The Ghost of Mr Banks

The Ghost of Mr Banks - by Chris Franklin

This is my story of Mr Banks and how his presence led to my interest in ghosts and my discovery that I had the ability to read tarot

My first memories was of Marsh Farm Cottage (which dates back to 1540)

This is where I lived as a young child and where my memoroes began. Though I loved the house I was always uneasy there I always felt I was being watched and I had bad nightmares which was blamed by my parents on drinking milk at bedtime. (not sure why they gave me milk then *smile*). Then after seven years we moved into another farm house close by and my feeling of being watched disappeared. When I left school I lived and worked on my fathers farm. I was obliged to work on the farm as I was the eldest son, farming goes back for many generations. Even though farming was in my blood I was never settled. I am always one to explore try out new experiences ideas it must have been the gypsy in me (from My Grandfather, Cave side) I have since left to work in the internet world. My brothers have taken my place. Whoops diversifying back to the plot...........

In 1980 the Farm Cottage became available and it was offered to myself. (pic of house below arrow pointing to old doorway -path of the ghost) On moving in I found there was a presence like the one I felt as a child and apart from the 'feelings' there was a strong electrical disturbance, lights flickering, and unexplained electrical problems. I even had the electric's checked out, and they were fine. At the time I was into photography and built a darkroom in the "box room" upstairs. I had terrible problem in developing prints, as if there was an intense energy in the room, which fogged the prints. All it could be described aswas a very fast intense flash of light, which was more felt than seen!. .hm... The cold shiver would go down my back and I knew my prints would be destroyed. So I had to move the darkroom downstairs, no problems there.

Several weeks later, early in the morning at around 2am I had to get up to check on the cattle as it was calving time. I turned on the landing light and went downstairs to walk through the dinning room. On entering the room in the dim light I saw the figure of a man walking out of the wall, across the room, through the furniture, and out of the opposite wall. The figure was clear and i could see that he was a man in his fifties and he was wearing a hessian sack around his waist, rough complexion and walked with a stoop. My initial reaction was that I was still dreaming, or drunk. (I counted out the second one as I am not a drinker but at the time wished I was!) So I ignored the incident until two days later, same time, same place, he appeared again. I took more notice this time and watched to see his reaction. He was not aware of my presence and didn't even react to my words of "greetings" and "stop walking through my furniture!" His appearance happened numerous times over the next twelve months and I came to except him, and even felt a good feeling and even warmth in his presence.

Two years later there was a knock at the door. (No its wasn't the ghost.!!.) but there at the door was a Mr Banks, who was an antiques dealer from London. He said he was researching his family tree and that his Great Grand father lived in this house. After a chat, I threw in the conversation that I had, jokingly, seen Mr Banks walking through our living room! I was taken aback when my description matched his Grand father in ever detail! ( I later saw a photo to prove my point!) Of course he was very interested in my story and even went to the box room to try and contact his Grand Father! He was so impressed that he even wanted to buy the house. As I am still here his offer was not taken. We did have contact with the living Mr Banks and even had a Christmas card addressed to the ghost Mr Banks, senior!! The story doesn't stop there as when I later decorated the room I stripped back the plaster from the wall to reveal an old door frame. The exact position from where Mr Banks appears from the wall! I then looked to the other side of the room where he disappeared to find behind the wall an old flagstone which was worn. Indicating that there was at sometime a door way. The puzzle was complete and all I was seeing was back in time. Mr. Banks was just walking from door to door what they called an imprint ghost. Recently I have had a medium visit. who without any prior knowledge was able to dowse the path Mr. Banks walks. .Over the years the presence of Mr. Banks has faded but to be replaced by another ghost. This one is not so nice. I met him on Christmas eve and I was naked !. to be continued ps My computer is in the room right next to the door where Mr. Banks appear. I wonder if he can travel along the net. Did I see your lights flicker..... *smile*

A few years after Mr Banks the first ghost and three years after discovering tarot I had this strange experience

It was Christmas Eve and my emotions were high, all excited about Santa! It was the middle of the night and I was woke by a 'feeling' I sensed that someone was watching me. I woke immediately to see at the foot of the bed a young man staring at me. I went cold as I could see no white beard and no sack of presents <g>. I was sure it was a burglary and my instincts was to protect the family and attack this man. This I did and I flew out of the bed to attack the man, only to fall through him on a heap on the floor! This woke my partner who turned the light on to see me naked on the floor! My excuse was that I was sneaking off to put a present under the tree and fell. I am afraid my partner did not believe in any of my ghosts or tarot card readings. I felt uneasy with this 'ghost' and went to sleep confused. Blamed it on my emotions. Several days later I awoke to feel the person in the room. I had my eyes closed but sensed him there. It was scary!! I peeped and saw him standing at the end of the bed, just watching. It felt weird, I could have put up with a lady watching, but a man? and why? I also saw that he was standing several feet off the floor, floating. I closed my eyes and ignored him. He then started appearing regularly and I felt he was trying to communicate but I could not seem to bring myself to try and talk back. No wonder people find it difficult living with me!!. Picture the scene - Me in bed naked trying to talk to a man several feet off the ground. Strange man, they all say! I even gave up tarot cards as I thought I was dabbling into unknown areas and this person was warning me. Though on reflections, I sometimes think that it may have been an out of body experience and in fact I was looking at myself! One thing he did do for me was to realize there is more to this life than we can ever imagine. He stopped appearing after about six months, no reason, just stopped..

Now it is time to tell you about my third ghost, who appeared a couple of years ago and brought a fantasy to life.....

In my bedroom there is a fire place, its not used now but the outline and the chimney is still there. A while back I was awaken, and my first instinct was that the man at the end of the bed was back. This time I felt warmth and opened my eyes to see the fire burning in the fireplace. Not only could I see the fire but all of the brick work and the mantelpiece was full of trinkets I had not seen before. The strangest things was that by the fire was a young lady who was warming her hands by the fire, it was just a back view but I could see that around her neck hung a muff and she had long black hair. The most amazing part of the incident was that I could see in colour and she was wearing a very pretty blue dress. It was a very pleasant experience and I felt the glow of the fire. This experience happened several time but I never saw her face and like Mr Banks she was not aware of me. Tried "greetings!" of course.

Did some research on the house and found out that this lady was named Elizabeth, who was the dairy maid on the farm around 1871 and worked for Mr Banks. I will, when i get time do some more research and find what happened to her. Pretty normal experience you may say, what a boring person! I must be if that's my fantasy.. hmm.., there is more read on...

Well last year I was approached by a cable channel who were doing a series on the paranormal and asked if I could help as I knew about the local ghosts in the area, we have many. (lots more ghost stories to come if interested) I finally agreed to put my stories onto television and arranged that the crew could come down to my house to film me and my ghosts. As I have worked in video production I assumed that they would all be professional and would have a script. Wrong! Turned up at 11am and the crew consisted of presenter, a lady camera-person, a Canadian female director, and an actor / script writer! basically they made it up as they went along and even asked for my ideas on how to go about it. We started with an interview which I was not impressed with as they were trying to make it as if I was frightened by the spooky goings on in the house, which I am not. AHHHH... Whoops! (Mr Banks just said boo!) Hm a ghost with a sense of humour! I am well at ease with the situation and did not want to play act for the camera. They even brought a smoke machine to give the sinister effects! Then came the reconstruction of what I saw. They brought costumes and I directed them into what each ghost did. Now to the best bit (apologies for this but I am a health man!) went to the bedroom with the producer and the camera person to reconstruct the lady ghost. I sat on the bed and the camera was positioned at my eye level facing towards the fireplace. The director said that she would be the ghost and had brought a dress and a long black wig. There in front of me she stripped off to be standing naked apart from a small black G-string! She put on a flimsy white dress and her black wig. To get the blue dress effect they shone a strong blue light at her. All this did was to make her dress see-through! I must admit I found this very funny as they had turned my sweet young lady into some sort of sleazy hooker, even the camera-person found it funny. They eventually finished filmed at 4pm. Apart from the unexpected strip show, I found the experience very poor. At the end of the day I could had told them anything and they would have believed. I haven't seen the programme yet and I am not sure if I want to. (Apart from the bedroom scene, of course) One interesting thing did happen on their filming the next day at the sight of the old gallows in Devizes..... but you guessed it, TAS (That's Another Story). Just making sure your don't get bored with my stories.....