Faulty phones, strange noises, cold chills and a spirit guide named Archie – just part of the job for Kingston clairvoyant Camilla Ventham-Fraser.
Zoe Birdsall
We’ve all experienced that spine-tingling, hairs-on-end, goosebump-prickling moment when your favourite scary movie grips you in suspense. Before you know it you’ve jumped so far out of your chair, your bum is no longer in your seat.
But ghouls and ghosts are just that, aren’t they? An unexplained phenomenon that taps into our over-creative imaginations. But what happens when the movie becomes real life and you start to feel like you are not alone in your home?
When third-year interior design student India Rose got in touch with us with stories of her house being haunted, sightings of ghosts, chills and noises, we thought we better check it out.
Who ya gonna call?
So we grabbed our ghostbuster backpacks and our clairvoyant Camilla and headed to Hampton Court. The stories we were told were unnerving to say the least, but surely the ghosts would not appear for us?
Fearing the worst, we headed down to the dingy basement. The girls were setting up their iPhones to record when Mary and Ingvild discovered that neither phone was picking up any sound. We looked at each other amazed. “I’ve literally just tested it for recording before we came in,” said Ingvild. “It worked perfectly.”
“Ah, yes that will be the spirits,” Camilla explained. “They don’t like technology.” We froze.
We edged deeper into the house, entering the first of the spare bedrooms. Almost in unison, we all said that we felt a very cold breeze in the room, despite the windows being closed.
We soon learnt that it was a room India’s family barely ever entered.
She said, “I’ve always felt a really bad energy from this room; I never come in here and wouldn’t dream of sleeping in here.”
Camilla told us there was an evil spirit in this room coming from an unhappy man who was 52. “I wouldn’t come in this room if I were you India. He doesn’t want girls in here,” Camilla warned. We eagerly waited for a sign that he was in the room. “He’s here. He’s listening to us talking,” she said. “He’s in the four corners.” Unfortunately, the sign we wanted didn’t come.
Spooky spirit guides
Unsurprisingly, we quickly made our way out of the spare bedroom and firmly shut the door. It was now time to learn about our own spiritual guides, which, as Camilla explained, everyone has.
Making her way around us, she identified who our guides were: Ingvild’s: two horses and a horseman (unfortunately for Ingvild, she does not like horses); Mary’s: a Mexican beach boy. I was lucky enough to have two; a medieval monk and an athlete from the 1920s; and my personal favourite… Alexia’s: a hippy called Archie who wears a multi-coloured patchwork cape.
The girls and I have planned to go back to India’s haunted, yet enchanting, house soon to stay overnight and see if the ghosts come out. We will return with a baseball bat, just in case Camilla’s advice on how to get rid of unwanted ghosts doesn’t work.
“Just tell them to go away. Say you would like to be friends with them.” Who knows if we’ll survive to tell the tale…