Haunted houses are a staple of horror fiction, so let’s explore three more haunted houses that are horror fact!
Woodchester Mansion, UK
Despite its grand exterior, this gothic revival style house remains unfinished, and has done since the mid 1870s. However, this doesn’t change the fact that the house has become a beacon for undead souls.
Woodchester Mansion was built on the site of the former Spring Park – named due to the deer park that was established in its grounds. When Williams Leigh purchased the estate, he demolished the old house and set about building Woodchester, its construction beginning in 1858 and stopping in 1873, following Leigh’s death.
The house was kept in the Leigh family, who intended to demolish the building and start again, though this plan never materialised.
In 1938 it was sold to a mental health trust which intended on using the manor as a hospital, although these plans were halted by the Second World War.
After the war, the house was abandoned, until it was bought by the council and leased to the Woodchester Mansion Trust in 1992. The house currently opens to the public through the summer months, as well as running conservation and craftsmanship training.
But if that was all the mansion had to offer, we wouldn’t be talking about it here.
Woodchester Mansion is said to be home to a whole host of spirits from across the ages, including a young girl, stonemason, an American soldier and a floating head.
1940s music and a singing girl have been heard, as well as strange bangs and footsteps. Stones and pebbles are said to be thrown and strange lights have been sighted by visitors.
Perhaps spirits from the old, demolished mansion remained behind to haunt the grounds alongside their twentieth century housemates, but why?
There are many paranormal groups that offer tours of the mansion, so maybe you should tag along and find out for yourself.
Faces of Bélmez, Spain
A particularly bizarre phenomenon is said to have taken place in an ordinary house in Bélmez de la Moraleda, Jaén, Spain.
Beginning in 1971, a series of faces seemed to appear on the concrete floor of the home.
Matriarch, María Gómez Cámara, saw the first face in August 1971, and despite a multitude of scrubbings, the face remained. Eventually, the husband destroyed it with a pick axe and new concrete was put down, but, alas, a new face seemed to form. Then another. And another. The faces seemed to show men and women of varying ages. They had different expressions and appeared and disappeared at different times.
News filtered quickly through the town and soon people came from far and wide to witness the faces for themselves. Skeptics and believers had the floor analysed, and opinions varied between a type of “thought photography” to a deliberate hoax.
Those who write the story off as a hoax point to research suggesting the presence of lead and chromium in samples of the floor. These are often found in paint samples of the time, however others argue that simple paint would not withstand the scrubbing the faces were subjected to, and the “layer” that paint leaves behind was missing.
Some suggested that María was psychic, and she somehow gave energy for the faces to manifest. Hans Bender, parapsychologist and one of the lead researchers into the Bélmez faces, recounts that even when sealed in with clear plastic, the faces would change slightly without interference.
Whether or not the faces were faked is still debated, however rumours maintain that the house itself was built upon an old burial ground.
Carl Beck House, Canada
In the later part of the nineteenth century, wealthy lumber merchant Carl Beck, built a home in Penetanguishene, Ontario, Canada, for himself, his wife and their nine children.
Unfortunately, that’s where things began to fall apart. When Carl’s wife, Emelia, passed away, the responsibility to take care of the children was left to eldest daughter, Mary.
Despite the passing of two of the children at an early age, all was well for the family until – so the story goes – Mary fell in love and married a man her father deemed “unsuitable”.
This rift tore the family apart, and Mary was ultimately disinherited – being left a single dollar in her father’s will.
In death, Mary returned to the house and is now one of the regularly seen ghosts, along with her parents and two younger siblings.
Visitors have reported paranormal goings on including moving blankets, disembodied voices, the smell of cigar smoke and unexplained shadows.
In fact, there’s said to be 18 spirits residing in the house, and if you’re in the area, you can check them out yourself – the top floor of the house is now an Airbnb.
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