Redrum Redrum

I’ve spoken before about a feeling my house maybe haunted. Now I’m on the fence with ghosts. I don’t know one way or another if they exist. It may in fact be echoes or energy that creates possible ghostly apparitions. I guess kind of like a screen with an image burnt into it. Maybe that’s why you only see ghosts at night, when the light is right and the burnt image is visible.

As you know we’ve been living upstairs since the flood. Whilst Mally has been at work I’ve been on my laptop working with the bedroom door open. As the light fades, I notice numerous shadows stalk across the landing. The strange thing is I feel no real fear. I just close the bedroom door as I’d rather not see the shadows. It’s strange because I always said I would run a mile if I saw a ghost.

I’ve also even been reading ghost stories and mysteries whilst being in the house alone. Strange as it’s not normally something I would do. But I feel the house encourages me to do so…..oh I hope this isn’t The Shining on the North Yorkshire Coast type scenario….Redrum Redrum. Mind I think Jack Nicholson’s character is more reflected in my naughty rams than me. Rambo the naughty scamp got too excited for treats and decided to smash one of his horns into my leg. It swelled up like a balloon immediately and I can hardly walk on it. Talking about can hardly walk, Mally had an “incident” at work and had his knee dislocated. So he’s on crutches at the minute. Not a good pair of legs between us..and that was before the injuries 😂.

Anyway I digress. I was talking about ghostly goings on. I have been reading a very interesting book called ‘murders and mysteries from the North Yorkshire moors’. Written in the 1980s by a retired North Yorkshire police inspector. A very interesting piece was regarding the ‘hand of glory’ a macabre dried and pickled hand of a hanged man. Criminals used to believe that having the hand along with a very gruesome candle made from the fat of the same corpse, would assist them on their extracurricular activities. Apparently taking the hand and the candle on a burglary would put the householders to sleep and they would stay that way until the candle was put out. The candle would be lit and a rhyme quoted. The only way the spell could apparently be broken was by pouring milk over the human candle. This was very popular a couple of hundred years ago and criminal corpses at one point had to be guarded to prevent other criminals from liberating the corpse of its flesh. I mention it as apparently one of these such hands is on display in Danby. A village only around 6 miles from my house. It’s an interesting book and I highly recommend it.