Haunted by a woman-hater. By Jane Oddy.
When Mandy Franks moved into her new home in Harleston she jokingly asked the previous owners whether the 500-year-old building was haunted. Little did she realise the truth of her lighthearted inquiry… After a series of bizarre and inexplicable incidents over the next few months, 24-year-old Mandy became convinced that her bedroom in the house was occupied by a supernatural presence which was only felt by women. Mandy felt so chilled by her experiences that she asked a Norwich medium to visit them two weeks ago, and since then the sinister atmosphere in the room has completely changed and Mandy believes the restless spirit has finally gone.
The strange story started in January this year, a month after Mandy and her husband Gerald moved into the Writing on the Wall restaurant in Broad Street, with partners Anna and Mark Roberts. The previous owners were three women who left the Tudor restuarant after only 18 months. Mandy recalls that they slept downstairs during the last few weeks of their stay rather than in the upper floor room. “Now I wonder if they had similar experiences and it drove them away,” she said. Mandy said that she believes in ghosts, although she had never experienced psychic forces at work before.
Parts of the restaurant date back to the 14th century and its distinguishing feature is some mysterious italic writing on part of the wall. When they first arrived in December, Mandy felt uneasy in the bedroom in the evenings and was sometimes aware that someone was watching her. Then one Tuesday night in January she was in bed, when she heard to water glasses moving on her bedside table and interference with her digital clock radio. The same thing happened a month later when things moved on her dressing table and she heard the sound of heavy footsteps walking on bare boards above her. “But our actual staircase is outside our bedroom door and has a carpet,” she said. Another evening she could smell a candle burning in a corner of the room. There seemed to be no plausible explanation for these experiences so Mandy swapped sides of the bed with Gerald to see if it would make any difference.
“The noises always stopped whenever I tried to wake Gerry up,” said Mandy. She said that the most terrifying experience of all was when her ghostly visitor physically touched her as she was half asleep in bed. “I felt something tapping me on the shoulder and I actually felt something standing over me. This went on for a few minutes, but I was too petrified to look round. I wish I had now.” Mandy woke up her husband in tears and he remembers she was so frightened she could hardly speak.
Nothing happened for several weeks then one Tuesday she felt something heavy drop near her foot. Soon after she heard a medium was in Harleston and she asked her to visit them. “I told her about my experiences and I said I felt I was being watched from about the centre of the room and this is where she felt him most strongly too,” said Mandy. “My sister came to stay for three weeks and was drying her hair in front of the mirror in my room when she came out panic stricken. She felt that someone was watching her from the same spot.”
The medium was able to visualise the image of Mandy’s ghost and described him as an elderly man who was a religious fanatic. She said he belonged to a pagan cult and held initiation ceremonies in the bedrooms on Tuesdays which accounted for the recurring day and for the burning candle smell. He was also dressed in a fake monk’s robe and cowl, so his face was hardly visible. “She said he was a bad, but not an evil man,” said Mandy. The medium believed that the spirit was not very intelligent and was also a woman-hater which was why he only haunted Mandy’s bedroom. The restaurant was formerly a guild hall and she thought he was tapping Mandy on the shoulder because he was telling her to get out, because women were not allowed in the guild hall.
The Frank’s airing cupboard was formerly a spiral staircase which explained the ghostly footsteps and the medium thought the spirit entered the bedroom through a blocked up window and door. Mandy said that a neighbour living behind the building had also seen a man dressed in monk’s robes and it is believed that several houses in that area of Harleston are haunted. The medium asked the spirit world to take the disturbed ghost back to the dead and it seems the building is now free of its presence. “I used to be frightened to go in the room after dark, there was an awful heavy feeling,” said Mandy. “But since our medium has been I haven’t heard anything. I do believe he’s gone, the room feels nicer, and I’m not afraid any more.”
At peace at last… Mandy Franks pictured in the exact spot where she had her ghostly encounter, holding a crucifix she keeps at her bedside.
Diss Express, 15th July 1983.