A solicitor told her how she was tortured as a teenager by a violent, poltergeist who almost drove her insane.

Millie, her surname not given, spoke to BBC Radio 4’s Uncanny about her childhood in a Cotswolds farmhouse from 17th century. She believes that the house was haunted at the time by the spirit of a teenage girl who hanged themselves in the attic back in the 1700s. 

Millie, now in her thirties, and Mary, her mother, witnessed strange happenings. They saw cassettes levitate, and discovered a heavy, gilt frame mirror that had apparently crashed against the wall after it flew across the room.

Robert Mary, Mary’s husband, was born in the property. Mary claims she was possessed after smelling the stench in the kitchen. 

Millie woke up one day to find that she was on a stool in the bedroom with a neck noose.

Terrifying: Millie spoke to BBC Radio 4 podcast Uncanny about her experience growing up in a 17th century farmhouse in the Cotswolds, which she believes was haunted by the spirit of a teenage girl who had hung herself in the attic in the 1700s. Stock image

Terrifying: Millie spoke with BBC Radio 4’s Uncanny podcast about her experiences growing up in a Cotswolds farmhouse in the 17th century. She believes that the house was haunted from the spirit of a teenage girl, who hanged herself in the attic back in the 1700s. Stock image

Presenter Danny Robins was able to hear how Millie, whom he described as a’sensible,’ first felt uneasy at her house at six years of age. She was then taken to Robert’s childhood bedroom after his marriage to her mother.  

Six years later, Millie (Mary) and Robert moved into the property in order to care for Robert’s mother during her fight against cancer. Robert’s childhood bedroom, which Millie felt “very uncomfortable” in as a child, was given to Millie.

She said, “Everywhere I went, I would feel like being watched.” 

“The room below my bedroom, the hallway, I would feel like someone was there in one corner. My sister and I used to play outside, and I would feel that someone was watching us from the attic windows. 

“Get such and-such” was the request of my mother every now and again. I would cry with fear.

She stated that she felt overwhelmed by the fact that there was another person in her house. 

Millie began to notice more physical evidence that the house was haunted at the age of 14. 

She continued, “Things started moving during the night.” I would hear a rolling sound in my bedroom. I would turn on the light and there would be no sound in the middle. I would turn off the light and the noise would return. Every night.

Millie would sometimes listen to music on her Walkman to mask her fear. Before she went to bed, she would take her headphones out and place them on the ground. She would then notice something odd the next morning. 

She said that the entire earpiece was removed at the wire. The entire in-ear plastic would be gone. This happened five to six times.

Both Millie, now in her 30s, and her mother, Mary, witnessed unexplained goings-on at the house, including seeing cassettes levitate and discovering a heavy, gilt-frame mirror broken on the floor after apparently flying across the room and crashing against the wall. Stock image

Millie, now in her thirties, and Mary, her mother, witnessed strange happenings at the house. They saw cassettes levitate, and discovered a heavy, gilt frame mirror that had apparently crashed against the wall after it flew across the room. Stock image

Millie was studying for her Maths GCSE in 2000 when she had one of the most memorable encounters with the spirit. 

She heard a thump, and she turned to look for the lever arch files that were on her bookshelf in a pile at the other end of the room.   

“A few minutes later, i started hearing little plastic taps,” she said. I look at my stereo and see a stack of cassette tapes on top. Each one is moving off the speaker onto the floor and then rearranging. 

“The stereo was off, there was no sound coming out of it, but they were moving in straight lines, horizontally then vertically… As if someone had picked one up and is slowly putting it down. They are being moved away from the speaker. I just ran.

The stereo was off and there was no sound, but they were moving in straight lines horizontally, then vertically… As if someone had picked one up, and is slowly putting it away.

Millie contacted her mother in kitchen and Mary confirmed that Millie believed there was a “poltergeist”. 

Mary stated, “From the moment I moved into, I felt terribly uneasy.” “I couldn’t put my finger on what it was so we just tried to deal with it…

It was my in-laws property. I felt constantly watched. My in-laws said it was a poltergeist and that it was always playing tricks. 

Millie, Mary, and Millie believe that the poltergeist could understand and hear what they were saying. While they were talking about the spirit in the kitchen they heard a “smack” at the far end.

They raced down the hall to find Millie’s room that she ‘didn’t like being in after darkness’.

Mary added, “The mirror wasn’t easy to lift. Unnatural forces had lifted the whole thing and thrown them across the room. My builder said to me that she had heard me and would teach me how to be rude about the presence of people in my house. 

Mary believes she was possessed by the spirit at another time. It began when Mary could smell something invasive and vile in the kitchen, similar to ‘rotting flesh meets sewer’. But she couldn’t find it. 

Presenter Danny Robins, pictured, heard how Millie, who he described as 'sensible', first felt uneasy at the house at six years old, when she was put down for a nap in her stepfather Robert's childhood bedroom following his wedding to her mother

Presenter Danny Robins, pictured. He heard how Millie, whom he described as a’sensible,’ first felt uneasy at her house at six years of age. After her father’s wedding, she was put to bed in Robert’s childhood bedroom. 

“I stood at a sink and I felt that something was getting close to me. I backed into a corner. 

‘Robert [my husband]He came out and asked, “Are ya alright?” I was shaking my head, and couldn’t speak. Although it sounds dramatic, I felt like my voice wouldn’t come out if I spoke. 

“This sounds very far-fetched.” [but]It appeared to be standing behind me. Then it walked forwards and entered my body. I felt like I was being invaded by this awful thing… Something menacing, unpleasant.

Millie kept hearing strange sounds, such as squeaking and footsteps on wooden floors outside her door. She said, “It is frightening to know that there is someone in your home that you don’t see.” “We would dread going back home.”

She said, “I can’t express how frightening it is to know that there is someone in your home you don’t see.” “We would dread going back home.”

Millie, a teenager, suffered low self-esteem. She experienced a ‘huge depression.

It all came to a head as she was watching TV in her bedroom one evening. 

“I was feeling vShe said, “ery, very sad.” “Then, I blacked out, and came to, trying my best to hang myself from a beam in my bedroom. 

“There was a beam that ran across the centre of my bedroom. I was standing on this stool, and there was a rope. I didn’t know how it had happened, but I was almost ready for the rope to pull me off. It was quite scary. It was quite scary. I got down.

She said that she felt like she was being placed there. It was as if someone else had taken control of my actions.

Thanks to local historians, the family learned that a young girl had hanged herself in the attic. This was the same room that gave Millie such a strange feeling as a child. 

Millie thought that the ghost was showing her what she had experienced and why she was there. I was at the right time for it to draw my energy. It felt right to have a young girl as the ghost. We believe it was done in an attic.  

The family eventually moved out. Robert, who had never experienced any ‘extraordinary experience’ in the property, stated that it was heart-wrenching to leave his family home.  

Chris French, a skeptical psychologist, suggested that Millie’s incident with the noose and other experiences such as the cassettes or files could be attributed ‘dissociative behavior’.  

If the account is true, it does suggest that Millie could sometimes do things without realising. If Millie does indeed have the potential to go into a dissociative condition, in which she is carrying out actions she has no memory of later, is it possible that Millie was responsible for these events? 

“The other possibility is, was this really what happened? Or, perhaps, she may have a false memory even though her heart is full of hope. Millie’s description has a dreamlike quality that I find fascinating. Perhaps she dreamed it and now sees it as real. It is very frightening and very, very unpleasant, regardless of the explanation. 

Writer and paranormal psychologist Evelyn Hollow pointed out that while periods of dissociative behaviour could explain some elements of Millie’s story, it did not account for everything. 

“It doesn’t explain why she’s not alone in experiencing it. These things happened before Millie. It was something that her grandparents experienced. This suggests to me that there’s an outside force.

Concluding the episode, Danny asked: ‘Is it the story of two teenage girls, separated across centuries, one reaching out to the other? Or is it a story of a family feeding each other’s fears and accidentally inventing an imaginary ghost?  

Samaritans can be reached at 116 123 for free or visit www.samaritans.org.