WEBVTT - Halloween Special 2018 - Unexplained Audiobook Extract 0:00:00.600 --> 0:00:05.600 Hello. I'm Richard McClain smith, creator of Unexplained. The following 0:00:05.680 --> 0:00:08.119 is an extract taken from a new book, which is 0:00:08.160 --> 0:00:11.600 available to buy in print and audiobook at bookstores and 0:00:11.720 --> 0:00:16.799 online in Waterstones, Blackwells, and Amazon, amongst other outlets. The 0:00:16.840 --> 0:00:19.400 book will also be available to purchase in the US 0:00:19.440 --> 0:00:23.520 and Canada in fall twenty nineteen. I Hope you enjoy 0:00:45.840 --> 0:01:02.840 Chapter ten. Every story is a ghost story. The ghost 0:01:02.960 --> 0:01:06.280 holds a unique place in the world the supernatural, As 0:01:06.319 --> 0:01:09.440 capable of scaring as senseless as they are of inflicting 0:01:09.520 --> 0:01:12.760 us with the deepest of melancholies, they also come in 0:01:12.840 --> 0:01:15.760 many forms. The ghosts that we carry with us in 0:01:15.760 --> 0:01:19.160 our daily lives, memories of those we have loved and lost, 0:01:19.520 --> 0:01:22.880 or perhaps even wronged, thoughts that sit in the deepest 0:01:22.920 --> 0:01:27.600 parts of the psyche straining to become manifest. But what 0:01:27.720 --> 0:01:30.320 are the apparitions that seem not to have been brought 0:01:30.360 --> 0:01:34.120 forth from the subconscious, Those that have no connection to 0:01:34.160 --> 0:01:37.520 the observer, but instead seem to be reaching out to 0:01:37.600 --> 0:01:42.679 us from a seemingly timeless space. For some, to witness 0:01:42.680 --> 0:01:46.080 a ghost, particularly that of a relative, might bring a 0:01:46.200 --> 0:01:49.800 certain comfort. The reassuring glimpse of a life beyond death 0:01:50.720 --> 0:01:55.000 almost without exception. However, dating back to our earliest cultures, 0:01:55.120 --> 0:01:57.760 from those of the Igbo in West Africa to the 0:01:57.800 --> 0:02:01.120 Bengali of South Asia, the sighting of a ghost was 0:02:01.200 --> 0:02:05.000 rarely something to celebrate. Commonly, the appearance of a ghost 0:02:05.360 --> 0:02:08.640 would speak of something unsettled, the result of a body 0:02:08.720 --> 0:02:11.840 not properly buried, perhaps, or one that had been lost 0:02:11.840 --> 0:02:14.320 at sea. Or it might be a sign that the 0:02:14.360 --> 0:02:18.920 cause of death was suspicious and required avenging. Failure to 0:02:18.960 --> 0:02:22.640 rectify the situation could condemn the ghost to an eternity 0:02:22.800 --> 0:02:27.640 of restlessness. For the ancient Sumerians, death was an act 0:02:27.720 --> 0:02:31.160 from which there was ordinarily no coming back. The souls 0:02:31.160 --> 0:02:34.000 of the dead left to dwell in Kur, the land 0:02:34.040 --> 0:02:36.919 of no Return. It was a place where all men 0:02:36.960 --> 0:02:40.320 and women were equal, regardless of their actions in life, 0:02:40.760 --> 0:02:43.760 no matter how rich or poor, a place where they 0:02:43.760 --> 0:02:47.280 would remain for the rest of eternity in dreary unlight, 0:02:47.840 --> 0:02:51.320 watched over by Irish Kegal, the dark Queen of the 0:02:51.360 --> 0:02:55.200 nether world. The oppressive conditions of Kur were said to 0:02:55.200 --> 0:02:58.680 be alleviated for the dead if their surviving family continued 0:02:58.720 --> 0:03:01.639 to make offerings of food and drink once they were gone. 0:03:02.320 --> 0:03:04.680 Failure to do so would see the ghost of the 0:03:04.760 --> 0:03:08.880 deceased return to punish their callous relatives with misfortune and 0:03:09.040 --> 0:03:13.760 ill health. In ancient Japan, the appearance of a ghost 0:03:14.080 --> 0:03:18.520 or yuri was especially ominous. Yuri was sometimes said to 0:03:18.520 --> 0:03:22.920 transform from souls or racon in fits of explosive emotion, 0:03:23.240 --> 0:03:28.280 often motivated by vengeance. Violent murder or suicide would almost 0:03:28.320 --> 0:03:32.079 always presage the arrival of a yuri intent on retribution. 0:03:33.360 --> 0:03:36.520 Until the disturbance had been settled, they would be fated 0:03:36.600 --> 0:03:41.720 to haunt the living indefinitely. Yuri are traditionally portrayed as 0:03:41.720 --> 0:03:45.480 women with long black hair, wearing white burial robes, with 0:03:45.560 --> 0:03:49.080 hands hanging loosely from the wrists, an image that fans 0:03:49.080 --> 0:03:53.280 of the character Sadako Yumama might recognize from author Koji 0:03:53.360 --> 0:03:59.760 Suzuki's Petrifying Ringou series. Yumamer's portrayal as a traditional yuri 0:04:00.120 --> 0:04:02.640 with a ponchhot for climbing out of TVs and video 0:04:02.720 --> 0:04:08.080 monitors as realized devastating effect in Hideo Nacata's Terrifying nineteen 0:04:08.160 --> 0:04:10.800 ninety eight adaptation of the first book in the series. 0:04:11.280 --> 0:04:14.440 Is for me the most nightmarish betrayal of a ghost 0:04:14.600 --> 0:04:19.560 in cinematic history. Often, a ghost or apparition is said 0:04:19.560 --> 0:04:23.440 to be inexorably linked to a specific location. For those 0:04:23.480 --> 0:04:26.120 of us living in the United Kingdom, there are many 0:04:26.160 --> 0:04:29.440 such ghosts. Two of our tourist boards claiming the Great 0:04:29.480 --> 0:04:32.719 Tower of London and Edinburgh Castle as their respective country's 0:04:32.760 --> 0:04:37.039 most haunted destinations. However, I have always found such a 0:04:37.080 --> 0:04:41.120 notion problematic in a very literal sense, at least for 0:04:41.200 --> 0:04:44.240 reasons laid out with a great, mournful and affecting beauty 0:04:44.480 --> 0:04:48.279 in a ghost story. In this striking twenty seventeen film, 0:04:48.960 --> 0:04:52.800 written and directed by David Lowry, the eponymous ghost of 0:04:52.800 --> 0:04:56.400 the title, having chosen to remain behind on Earth, is 0:04:56.440 --> 0:04:59.360 fated to drift through time as all the world changes 0:04:59.440 --> 0:05:03.520 around him, Although Lowry slips the ghost back into his 0:05:03.600 --> 0:05:07.440 original corporeal timeline. I have always wondered where such a 0:05:07.480 --> 0:05:10.159 ghost might end up were it not so easy to 0:05:10.279 --> 0:05:13.880 escape the seemingly ceaseless arrow of time. Just where might 0:05:13.920 --> 0:05:16.360 a ghost be left a haunt tens of billions of 0:05:16.440 --> 0:05:19.120 years from now, when the planet has long since been 0:05:19.120 --> 0:05:23.119 obliterated by the sun. When it comes to the sheer 0:05:23.240 --> 0:05:27.080 terror of the supernatural. For me, there are few more 0:05:27.120 --> 0:05:31.760 disturbing notions than the Poltergeist, malignant spirits of wrathful energy, 0:05:32.279 --> 0:05:35.799 dead set on singling you out for inexplicable and therefore 0:05:36.040 --> 0:05:42.400 deeply frightening reasons. Though some consider supposed poltergeist activity to 0:05:42.480 --> 0:05:46.280 be the result of the extrasensory projections of troubled teenage minds, 0:05:46.960 --> 0:05:49.360 it is surely in the betrayal as an active spirit 0:05:49.760 --> 0:05:53.640 that the notion is most potent. I have always felt 0:05:53.640 --> 0:05:57.560 a little haunted by this idea. Doubtless there are many 0:05:57.600 --> 0:06:01.080 of my generation whose first experiences of the fabled knocking 0:06:01.160 --> 0:06:06.240 ghost came through Toby Hooper's mesmeric nineteen eighty two film Poltergeist, 0:06:06.680 --> 0:06:10.760 which many forget was written by Steven Spielberg. Perhaps it 0:06:10.880 --> 0:06:14.159 is simply nostalgia that draws me back to this masterful movie, 0:06:14.880 --> 0:06:18.360 hypnotic in its alluring fusion of slick Hollywood with a 0:06:18.440 --> 0:06:21.480 less familiar place that seems to call out silently to 0:06:21.600 --> 0:06:26.119 us from somewhere between the frames. But there is something else, 0:06:29.400 --> 0:06:33.040 although there is little telling which was cause and which effect. 0:06:33.600 --> 0:06:36.919 For as long as I can remember, since seeing this film, 0:06:37.000 --> 0:06:42.279 I have had a recurring, terrifying poltergeist nightmare, always occurring 0:06:42.279 --> 0:06:46.800 in that liminal, lucid space surely before waking. It begins 0:06:46.839 --> 0:06:49.240 with me standing at the top of the stairs of 0:06:49.279 --> 0:06:52.240 an old childhood home, while friends or members of my 0:06:52.320 --> 0:06:55.679 family are gathered at the bottom. But as I walked 0:06:55.680 --> 0:06:59.039 down to join them, something has caught me in its grip, 0:07:00.120 --> 0:07:04.600 something of unfathomable malignance from which I know I cannot escape. 0:07:05.520 --> 0:07:08.400 As I kick and scream, it continues to pull me 0:07:08.440 --> 0:07:14.280 back further and further, and then I wake up. Every 0:07:14.320 --> 0:07:17.920 time it is the same. I understand this to be 0:07:18.040 --> 0:07:20.760 a common dream trope, and was once advised that the 0:07:20.800 --> 0:07:23.120 way to do away with it might be to try 0:07:23.160 --> 0:07:27.800 to turn around and face this unseen manifest fear. I've 0:07:27.800 --> 0:07:30.280 not yet been able to achieve this, though I'm sure 0:07:30.320 --> 0:07:34.239 there's a good lesson in there somewhere. So it always 0:07:34.280 --> 0:07:37.240 fills me with a particular sense of caution, but no 0:07:37.320 --> 0:07:41.440 little excitement when I learn of new alleged politgeist events, 0:07:42.320 --> 0:07:46.400 particularly ones that invoke the work of Nigel Neil involving 0:07:46.560 --> 0:07:53.160 learned men and women on the hunt for ghosts. At 0:07:53.200 --> 0:07:56.720 thirty three years old, Tony Cornell was by no means 0:07:56.720 --> 0:08:00.160 the most senior member of the Cambridge University Society for 0:08:00.200 --> 0:08:04.040 Psychical Research, but he was certainly one of the more proactive, 0:08:04.760 --> 0:08:07.480 always on the lookout for a new sight to investigate. 0:08:08.520 --> 0:08:12.520 Like most members of CUSPR, he was a proud rationalist 0:08:12.680 --> 0:08:16.800 with little time for superstition or spiritual nonsense, whose interest 0:08:16.840 --> 0:08:20.960 in supposed paranormal and supernatural events began from a thoroughly 0:08:21.000 --> 0:08:25.200 skeptical point of view. He did, however, maintain a healthy 0:08:25.200 --> 0:08:28.480 fascination with the strange due to a peculiar event he 0:08:28.520 --> 0:08:33.320 had experienced ten years previously. As a young naval officer 0:08:33.400 --> 0:08:36.600 during the Second World War, Tony had been stationed in 0:08:36.679 --> 0:08:40.679 southern India close to the Nilghirie Mountains, where he became 0:08:40.840 --> 0:08:44.440 enthralled by stories of the local fakir, holy men and 0:08:44.520 --> 0:08:48.040 women without any possessions or relations, who are believed to 0:08:48.080 --> 0:08:52.400 possess mystical powers. It was said that a fakir could 0:08:52.400 --> 0:08:56.319 perform miracles, with many people traveling for miles to seek 0:08:56.320 --> 0:09:00.720 their wisdom and guidance. One such fakir was said to 0:09:00.720 --> 0:09:02.960 be living in the hills not far from where Tony 0:09:03.040 --> 0:09:07.120 was billeted, and although thoroughly dubious, Tony was none the 0:09:07.160 --> 0:09:09.720 less intrigued enough to try to find the man in 0:09:09.760 --> 0:09:14.120 the hope of witnessing these miracles for himself. After a 0:09:14.200 --> 0:09:17.800 number of hours trekking through rolling, tree capped hills across 0:09:17.840 --> 0:09:22.280 treacherous paths flanked by steep, jagged cliffs, Tony had made 0:09:22.320 --> 0:09:25.440 it to about six thousand feet above sea level when 0:09:25.480 --> 0:09:29.320 he came across an old man in simple clothes standing 0:09:29.320 --> 0:09:32.000 at the end of a small plateau as if he 0:09:32.080 --> 0:09:34.920 had been waiting for him. To the side of the 0:09:34.960 --> 0:09:38.600 plateau lay a steep drop into a gully with a 0:09:38.720 --> 0:09:43.360 stream gushing through it. Without acknowledging the young Navy officer, 0:09:43.880 --> 0:09:48.160 the fakier asked what it was the Tony wanted. I 0:09:48.440 --> 0:09:55.000 hear you couldn't perform miracles, You're too materially stick. But 0:09:55.520 --> 0:09:58.720 I'll give you what you want. There was a pause 0:09:58.840 --> 0:10:03.079 as the fakier thought for a moment. Tony smiled awkwardly, 0:10:03.600 --> 0:10:08.040 suddenly self conscious at this clash of cultures. Look towards 0:10:08.080 --> 0:10:11.600 those hills, my son, Tony was not quite sure what 0:10:11.679 --> 0:10:15.720 to expect. He pointed towards some prominent peaks in the east. 0:10:17.120 --> 0:10:21.320 Those hills The fakir gestured yes with a gentle nod 0:10:21.360 --> 0:10:25.000 of the head, and Tony Julie turned back to inspect 0:10:25.040 --> 0:10:30.800 them Yoyoshi. Tony looked confused, scratching his head before turning 0:10:30.840 --> 0:10:34.640 back to the man. I'm sorry, I don't but the 0:10:34.720 --> 0:10:38.600 man wasn't there. Tony heard a shout from the far 0:10:38.720 --> 0:10:44.720 side of the stream. Well, my son, did that entertain you? 0:10:46.120 --> 0:10:48.520 Tony stood for a moment, trying to fathom how a 0:10:48.600 --> 0:10:51.280 seventy year old man could have dropped into the gully 0:10:51.480 --> 0:10:53.760 and raced to the other side at the fast flowing 0:10:53.760 --> 0:10:58.360 waters in only a matter of seconds. Smiling now to himself, 0:10:58.800 --> 0:11:01.679 he watched as the fakir slowly picked his way along 0:11:01.720 --> 0:11:06.880 the rocky bank before disappearing into the bush. Are you 0:11:06.920 --> 0:11:09.800 always taking care of your family? Do you often take 0:11:09.840 --> 0:11:12.800 care of others and not yourself? Now it's time to 0:11:12.840 --> 0:11:15.960 take care of yourself, to make time for you you 0:11:16.080 --> 0:11:19.880 deserve it. TELEDOC gives you access to a licensed therapist 0:11:20.160 --> 0:11:22.520 to help you get back to feeling your best to 0:11:22.640 --> 0:11:26.560 feeling like yourself again. With TELEDOC, you can speak to 0:11:26.559 --> 0:11:30.360 a licensed therapist by phone or video. Therapy appointments are 0:11:30.400 --> 0:11:33.480 available seven days a week from seven am to nine 0:11:33.480 --> 0:11:37.760 pm local time. If you feel overwhelmed sometimes maybe you 0:11:37.840 --> 0:11:42.000 feel stressed or anxious, depressed or lonely, or you might 0:11:42.040 --> 0:11:45.880 be struggling with a personal or family issue, teledoc can help. 0:11:46.440 --> 0:11:50.679 Teledoc is committed to facilitating great therapeutic matches, so they 0:11:50.760 --> 0:11:53.760 make it easy to change counselors if needed. For free. 0:11:54.320 --> 0:11:59.280 Teledoc therapy is available through most insurance or employers. Download 0:11:59.320 --> 0:12:04.120 the app. Visitteldoc dot com forward slash Unexplained podcast today 0:12:04.280 --> 0:12:10.679 to get started that teladoc dot com slash Unexplained podcast. 0:12:13.440 --> 0:12:17.880 The Society of Psychical Research, of which Tony's CUSPR group 0:12:18.120 --> 0:12:21.320 was an affiliate, had been established in eighteen eighty two, 0:12:21.720 --> 0:12:24.240 largely in response to a peculiar craze that had been 0:12:24.240 --> 0:12:27.560 gripping the nation, which had its origins in a small 0:12:27.600 --> 0:12:31.079 wooden house in the tiny hamlet of Hydesville, New York. 0:12:32.120 --> 0:12:35.160 It was there that, in eighteen forty eight, two sisters, 0:12:35.640 --> 0:12:38.800 Kate and Margaret Fox, claimed to have made contact with 0:12:38.840 --> 0:12:41.600 the spirit of a dead man who had communicated with 0:12:41.640 --> 0:12:46.000 them through a series of knocks and bangs. In other words, 0:12:46.040 --> 0:12:49.800 they had allegedly made contact with a poltergeist, and in 0:12:49.880 --> 0:12:53.360 doing so had inadvertently created a movement that would come 0:12:53.400 --> 0:12:56.800 to be known as spiritualism. As news of the Fox 0:12:56.880 --> 0:13:00.640 sisters incredible claims spread through the UK, it wasn't long 0:13:00.760 --> 0:13:04.840 before everybody from scullery staff to Queen Victoria were conducting 0:13:04.880 --> 0:13:09.080 seances in an attempt to communicate with the dead. As 0:13:09.120 --> 0:13:12.520 the movement grew in popularity throughout the world, so too 0:13:12.640 --> 0:13:16.280 did the stories of strange paranormal happenings that seemed suddenly 0:13:16.320 --> 0:13:19.920 to be breaking out everywhere. For those caught up in 0:13:19.920 --> 0:13:23.640 the scientific fervor of the Enlightenment age, the emergence of 0:13:23.679 --> 0:13:27.439 such stories was a horrifying repost to the increasingly rationalist 0:13:27.480 --> 0:13:33.240 and atheistic principles catalyzing academia at the time. However, although 0:13:33.280 --> 0:13:37.280 many in the scientific community dismissed paranormal claims out of hand, 0:13:37.559 --> 0:13:41.000 a small number of academics, led by Henry and Eleanor Sidgwick, 0:13:41.280 --> 0:13:45.880 William Barrett and Edmund Gurney, amongst others, decided instead to 0:13:46.280 --> 0:13:50.439 approach these varied problems without prejudice or prepossession of any kind, 0:13:50.840 --> 0:13:54.200 in the same spirit of exact and unimpassioned inquiry which 0:13:54.200 --> 0:13:57.400 has enabled science to solve so many problems once not 0:13:57.520 --> 0:14:02.000 less obscure nor less hotly debated, and so the spr 0:14:02.240 --> 0:14:07.720 was born, the world's first ghostbusters. The Cambridge branch of 0:14:07.720 --> 0:14:10.880 the society had been founded in nineteen o six and 0:14:10.960 --> 0:14:14.480 fifty years later existed mostly as an organization for like 0:14:14.640 --> 0:14:18.040 minded people to get together and share stories regarding the 0:14:18.120 --> 0:14:21.760 latest papers and theories they had read. But sometimes, if 0:14:21.800 --> 0:14:24.720 they were lucky, the chance for something more hands on 0:14:24.760 --> 0:14:27.720 would crop up, like that which Tony brought to the 0:14:27.760 --> 0:14:32.640 group one evening in November nineteen fifty seven. The curious 0:14:32.640 --> 0:14:35.520 case had presented itself a few days earlier, when a 0:14:35.600 --> 0:14:38.960 young journalist based out of Wisbeach, some forty miles north 0:14:38.960 --> 0:14:43.600 of Cambridge, had contacted him at the beginning of October. 0:14:44.040 --> 0:14:48.240 Anthony Wilmot, who worked for the Wisbeach Advertiser, had overheard 0:14:48.280 --> 0:14:51.400 a conversation about some mysterious goings on at an old 0:14:51.440 --> 0:14:55.000 manor house known as Hanneth Hall, situated out in the 0:14:55.080 --> 0:14:58.920 fens not far from where he lived. The house, he 0:14:58.960 --> 0:15:03.600 would later discover, had been plagued by hauntings for years. 0:15:03.640 --> 0:15:07.040 Wilmot didn't care much for silly ghost stories, but after 0:15:07.160 --> 0:15:09.840 learning one of the current tenants was the local labor 0:15:09.880 --> 0:15:13.640 candidate Deryck Page, he couldn't resist following up on the story, 0:15:14.960 --> 0:15:18.040 having arranged to interview Derreck and his wife Audrey, as 0:15:18.040 --> 0:15:20.720 well as Audrey's mother Rose, who lived with the family. 0:15:21.320 --> 0:15:24.800 Wilmot had arrived with tongue firmly in Cheek, only to 0:15:24.840 --> 0:15:28.320 find them in a state of some distress. For the 0:15:28.400 --> 0:15:31.920 next hour, he was treated to a variety of extraordinary 0:15:31.920 --> 0:15:35.800 tales outlining their experiences. Since they had arrived from Cheshire 0:15:35.920 --> 0:15:39.800 two months previously, they had only been there a matter 0:15:39.840 --> 0:15:43.600 of days, as Audrey explained, when she was first awoken 0:15:43.760 --> 0:15:46.520 in the early hours of the morning by the sound 0:15:46.800 --> 0:15:50.960 of a very clear and insistent tapping that seemed to 0:15:50.960 --> 0:15:55.320 be coming from just outside her bedroom. Thinking she had 0:15:55.320 --> 0:15:58.400 only imagined it, she turned to go back to sleep, 0:15:59.200 --> 0:16:02.800 only for it to come again, this time a little louder. 0:16:04.520 --> 0:16:07.480 Sitting up in bed, Knowing it couldn't have been Dereck 0:16:07.680 --> 0:16:10.120 since he stayed in Ipswich during the week for work, 0:16:10.840 --> 0:16:13.280 she had assumed it was one of the children, or 0:16:13.320 --> 0:16:17.840 perhaps a mother who slept in the bedroom opposite. Yes, Hello, 0:16:19.560 --> 0:16:24.920 Audrey bolted upright and hurriedly switched on the bedside light Hello, 0:16:26.360 --> 0:16:30.880 but there was no reply. Collecting herself, she stepped out 0:16:30.880 --> 0:16:34.440 of bed and made her way cautiously towards the door. 0:16:35.600 --> 0:16:38.720 With a trembling hand, she took hold of the handle 0:16:38.920 --> 0:16:42.320 and eased the door open a fraction. Peering through the 0:16:42.360 --> 0:16:49.840 gap into the corridor beyond, there was nobody there. Ever 0:16:49.920 --> 0:16:53.000 since that night, the family had been hearing similar knocks 0:16:53.040 --> 0:16:56.800 and taps throughout the house. Audrey was certain that on 0:16:56.840 --> 0:17:01.080 a separate occasion she had heard footsteps descending stairs with 0:17:01.160 --> 0:17:04.280 a clearly defined shifting of weight from one foot to another. 0:17:05.280 --> 0:17:07.600 She had been alone in the house at the time. 0:17:09.200 --> 0:17:13.200 A few weeks later, Awdrey's mother Rose had woken up 0:17:13.240 --> 0:17:16.800 after feeling a violent jolt against her bed, and not 0:17:16.880 --> 0:17:21.000 long after, despite being partially deaf, she had been woken 0:17:21.040 --> 0:17:23.760 in the middle of the night by an inexplicably loud, 0:17:24.000 --> 0:17:27.800 crashing sound just outside the door, as if the door 0:17:27.880 --> 0:17:32.280 itself were being smashed in. Derec had not heard these 0:17:32.280 --> 0:17:35.440 noises himself, and joked that it was probably the old 0:17:35.440 --> 0:17:38.119 Tories who used to own the house, turning in their 0:17:38.160 --> 0:17:41.320 graves at the thought of him living there. He did 0:17:41.359 --> 0:17:45.399 recount one rather strange story of his own. However, not 0:17:45.560 --> 0:17:48.399 long after they had moved in, his mother had traveled 0:17:48.400 --> 0:17:50.960 down from Manchester with a view to staying with the 0:17:51.000 --> 0:17:54.399 family for a few weeks. After a couple of nights 0:17:54.560 --> 0:17:58.000 sleeping in the spare bedroom, she began to experience a 0:17:58.080 --> 0:18:02.639 recurring set of bazaar and terror fine nightmares. A couple 0:18:02.640 --> 0:18:05.760 of times she had found herself floating out of her 0:18:05.760 --> 0:18:09.160 body and looking down at herself as she slept, with 0:18:09.200 --> 0:18:13.480 the very vivid sense that something profoundly malignant was trying 0:18:13.480 --> 0:18:16.679 to pull her away, and that if she didn't return 0:18:16.720 --> 0:18:20.800 to her body, she would never wake up. Other times, 0:18:20.840 --> 0:18:23.560 she found herself trapped under the legs of a horse 0:18:23.720 --> 0:18:27.879 as it kicked violently at her face. After less than 0:18:27.920 --> 0:18:31.240 a week, having also started to hear the noises, she 0:18:31.359 --> 0:18:36.200 made a hasty retreat back to Manchester. Audrey and Rose 0:18:36.440 --> 0:18:39.320 told the young journalist that the knocking sounds had become 0:18:39.400 --> 0:18:43.040 worse over the last few weeks, and that increasingly they 0:18:43.040 --> 0:18:47.159 seemed to be coming from one room located at the 0:18:47.200 --> 0:18:50.520 north end of the first floor. The room was assumed 0:18:50.520 --> 0:18:52.720 by the family to have been a bedroom at some point, 0:18:52.840 --> 0:18:57.840 owing to its size, but was currently being used for storage. Since, 0:18:57.920 --> 0:19:00.600 unlike every other room in the property, it had never 0:19:00.640 --> 0:19:03.600 been rigged up to the mains, the pages were happy 0:19:03.640 --> 0:19:05.919 to keep it that way and rarely had cause to 0:19:05.920 --> 0:19:10.600 go in there. After leaving Hanneth Hall that afternoon, Wilmot 0:19:10.760 --> 0:19:14.240 determined to do some further digging of his own, and that, 0:19:14.640 --> 0:19:16.680 as he explained to Tony over the phone a few 0:19:16.720 --> 0:19:20.679 weeks later, was when things started to get really interesting. 0:19:22.280 --> 0:19:25.359 The house, as he discovered, had been built some time 0:19:25.400 --> 0:19:28.399 in the sixteenth century and was thought originally to have 0:19:28.440 --> 0:19:32.600 belonged to a Richard Sparrow, earning it the nickname Sparrow's Nest. 0:19:33.640 --> 0:19:35.879 Over the years, it had been passed through a number 0:19:35.920 --> 0:19:39.240 of owners, gaining its current name after being purchased by 0:19:39.320 --> 0:19:43.200 Joseph Hanneth in eighteen twelve. The house was sold again 0:19:43.240 --> 0:19:46.240 to George Williams in eighteen ninety nine, who elected to 0:19:46.280 --> 0:19:50.199 keep the name Hannath Hall. Wilmot got in touch with 0:19:50.240 --> 0:19:54.120 the building's current owner, Hugh Williams, George's grandson, to find 0:19:54.119 --> 0:19:58.119 out more. Much to his surprise. Hugh and his family, 0:19:58.480 --> 0:20:00.720 who had lived in the house for forty years before 0:20:00.720 --> 0:20:03.680 deciding to rent it out to Audrey and Derrick were 0:20:03.720 --> 0:20:07.400 more than familiar with the spooky goings on there. Hugh 0:20:07.520 --> 0:20:09.920 went on to describe an incident a few years back 0:20:10.280 --> 0:20:13.840 involving his brother Peter, who, while staying alone in the house, 0:20:14.440 --> 0:20:17.200 had witnessed a door handle turning of its own accord. 0:20:18.080 --> 0:20:22.520 Another time, Hugh's nieces had suffered vivid nightmares while sleeping 0:20:22.520 --> 0:20:24.920 in the now disused room at the far end of 0:20:24.960 --> 0:20:28.760 the property, and had also awakened one night to find 0:20:28.800 --> 0:20:32.000 a pair of blood stained hands floating in the room 0:20:32.080 --> 0:20:36.000 with them. That wouldn't be the bedroom on the north 0:20:36.040 --> 0:20:39.679 side with it by any chance, Wilmot had asked, you 0:20:39.760 --> 0:20:44.840 mean the haunted bedroom, replied Hugh. As it turned out, 0:20:45.359 --> 0:20:48.080 Hugh's family had taken to calling at this on account 0:20:48.119 --> 0:20:50.520 of a morbid story they had heard about one of 0:20:50.560 --> 0:20:54.520 the previous owners, long before the house had been wired 0:20:54.560 --> 0:20:58.159 for electricity. The haunted room had in fact been the 0:20:58.240 --> 0:21:02.080 sole master bedroom. As the story went, it was in 0:21:02.119 --> 0:21:05.159 this room that the wife of former owner Joseph Hanneth, 0:21:05.600 --> 0:21:08.120 who bought the property from his father in eighteen twelve, 0:21:08.600 --> 0:21:12.600 had died young. The death had left Joseph so bereft 0:21:12.880 --> 0:21:16.160 he couldn't bear to release the body for burial, deciding 0:21:16.160 --> 0:21:19.840 instead to have it interred in an open coffin, which 0:21:19.840 --> 0:21:23.000 he kept at the end of the marital bed. For 0:21:23.040 --> 0:21:27.520 six weeks and increasingly unhinged, Joseph continued to order his 0:21:27.560 --> 0:21:30.680 servants to bring his wife three meals a day as 0:21:30.680 --> 0:21:36.560 her body steadily putrefied. Eventually, with the stench becoming unbearable, 0:21:37.240 --> 0:21:40.320 Joseph was brought to his senses just long enough to 0:21:40.359 --> 0:21:42.800 take the body into the front garden, where he is 0:21:42.840 --> 0:21:46.680 said to have buried it under a large horse chestnut tree, 0:21:47.320 --> 0:21:50.159 as Wilmot continued to explain over the phone to Tony. 0:21:50.960 --> 0:21:53.800 Since the first article had been well received and with 0:21:53.880 --> 0:21:57.520 Halloween drawing near, he approached Derec and Audrey about the 0:21:57.520 --> 0:22:00.520 possibility of spending a night in the house with a 0:22:00.600 --> 0:22:04.440 view to publishing another article about it. Since the couple 0:22:04.480 --> 0:22:07.200 were eager to prove they weren't making anything up, they 0:22:07.240 --> 0:22:11.000 welcomed Wilmot, joined this time by a senior colleague from 0:22:11.000 --> 0:22:13.439 the paper, as well as a local friend and his 0:22:13.520 --> 0:22:18.040 pet labrador, Simba, back to Hanneth Hall on thirty first 0:22:18.040 --> 0:22:22.960 of October to conduct an investigation. Later that night, as 0:22:23.000 --> 0:22:26.800 the devil's hour approached, and with Audrey Rose and the 0:22:26.880 --> 0:22:31.679 children fast asleep, Deryck, Wilmot and his colleague took up 0:22:31.720 --> 0:22:35.480 positions on the landing, while the friend and Simba kept 0:22:35.520 --> 0:22:41.080 watch in the old master bedroom. Despite some initial nervous joshing, 0:22:41.560 --> 0:22:44.880 it hadn't taken long for a pervasive eeriness to descend, 0:22:46.000 --> 0:22:49.119 when from somewhere in the house a clock struck twelve. 0:22:50.359 --> 0:22:55.280 Simba began to whimper mournfully. A noise was heard from 0:22:55.280 --> 0:22:58.320 inside a spare bedroom off to the side, but not 0:22:58.440 --> 0:23:02.680 one of the men had the courage investigate. A moment later, 0:23:03.480 --> 0:23:07.800 they all sensed a significant drop in temperature, followed by 0:23:07.800 --> 0:23:11.480 the smell of sandalwood that seemed to be sweeping back 0:23:11.520 --> 0:23:16.639 and forth along the corridor, although little else occurred that evening, 0:23:17.320 --> 0:23:19.879 whether it had been the charge of the occasion or 0:23:19.920 --> 0:23:23.520 merely the atmosphere of the evocative old building. When the 0:23:23.560 --> 0:23:26.720 men finally called it to night at two thirty am, 0:23:26.760 --> 0:23:30.800 it was with the distinct impression that they had experienced something. 0:23:33.880 --> 0:23:37.359 All elements of Unexplained are produced by me Richard McClain Smith. 0:23:37.720 --> 0:23:40.200 Please subscribe and rate the show on iTunes and feel 0:23:40.200 --> 0:23:42.360 free to get in touch with any thoughts or ideas 0:23:42.400 --> 0:23:45.520 regarding the stories you've heard on the show. Perhaps you 0:23:45.600 --> 0:23:47.520 have an explanation of your own you'd like to share. 0:23:48.280 --> 0:23:51.000 You can reach us online at Unexplained podcast dot com 0:23:51.160 --> 0:23:55.000 or on Twitter at Unexplained pod. Now. It's time to 0:23:55.080 --> 0:23:58.960 take care of yourself. To make time for you, tell 0:23:59.000 --> 0:24:02.040 a doc gives you acts to a licensed therapist to 0:24:02.119 --> 0:24:05.119 help you get back to feeling your best. 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