Marby Noffki

The only house in England that's not haunted

June 6, 2008 |  4 comments
Image Credit: sxc.hu When I submit my articles for this web site, with a few exceptions, I try not to let my personal experiences be the focus of the article. I might use them as an example to illustrate the bigger point I am making, or I will use them to reach out to those that read this in hopes of answering questions or sparking debate and dialogue. The reason I do this is because I cannot prove my personal experiences, and therefore, do not feel that someone out on the internet that doesn’t know me should have any reason to believe that I have seen a ghost or a UFO flying over The Bahamas. I know that the things I relate are true in so far as I understand them, and I attempt to analyze and debunk those experiences myself because in the end, I don’t want a good story so much as I want the truth. I also want for people to question rather than blindly believe me or anyone else.

Tonight, however, I have to make my personal experience the focus because I am a bit startled, I am starting to think back to a few other related incidents, and because what has just occurred completely blew away my idea for an article I have been pondering for weeks.

I have been living in this house since November 5, 2006. This is exactly the same length of time I have been living in England. What little history my husband and I have on the house stretches back to 1973 when it was built, and as far as we know, nothing horrible has ever happened here, and no one has died here. My husband has lived in this house since 2000, occasionally renting it out before we were married, but none of his previous tenants have ever reported anything odd, and he has never experienced anything strange here himself.

I often joke that I moved into the only house in England that is not haunted and feign disappointment when I say it. I am the type that can sense things about places, and the only thing I ever sensed in this house upon moving in was that it was a happy place in need of a woman’s touch. Mr. Noffki and I are happy here, and our dogs and the budgie have never complained, so I’ll take the liberty of speaking for them and say that they are happy as well.

Yet, there have been moments where I have had to ask if we have an unseen roommate. It goes beyond misplaced objects that turn up in odd places. Most of those can be easily explained my the absentminded nature of the living humans in this house. I am not ashamed to admit that I have caught myself trying to put a gallon of milk into the oven instead of the refrigerator. What I am talking about are the things seen from the corner of my eye.There have been times when I have stood as an exiled smoker on my back porch in the middle of winter and seen what appear to be fireflies that vanish when I look at them head on. I used to blame my glasses catching some random light source and distorting it at that angle until I realized that it has happened when I haven’t been wearing them. Further puzzling me is that this has happened indoors as well. I’ve heard the floorboards creak when no one has been walking on them, as well as the occasional sound of footsteps when no one was around to make them. These things have all been mentally noted, but none have been alarming enough for me to start considering ghosts until tonight, and even then, I would rather leave it up to the readers to decide.

We have had a long day today. We went to a track day near Birmingham and did not get home until nearly eight this evening. Needless to say, because we have been playing with cars, we have not been drinking, and since dinner and showers, we have been vegetating in the upstairs office, Mr. Noffki playing Conan while I chatted with my mother and pondered the previously mentioned idea for an article. Once she and I were off the phone, I decided that I needed a cup of tea and a cigarette, so I trotted downstairs, shutting the baby gate on the stairs behind me as I reached the bottom.

The baby gate is there because the newest addition to our family, Rufus the Rhodesian Ridgeback, is still too young to be trusted without some supervision. Both dogs were upstairs at the time, but as I put the kettle on, I distinctly heard someone come down the stairs. I turned toward the kitchen door to see a flash of something animal sized poke their head in and then walk toward the back door. Those footsteps were audible as well, though I cannot tell you if they were human or animal. In my mind, one of the dogs had followed me downstairs and needed to go out. I called out, “Whose little face was that?” before realizing that the baby gate was closed and I was standing there talking to myself.

The first thing that popped into my mind when I realized what had just happened was that I must really be tired. However, if I were tired enough to be seeing and hearing things, I would be too exhausted to be writing this article now. It was then that all those little incidents came rushing into my mind and I began to question.

I’m not sure that any of this is worth further investigation on my part. It seems too little to merit the research, but too major to completely ignore.

What do you think? Comments (4)

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