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Childhood friends SALLY SELL and SAMANTHA DAVIES share their spooky experiences living in a haunted house in West Sussex that (possibly) led them to believe in ghosts
We’ve been friends since childhood and in 2012 we were excited to move into our first home together! We privately rented a spacious three-bedroom cottage, set in a large area of woodland in the picturesque West Sussex countryside.
Characterized by its dark green and rather oppressive kitchen, garish patterns, moth-eaten carpets and clinical white walls, it certainly had its quirks and required more than a ‘lick of paint’.
The cottage was oil-fired and we later discovered that it cost a fortune to heat it in the long winter months. It was deathly cold with its single-pane, lead-lined windows, which always had condensation on the inside and only exacerbated our endless battle against the damp that spread like a plague across the stark white walls. Other than that, the rent was affordable, and it was the call for independence in beautiful surroundings that sealed the deal.
Before we moved here, we had a shared, skeptical interest in the paranormal, but this grew into a fascination after we lived here. The many inexplicable events during this period have made us doubt ourselves and our sanity.
It wasn’t long after the move before strange things started happening. We both slept terribly. One of us had harrowing experiences with sleep paralysis, which had never happened before or since. Inanimate objects would move or go missing only to reappear after searching high and low for them, which was maddening.
Shadow figures were seen at the edge and returning footsteps were often heard. TVs, iPods and electronics were unpredictable and turned on at full power day and night. When this happened, we jokingly said, “unreliable electricity,” and that was our comforting rationalization. Although the electricity had been checked before we moved in, there were doubts as the house was almost 100 years old.
Other encounters included one of us witnessing small handprints on the inside of the bedroom window. We both separately experienced the fear of thinking that someone had broken into the cottage while we were alone, as we heard and felt through the old wooden floor, very prominent heavy stomping down the main hallway, which seemed much more aggressive and alarming than the usual , subtler footsteps that were commonplace.
One of our partners had a heavy vase of flowers launched at him from the fireplace and he also experienced sleeping problems during his stay in the cottage. Another time he thought one of us had snuck up behind him and said his name right into his ear, even feeling the breath, and quickly turned to an empty room.
Several people, including us, had glimpsed or heard what sounded like a little boy laughing in the closet and hallway at the back of the bedroom. At night the sound of a music box played – we even searched the entire cottage and roof space, thinking there must be one somewhere, but we never found it.
Most of the time the daily annoyances of disappearing objects, opening cabinets/doors, or electrical oddities were manageable, but there were a few moments that were truly terrifying, and so after a few years of living with this, we were ready to move on.
We are still trying to rationalize the events, because it was very old, damp and creaky, or perhaps the insulation of the property fueled our fears and imagination? We are not alone, however, as several friends, partners and relatives who visited the cottage still reminisce about the various strange experiences they too had, confirming our belief that this could very well have been paranormal.
In retrospect, we wish we had investigated these frequent occurrences scientifically, but at the time we couldn’t afford to live anywhere else and were afraid that provoking them would make things worse. It felt like anxiety and rumination were fueling it, so turning a blind eye became a coping mechanism.
We often drive past the cottage now and wonder if the current residents experience any of the many strange events we witnessed and we can’t fathom how we lived there for a number of years.
Our curiosity was piqued, we have since done several paranormal investigations, it’s a fun pastime when you can walk away at the end of the night! One we both attended which was held at the famous Hell Fire Caves in High Wycombe was very interesting and we loved the history but both still skeptical believers, we personally didn’t experience anything paranormal there that evening.
This photo of the house was taken from the bottom of the garden in the middle of winter.
Standing by the kitchen window, we would often sense someone down there, just out of sight in the tree line, and it was very unnerving. You never get used to that feeling. The feeling of being watched.
Have you had a haunted experience like this haunted house? Let us know in the comments section below or send us a message via our contact page!
