite long. I got out of bed and opened my door and started down the corridor when all of a sudden I stopped dead. To this day I have no idea why I stopped but I felt terrified as if something was in the corridor with me so I turned back and hid under my quilt until day time and didn't go to the loo until the morning.

The main experience my mother had is as follows. One night her and my dad were in bed when my mum says she heard footsteps in the corridor and the bedroom door open. My mum said the footsteps were not heavy and they were quite light so she thought it was my small brother who at the time was only 3. She assumed he had a bad dream and had came into her room; however, when she opened her eyes there was no one there.

The next night she said the same thing happened again but this time there was a voice with it. She said the voice said something along the lines of, "Mummy is that you?" and it sounded like a small boy. My mum told us this happened two other nights during the holiday and she refused to go to bed without my dad and she didn't tell us kids until after the holiday so we wouldn't get scared. Also my dad said he never heard anything so I wondered if this was a spirit of a small boy looking for his mother which is a sad thought.

Also for the whole holiday my three year old brother refused to go in the dining room for the evening meal. He was fine at breakfast and lunch but he just cried his eyes out in the evening and refused to go in there.

Finally there was one occasion where we had to go to the supermarket to get food but, like a typical 12 year old, I was moaning that I was going to miss a TV show so my mum said if I wanted I could stay on my own. I don't know why but something made me decide staying on my own was a bad idea so I missed my show and went to the shops with the family instead, which in hindsight I am so glad I did!

This is my only paranormal experience but I am fascinated by everyone's stories and all comments are welcome. Sorry it's a bit long winded!

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Comments about this paranormal experience

The following comments are submitted by users of this site and are not official positions by yourghoststories.com. Please read our guidelines and the previous posts before posting. The author, vlsanfield, has the following expectation about your feedback: I will read the comments and participate in the discussion.

northlight (8 posts)
 
10 years ago (2014-08-14)
Corridors and stairs seem to sometimes induce feelings of being watched or followed. Why this is who knows? If energy of some kind flows through buildings, perhaps these areas of buildings channel it or speed it up - and we sense it sometimes. Knowing a place is haunted or there being a group belief that it may be can amplify the fear and the feeling in situations like walking down corridors alone, in the middle of the night.
vlsanfield (1 stories) (3 posts)
 
10 years ago (2014-08-14)
No worries aha. You made many valid points and I appreciate the feedback 😊
Griff84 (5 stories) (289 posts)
 
10 years ago (2014-08-14)
Ah, apologies for the confusion. That will teach me to make sure I have all my facts right. 😊
vlsanfield (1 stories) (3 posts)
 
10 years ago (2014-08-14)
Griff84- Thanks for your feedback 😊
The things you mentioned do seem very plausible especially in that type of cottage. Sorry if I wasn't clear but the experience in the corridor happened to me not my brother but even so a 12yr old with an over-active imagination could be to blame for that particular experience. The thing my that happened to my brother was the fact he would never enter the dining room at night but had no problem during the day time. Thanks again for the comment 😊
Griff84 (5 stories) (289 posts)
 
10 years ago (2014-08-14)
Hi vlsanfield, welcome to YGS.

I have been to Old Hunstanton, so I know exactly the type of cottage you mean.

A couple of thoughts that came into my mind whilst reading your experience are;

Your mother could have had a much stronger sense of smell than your dad, which would account for him not smelling the musty smell when they were watching TV in the evening.

A big, creepy, dark, unfamiliar house at night might be fear enough to stop your 3 year old brother from continuing down the corridor, where I would think a primeval fear would have kicked in and stopped him.

And the cottage could have seemed cold on a hot day in the evening as I imagine it had thick stone walls which would have been harder for the days heat to penetrate, which would mean they would stay cooler and this would lead to the room temperature staying cooler.

As for your mothers experiences with a boy, I agree with the others, perhaps he was drawn to your mum because he was looking for his own, very sad if true.

Thanks for sharing 😊
vlsanfield (1 stories) (3 posts)
 
10 years ago (2014-08-13)
Hi all thanks for the comments it's appreciated.

Elnoraemily- yes the EMF could be an explanation for the feelings of unease I suppose I had this theory myself, and also some of it could be to do with the fact I was only 12 so probably had an over-active imagination. However, I do definitely think there was some entity there due to my mums experience of the voice (I also made the Dr who connection haha) my mum is still freaked out about that to this day and even though we have been back to the same town she down right refuses to ever stay in a cottage!

Darkness-I did not find any evidence of deaths on the property however that isn't to say there hasn't been and I have just not found it.

K_Marie82- yes my immediate thought was that it was a spirit of a little boy just calling out for his mother and this is such a sad thought as during the stay we my mum never felt threatened by it but it did scare her a great deal.

SimplySonali- I did not find any history of paranormal in that particular cottage in my research however the town of "Old Hunstanton" does have many ghost stories in its folklore.

Thanks again for all your responses 😁
SimplySonali (1 posts)
 
10 years ago (2014-08-13)
its kind of inetersting, but did the cottage had any record of paranormal
K_marie82 (1 stories) (23 posts)
 
10 years ago (2014-08-13)
Your idea of it maybe being the spirit of a little boy makes sense to me as it seemed to be drawn to your mother. I know that when my children were that age, if they woke up scared in the night it was usually almost always me (aka mommy), that they would seek out and call to for comfort as well. I agree it is sad to think of the possibility that a little boy's spirit might be trapped in the cottage all alone looking for his mommy though. 😢
DARKNESS (3 stories) (2022 posts)
 
10 years ago (2014-08-12)
Interesting account here those old cottages themselves do produce those type of feelings and smells normally, but the kicker is your mum hearing the voice of the little boy.
In your research, I assume you did not find anything regarding any deaths on the property or land etc? Thanks for sharing.

Dan
elnoraemily (guest)
 
10 years ago (2014-08-12)
That sounds very much like the ultimate creepy cottage.

I do wonder if this has something to do with electric fields being a bit high- especially in a cottage that probably had to be specially outfitted for electricity at some point in time. The classic symptoms of being exposed to high levels of EMF are feelings of fear and paranoia, auditory hallucinations and visual hallucinations.

Possibly, if it is electric fields, if that fact that more lights and such would be on a night would have an impact and cause the levels to spike.

That's just a theory.

Either way, that is quite the experience!

(I did have a huge nerd moment: "Are you my mummy?" that made me very happy while reading this story.)

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