The Poltergeist Affair

In 1993 I lived in a small cottage at the foot of the South Downs in East Sussex, England. This was situated in the village of Wilmington, famous for its “giant” carved into the side of the chalk Downs and known as the “Long Man Of Wilmington”. The cottage is close to the twelfth century Priory which was created by Norman Benedictine Monks and answered to the Abbey of Grestein near Honfleur, France.

Almost as soon as I had moved into the cottage, strange things began to happen.
I would come home from work, walk down the path towards the front door when low and behold the door would open! Now I had been involved in the building trade for some years and knew what a yale lock could and couldn’t do. This was real. There was nobody else in the house. There simply was not any other reasonable explanation apart from something paranormal. This occurrence happened perhaps on six occasions and as time passed, things got worse.

The water tank was situated above the kitchen ceiling and several times the ball valve would be interfered with resulting in a flooded kitchen. The landlord eventually tied this in place with bale twine but it made little difference. The kitchen was flooded again some weeks later.

One evening we had several guests around. It was winter and the sideboard was covered with scarves and hats. As we sat eating, one of the hats flew across the room!! Dogs and cats refused to enter the building. Apparently when my partner and I moved away the poltergeist activity stopped. My partner had often tried to contact the spirit and ask it to move on.

On another occasion I went to look in the crypt of the Priory. As I ventured down the steps I received a stinging flick to the back of my ear. This was a playful spirit indeed! In another building, part of which was once a flour mill, one could hear sounds of sacks being dragged along the floor along with doors opening and closing. Wilmington is well known for its ghosts. An old sailor with a peg leg smoking a clay pipe is often referred to and a young girl has been seen. Perhaps this is the mischievious one?

I don’t know what more proof is needed to confirm the existence of such phenomena. I suspect that until the scientific community has well defined measurements, these things will remain “unreal” 

I have met many people with poltergeist experience. We are not imagining these things, so come on you scientists, get out there and investigate. Please add comments or use the Comments page.