Wednesday 29 October 2014


Oct. 29th 2014

In December 2003, we were contacted by a family who had moved into a North Birmingham property in March of the same year. We were told that they had been experiencing numerous strange occurrences around the property, including the sound of heavy footsteps walking across their upstairs landing - from one end to the other. In mid-December the footsteps had manifested so loudly, they were convinced that there was a genuine, living person in the house with them. They were of the opinion that - the longer they stayed in the property - the louder and more pronounced the activity would get.....

The reported activity didn't begin as soon as they moved in, but seemed to coincide with their beginning to decorate the upstairs portion of the house. They were told that the previous tenant had not decorated in the 10 months that she had remained in the property and neither had the tenant before that. The house had supposedly contained a number of families over the years.

The stairs had also been heard to creak, as if someone were walking down them, along with sighs, whispers and the sound of someone calling the name of the father of the family. There were bumps and bangs and sounds of objects moving about the property...... but they had never actually been able to catch such things actually 'in the process' of being moved!? Clothes and other items were moved from room to room. 

The daughter had apparently felt her hand being stroked during the night when occupying the front bedroom and their son had actually refused to sleep in the same room because he said there was a man in there who was always watching him....... This 'man' had been seen in other parts of the house by the lad too.... particularly standing outside the bathroom and, sometimes, floating up at ceiling height! When pressed for a description of the figure, the boy had said he had brown hair, a 'horrible blue shirt' (the lads words) and black trousers. 

On waking each morning, the family would always discover that their bathroom window had been opened in the night!

Activity seems to have definitely been stronger in the upper portion of the house - involving most of the rooms on the 1st floor, save for the rear bedroom. The effect had become so pronounced that visitors were asked - without any form of prompting - to walk around and say which parts of the building they felt strongly about? Apparently, all came up with the same answer - the landing! During a holiday, a relative was asked to keep a check on the house and they reported having gone upstairs and had a distinct feeling that someone was walking behind them throughout the visit. The feeling had been so strong, they were - afterwards - dubious about ever going upstairs again.

Having spoken to a local medium about a completely different matter, the psychic referred to the property in question and voiced the opinion that there was more than one spirit there and they were something to do with other tenants from the history of the house. She said that they were trying to gain the attention of the current occupants!? She had specifically mentioned the spirit of a man in her appraisal of the situation.

At the point of contacting us, the family were already on a housing list for an exchange of properties and we were told they were hopeful of a fairly quick move.

Just over 2 years later, we placed (as we frequently did back then) an advert in the Tamworth press, asking for people to contact us with their ghost stories. One afternoon, in response, I received a phone call from the woman who had previously written to me about the above case.

In her opinion, the activity appeared to have potentially 'moved to their new property with them' - a scenario that we're all aware of from other instances, of course. To add to the situation, the 'new' property that they'd moved to 'also' had a reputation for being haunted...... along with a number of other properties in their street, it seems!? Before they moved in, the next door neighbour had apparently called the police out twice because they said they'd heard people running around in the empty, adjoining property! Since they had moved in, the neighbours had also come round to complain of the TV being on 'full blast' all day long..... They knocked the door to find no one in the house, as the entire family were out all day and the TV wasn't actually on!?

Around the time that they had phoned us, they had started noticing some form of 'smoke-like' form on the landing of the house. On first seeing it, they believed that they may have had a fire of some kind, but then the effect was seen to 'drift' and vanish in a nearby room! The young daughter had also seen a 'foggy' effect on the stairs outside her bedroom.

Objects had been found to have vanished around the property - tea towels and the like - and a particular perfume was detected around the same time every night. It was suggested to them that the previous owner of the house - an elderly woman - had regularly 'washed herself down' at that point in the day!?

People in other properties had also reported peculiar things happening. Speaking to an elderly neighbour, they were told that he had been followed by the figure of a 'miner-like character' along the street one night.

The village had been a heavily mined area right up until the 60's and there were rumours of a pit disaster in the area at some point?

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