Hi Nick
Thank you for your response and I am in complete agreement that until you have experienced something for yourself it is always best to stay “on the fence” as it were. But by all means I will share a few of the random things that have happened to myself and in the hope others may come forward and share in due course. Firstly I apologise if I go into too much detail in these experiences but as a budding writer and paranormal enthusiast I think it better to write more than less. When I was 15 my mother and future stepdad started dating, I at that time was playing football for Aston Villas Academy my stepdad who lived in Sheldon/Marston Green at that point, asked if I wanted to stay at his house with my mother and he would take me to football the following morning to save me catching the coach from South Birmingham (which was a bit of a ball ache). Anyhow on the Saturday evening the 3 of us went to a pub called Sheldon Hall (or it was at that time) on the way home from this pub my mother and stepdad were talking in the front of his car and he mentioned that it was a well known haunted location, I being a cocky 15 year old said something along the lines of “you don't believe in ghosts do you?” If I would've known what was coming later that evening I think I would've chosen my words a bit better. I was staying in my stepdads daughters old room. The room was basically empty, it had a single bed pushed up against the far right wall directly beneath the window (which didn't have curtains or blinds on it), at the foot of the bed there was a small wooden table with nothing on it, there was a couple of tupperware boxes on the floor in the middle of the room with bits and pieces in them and a Madonna poster on the wall at the foot of the bed. There were some glow in dark stars on the ceiling too, but that's basically everything. When I went up into the room I flung my kit bag down the left hand wall in the corner and hopped into bed. Some time past but couldn't have been any later than 3AM when I came around to my stepdads 2 cats scratching at the bedroom door and making weird shrieking noises but I was kind of in that in-between phase of awake and sleep so didn't take too much notice, I must add that I sleep with one leg out of the covers so the duvet is in between my legs, I have no idea why, just always have. I think due to the over load of coke and orangeade I needed the loo and I can remember lifting my head up and twisting my body slightly to get out of bed, then for some reason plonking myself back down again. Then I shot bolt upright. At the foot of the bed no more than an outstretched arms length from me was a Soldier! Stood staring out the window. It was carrying something in its right hand pressed against his body like a rifle. It was the strangest thing because although I could see detail and even bits of colour in him I could also see the Madonna poster through part of his body! Suddenly panic set in and I quickly jumped back under the covers and into what can only be described as a ball. I remember actually being able to hear my heart beating as I cowered under there. I was trying to scream for my mum or stepdad who were only in the next room but I couldn't even muster up a noise, just an inaudible whisper like someone whos lost their voice. I scratched my arm to death to prove to myself I wasn't dreaming. I remember sitting there terrified for hours and bear in mind I actually needed the toilet so it was double uncomfortable. I must've dropped back of too sleep after a while (which I find odd to this day as I don't think I would be able to sleep that terrified now) and when my mum opened the bedroom door at about 7 on that Sunday morning I literally sprinted out of that room, downstairs passed her, into my stepdads garden and urinated in a bush rather than go to the loo in that house. I made my mum go and fetch my bag from that bedroom and got changed downstairs. I never stayed in that house on the Radley's again lol. I did hear some year later that, that house backs onto Sheldon Country Park and a bomb had exploded directly behind it and is now known as Devils Hole or something to that effect? I hope I haven't nattered on too much and if you would like me to write another experience let me know. Thanks again. Steve
El Galleon (Spanish). This vessel was built this century in 2009. I have seen her in Brixham, this year, and in the Great Lakes.
Mayflower II. Built in Brixham 1956, sailed to the United States, where she stayed, in 1957. I was present at the launch. Both my father and father-in-law were involved in its construction.
