I've never posted anything so this is a first, but this has stayed with me so wanted to share. I will add I have never seen anything myself, but had a few strange experiences, this being one of them.
A few years ago, my Aunt lived in a place not far from Stevenage. The house was end of terrace, meaning the house was the last house of a row of 5. We visited only a couple of times as she moved soon after. But once we were all sat round for dinner and we heard a couple of loud bangs on the wall. Everyone heard it. I asked what it was, my Aunt smiled and said the house next door was empty, but not to worry. We didn't think much of it until after we had dessert we heard it again. And I mean loud, like someone on the stairs had clenched their fist and knocked twice really loudly. She said, honestly, no one lives there and the house beyond that has no one living there.
I am a complete skeptic so insisted we get a torch, walk out the back garden and go through the neighbours and have a look. My dad came with us (I was only about 15 at the time) so me, my sister and brother, and Dad went and I shone a torch - house was in darkness and no one was there, the house next to it had no one there either. We shrugged it off thinking maybe an animal had some how got in or there may be some explanation.
I will add that my Aunt (call her Aunt as she is my mums best friend, also recently divorced and lived alone) was one of the nicest people you could meet. She also had no children at that time and was highly career driven and was high up in a well known UK Banking firm. She was quite a matter-of-fact character and didn't tell stories. So anyway, after we had finished dinner, me and my sister got a bit bored as she lived in the middle of nowhere and all was quiet... We went upstairs and in my Aunt's smaller second bedroom (she only had a 2 bedroom home) it was freezing... I mean really cold, compared to her main bedroom bathroom and landing area. You could almost see your breath as you breathed. My sister found a pair of my Aunt's shoes to wear (she was about 10 and loved wearing high heels (bless her) and we went downstairs and mentioned this to my Aunt who just said 'yes its always cold'... I again, thought nothing of it and put it down to the radiator maybe needing fixing. But about 5 minutes later both me and my sister thought we saw a really quick dark shadow whizzing up the staircase - it was unnaturally fast but caught my eye and my sister said she saw it too.
Later that evening, after some discussion, my Aunt did tell us that she was in bed a few weeks before, and got awoken, was really cold, then she felt someone sitting at the end of her bed. She said she thought it was a small boy but didn't feel frightened. She stared at him until he actually vanished after about 10 seconds. She also said that she had had her friend over for dinner and her friend brought her a box of chocolates as a thank you, and while the women were chatting and catching up, the box lifted up, hovered across the table then threw itself on the floor. I know my Aunt's friend and she later verified this to be true - she was very shaky after this event and left early.
One more thing my Aunt told us... She had decorated her medium sized Christmas tree one year and on Christmas day, she came downstairs to all the decorations in a neat pile. Tree was bare and the decorations were so placed that it was almost impossible for anyone to have done that. The doors were still locked and she doesn't sleep walk. She had other experiences in that house but moved soon after the tree incident.
A side note to this is that she spoke to her mum about these one day (her mum was in her 60's) and her mum actually said that before my Aunt was born, her mum had lost a son as a baby. But no one in the family had spoken about him. My Aunt, although quite a skeptic, thinks the boy on her bed could have been the same boy her mum lost years ago?
Wish I had more answers but I haven't seen my Aunt in years as she moved, remarried and had a daughter and we have lost touch.
Everything I have mentioned is 100% true - I'm a 36 year old mother with a healthy dose of skepticism, and always seem to have an answer for most things people tell me. But this stands out as it wasn't just my Aunt that experienced things in that house. I just find it fascinating. Thanks for reading, would appreciate any comment or if you have any questions, would be happy to answer if I can.
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Many of the details you recount here are interesting, but I'm going to have to disagree with the idea that the haunting phenomena you've described would be related to the little brother who died before your aunt was born.
1. If her mother "lost a son as a baby," there's no reason to suspect that the baby's spirit would grow up to be the spirit of a young boy and *then* stop growing up.
2. Unless your Aunt purchased the terrace house from a close relative, there's not causal relationship between her home and her brother. Certainly *people* can be haunted, and the phenomena can follow them anywhere (e.g.: poltergeist activity), but that would not be limited to a single house.
3. If the second bedroom upstairs was always cold (from your description, it does seem to have made a profound impact upon you at the time), that room has a higher likelihood of being connected to the haunting. Please Note: if it was a particularly breezy location, and the second bedroom was on the outside corner, there could have been an insulation problem.
4. I'm cautioning against the logical fallacy of "post hoc, ergo propter hoc" (That event occurred first, therefore it caused the second event). I have no reason whatsoever to disbelieve your account, especially as your sister contributed data you'd forgotten about; this indicates that she was just as profoundly affected as you were by the experiences.
Your Aunt and her mother may have found some comfort in believing that the deceased brother was the prankster ghost in the events, but there is no solid connection between the two ideas except for wishful thinking.
I thank you for sharing your story with us; I enjoyed reading it. I do believe your experiences as you describe them, but I have a serious disagreement with the 'explanation' provided by an older woman seeking solace for a tragedy earlier in her life.
Best,
Biblio.
A fascinating historical side note; the shingle beach below Slapton, called "Slapton Sands," was the site of the "Operation Tiger" fiasco in which approximately 800 Americans died in the Practice Run for the D-Day invasion of Normandy. It was so hush-hush that the participants were being shot at not only by a "Schnellboot" convoy from the channel, but also by other Americans who'd already landed. These troops had not learned of the 1-hour delayed start, and -after witnessing 2 boats being torpedoed- they thought it was the Germans following them. If I recall correctly, these deaths were reported as casualties of the D-Day invasion, NOT as part of a catastrophic failure of US-British military communications.