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Ghost Buildings

 

This is my first submission to this wonderful site, and hope you find my experiences interesting. I'm more than happy to answer any questions you may have.

This probably sounds really weird to other people, but it's something that happens to me, not on a regular basis, but from time to time. I see things that appear to be the ghosts of buildings that a no longer there. I also see more 'normal' spirits of people and animals, but I really want to know if anyone else sees these. I understand that people have experienced what they refer to as time slips in places like the Palace of Versailles in France, but my first experience was as a quite small child and I'd definitely not hear of these phenomena as a child.

The first time I remember this happening was when I was about 7 years old. I was on a school trip to St Albans in Hertfordshire to see the Roman ruins. Whilst my school friends were discussing the remains and some of them (mainly the boys!) were playing at being gladiators, I was absolutely enchanted by a small, thatched roof cottage that was sitting almost in the middle of the ruins. I asked my teacher why the cottage was there, who lived there and could we go and look around it as well. Needless to say, no one else could see it, and my teacher suggested that I had been out in the sun too long and was seeing things!

What I could actually see was a solid, 3D cottage complete with a small garden with plants in it. The windows were what I would call 'blind' in that the sun was shining onto them so it was impossible to see anything beyond the glass. I was insisting to my teacher that the cottage was there, but he insisted it wasn't there. We went off to eat our packed lunches, and when we came back the cottage was gone. I think I saw it for around 15 minutes, but it didn't occur to me then (only when I thought about it as an adult) that I didn't see the cottage when we first arrived or when the guide was telling us about the ruins - I only spotted it when we were allowed to explore the ruins on our own.

Since then I have had a number of experiences of seeing buildings that aren't there and, as an adult with a degree in history, I have been able to research the area and find out what was there before the current buildings were built.

The most terrifying experience I had was when I was driving alone on a motorway. At the time I lived on the Kent coast and was driving up to meet my fiance in the West Midlands to look at some houses before choosing which house we wanted to buy. I saw a terrace of houses across the road in front of me, right across the motorway. I started to break as the houses looked VERY solid to me, before I realised that I was a) driving on a motorway and b) there are NO buildings that sit on the road and cover all the lanes. I pulled over at the next service station and had a strong cup of coffee to calm my nerves before continuing on a thankfully uneventful journey. When I did a little research I discovered that there had been some houses in the area I saw them.

If anyone else has ever experienced ghost houses, I would love to hear from them and I would also love to hear other peoples ideas on why I've been selected to see houses and buildings that aren't there.

Thank you for taking the time to read this rather long story.

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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, tigerfeet, has the following expectation about your feedback: I will read the comments and participate in the discussion.

Darkangel73 (4 stories) (127 posts)
 
2 years ago (2021-11-28)
Hello Tigerfeet, this is interesting. I guess the fact you can she buildings from the past, is cool. The fact that no one else sees them, is typical for someone who is on the medium spectrum. That gift could really come in handy, like the guy from ghost whisper who could hear ghosts, but couldn't see them, Melinda could see and hear them.👍
tigerfeet (4 stories) (11 posts)
+1
6 years ago (2017-11-01)
Unexplained, I read the story you highlighted with great interest - and became very jealous that the writer had interacted with the hotel people, something I've never done 😢 I would love to talk to people from a previous time! The story seems to be a similar haunting to the famous Versailles event and the not so famous (but well known) event that happened on the Normandy beach where the D-Day landings took place.

MariaMason - apart from the event on the motorway, I have never been scared of what I see - in fact I sometimes wonder if these sightings are what sparked my interest in history.
MariaMason (4 posts)
 
6 years ago (2017-10-30)
This is something scary I have read today. Interesting post!
Unexplained (2 stories) (122 posts)
 
6 years ago (2017-10-26)
Your excellent story reminds me of this one:

Http://www.yourghoststories.com/real-ghost-story.php?story=14944
tigerfeet (4 stories) (11 posts)
+3
6 years ago (2017-10-23)
Thank you for your kind comments and for you welcome to this group. I have to say that some of the stories on here have really made me think.

AugustaM - I have tried to draw what I see, but unfortunately I have the artistic abilities of the average cabbage! I can just about manage to put the outline of a building on paper - my worry is that my imagination will fill in details I didn't actually 'see' just because my mind is telling me these things should be there - hope that makes sense! Unfortunately, when I was at university I didn't once see a phantom building when on field trips, which is a real shame as I studied at the University of Kent at Canterbury, an area that is full of historical and archeological sites.

Jubeele - to be honest, it's never occurred to me to whip out my mobile phone and take pictures, something I will definitely try when/if it happens again. As far as I'm aware I have no connections with the areas I have seen the ghost buildings in. My father was not from the UK so no connections there, and my mother's family lived in London and only started moving out of the area when I was a young teenager. Before moving to the West Midlands, I'd never been further north than the Oxford area of the UK, so no connection with this area either. A couple of years ago I started a job in a fairly local area and after working there for about 18 months I went out of the back of the building into the rear car park for a crafty cigarette (dreadful habit, I know, and one I no longer indulge in) and saw a large barn that covered a fair section of the car park and also the pavement and road at the side of the car park. Other people were with me, and they saw absolutely nothing - I really wish they had seen it, if only to reassure me that I was seeing this barn. I discovered that the area my office was in was previously farmland, with the main barn approximately where I saw it - hard to compare 100 year old parish records with a modern town - so at least I knew it had been there once.

Manofon1 thank you for your comments. I have suspected for some time that what I am seeing is some kind of residual haunting. I have tried interacting with the buildings (I never see spirits of people or animals with these, but do see plant life) but they seem to be almost like a 3D film. They look solid enough to me, hence my scare on the motorway, but the edges of the buildings sometimes seem slightly out of focus but I can never put my finger on why they look like this. As you guessed I am very sensitive, I've been seeing spirits since I was a very small child. My mother told me that she came into check on me when I was playing alone in my bedroom, and stood outside listening to the conversation I was having with someone - she said she could hear me clearly but whoever I was talking to was, to her, a very low, quite voice that she could hear but not clearly enough to hear what was being said.

I should say that I come from a very long line of female sensitives - my grandmother, my 4 aunts, my mum and now my daughter - have all been sensitives to some degree. One set of my great grandparents were of Romany Gypsy origin, so I assume that is where our gifts/ talents/ curse (depending on how you look at it!) comes from. I see it as a gift, but not always as a convenient one!
AugustaM (7 stories) (996 posts)
+3
6 years ago (2017-10-23)
This is fascinating! I have never heard of it before but I don't doubt you. As an archaeologist, I have wished so many times that I could do just what you can! What a wonder it would be! Have you ever considered attempting to make artists renderings of things you have seen? It would be such a wonderful resource! I wish you could come to the states - how I would love to take you round to places where family homes once stood so I could stand a chance of maybe getting an idea of what they were like.
Jubeele (25 stories) (882 posts)
+4
6 years ago (2017-10-22)
Hi tigerfeet (great name), your account is truly fascinating and I don't find it too long at all. Have you tried capturing the visions? Since mobiles (cell phones or hand phones) come with a camera these days, it might be worth a try. When you're not driving along the motorway, that is!

In the process of your research, have you found any connection at all to these locations? Perhaps a long-lost family from some distant past? Just an idea...?

Looking forward to more accounts from you. Welcome to YGS.
Manafon1 (6 stories) (712 posts)
+5
6 years ago (2017-10-22)
Hi tigerfeet - I found your account of great interest. There are many well documented cases in psychical literature that detail people witnessing apparitional structures. These can be as elaborate as the Versailles reports you referenced and full manor houses with outbuildings and stone fences, to small houses, temples and so on.

The cottage and the terrace houses you saw fit in with these reports perfectly. One theory is that such structures are part of a more elaborate "apparitional drama"' in which the consciousness of a deceased person is thinking about a location that was important to them in life and you, who are probably more sensitive than the average person, pick up on and actually briefly become a part of the "drama" and "see" the structures the consciousness is thinking of and, in conjunction with your own subconscious, create the image. That you were the only person who saw the cottage on your school trip is interesting. Often anyone who is a part of a theoretical apparitional drama are, in essence, sucked into it themselves as it is dramatically appropriate that they should be. It seems, as I suggested earlier, that you are just particularly sensitive to picking up on this specific phenomenon.

Thanks for sharing your experiences with "ghost buildings".

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