I Bought a Haunted Witches' Prison (Classic)

Summary

What It Was Like – "I Bought a Haunted Witches' Prison (Classic)"

Date: January 23, 2026
Host: Julian Morgans (Superreal)
Guest: Vanessa Mitchell

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Overview

In this classic episode, host Julian Morgans interviews Vanessa Mitchell, a woman who bought and lived in "The Cage"—a medieval building in the English village of St. Osyth that once served as a prison for alleged witches. The episode dives into Vanessa's deeply personal and intense three-year experience living in the haunted house, exploring her skepticism, supernatural encounters, psychological toll, and the mysterious history of the property.

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Main Themes

• The reality of living with an intense haunting and supernatural phenomena
• Historical context: Europe’s witch hunts and the legacy in Essex, England
• The psychological impact and isolation experienced by those in extraordinary situations
• Skepticism vs. belief—navigating the tension between subjective experience and outside doubt

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

Setting the Scene: The History of The Cage

[03:00–07:00]

• Julian sets the historical context: St. Osyth, Essex, was fervently involved in witch trials during the 16th century.
• The Cage: a small, attractive old house that became infamous for housing women accused of witchcraft, including Ursula Kemp.
• Julian notes the modern legacy of the witch hunts and connects Salem’s history to the Essex settlers.

Vanessa’s Impulse to Buy

[07:11–10:43]

• Vanessa, a successful caravan saleswoman, felt a sudden, inexplicable obsession to buy The Cage, despite knowing only vaguely of its haunted reputation.
• "Just completely tunnel visioned. It came out of absolutely nowhere, this literally obsession with buying this house." – Vanessa ([08:43])

Nostalgia vs. Reputation

[09:30–10:43]

• Although aware of the building’s notorious history and a recent suicide, none of it deterred her.
• “The cage might be haunted but so is every other house, you know.” – Vanessa ([09:30])

Moving In: First Impressions and Skepticism

[12:52–15:18]

• Vanessa moved in with her childhood friend Nicole; both excited, both proud.
• On day one, Vanessa saw a "huge black mass" glide past in the kitchen, setting an immediate tone of unease.
• Vanessa initially skeptical of the “Amityville horror” brand of haunting but admits: "In my case, it turned out probably worse than some of the stuff I've seen on movies." ([15:35])

Daily Life in The Cage

[20:31–23:34]

• Initially, minor disturbances: swinging fireplace tools, doors/cupboards/taps opening, missing items, odd sounds.
• “It was also a feeling in the house... Even if it's a sunny day... you feel that energy. It's strong.” – Vanessa ([21:33])
• Vanessa and Nicole began to sense a shift in energy and increased strangeness; Nicole (less sensitive) was easily scared.

History Revealed: The House That No One Keeps

[23:47–26:22]

• After moving out, Vanessa learned that for 300 years, no one had kept The Cage for more than three years.
• Vanessa became the second-longest owner since its construction.
• "As a historian, she's never seen an example like it where that house was continuously up for sale." – Vanessa’s sister ([25:30])

Escalation: Full Apparitions and the Haunting of Jack

[26:48–34:00]

• Vanessa saw a clear, detailed apparition—a man (she called Jack) appearing from the waist up, felt peaceful, not harmful.
• Nicole witnessed phenomena too, notably "millions of sparkling lights" filling the living room: "Are you seeing exactly the same as I'm seeing?... then yeah, I'm seeing it too." ([34:00–35:30])
• Julian comments on how some incidents were strangely beautiful despite the terror.

Calling for Help: The Local Vicar

[32:27–42:44, recapped later at 39:43]

• Vanessa reached out to the parish vicar, who admitted he’d never done so many house blessings and exorcisms before joining St. Osyth.
• Vicar confirmed to Vanessa: "You're not mad... I've never had to do this before I came here." ([42:01])
• Exorcism gave temporary relief, but activity continued.

Cohabitation, Fear, and Compromises

[43:13–44:20]

• Vanessa, Nicole, and Nicole’s boyfriend John made a pact: never be alone in the house.
• Nicole often slept in Vanessa’s bed for comfort.

The Blood Incident

[44:23–48:55]

• Close friends Kirsty (a blood nurse) and Neil (a tough Sergeant Major) witnessed fresh, unexplained droplets of blood appearing on the floor despite no visible cause.
• "He [Neil] was angry because he couldn't work it out... and I suppose that put the fear in him." – Vanessa ([47:33])

Increasing Isolation: Living as a Prisoner

[49:04–56:50]

• When Nicole left, Vanessa became increasingly isolated, confining herself (and later her newborn son Jesse) to one room upstairs for safety.
• She describes the psychological burden and the measures she took, such as never leaving Jesse alone, and the terror that simple tasks like ironing would provoke after unsettling incidents (such as toys activating by themselves and another ghostly apparition blocking the stairs).

Emotional Breakdown and Psychological Toll

[56:56–66:23]

• Vanessa describes severe sleepwalking, depression, and a mounting sense of hopelessness.
• "It just something really bad in that house is dark and negative and just got me. Just got me." ([59:49])
• She avoided seeking help; in retrospect, she realizes she was changed and numb from constant fear.
• The haunting even led to self-destructive thoughts: "I thought if I don't leave here, this is going to be me or the house." ([65:12])

The Final Straw and Escape

[62:35–63:31]

• The catalyst: a final terrifying encounter with an apparition between her and her son convinced Vanessa to leave immediately.
• With a friend's support, she moved out within days, even though this meant long commutes and financial hardship.

Legacy and Reflection

[67:54–71:25]

• The house remains empty; the woman who bought it after Vanessa never moved in.
• On whether she warned buyers: "I told her everything. I said, you're crazy." ([68:24])
• Vanessa theorizes: the haunting comes from layers of pain, history, and trauma, not just “witches” specifically.
• "That place is haunted with layers and layers of history and energy, and I don’t know who will ever get to the bottom of it." ([69:56])

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Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• On buying the house:
  "Just completely tunnel visioned. It came out of absolutely nowhere, this literally obsession with buying this house."
  – Vanessa Mitchell ([08:43])

• On the first haunting:
  "There was a huge black mass shape, figure... I felt it, it was negative."
  – Vanessa Mitchell ([13:50])

• On skepticism:
  "In my case, it turned out probably worse than some of the stuff I’ve seen on movies."
  – Vanessa Mitchell ([15:35])

• On historical turnover:
  "No one’s ever owned that house for longer than three years... She’s never seen an example like it."
  – Vanessa Mitchell, referencing her sister ([25:30])

• On the vicar’s involvement:
  "You’re not mad... I’m having to do this a lot in this village... but I’ve never had to do it before I came here."
  – Local vicar ([42:01])

• On the lingering psychological effects:
  "I knew by then that I felt like my life just went to like a flatline. I couldn't. I had no fight left for anything."
  – Vanessa Mitchell ([59:49])

• On recognizing the danger:
  "If you can imagine living somewhere like it's constantly ‘kill yourself, kill yourself...’"
  – Vanessa Mitchell ([66:19])

• On the strange beauty:
  "If it's like millions of stars, this room, then yeah, I'm seeing it too."
  – Nicole to Vanessa ([35:30])

• On warning the next buyer:
  "I told her everything. I said, you're crazy."
  – Vanessa Mitchell ([68:24])

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Important Timestamps

• [03:00–07:00]: Historical intro & connection of St. Osyth to witch trials
• [08:19–10:43]: Vanessa describes impulsively buying The Cage, despite suicides/haunted rumors
• [13:50]: First supernatural encounter (black mass in kitchen)
• [15:35]: Vanessa admits true haunting worse than movies
• [25:30]: House’s bizarre ownership history revealed
• [28:30]: First detailed ghost (Jack) appears
• [34:00–35:30]: Both Vanessa and Nicole witness “a room full of millions of stars”
• [42:01]: Vicar confirms frequent hauntings in the village
• [44:23–48:55]: Blood appears inexplicably—investigated by nurse and army major
• [49:04–52:29]: Vanessa isolates herself upstairs; recounts life as a single, terrified parent
• [59:14–59:46]: Sleepwalking into the hall, depression deepens
• [65:12]: Vanessa admits thoughts of suicide, paralleling previous occupant's fate
• [68:24]: Vanessa tells new buyer about the haunting

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Tone & Style

The conversation is intimate, honest, and sometimes darkly humorous. Julian is empathetic and direct; Vanessa is candid, resilient, and matter-of-fact about her traumatic experiences—often peppered with gallows humor and plain-spoken insight about trauma, belief, and the unknown.

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Final Reflections

Vanessa’s story is less about what it's like to live in a haunted house and more about the profound, cumulative impact of enduring the unexplainable. It’s a rare first-person account of psychological and supernatural siege, deeply rooted in place and history. The episode leaves listeners questioning the nature of haunting—whether it is a phenomenon of place, history, mental health, or some mixture of all three.

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Vanessa Mitchell now shares more about her stories on her podcast "The Haunted Podcast".

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For those who've never listened, this episode is a gripping, immersive portrait of one woman’s three years in England’s most notorious haunted house—a chilling reminder that some places keep their history alive.

Transcript

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[Raj or Noah]

Hey, it's Raj and Noah. And we're back with a new season of Am I Doing It Wrong? The show that explores the all too human anxieties we have about trying to get our lives right.

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[Interviewer (Julian Morgans)]

All.

[Vanessa Mitchell]

Super real.

[Interviewer (Julian Morgans)]

Hey, friends. Welcome back. So this week we were working on something that I was pretty excited about, but then the story fell apart at the very last minute. It's a fluid environment, and sometimes stories just don't work out. So this week we're going to dip into the archives and bring you a classic episode from 2022 one one that's a personal favorite of mine. It's the story of a woman who bought and moved into a building that was once a medieval prison. And it was used to hold accused witches all the way back in the 1600s. The story is set in the UK and I won't go much further and spoil it, but things get a little supernatural. And for subscribers, you've got a brand new episode waiting. And it's also a dark one. It's a case that's currently unfolding in Philadelphia where a man has been arrested for stealing over 100 skeletal remains from various cemeteries. I'm speaking with a police officer who is investigating the whole thing, and he'll explain the motivations and what he's seen. And I gotta say, it's a. It's a fascinating case. Anyway, for now, sit back and enjoy this classic episode. I bought a haunted witch's prison. Hey, I'm Julian Morgans, and you're listening to what It Was like, the show that asks people who have lived through big dramatic events what it was like. Lots of countries in Europe conducted witch hunts. England, Germany, Holland, France, Italy, Switzerland. They all went through phases of accusing people of witchcraft and murdering them. So 110,000 people in total were tried for witchcraft over the late Middle Ages. That's across Europe. And of that number, maybe 60,000 of them were executed. And of course, you don't need me to point out that these people were completely innocent women. And the whole thing was stupid and utterly tragic. But anyway, that's just a bit of backstory, bit of context. Our story today takes place in England. This is the county of Essex, which in the late 16th century tried hundreds of people for witchcraft. They got pretty enthusiastic about witch hunts. And actually, just as an interesting aside, I'd like to point out that Salem, you know, the infamous town with all the witch trials, the Salem witch trials. So Salem is in the American county of Essex, and this county was largely founded by colonists who had actually grown up in England. They'd grown up in the English county of Essex, and they'd traveled across the Atlantic Ocean, and they'd taken all of their crazy beliefs with them to North America, where they had started new colonies, but just with their old, old ideas. Anyway, back to the uk. Our story happens in a little village called St. Osith. And records show that in 1582, a total of 14 women were convicted of witchcraft in this town. And the first of these was a woman named Ursula Kemp. Now, according to evidence, Ursula was a poor midwife, and she'd fallen out with another lady in the town, and she was accused of killing this woman's child. And then she was thrown into the local prison. She was trialed, found guilty and then she was hanged. And now this is, this is really where the story takes a sidestep. Because actually in this, in this interview today, we're not really talking about witches or not really. What we're doing is talking about this building, this prison that housed so many people accused of witchcraft. The locals in St Osith, they call it the cage. And it was in service for hundreds of years, all through these witch trials and then into the modern era when it finally became a residential home and was put up for sale. And in 2004, a woman named Vanessa Mitchell decided to buy it. And that's where our story starts. Vanessa is going to tell us about her experience of moving into the cage. And look, I'm just going to flag it. This is a ghost story. I don't know how you feel about ghosts. And look, you know, honestly, I don't know how I feel about ghosts, but. But I think this might be just one of those stories where you change your mind or. I don't know, at least I did. Like at the start of this interview, I was thinking, there's got to be a logical explanation. But, yeah, I've got to admit, by the end I was kind of like, well, I don't know, maybe there is a logical explanation, but I sure as hell wouldn't ever stay in this house. So, look, here's the interview. And you know what? I'm tipping that by the end of this conversation, you'll have decided that you wouldn't stay in this house either. Thank you so much for joining me today. Welcome to the show.

[Vanessa Mitchell]

Thank you. Thank you for having me.

[Interviewer (Julian Morgans)]

So we're just going to start with you buying a house. Like, tell me what was happening in your life at that time.

[Vanessa Mitchell]

At the time, I was selling caravans, static caravans on holiday parks. I was a very successful salesperson and I had lived up north and I just sold my house up north and I'd. I was back in the area. I wanted to come back home to St. Ozith, really. And I just came home when I one weekend and saw that the cage was up for sale randomly and I just for some reason thought, okay, I want to buy the house, I want to buy the house. But at the time when I brought the cage, I was. I'd been selling caravans for years. I was doing really well and I had no issues or anything. Life was. Life was good. I worked hard and a lot of money and just, just sort out for sale and thought, right, I had a house up in, in Newcastle anyway where I was working at the time I'd been working before and I thought right, I need to sell that house quickly so I can, so I can buy this cage. I just, just completely obsessed with it.

[Interviewer (Julian Morgans)]

Why were you obsessed with it? Like what was it that you liked about it?

[Vanessa Mitchell]

I do not know. I mean I'd already. I'd. I'd always known the, the house, the cage because it was along the road of my childhood house. I grew up in a huge six bedroom house with servants quarters and attics and sellers and everything. An ancient, you know, 700 year old house up the road.

[Raj or Noah]

So.

[Vanessa Mitchell]

So I was aware of the cage but hadn't, I can't say I ever had a real interest in it to be honest. Even as a child. I mean we all the villagers knew that it was the witch's house but I can't say that it was anything special to me. But just one day I just saw the cage up for sale and just thought I've got just. Just completely tunnel visioned. It came out of absolutely nowhere. This literally obsession with buying this house. So I put an offer in the cage and there was a few other offers going in at the time and he accepted, he. They accepted mine.

[Interviewer (Julian Morgans)]

I mean you know, congratulations, you got the house. Even if it turned out to be a bit of a disaster. But I mean surely you were aware of its reputation. You know, you grew up in the area.

[Vanessa Mitchell]

It didn't have a reputation really. There's nothing there. No. I don't ever remember. No, that's a bit of a. Like when I was in my suppose early twenties I knew someone who had friends that lived there and they said it was haunted. But you gotta remember I live in St. Ozif. It's an ancient village. Our entire village is pretty much haunted. So why would I. It didn't bother me. It's like well yeah well you're. The cage might be haunted but so is every other house, you know.

[Interviewer (Julian Morgans)]

Yeah, yeah sure.

[Vanessa Mitchell]

It was just. Oh well that's just normal. It. I didn't at all think any more deeper into it than that. But the man who'd lived there before about, about a year before had hung himself in there. So I was aware of that but I didn't know him.

[Interviewer (Julian Morgans)]

I looked worry you?

[Vanessa Mitchell]

Well I look back now and wonder why it didn't and. But nothing did with that house. I don't know why I just become so tunnel visioned. I. To be honest, I think they could have said four people had hung their self in there and it wouldn't have made any difference. To me, I just wanted to buy the house.

[Interviewer (Julian Morgans)]

I, I don't know, I really wanted that house.

[Vanessa Mitchell]

Just I had to have the house. It didn't matter what, I had to have the house. And I don't know why, and I still don't know because it wasn't a house that I'd ever thought, oh, that's my dream house. Or, you know, before as a child or as a, or as an adult. Just had to have it. That, that, that day, that weekend and that was it.

[Interviewer (Julian Morgans)]

Can you describe what it looks like?

[Vanessa Mitchell]

Yeah. From outside, it's like a pretty much little chocolate box house. It's, it's bricks and it's got a very old fashioned wooden door which was the original door where the prisoners used to be. You know, the, the access to the prison the prisoners used to go in those days. And it's got a plaque on the outside, so, saying about Ursula Kemp, who is one of the most famous witches in this, this country because there was so much written about her, so much documented about her. So. Yeah, I mean, it doesn't look scary from the outside. It looks really pretty. It's off the back of Coffin, Coffin Alley. Coffin Path, where it's called Coffin Path because in the old days all the, all the coffins would be taken on the gurneys up past my house to get to Clay Lane to be buried.

[Interviewer (Julian Morgans)]

Wow.

[Vanessa Mitchell]

And in the village church.

[Interviewer (Julian Morgans)]

So quite a bit, quite a morbid town in some ways, your description of.

[Vanessa Mitchell]

Yeah, but old English villages, you know, where ancient are little villages and that's just what a lot, what a lot of them are like. So it's just. But it's a very pretty village. It's a very pretty house from the outside. It's next door to a beautiful pub, the King's Arms. And St Osith is a beautiful village where next to the sea. So, you know, it's, it's lovely.

[Interviewer (Julian Morgans)]

How many people live in the town?

[Vanessa Mitchell]

Well, it, it is a village, but now there's quite a few people moved in, so it's kind of class as a town. So I, I don't know how many people, to be honest.

[Interviewer (Julian Morgans)]

Okay, all right, so you're, you're selling caravans and you, you're living in Newcastle, but you get this house, you successfully put in a bid for the cage and suddenly it's yours. So you move in. Like, tell me, tell me about that process of making it your home.

[Vanessa Mitchell]

Well, I moved in with my friend Nicole because I asked her if she wanted to come and live with me and rent A room, which she did.

[Interviewer (Julian Morgans)]

Okay. Nicole's like, yeah, best friends, kids.

[Vanessa Mitchell]

Yes. Primary school, literally. So, yeah, and we, we were always good friends. So I said, so I'm getting this house, trying to move in. And she. She was like, cool. So we're really excited. I was really excited. I was very proud of myself because I'd got this house that I paid for myself. Worked really hard to get it. Worked hard to get my first house to be able to buy the cage.

[Interviewer (Julian Morgans)]

Yes.

[Vanessa Mitchell]

I sold it for a profit, the first one. And I was just proud of myself because I'd done it on my own without any help. And I was excited. I just was really excited and happy. Of course. Yeah, of course. Moving in with my friend and everything was, you know, I was loving it. Of course.

[Interviewer (Julian Morgans)]

Yeah. Yeah. Okay. That's great. When was the. Tell me about the first time that something felt a bit off, a bit weird.

[Vanessa Mitchell]

It was the first day something felt a bit off. I was. I was in the kitchen and Nicole was getting in boxes to and back from the car and we both were. And I was just making a cup of tea. I said to her, john, a cup of tea. I knocked on the. And I could see her going back and forward from the kitchen window because the kitchen window looks out to Coffin Coffin Path and. And the King's Arms are pub next door. So it's. It's got a good view. And she was going back and forward and I was busy in doing something in the kitchen and just thought she'd come in, but I saw something behind me. You know, if you see something in your peripheral vision. And I thought. And then. And I heard something and I said, oh, you know, you tease here. You tease it. Thought she was behind me and turned around and she wasn't. There was no one behind me. But there was a huge black mass shape, figure just. I say walking, it's not walking, it's like gliding slowly by behind me and. And it was thick black and I felt it, it was negative and I felt it straight away and I literally thought, Jesus, what? You know, hold on a minute. There could be something. I could be in trouble here. And I knew them really. Oh, well, I thought. I thought then, oh, hold on a minute. I didn't panic, I didn't. But I just thought, yeah, yeah, you have to kind of keep. Keep an eye on this, you know? You know, it's like, oh, yeah, that's how I felt.

[Interviewer (Julian Morgans)]

Yeah. Yeah. So you, you've. Previously, when we've talked about this before, you said you, you described yourself as like kind of cynical about this idea that there was like, like an Amityville horror house. You know, kind of. Talk to me, talk to me about your skepticism initially.

[Vanessa Mitchell]

Well, I, I genuinely. And it's, it's, it does sound stupid. It sounds, seems stupid to me now, but I genuinely thought that something like a haunting like the Amityville or something where it ruins people's lives and changes people's lives and runs them out of a house was, was for movies. I'm like, yeah, it doesn't happen like that. I mean, I know that green sludge doesn't come out the walls and stuff like that, and I know a lot of it is poetic license, but to be honest, for the most part, I never had heard, apart from the Amity of haunting. Really. Had, hadn't really heard. I mean, don't forget we're talking about 20 odd years ago. So there was no Internet and there was no. And all you saw was what was on tv. Yeah, but I didn't think, I don't think I thought or realized that hauntings like that existed in the really real. In the really real world. I thought it was the movies. I thought there was something to it. But I thought, well, it can't be that bad. You know, I just didn't, I just didn't. I don't know why. I just thought that some, some of that was made up. And in my, in my case, it turned out probably worse than some of the, the stuff I've seen on movies. So. But no, if you'd have told me that that could have happened to me or in that house, I would have said, don't be ridiculous.

[Interviewer (Julian Morgans)]

Yeah, yeah.

[Vanessa Mitchell]

But I said, you know, too much drama involved in it.

[Interviewer (Julian Morgans)]

Because I understand that your upbringing, like I think your dad particularly was, was very skeptical about that kind of stuff. I've heard you speak about this before.

[Vanessa Mitchell]

Yeah, he doesn't believe a thing. He would, you know, his, his opinion on stuff like that is if you saw a ghost, he'd say, right, well, what happened was there was an earthquake in China and it moved over and the. Something in the atmosphere happened that came down and caused a. You know, he, he would try and explain it. He does not believe. And, and I've said to him many times, I said, dad, even when I was a little girl, did you think I was lying? And he said, no. He said, I just. And I said to him, do you still think I'm. He said, I said, do you think I am lying now? He said, no. He said, I know you're not lying because you're not a liar. He said, but I cannot conceive of it, so I cannot admit it because I cannot even in my brain understand it to be real. So to me, I can't believe it. He said, but I know you're not, not lying. But my mum, she was a lot more open to it and open to the possibilities that there's something else. Because of course there is.

[Interviewer (Julian Morgans)]

Yeah. I mean, I've got to admit that I probably fall somewhere around where your dad is from a, from a kind of belief perspective. I've never seen a ghost. I'd love to see a ghost just because I think it'd be really, it'd be like, wow, whoa, that's crazy, look at that. But you know, just I've, I've never seen, I've never had any kind of experience that has felt to me abnormal, let alone supernatural. I, I, and I, and I, I'm inclined to sort of fall on this side of like, well, there's gotta be a rational, scientific, measurable, tangible explana. But I think this is also why I'm curious about your story. Because like your dad, he's like, I know you, I know you're not like making this, this up. It's, I'm, I'm believing there's too much.

[Vanessa Mitchell]

Proof and evidence now. And the fact that you haven't seen anything personally or my dad hasn't doesn't mean to say that it doesn't exist. Because not everything's about what you as a human experience, you may go your whole life, not experience. It doesn't mean to say that other people don't. And your position on how you feel about is, is how open minded you are as a person. Because I might not do skydiving doesn't mean to say I, I have an opinion. Because we don't, we don't see and experience everything and, and because it hasn't happened to you is it doesn't mean to say it doesn't, it doesn't mean. So it doesn't exist.

[Interviewer (Julian Morgans)]

Yeah, yeah, sure.

[Vanessa Mitchell]

My, my opinion on skeptics is, with all due respect, I don't care, I don't care what people say. I don't care what people think about me. If that's not in their life, it makes no difference to me. Anyone's opinion goes straight over my head. If they were to say I was mad or deranged, I don't care because I just think I know more than they do, which makes me luckier and more Privileged than them to have seen it. So. And that's half the way I go with my dad. It's like, dad, really. I'm just over it. Okay, you don't. You don't. You. You don't have to believe. And with anyone, I don't care what they believe. So you never know. Maybe it will happen to you one day.

[Interviewer (Julian Morgans)]

My fingers are firmly crossed. I'd like something unusual to happen to me.

[Vanessa Mitchell]

So would I. I'd like something unusual to happen to you, and then I'd like to talk to you after it does.

[Interviewer (Julian Morgans)]

Yeah, yeah, yeah. Good, good. All right, well, let's bookmark that. I want to hear what happened next. All right. So you moved in.

[Vanessa Mitchell]

You.

[Interviewer (Julian Morgans)]

You had a bit of a. An eerie encounter in the. In the kitchen. But then, you know, over the next couple of days, over the next couple of weeks, what. How was it?

[Vanessa Mitchell]

The. It built up in there? It was. It was constant. It started with things like. I mean, we had the open fireplace, you know, log burn, fire and the, you know, fire brushes and everything. They would swing back and forward, Doors would open and shut. Things would go missing. Cupboards would open, taps, running, Cattle going on and off the. The steps. In them days, it was stereo. We had a stereo turntable that would, you know, just general stuff like that, which was like. Really? And then sometimes you think, oh, well, I. I forgot. I must have put that there. Or, you know, all the usual ration, you know, you know, trying to make sense of it all.

[Interviewer (Julian Morgans)]

Yeah.

[Vanessa Mitchell]

And then you just stop doing that because you just think, now, hold on a minute. I'm not deranged. I'm actually a completely normal human. And this stuff is happening. And, you know, Nicole said the same, like, this stuff is really happening. So I suppose starting off, but it wasn't that. It was also a feeling in the house. The feeling in the house started changing and I think I noticed it a lot more. I don't think Nicole's particularly sensitive. Not like I am and. But Nicole's quite. Quite a wimp. And mostly scare her. I mean, like even like a spider or something blow into a brown paper bag. Because she has panic attacks about this or she used to. About silly things. And so I think I probably noticed more than she did. Well, I did. And I knew. It's. It's a feeling you can't. You can't make up. It's like your sixth sense. It's just there and you feel it. And even if it's a sunny day and the doors open and it's you know, my day off work and you just feel that thing or see that mass come in and feel that energy. That's not you because you've been on the piss the night before or you've just had a beer or something. You know, it's you sitting there during the day, a stone cold sober. And I've said to a lot of people, actually even people, a lot of people say, well, you must have had a drink or people must have had a drink or whatever. And I've spoken to lots of people who've had these experiences and they've said even with a drink you don't hallucinate, you don't see ghosts, you don't see the door open and slamming. So again, for skeptics, that's something else I would say. But yeah, that, that feeling even during the day, in the summer, you can't make that up. It's an energy feeling that you feel and it's, you know, it's, and it's, and it's strong and you can, you can really feel that.

[Interviewer (Julian Morgans)]

Yeah, yeah, yeah. And I understand you did a little bit of research. You started like digging into the house's history because there was like old stuff that had been left from previous occupants.

[Vanessa Mitchell]

I didn't really do any digging into the house's history. We'd found some old photographs and things like that. I don't know if they were from the cage from years before. All the research that I did. I found out, to be honest, a few years after I left the cage. So I didn't know. All I knew when I moved in there really was the, the last owners from the last 20 odd years. It wasn't until after I'd left the cage that I actually got the deeds to the house. Because the gentleman that killed himself, his wife, she'd kept all the deeds when she'd sold onto someone else. And then I was an expert buyer. The people that I brought off only lived in there for about six months. And so a lot of the information I had, which was years and years after I left the house and she gave me the deeds and my sister is a historian and I couldn't read these deeds. You know, it's all the old calligraphy and parchment writing and everything. And my sister looked through all of them and she said, she said, face this, this doesn't make sense. She said it and I'm like, what, what? Tell me what, you know, what they saying. And the deeds for 300 years, over 300 years, nobody's ever owned that house for longer than three years. Three years is maximum. Most people were four months or a few weeks or a year. And she said, that is, she said, but don't you realize in those days there was no estate agents? You know, hundreds of years ago you didn't buy and sell houses like that. This was, this was a small house, this wasn't a grand house or you know, and, and houses just didn't change ownership like that. She said, my sister said you would keep a house within the family for generation after generation after generation. And she said as a historian, she's never seen an example like it where that house was continuously up for sale. And I'm actually, well, I was, it transpired to be. I think I have the first or the second longest owner of the house since it was built hundreds of years ago. I mean one man brought it for 150 pound English pounds and sold it for a hundred pounds. Now you think £50 then was £50,000 now or probably more. Probably a lot more.

[Interviewer (Julian Morgans)]

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

[Vanessa Mitchell]

Why would you do that? Why could you afford to lose? And why do people keep on moving out of the house and it's always within three years. It's never ever, nobody ever lasted there longer than three years. And I said to my sister, oh my God, that's crazy. You know, I lived in there for three years. Yeah, that, yeah.

[Interviewer (Julian Morgans)]

So like I understand, you know, like there was a bit of sleepwalking as well. Tell me about that.

[Vanessa Mitchell]

That was later. That was later.

[Interviewer (Julian Morgans)]

Later.

[Vanessa Mitchell]

That was that it got, it was really, really bad then. Nicard had left by then and that was when I was just living.

[Interviewer (Julian Morgans)]

Let's, let's, let's pause that. Let's, let's just sort of follow the chronology. Like as you recall it like so of moved in and the mood started to change. You know, sort of walk me through the steps.

[Vanessa Mitchell]

So yeah, it, I, I started then seeing full blown ghosts in the house. Me one day it was, it was in the afternoon and I was just sitting there watching tv. It was my day off and the back door was open because it was a nice hot day. And I just, just caught my eye this man. And he had long black scraggy hair. He had quite a, like a tanned face. He had deep laughter lines. I remember seeing the, I remember thinking he had these kind of deep laughter lines but remember thinking it was quite weird because he, he appeared to me quite young but his skin looked older, if you know what I mean. He had lovely eyes and he, I could only see him from the waist up. And he was just literally staring at me and just looking at me through the beams. He was, he was in the hall and I was in the front room. It was broad daylight and he was there for definitely over a minute. And he was just as if time had got trapped somehow. An eclipse of time or something. But he was there and I, and, and he was staring at me and I'm convinced he could see me and, and I could see him. And then he just slowly, he just slowly disappeared. But I didn't feel scared with him at all. He felt nice. I didn't feel any type of way scared about him. He was fascinating. And I was looking at him thinking, oh my God. And I even remember, you know, like I say, I just remember the laughter lines. But he was, this is going to sound ridiculous or crazy, but it's not. But he, he was, he had, he had a good looking face. He wasn't like, oh, he's a handsome man. He was. Yeah, I know that sounds a bit weird.

[Interviewer (Julian Morgans)]

Bit of a ho, I had to say.

[Vanessa Mitchell]

How. Yeah, but I can only tell you what I saw. I got, described it how I described it. He didn't have a screaming, ah, you know, Scarface. He, he was, he was quite attractive. And, and I, I was fascinated by him. And I just looked at him and I thought, oh my God, I'm actually seeing this. Am I awake? Yes. Am I asleep? No, I was just watching tv. I'm not watching a horror movie. I haven't got a glass. You know, all of these things that. Yeah, and I saw him clear as day. He. Yeah, it was crazy.

[Interviewer (Julian Morgans)]

But that would have been, that would have scared the shit out of me. Even if he was like a bit of a handsome ghost, I'd have probably just straight out the front door.

[Vanessa Mitchell]

You don't know until it happens. And then you know your reaction. We will call. So I'd act like this, I'd act like that. But you never really know till it happens.

[Interviewer (Julian Morgans)]

Yeah.

[Vanessa Mitchell]

And, and the thing is as well, obviously ghosts and spirits come with energy and you as a human will feel that energy. Now if that was a scary, horrible ghost, you would feel scared. And, and for me, if it's nice and calm, it's. You don't feel scared, you feel more fascina or you just feel. Because they come with their own energy. And that's how you can tell. That's your sixth sense that thinks, hold on a minute, something's not right. And well, you wouldn't know actually, because you claim that you've never experienced Stuff like this before or had any weird type of feeling.

[Interviewer (Julian Morgans)]

Yeah.

[Vanessa Mitchell]

But the, the people that have would say, oh, hold on a minute. I don't know why, but there's just something wrong. You know, I went to a cinema or a theater or wherever, and there's just something wrong. And I can't put my finger on it, but it felt wrong. And that's just six sense kicking in off the, off the back of some, some type of energy. And it works the same with friendly ghosts as well. Their energy is, is not scared. So auto. So you don't automatically would want to run out the house screaming.

[Interviewer (Julian Morgans)]

Yeah.

[Vanessa Mitchell]

That wouldn't be your first reaction. You might sit there and go, oh my God. Oh my God. Oh my God. That's what I did. I can't believe I'm seeing this. I can't believe I'm seeing this. Oh my God. Oh my God. This is really, really freaky. But it's no threat to me. And that's how I, I felt about him. And I didn't feel that about all of them in the cage, but him, he. He felt nice.

[Interviewer (Julian Morgans)]

I mean, so let's assume that this is some little, like, kink in time, a little wrinkle or something that, you know, you are witnessing a person who potentially died hundreds of years ago. Like, that's pretty cool. You know, there's a bit of time travel involved in that.

[Vanessa Mitchell]

Well, I mean, it's called, it's called stone tape theory. They, they believe that, you know, the energy and the emotions of somebody while they were alive in prints and implants itself into surfaces like brick or, you know, wood, and the atmosphere, and it replays itself. So that would be the scientific explanation for that. But on the other hand, you know, the dead can. So. So, for example, you know, like you'd have the woman that ran across the road on that anniversary every night of the year in her wedding dress and got run over. And then it replays itself over and over and over on that anniversary every year, every night at the same time, every bit of that road.

[Interviewer (Julian Morgans)]

Yeah.

[Vanessa Mitchell]

So that would be something like you're saying time getting trapped in imprinting and playing over and over, like stand tape theory. But then say your nan coming back to visit you or a ghost. That's. That, that happens in real time. That's a, that's something that is, is physically active and that, you know, it. It's, you know, essentially a spirit that is coming back and living in your house or visiting your house and, and you can communicate with. And they do Understand you. They're not, you know, floating sheets in the wind. They've got thought process, and they can do things, and they can touch things, and they can move things, and they can decide what they want to do, which makes it quite scary because you can't fight a ghost. You know, what can you do if you have a haunting like that? What can you do? Call the police. They can't do anything. What can you do?

[Interviewer (Julian Morgans)]

Well, what. What did you do? I understand you called the local vicar.

[Vanessa Mitchell]

Yeah, I called the vicar. Yeah. I had to. I am. And he came and he came. He came round and we looked at the whole house first. So he went in every room and he said, what's the issue? And I said, well, that ghost I just told you about, I named him Jack. So I. This is not long after I'd seen Jack, because Jack was around for quite a while, actually, and I couldn't get rid of him. And he was around for a while, and so I had to include him as part of the house. So I said to Nicole, right, listen, we've just got a fellow we're living with at the moment. You're probably not gonna be able to see him, but. And I thought, oh, God, but he can't. You know, he can't. He can't stay here all the time. You know, Had.

[Interviewer (Julian Morgans)]

Had Nicole seen this Jack guy or, like, had she seen any of this sort of stuff going down?

[Vanessa Mitchell]

Nicole had seen a lot of stuff. I mean, I remember one night we. We sat there again. We'd only been in the house weeks, I think, or months. Again, it was summer. It was evening. We're just sitting watching the front room, watching tv. And I just looked up to the ceiling, and I just saw this collection of small, sparkly, sparkly bright lights. But as I'm looking up, they multiplied thousands and thousands and thousands. And I'm just sitting there, literally not saying anything, just as if I just transfixed on these lights. Anyway, they became literally millions of them. Tiny. Tiny. The way I could describe it, you know, the sparkles at the end of Tinkerbell in the Disney movies.

[Interviewer (Julian Morgans)]

Movies, yeah, yeah, yeah. I'm imagining, like, little stars. Like tiny stars.

[Vanessa Mitchell]

Yeah. Absolutely minute. And then the whole room just was literally almost filled. And I. And then I. So I've looked over at Nicole really slowly because Nicole's not saying anything, and I don't even know what she's doing or looking at because I'm just focused on what's happening. And I looked over slowly, and she's the same as Me, she's just sitting up with her head looking up to the ceiling. And I said, nicole, are you. I said something like, what are you looking at? Or what you see in. And she'd said, if you're seeing the same as me, why is this room full of millions of stars? It was, it was a conversation like that. I've said, what are you looking at? I watch it. And she said, I am seeing in this room. She said, are you seeing exactly the same as I'm seeing? And you know, if. If it's like millions of stars, this room, then yeah, I'm seeing it too. And we both. She was on one sofa, I was on another, and we both just watched and then they just started popping out, fading bit by bit, but then they were gone. And then we went, oh my God. Did you. What was that? We both saw it. It wasn't dark. It was a summer's evening. It was warm outside. We both saw exactly the same thing. Exactly the same time that happened. We weren't hallucinating, we weren't on medicate. You know, there was nothing. What a skeptic would say, right, well, well, you know, there was nothing like that.

[Interviewer (Julian Morgans)]

Yeah, yeah, sure.

[Vanessa Mitchell]

We both saw it at the same time in the same house. And we. And you know why we both saw it? Because it happened. Because it was real. That's how we both saw it.

[Interviewer (Julian Morgans)]

Yeah, I mean, it sounds, it sounds kind of fun, like, like that particular case there.

[Vanessa Mitchell]

Yeah, that was, that was, that was.

[Interviewer (Julian Morgans)]

Just kind of magical.

[Vanessa Mitchell]

Yeah, it was. And that was crazy. And we were like, oh my God, that's crazy. Did you just see that? You know, I mean, stuff like that is great to see.

[Interviewer (Julian Morgans)]

Yeah, yeah. People usually have to take acid for that, like, amazing show for free.

[Vanessa Mitchell]

Yeah. The thing is, listen, when they're taking acid, you're not necessarily going to say the same thing unless there's a power suggestion there. But seeing as we'd never actually discussed it until I said, oh my God. And you know, we both realized it was the same thing.

[Interviewer (Julian Morgans)]

Yeah.

[Vanessa Mitchell]

So. Yeah. But yeah, she, she was aware. I was aware. More.

[Interviewer (Julian Morgans)]

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[Interviewer (Julian Morgans)]

So at a certain point you were like, right, well the house, the house has got too many ghosts in it so we should get the local vicar. Was this the thinking?

[Vanessa Mitchell]

Yeah, well, I decided that I didn't tell Nicole a lot because she was bloody scared of everything. So I tried to keep as much of it and to be honest I didn't want her to move out because I thought she knows the extent of it, she's going to move out and leave me here. And I didn't want that to happen. So I kept a lot from her. But yeah, so I got the vicar and he had a look, he looked in all the rooms and he came downstairs and we're having a chat. He was sitting on the sofa. I was telling him what was happening and explained explaining it to him and he said to me that he had been a vicar for x amount of 20, 30 years, however long it was. And he said that until he had the parish in St Osith he'd never been approached by people to come and do exorcisms or house cleansing in the houses. And he said, I can tell you now, he said when I came to this parish, he said I have had people asking me every single month in private can you come to my house? There's something very. And he said he'd never had it anywhere in else he said, but he did and so he was used to doing this. So he explained to me and quite a few were up my road. So he'd explained to me that look, I wasn't deranged because there was a lot of other people that needed help in the village as well. And so he was he, and he got it. He, he believed in a lot of vicars I don't think would given it the time of day, but he did. So he was telling me all this downstairs and then he said, okay, let's get started. So I put his robe on the holy water went back upstairs and all the taps of full blown running upstairs in the bathroom and we'd only been up there 15 minutes beforehand and I said to him, look, I see, I've told you, I've told you this is one of the things. And he said, yeah, he said I can feel something here. He said, I can definitely, he said, he said, you've got a problem. He said that this feeling isn't right. And he said if you need any more help, let me know. And I waited weeks and weeks and the house was still the same, nothing much had changed, although I didn't see Jack anymore. So I think he'd managed to pass Jack over. But when I did go to contact him again, he'd left the parish and.

[Interviewer (Julian Morgans)]

Okay.

[Vanessa Mitchell]

And I. So I never had contact with him again. He'd actually left the parish. But the vicar that had taken over, she didn't believe in that type of stuff. And that wasn't something you ever could have said to have done. But. Yeah, so I did. I did. And he was a really lovely man as well. But he'd said, you're not mad? And he said, I'm having to do this a lot in this village. And he said, but I've never had to do it before I came here.

[Interviewer (Julian Morgans)]

Wow. Okay.

[Vanessa Mitchell]

Yeah.

[Interviewer (Julian Morgans)]

And did it work? Did it. I mean.

[Vanessa Mitchell]

No.

[Interviewer (Julian Morgans)]

Like, no.

[Vanessa Mitchell]

No.

[Interviewer (Julian Morgans)]

All right.

[Vanessa Mitchell]

I think it felt nicer for a few days. I mean, it's amazing. I believe in God and Jesus. I believe in all that stuff. So I'm glad that, you know, a man like him came and blessed the house and that would have made me feel comfortable naturally, anyway.

[Interviewer (Julian Morgans)]

Yeah.

[Vanessa Mitchell]

But no, it didn't work.

[Interviewer (Julian Morgans)]

Okay. Right, so what did you do next?

[Vanessa Mitchell]

Nothing. You just carried on living with it. I mean, there wasn't really anything I. I thought to do, I didn't think about. I just tried to live with it as best as I could, but I was in fear all the time. Especially when Nicole had left and especially the last year, it got so bad.

[Interviewer (Julian Morgans)]

Well, let's. Let's set that up. So. So I understand Nicole got a boyfriend.

[Vanessa Mitchell]

Yeah.

[Interviewer (Julian Morgans)]

And then like, there was the three of you living there for a while.

[Vanessa Mitchell]

Yeah, John Chapman. And he was. He was my childhood friend. Anyway, so I. I'd known John. Yeah. So we all knew each other very well.

[Interviewer (Julian Morgans)]

And the three of you made a pact to. To not leave each other alone in the house, is that right?

[Vanessa Mitchell]

Yeah, it was because Nicole used to like staying up late watching all stuff on tv. And because I had to get really early for work, I would always go to bed earlier and. And it got to a point. Whereas if any. If anyone was going to stay up late, then somebody would stay with them or they don't stay up late, they go to bed, you know, Nicole slept in my bed with me a lot before she got with John. She was scared of the house and she used to come and get in. She used to sleep with me in bed a lot. So that stuff was. But you do that, you know, that's a natural thing to do, I think, when, you know, you're living with stuff that you can't Control and you can't do anything about. You just do whatever you feel that you can for some type of protection from, you know, you don't even know what you're fighting. That's the problem. You don't even know how to do it. So you just do what your human instinct tells you to do.

[Interviewer (Julian Morgans)]

Yes. Yeah. Tell me about the blood.

[Vanessa Mitchell]

I. I think, yeah, that was the weirdest thing. That was one of the. So my. Again, one of my best friends, Kirsty, she's. She runs the. The cancer ward in our town. So she's a. Essentially she's a blood. She's a blood nurse and her fiance was. Fiance at the time. They've been married now over 20 years, but he was Sergeant Major and he was on leave from. I think it was Iraq. I think he was. I think it was Iraq at the time. He went to Afghanistan straight after, but I think it was. At the time it was Iraq. And so they. They came round and they walked through the hall bit and on the whole bit, there was laminate flooring at the time and then there was the front room of carpet. So they've walked through the hall. I mean, Neil's huge. He's a big fella. His job at the time was to process a Taliban. So you can imagine this guy isn't scared of anything. This is a big man. Walk through to the kitchen, put the kettle on, made a cup of tea, come back. So what does that take eight to 10 minutes to do that? Sat on the sofa, then Neil said, verse, what's all that blood over there? When I'm thinking, well, there can't be any blood. You've just. You just walked past there and if there was blood, one, you'd have noticed it and two, there'd be all footprints in it. And three, well, there's no blood anyway, you know, because there isn't any blood. So, yeah, I didn't kind of take him very seriously and carried on talking to Kirsty. But then he got up and then he walked over to this part of the room and he got his finger in this blood and he said, look at this, what's this? So of course me and Kirsty have gone over there and Kirsty's a blood nurse. She knows what blood looks like. She knows what blood looks like, she knows what it smells like. Her life works around human blood and. Or, you know, and she, she knows the texture of blood. She said, it's blood. And we're like, well, hold on a minute. So Neil's Focusing. Right. So what must have happened is he's thinking, a window's open, a cat's jumped in that's injured, or a bir flown in that's injured. They've bled. While we were making a cup of tea, they've. They've bled on the thing. Where's the injured animal? Where's this? And no injured animal. So there's no windows open. And I remember him, he was. Got his hands along the ceilings, feeling them all. Is there a leak? Is there. There's someone upstairs. You know, just anything. Just. Just trying to find an expert. I mean, and. And he couldn't. And. And there wasn't an explanation because it wasn't there 10 minutes earlier. It was not there 10 minutes earlier.

[Interviewer (Julian Morgans)]

How much blood was.

[Vanessa Mitchell]

Was quite a bit. It was like, if you can imagine, getting a pipette, you know, squeeze. Yeah, just. And that's what it was. Droplets. So it wasn't smears everywhere. They've dramatized it on some TV shows I've done. It's like wading through blood. It wasn't that, that. It was just say 50 or 60, you know, just. Just drops. Splat, splat, splat, splat, splat.

[Interviewer (Julian Morgans)]

Yeah, Right.

[Vanessa Mitchell]

So I mean, imagine like you've cut your wrists or something and then it's just coming. It was a bit, you know, it's like that.

[Interviewer (Julian Morgans)]

But yeah.

[Vanessa Mitchell]

And then Neil turned around and said to me, so he's doing his investigations. I'm like, I don't know what the hell's happening here. Kirsty's like, I'm definitely telling you, that's blood. And then Neil turned around to me and said this. What the going on in this house? He was terrified. He said, what the is going. His brain couldn't work it out. He couldn't work it out. Well, none of us could. But a man like him, he's a soldier in the war. He's. He's a tough guy. He's not scared of things. And he can fight and kill people. He's not scared of things. And he was angry because he couldn't work it out. And. And I suppose that put the fear in him. How the hell is it all this blood just got here and it was freak you out?

[Interviewer (Julian Morgans)]

Were you scared?

[Vanessa Mitchell]

Yeah, I think we all were. I think I was more scared after they'd left, because at the time you're just trying to work. Oh, my God. Oh, my God. And then after that. But it's. It's shock, it's disbelief. It's like, how the hell did that happen? You know, that has actually just happened, you know, and.

[Interviewer (Julian Morgans)]

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

[Vanessa Mitchell]

And, and lots of stuff, lots and lots of stuff like that happened. Things would just appear and disappear and in front of lots of people and lots of people saw this stuff. This wasn't just me, Vanessa Mitchell in this house. This was seen by multiple people over years and years. And the previous owners of the cage, things had happened to them as well. I found out years after leaving and heard things. You know, this, this is a real story. There, there's something wrong with that house.

[Interviewer (Julian Morgans)]

Yeah, yeah, yeah. No, I'm, I mean I'm utterly convinced. So, so Nicole left at a certain point. She moved out with her boyfriend. Is that right?

[Vanessa Mitchell]

Yeah, yeah.

[Interviewer (Julian Morgans)]

Okay, so then you were living there by yourself?

[Vanessa Mitchell]

Yeah.

[Interviewer (Julian Morgans)]

Do you know, just walk me through how that felt.

[Vanessa Mitchell]

Well, it was, it got worse and worse. I, I, I, I ended up living in dusty upstairs bedroom. I didn't use any of the rest of the house at all by this point. By the end. I mean, I can't see talk you through three hours of stuff that happened. It's too much to say in one interview. But by the end I was living in one room. So I put, everything was upstairs and then, by then I'd, I'd had a, my son Jesse. So I was a single parent in the house. And so everything, we never sat downstairs at all. So upstairs in my room I had his baby bouncer and the bottles. Everything I needed, nothing was. So I come in, I'd pick him up, I'd get him from work. Pick him up from the child minders. Yeah, pick him up first, get, you know, get him from work and we'd go straight up the stairs and we'd stay in, in the room the entire time. I didn't use any, I didn't use the kitchen, I didn't cook any dinners. I didn't do anything. Just, just lived in that room. But towards the end, because I thought to myself, the only thing I can, the only thing I thought that I could do was if I make myself as small as possible, if I try and make myself as unseen as possible in this house by not using the rest of the house, maybe I might, it'll be a bit better. Maybe it might, it will just be a bit safer. It never made any difference. But that, that's what I did at the time. I didn't, I didn't know what else to do.

[Interviewer (Julian Morgans)]

Yeah, yeah. And so this was like the newest part of the house.

[Vanessa Mitchell]

No, it, well, I mean it was an extension on top of the prison room. But when you say new, it was still old.

[Interviewer (Julian Morgans)]

Still old. Yeah. Right, okay.

[Vanessa Mitchell]

Because it was. It was an old property.

[Interviewer (Julian Morgans)]

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Okay. And then at the same time, I, I think. I think this is something about this story that I find pretty moving is that, you know, the, like the global financial crisis was happening. Like people were losing their jobs around you. You're a single mom. All of a sudden you. You lost your tenant, essentially. So you're paying for this house, you're paying for this mortgage by yourself. Talk to me about the, like, the financial stress of, like. Never mind the haunting, but the financial stress must have been terrible.

[Vanessa Mitchell]

Yeah. I mean, when, when I was in the. When I was in the house, the mortgage rates had literally doubled overnight. It was that crisis. And, and mine had. Because I wasn't on a fixed. I wasn't on a fixed rate. And then even after I left the house, the, you know, I had to leave my. I ended up leaving the house and I. But I still had to pay for a house that I wasn't living in. And that is, you know, again, still single parent. And you just have to work harder and have nothing and just, and, and just earn enough just to. Just to pay for this house you can't even live in, which was. Was your dream home in your dream location. And turned out so horrific in the end that it was either going to be you or the house. You know, I had no choice. I had to leave. I had to get me and my baby to safety, and that's what I did. So I just walked out of there one day. But yeah, of course, the finance, financial implications were horrific, terrible. Like any human that has to pay for that, that needs to pay out more than they're earning.

[Interviewer (Julian Morgans)]

Yeah, yeah, absolutely. Let's, let's take a step back for a moment. So at this point, when you've got a newborn, you know, you got your newborn son and you're living and you've barricaded yourself effectively up in the upstairs room. Were there ever any times where you had to go down. You had to take your son down to the kitchen or anything?

[Vanessa Mitchell]

You know, the, the. I remember that the one time he sticks out, I had no more. More clothes left for work, ironed, and I couldn't take the iron upstairs because it wouldn't fit, the ironing board wouldn't fit. And I remember thinking, I need to iron some clothes to work. So I thought, right, I'm just gonna iron three things, you know, a blouse, a skirt, and a jacket. Or whatever. And I just remember thinking, right, I'm gonna, I'm gonna be two minutes. I'm gonna be two minutes. Because the whole. The rest of the time I would never, ever go anywhere without taking Jesse, my son, with me. He was always with me. If I went one room, I'd make sure he, he was with me because I knew the house wasn't safe. And I got into a good routine of that and that didn't bother me. But just this one day, he was upstairs asleep in the cot. And I remember thinking, oh, I just don't want to wake him up. So I'm thinking, it'll take me two minutes. I run downstairs quickly. So I went downstairs and the ironing board was in the prison room. And so on the floor of the prison room was Jude's toys, Jesse's toy, toy boxes and toys. And he had some of those little, you know, Thomas the Tank engines where, you know, you turn them on and then they go off and play the music and do things. And so I remember going downstairs, setting up the ironing board in the prison room. And within minutes, four or five of Jude's toys just came from the corners of the rooms and just started going off by theirself. These Thomas tankings, three Thompson tank engines going around the feet of the. I, you know, of the ironing board and the toy started making a noise and I just. Oh. And that actually doesn't sound much on itself, but when you think about all the other things that happened, it was, it was that to me. Now I look back at that, and if that happened to me now, I don't think I'd been as terrified. But the point is, so much had happened leading up to this. It was just like, for God's sake, I've only popped downstairs, I've only just come downstairs. I never even come downstairs. And now I have just for three minutes just to do something quickly. And I can't even do that without something happening. So I remember turning off the iron let. Opening the door, because it's an old. You had to open this wooden door to get up the stairs. These like creaky little low stairs. And as I've done that to get upstairs to get back to Jesse, there's a man standing at the top of the stairs. And he had on brown trousers, brown color, and a whitish color shirt. And he's standing at the top of the stairs and. But of course, he wasn't solid. He was more see throughy and, and I, and I, you know, it just. And that was Just one example of me popping downstairs when I hadn't done and just, you know, bloody terrified, you know, don't forget I'm downstairs, my son's upstairs. And in between me and my son that there's a man standing at the top of the stairs now. Yeah, the guy who hung himself in the house. He hung himself at the top of the stairs. Was that significant? I don't know. It's not like they say, right? My name's so and so and I'm here for so and so reasons. A lot of his guesswork. I'm not a medium, I'm not a psychic. I can't communicate them with. With them like that. I've just always seen them. So you just, I don't know, you just. Just becomes impossible.

[Interviewer (Julian Morgans)]

So what did you do? You pushed past this?

[Vanessa Mitchell]

Yeah, it was gone by the time I'd go up the stairs. They just evaporate. That. There was no. With that particular one. There was no feeling or force to it. It was just. It was just there. Like I got. Got in the room, obviously, as usual, got Jesse in bed with me because I used to. He used to sleep in bed with me. I would, I wouldn't. Was putting him in his car, even though the cot was next to my bed because he'd always sleep in bed with me because I was terrified of what could happen to him. Even when he was born, even when he was a tiny baby. You're not, you're not supposed to do that. But I had to. I thought, God, not bloody whisking him, you know, being in the cotton. His own.

[Interviewer (Julian Morgans)]

Yeah, yeah. Seriously, was he, was he ever affected or did anything?

[Vanessa Mitchell]

I mean, I remember a few times him looking at, looking at something and stop what he was doing and turn around and start, you know, when, when he got older and just look into the. Into a space in the room which I couldn't see anything. And he started laughing or giggling or. But that was always something friendly he was looking at.

[Interviewer (Julian Morgans)]

Yeah, yeah.

[Vanessa Mitchell]

I mean, I remember.

[Interviewer (Julian Morgans)]

Sorry, go on.

[Vanessa Mitchell]

One of the worst things include, you know, that he was involved in was I could hear someone coming up the stairs. Boom, boom, boom, boom. Loud. I'm like, oh, no. Oh no, no, no. And my, my bedroom door, the old fashioned latches, the raw iron latches. And to get in my bedroom, you have to up the latch and walk in and someone was standing outside and I could, I could hear it. I knew all the doors were locked. Nobody had broken in, you know, please God, please let it be human because I got half A chance with the human. You know, I used to wish it was a burglar. And the latch went up and down and then got faster and faster and faster as it smashing against itself. And this is like saying like two o' clock in the morning. I am absolutely terrified. I can't jump out the window because my only option is at this point to jump out the window with a baby through the glass. Or I come and confront, open this door. Or I stay in the bed with my heart literally cracking open, my ribs beating out of my chest out of pure fear. What do you do? I've got a little baby there. You know what you do? You just stay there and it's absolutely terrifying. I, I, I, you know, some people say, oh, we should have gone to confront it. Really, when you wouldn't have confronted it, especially with a baby. Just stay there and, and get underneath the covers and please, God, go away, go away, go away. Our father, who are, you know, you do whatever you can.

[Interviewer (Julian Morgans)]

So what, what happened?

[Vanessa Mitchell]

Nothing. Just stopped. Just, it just stopped and it just stopped. It never came in. The door never opened on that occasion, just stopped. You try living with that, you know, I mean, again, I'm talking about. This is a long time ago.

[Interviewer (Julian Morgans)]

Yeah.

[Vanessa Mitchell]

You know, when there is no gone.

[Interviewer (Julian Morgans)]

You mentioned before that you started sleepwalking. What can you tell me about that?

[Vanessa Mitchell]

I, I would never, I mean, I would never, I, I put a potty in, in the bedroom. So I'd never have to go out of the bedroom at night. That's how bad it was. Because I would have to go out the bedroom past the hanging beam where the last resident hung himself and into this part of the house, which was so scary. So I made sure that I was not going to, I never had to leave that bedroom. But then I'd find myself waking up in the hall in the bit where he'd hung himself on the, Just waking up there.

[Interviewer (Julian Morgans)]

As if like standing or.

[Vanessa Mitchell]

Sitting or sitting, crouching over, like in a ball a lot of the time, crying a lot of the time. And just opposite the beam where he was, where he hung. And it started happening quite a lot. I never, I must have slept, walked there because I certainly wouldn't have done it off my own back. I certainly would never left that room. I'd never left that room. And I certainly wouldn't have gone into that part of the house. I wouldn't have done it. I think it was something, whatever was in the energy of the house leading me there. I honestly think that a bit, because by then the House had taken over so much of my brain and life so much that it, I, I knew I was completely defenseless at that point. I knew by then that I felt like my life just went to like a flatline. I couldn't. It, it, I, I had no fight left for anything at all. Everything was gone. I couldn't, I couldn't work properly. My, my work life was affected hugely. I was depressed beyond. It just, it just something really bad in that house is dark and negative and just got me. Just got me. I understand it more now because now you could actually turn on the TV and watch about this stuff. But don't forget back in my day, you couldn't. There wasn't really, there isn't Discovery plus and all these channels you can see so many programs now. So I never had the experience of any of that. You know, to watch those shows, to at least know how to try and deal with it. I, I just didn't know nowadays if it happened I'd have that sorted very quickly, I feel. But of course back then there's nothing, there's nothing I could do. I didn't know what to do.

[Interviewer (Julian Morgans)]

It feels to me like at a certain point you're just a prisoner in your own home. It's like a, it's like a really bad relationship where you're just stuck and you don't have the self confidence at a certain point to just say, you know what, I'm out too much, I'm done.

[Vanessa Mitchell]

Well, I couldn't. Who was going to come and knock on my door, oh, hi, Vanessa. Right. Is £2,000. There's a thousand pound for a new place to live. There's a thousand pounds for your, for your month up front rent. Who was going to do that? People can't, people can't just leave houses. You can't just leave your house. I wouldn't get re homed because I had a property anyway. Oh, excuse me, Social. Can you rehouse me? Why is that? You've got a perfect. Oh no, it's haunted. They'd have told me to do one, you know. Where do you go? Yeah, where'd you go with a baby? What do you actually do? You can't do anything. That's the reality. You have to stay there.

[Interviewer (Julian Morgans)]

So what finally was the catalyst to leave? Like, was there a moment where you were just like, no, this is too much, I'm done.

[Vanessa Mitchell]

The final thing was what I said when there was a man in between me and Jesse, my son at the top of the stairs.

[Interviewer (Julian Morgans)]

That was it.

[Vanessa Mitchell]

Yeah. That, that was just the final thing. But there'd been so, so much leading up to that. I mean, I'm talking three years of constant activity. And then. And then my friend Kerry said to me, actually, she said, look, she was living in Colchester, a town, you know, like 20 minutes away from me, and she said, look, I've got spare room, John. I come and move in. And I'm like, yes. So I literally packed my stuff and left. I was gone within, like, two days. So I left my house, my home in my village, which was near my job, to move literally the other side of Colchester, which took me an hour to and from work at least every day they're back there, back to rent a room off her, you know, to live with her. And I had to leave my house. But that was a lot better than staying in the house. But the minute I got a chance to go, I went, just. Just got out of there quick.

[Interviewer (Julian Morgans)]

Yeah.

[Vanessa Mitchell]

And left my home. I mean, someone else's home, you know.

[Interviewer (Julian Morgans)]

Did your friends and family believe you or was there a bit of skepticism or. Like, that would have been hard to deal with.

[Vanessa Mitchell]

I don't know, I. I look back at it, I mean, people did believe me, but I think towards. Towards the last year and that towards the end, I think I was so buried by it. But. Oh, I. I don't even think I. I told anyone how bad it got. I mean, I suppose I must have done. I don't really know, but I know, I know that I changed so much in my own brain that I don't think. I don't think I went to anyone and said. Because I'm sure if I'd have gone to my mum and said, mum, Mum, please help me, please help me, please help me. Do whatever you can. I need to get out this house because my mental health, because I'm going to top myself in this house because this house is so bad. I'm telling you, I'm terrified. I don't think I ever said that because if I begged my mother, she would have helped me, so my dad, they would have done. I look back now and. Or a friend would have, if I'd have said, you know, I really, really need help. And I. And I couldn't have said it because I would have got help, but. But I know by then my own brain and my own life was so affected. It was like I was kind of a zombie human anyway. I wasn't even in my own brain, anyway. I wasn't even properly. Vanessa. Yeah, I wasn't because. Because of what the house had done and because what was happening every day for years, day in, day out, just bit by a bit, you know, tapping, scratching away, get getting and affecting me like that.

[Interviewer (Julian Morgans)]

Yeah. Did you ever have thoughts of suicide or self harm? You know, like did it get to.

[Vanessa Mitchell]

That point towards the end? I, I thought if I don't leave here, this is going to be me or the house. Yeah. And that's again when you think I can't, I can't be. Because I'm actually a very normal person. I'm, you know, I'm, you know, I. There wasn't anything ever in my past or in my mental health that ever would have even made me think anything like that apart from that house. And I think that's when I knew. I rang my uncle one night and I said to him, jam, I'm. I'm in trouble here because I feel like, I feel like this type of way. And he said, right, I'm coming up and I'm coming up. And it was the next day actually that Kerry said to me, right, come and move in with me. And I look back now how I felt then and I get, I understand why the man that lived there a few, you know, six months before me killed himself in there. I get it. And you know what, if he'd have lived somewhere else, I don't think he'd have done it. I don't think. Because if you can imagine if you're living somewhere like it's constantly kill yourself, kill yourself, kill yourself, kill yourself, kill yourself. If you can imagine living like that and then.

[Interviewer (Julian Morgans)]

Hold, wait, do you mean like the house? Did you hear sort of like little voices?

[Vanessa Mitchell]

Sometimes you'd hear and sometimes it would just the, just the energy wrapped around you. This dark thing that was in that house, that energy that evil, bad, you know, I, I really believe that he, he wouldn't have, I, I don't think he'd have killed himself if he'd have lived somewhere else or if he'd have moved out. And I think all the other people that had, you know, left that house, fleet, that house over 300 years when, when they shouldn't have had to leave. I think, I think they were, I think there was something in it. They were feeling some kind of way the same as well that they knew that it was bad. They had to get out. They had to get out because it wasn't just me. This is talking about 300 years worth it. We have scientific fact and proof that 300 years worth of residents of that house have had to leave it?

[Interviewer (Julian Morgans)]

Yes. Yes. Did you ever yell at the house or, like, kind of fight back or lose? You lose your temper?

[Vanessa Mitchell]

No, No, I don't ever remember doing that. Listen, I'm not stupid. You don't wind up saying that you can't fight. You don't, you know, you don't take on a fight that you know you can't win.

[Interviewer (Julian Morgans)]

Yeah, you don't want to take on it.

[Vanessa Mitchell]

You're not going to try and aggravate it. You wouldn't risk it. You know, that's just common sense.

[Interviewer (Julian Morgans)]

Yeah, yeah.

[Vanessa Mitchell]

You just try and make yourself smaller. But, no, you don't risk it.

[Interviewer (Julian Morgans)]

Yeah, yeah, yeah. Okay, so. So you sold it again, right? Like, what's happening to it now?

[Vanessa Mitchell]

It's empty now. The house is empty. The lady who brought it, she hasn't moved in there yet. I don't think she will do now. So thank God the house just remains empty. Nobody's lived in there then now for years. I don't know what happened to it at the end, but for the minute it's safe, you know, because nobody goes in it. It's locked up and it's empty.

[Interviewer (Julian Morgans)]

Yeah, yeah, yeah. Did you. I mean, did she. Were you like, oh, look, I'm gonna sell you this house, But I gotta be honest with you. It's completely.

[Vanessa Mitchell]

Yeah, I told her everything. I said, so. I said, you're crazy. I spoke to her son, and, you know, I said, are you sure you. And she said, I don't believe in it. I don't believe in it. Or if she did. Well, I think she believed in some of it, actually, but she. She didn't seem to care. And she was warned and told. She Googled me. She googled the house. She knew everything. She just wanted to buy it. And I'm glad she did because she doesn't live there. But that at least doesn't mean nobody else can get affected by the house now.

[Interviewer (Julian Morgans)]

Yes. Yeah. Yeah. All right, I think my last question is really just, like, what. What is your take on the house? Like, is it effectively just haunted? Do you think it's haunted by, I don't know, witches from the 1600s or something? Or, like, what's. What is your theory?

[Vanessa Mitchell]

I think there is so many layers of history in that house. There is so many layers of ghosts and spirits and things that have happened to people there. I think the witch part could be a part of it. Probably is a part of it, but I don't think by any means, that's the biggest part of it. I Think that the fact that witch was witches took their last. Saw their last freedom in there, and some of them died in there over the years. I. I don't think that's. Obviously, I think energy can stay around for anyone, but I don't think it's haunted essentially by witches only. I think that, you know, there's a lot of spirits there. There's definitely men, women, and children there. I've heard them and seen them. That the place is haunted with layers and layers of history and energy, and I don't know who will ever get to the bottom of it.

[Interviewer (Julian Morgans)]

Yeah.

[Vanessa Mitchell]

And you know what? I'll probably be there myself one day. One day I'll probably go back there and I'll add to it, but. Yeah.

[Interviewer (Julian Morgans)]

Why. Why will you add to it?

[Vanessa Mitchell]

I just. I just always think that. I just think that I had to own that house for a reason. That. That's the start of the story. Why I had to is why this has happened, why it. It turned so bad. There still must be a reason for it. There still must be, but. Because why did I have to buy this house? I believe in God. I believe in Jesus. Don't believe in what the Bible says particularly, but I believe there's. You know, I believe up there is good. And I believe sometimes we have purposes and we have to do things for a reason, and we come here for a reason before we go back up to heaven again. And I know there's a reason for it. Why I had to have the house. I know all this bad. There's got to be a reason for it. And. Yeah. And I think one day I probably will go back there. I will. I probably will go back and see what the hell was going on in there as spirit myself. Yeah. Won't stay there, but I'll definitely.

[Interviewer (Julian Morgans)]

Yeah. Yeah. I hope you don't get. Hope you don't get stuck there. I'm thinking to. I'm thinking about the Shining, the very last scene of the Shining, where Jack Nicholson becomes part of the photo in the. The old hotel.

[Vanessa Mitchell]

As long as I can get up to heaven first, I can come back. It's not getting stuck in the first place. It's the first transition. You have to worry about getting stuck. And that. That's the scary part. But as long as I can get back up there, I know I can. I can come back and get out again. I hope so.

[Interviewer (Julian Morgans)]

Good positivity. All right, Vanessa, I'm gonna let you go, but thank you so much for your time. It's. It's been an amazing conversation and cool.

[Vanessa Mitchell]

And thanks for having me on and hopefully speak again other time soon. Thank you.

[Interviewer (Julian Morgans)]

If you've enjoyed this conversation and you want to hear more of Vanessa's story and her insights, I'd highly recommend checking out her podcast. Vanessa's got a podcast, of course. It's called the Haunted Podcast and it's on Apple, it's on Spotify, it's just wherever you get podcasts, go and check it out. Also, if you've enjoyed today's episode and you're thinking, hey, I've got a story that's, well, you know, it could be good for what it was like. Please hit me up. Get in touch. I'd love to hear from you. I am Julianne Morgans on Instagram and Morgans Julian on Twitter. Today's episode was produced by Rachel Tuffery. It was edited and mixed by Jimmy Saunders, who also did our theme music. Our cover art is by Naomi Lee Beveridge, and this whole thing has been a super real production.

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[Raj or Noah]

Hey, it's Raj and Noah. And we're back with a new season of Am I Doing It Wrong? The show that explores the all too human anxieties we have about trying to get our lives right.

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We'Ll be talking to experts in their fields who are definitely doing things right, so the rest of us can be a bit wiser and a lot better equipped to handle whatever life throws at us.

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