OUR RESIDENT GHOST

by Brenda Diskin (© Brenda Diskin 2006)

When we had our shop in Walkley, Sheffield we were blessed with our own ghost. From the very first day we moved in we had 'spooky' goings on. I am a medium, so you might say that this is not unusual but these goings on were witnessed by several people.
The first day in the shop I was downstairs in the cellar cleaning up. The shop was empty and Mick had gone off to buy something from a local shop. The door was locked so no one could have come in without a key. I distinctly heard someone open the shop door and walk across the floor of the shop. I shouted to Mick thinking that he had returned but there was no answer, on going to investigate there was nobody there.
Since that moment we caught glimpses of a man, had things moved and put back in the same place the following day, heard bangs, knocking, had lights left on, things thrown about, and various other occurrences. A lot of things were witnessed by Mick who is quite the sceptic.
During an evening of clairvoyance in the shop the lid on a heavy casserole dish moved on its own and when I tried to recreate this happening by various methods, including jumping up and down on the floor to see if it was vibration, I was unsuccessful. When I commented on the casseroles dish a curtain moved (although there was no draught) these things were witnessed by at least 10 people.
Several people saw things move or fall for no apparent reason.

About 8 of us did a mini investigation for the RSPCA charity in June 2006. We sat in vigil in the cellar and picked up on a man of about 50ish who we believed to be called Dan from about 1600's. There was a lot of movement in the cellar on this night witnessed by most of the people attending. We also had a strange photo taken in the shop (not an orb).
One day when we arrived to open the shop we found two chairs had been moved in front of the coffee shop doorway stopping us from opening the door. There was no other way into this room as the window was security locked and barred.
Our ghost also stood a candle rack on its edge without knocking any candles off.

He rolled an oblong log along the floor long ways and knocked my legs with it, tapped on the display cabinet glass to let us know we had customers, rung the bell above the shop door several times without the door opening and left doors open after they were closed. He was constantly hiding Items then placing them directly in front of where you had just searched. We had been finding two pence pieces on the floor on a regular basis, a gift from Adam? (Could have made it £20 notes).

On numerous occasions something had fallen down in the shop when no one was in there. We had an obnoxious talking toy bear in the shop, one day it started talking on its own even though it had been turned off at the switch since the Xmas before.
One week was particularly active as follows:
Monday - door on soap cupboard was open when we went in and I saw someone walk across kitchen, made me jump thought someone had walked in back door.
Tuesday - light was on in hall when we went in.
Thursday - shop door bell rang but the door hadn't opened
Friday - Caught a glimpse of someone stood by counter when no one was in shop
Saturday - Someone tapped me on shoulder, thought Mick had come back from running errands. One of our customers had candles thrown at him and a few weeks after a candle was thrown on the floor, when picked up and replaced on the shelf, it was thrown down again. This happened four times on the trot, one of which was witnessed by a customer. One morning when I went in a picture was on the floor.
According to one of our customers, Walkley stands on Ley Lines. I would like to know more about this.

We would be interested in finding out any information about the shop (which was on Howard Road), the land it stands on and the surrounding area. If anyone knows who our ghost might be we would love to know.
We were used to having him there; he was quite a character and seemed to have a sense of humour. He had been known to turn the books on the shelves upside down. We nicknamed him Adam when we moved into the shop and he seemed to respond to it so we didn't change it even though we later thought his name may be Dan.

If you have any information for us we can be contacted at www.sheffieldparanormal.co.uk or email us.