sherry
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The Dene
replied on: 7/13/2006 11:06:34 AM
I was interested to read a ghost story connected to the dene in the ripley and heanor several weeks ago. During 1940 my mother and her family moved into a house opposite the dene. The address at the time was known as 25 church street, later changing to 23. My mother was 9 years old and the youngest of 11 siblings. She had her own bedroom and a few weeks after moving in she woke to find a man staring down at her in bed. He was wore a big hat and either a long coat or cloak and promptly vanished as she screamed. Needless to say she spent the rest of the night sleeping inbetween her parents! The family tried to convince her she had been dreaming but she saw him again a few weeks later and she insisted he was dressed like the man on the quaker oats box. Although she didn't see him again other family members did or had strange experiences in the house. The strangest happended to her sister and sister inlaw whilst she was at school and they were looking after the house whilst other family members were away.
Lou and Maisy had cleaned the downstairs of the house and then went for a walk into town. As they locked the door behind them their nextdoor neighbour was cleaning her doorstep. On their return they were shocked to find a heavy bag of potatoes had been taken out of the kitchen and put underneath the middle of a long dining table in the next room. Also coats which had been hung neatly on hooks in the hall were now scattered in heaps making a circle around the dining table. Their fist thoughts were that somehow someone had got in and played a trick on them. They went to ask the neighbour, mrs Western if anyone had been whilst they were out. Nobody had, and she had been outside all the time they were gone. There were no other signs that someone had been in. This unnerved them and they didn't know what to think. They put everything back in its place and decided to go back up town for chips for when my mum returned from school. On their return exactly the same thing had happened again. They were really frightened now and when my mum returned Lou was in such a state she told her about it and said the house must be haunted. This terrified my mum, who cried and told Lou to stop talking about it. When it was time for mum to go back to afternoon school, she went out the back door and Lou and Maisy went upstairs to start cleaning again. Mum had forgotten her book so ran back but couldn't open the door so she started banging on it. Lou and Maisy opened the window above the door and were hysterical when they found out that my mum couldn't get back in as they had not locked the door. Eventually they had to come down and let her in for the book as my mum was probably more frightened of her teacher than the ghost! This never happened again iand it was only last year when we were looking itno the history of quakers that we found out that during meetings they would stand in a circle. We concluded that the coats being left in a circle pattern and the potatoes in the centre must have been symbolistic of their meetings. Although we have not been able to find out if quakers lived at the house it does seem likely with the howitt family living just across the road and there once being a quaker movement in the town. Hope I haven't bored you!
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