This is one of my ghost encounters. There have been several over
the years. The first one I can
recall happened when I was five. They became more frequent as I got older and
also more
frightening. I have seen ghosts in several countries, not just in the U.S.A. In
my travels to
Australia, Norway, and U.K., I felt, heard, or saw ghosts.
The story below is absolutely true. I have never forgotten what happened. Many
people I told
the story too don't believe me, but I know what I saw and heard and it still
bothers me up to
this day. I always planned to go back and stay at the same place and see if my
ghost shows up
again.
In my twenties, I visited the U.K. I joined a tour group that went all over
England, Scotland, and
Wales. On the day before the tour ended, we stayed in the town of Warwickshire,
England.
(Spelling?) The place we stayed at was a manor house on an estate that had been
converted
into a hotel. (Out of respect for the current owners, I will not name the
hotel.) The place was just
beautiful. There were gardens all over, a stream ran through the property and it
even had it's
own church and graveyard for the original family plots.
The house itself was exactly the way I expected an English manor house to look.
There were
high ceilings with intricate carving, and heavy, wood, double doors opening to
large rooms. Huge
fireplaces were in several of the rooms and one that may have been made of
marble.
Chandeliers lined the grand staircase and oriental carpets covered floors. The
dining room
looked big enough to be a ballroom. I'm sure they used it as such when weddings
were held
there.
The place had been converted at one time to a hospital during the first world
war and maybe the
second. It had only been a hotel for about ten years when I stayed there. Our
tour group stayed
there one night only, unfortunately, but one night was all it took to convince
me the place was
haunted. After dinner, two of my new friends from the tour group and I explored
a little of the
outside. We didn't stay long since it was already dark and hard to see. We
joined our tour
director (TD) who was in the sitting room, located next to the bar. He was with
another TD who
was also staying for just one night with his group. One of my friends and our TD
went to the bar
to get some drinks. The other friend and I started talking to the TD about his
tour. Somehow
the conversation steered its way to ghosts.
Either she or I said there must be a ghost here since England is know to be a
ghost magnet.
This TD said there was a ghost at this hotel. My friend and I looked at each
other than at him
and asked if it that was true. He said yes, but we both saw a small grin forming
and knew he
was just trying to scare us. Just then, we saw one of the hotel employees
propping open the
door that separated the sitting room and bar. While he was trying to get the
door to stay open,
we asked him if the hotel was haunted.
The young man looked at us and said yes, of course it was, but he wasn't smiling
at all. He
himself had never seen the ghosts, but there were so many stories from other
hotel employees
and guests that he believed there were some, sight unseen. He told us the
following story.
About three weeks earlier, there was a business convention held at the hotel.
One man who
attended, showed up a day late. A day and a half after he arrived, he went to
the hotel manager
with a complaint. He asked the manager to tell the female employee, who wears
the old fashion
clothing, to stop following him. I guess he was thinking "Fatal Attraction"
behavior. He said she
was always nearby. When he checked in, she was in the registration area, looking
at him. During
meals, he saw her by his table. Whenever he left his room, she would be just
down the hall from
his room, watching. Even during the meetings, he would see her in the hall
looking at him. He
wasn't flattered by her attention.
The manager calmly told the man they didn't employ anyone, man or woman, to wear
old
fashion clothes. The man looked at him and said, "You mean she is a ghost?" The
manager
didn't say yes or no, but one hour later, the man checked out.
My friend and I found the story to be interesting, but since we hadn't seen
anyone dressed in
old fashion clothes when we arrived, we didn't think she would appear to us. We
stayed up
talking until 2:30 am and then I excused myself to return to my room. As tired
as I was, I
decided to take a shower. Both the TD's were smoking cigars and my clothes and
hair reeked of
the smell. I just couldn't sleep smelling that way.
Now my room was located in the new section that was added on to the original
house. The dining
rooms and meeting rooms and registration were all in the house, as were the
large room suites,
but our tour group was placed in the additions. So you have to pass two, long
hallways, go down
a flight of stairs, go down another hallway and pass through some double doors,
going up some
more stairs before reaching the rooms. It was very easy to get lost.
Also, there was some construction outside as they were building a new wing and
tennis courts.
The windows in all our rooms were locked. They kept it that way so none of the
debris from the
outside could get in. When I was in the shower, I noticed that the shower
curtain kept flapping
around as though blown by a breeze. That couldn't be since the windows and door
were closed.
After getting out of the shower, I placed my shampoo bottle and conditioner
bottle on top of the
toilet tank. The shampoo was on the left and conditioner on the right both
against the wall. I
turned to face the sink and mirror and was drying my hair. The toilet was at my
right and the
shower behind me.
With the towel covering my face I heard a loud crash on my right. I turned to
find the
conditioner bottle on the floor directly to the right of the toilet.. I was so
startled by the noise,
but I picked up the bottle and placed it back on the toilet tank. I looked at it
a second thinking
it was a little weird, but turned back again to finish drying my hair. Not more
than five seconds
later, boom, another crash. I turned back to the toilet to find the shampoo
bottle on the floor
directly to the left of the toilet.
Now this was weird. I picked up the bottle and looked at it a long while and at
the conditioner
bottle still on the tank. I had not heard either of then slide off the tank. The
two bottles were
placed at the center of the tank and leaning against the wall. I should have
heard them slide off
if that's what happened. It sounded more like some hitting the bottles off the
tank or lifting
them up and dropping them. I looked at both bottles again. They were about two
thirds full and
weighed close to a half a pound each. The toilet tank top was pretty level and
I was beginning
to doubt now that any bottle would slide off unless they were placed right at
the edge, which
these weren't. I placed the shampoo bottle back again on the tank and stared at
them for over
a minute. I guess I was waiting for one or both bottles to fall again, but
neither did.
When I turned back to the mirror and sink, I placed the towel I had used to dry
my hair on the
counter. With the exception of a small section at one end, approximately 3 to 4
inches long that
hung over the counter, the average, sized, bath towel was about 95% on top of
the counter. I
started to brush my teeth when I saw the towel slide off the counter to the
floor. This time I just
froze, scared to move.
There was no way that towel could have fallen. Unless there was a five-pound
weight or more
attached to the one end, almost all of it was on the counter. And it was a full
size, wet bath
towel, not a small hand or face towel. I was really nervous now. I remembered my
aunt saying
you could actually talk to ghosts, so scared silly as I was, I gave it a try. I
told whomever or
what ever did these things to please stop. It was almost 3:30 am and I was
really tired. Please,
stop because you have scared me enough.
I still couldn't sleep that night. I got maybe thirty minutes sleep total. The
next morning, I went
back into the bathroom and saw that I had left the two bottles on the toilet
tank. Neither fell off
again after I tried talking to the ghost. I left the room a short while later
with my camera. It was
still early and breakfast wouldn't be ready for 30 to 40 minutes so I decided to
take some
pictures of the main house. I snapped up shots of the registration area, the
sitting room, the
hallways and the grand staircase.
When I got home, I looked over my shots and saw on the picture of the staircase
what looks to
be part of a shadowy figure halfway up the stairs. When I say part, I mean only
the lower part
was visible. It looked to be the lower section of a dress or gown. Anything
above the knee or
thigh area was missing. Again I have showed this picture to several people,
some say it is
nothing but shadows, but some have said it does resemble the bottom of a long
skirt.
I really hope I can visit this hotel again some day and see my ghost once more.
Maybe next
time I won't be so scared, but I cannot guarantee it. Just thinking about what
happened and I
am scared all over again.
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