reading time: 3 minutes
LITZ BUTCHER reveals a haunted house at Arthur Findlay College in Stansted, where a series of grisly incidents from the late 2000s hint at a lingering presence from the building’s chilling past
College is a great place to meet like-minded people and work with some great, world-renowned teachers. My experience with room 210, on the other hand, was not so great…
At check in I was jokingly asked if I was moving in, as usual I had brought too much stuff. Room 210 was assigned to me and I trotted off to find the elevator. I decided to take the bags to the room one by one and leave one in the elevator lobby on the second floor.
I opened the door, leaving the Yale key in the lock. I put the first bag on the foot of the bed, left the door ajar, and returned to get the second bag. When I returned to room 210 a little later, the door was closed and the key was gone. Cursing myself, I returned to the elevator, but the key was nowhere to be seen. I told myself I was a mess and I left him on the bed.
I hurried back to reception and was told in no uncertain terms that I now owed them £5 for the lost key. How could I have lost the key? Back on the second floor I couldn’t believe my eyes when I approached room 210, the key was in the lock. Got to drop it, and someone must have picked it up.
I needed a shower but felt exhausted, so I splashed my face with water and sat down in the chair for a while. On the sink I saw a long, black hair coiling around the tap and crawling through the plug hole. All rooms are usually clean so I decided it must be the maids, I drank it down the sink and thought no more.
As I was running late I had to be in the coffee lounge for the meet and greet so I ran out looking forward to meeting my fellow students. About an hour later I decided to go back to the room, shower and change for dinner. When I walked past the basin, I couldn’t believe my eyes, there was a hair in the same position. It couldn’t possibly be the same one, I was sure I had thrown it away and it certainly wasn’t mine as I’m blonde. I decided I was overtired, obviously, I hadn’t wiped it out the first time and so I repeated my previous actions and absolutely made sure it was gone.
After dinner and ready for bed, I returned to my room. As I walked my eyes were immediately drawn to the sink and the long black hair snaking around the taps and down towards the electrical outlet. I consider myself a skeptical believer, but this was definitely a little uncomfortable even for me.
Nothing else happened until the early hours of the next morning when my bladder woke me up. Room 210 doesn’t have a private bathroom, so I tiptoed down the hallway to the shared bathroom. When I got back into bed, I saw on my alarm clock that it was 2:15 am. I started to drift off to sleep but was suddenly awakened by breathing coming right behind my back, getting louder and louder and accompanied by what felt like little feet pressing into my lower back. The breathing was now overwhelming and frankly unnerving. I turned over in bed, but of course there was nothing to see.
Lying there waiting for the morning light seemed like an eternity, the room was cold, but I felt clammy. As dawn broke, I glanced at the clock that had been ticking frantically all night but still told me it was 2:15 AM.
After some research several friends told me they had also experienced room 210 and flatly refused to stay there again. I discovered it later before Stansted Hall, built in 1871, was bequeathed to the National Spiritualist Union it was a family home and the second floor was originally the nursery. I can only assume that the ghosts of naughty children still live in room 210.
LITZ BUTCHER says, “I am a seer rather than a psychic or clairvoyant; that sums up what I do: I see things that are not normally visible. Coming from a psychic, witchy family, it’s no surprise that from my earliest memories I’ve had an obsession with witches, ghosts, and all things paranormal. My home library is filled with books, articles and magazines on everything from meditation to curses, how to make a hoodoo cleansing bath and the best way to summon a Crossroads demon! In my free time I watch true crime shows and write fiction.” Follow Litz:
