FEMAIL reporter Luke Andrews spent a night at National Trust property Ham House in Richmond, London which is believed to be haunted by ghosts.

Ham House is a 17th-century home situated on the banks of the River Thames and visitors have reportedly been pushed down the stairs and witnessed the ghosts roam the halls.

Elizabeth, Duchess of Lauderdale, died at the haunted property 17 years after she was left abandoned and it is said her shadow still appears in the mirror by her bed in the same room she died.

Visitors have also reportedly seen the ghost of a spaniel wandering the first floor.

Mr. Andrews said: “The house is beset with ghost stories: From the weeping Duchess kneeling at the chapel where the body of her husband lay for ten days, to a wheelchair moving around the property at night and a King Charles spaniel whose bones were found in the garden appearing in doorways.”

Housekeeper Hannah Mawdsley, who has been working at the property for six months, said they are told not to put our foot on the third step.

When a visitor did, she was pushed and then turned pearl white when she realized she had been pushed by a ghost.

Mr. Andrews told: “In the morning, thinking I’d survived the evening unscathed, I walked around the house taking some final photos. The shutters were thrown open in the Duchess’s bedroom and next to the disabled chair, which hadn’t moved, for photos.”

“And a light was shone onto the dog’s bones so I could take a picture. I photographed the staircase too, after the lights were turned on, and the central hall.”

It is said the Duchess poisoned her second husband on the third step.

She died in 1698 after she was left abandoned and since then, the place is said to be haunted.

Her daughters heard the Duchess walking up and down the stairs, appearing in her bedroom mirror, and leaving dress marks.

The ghost of a spaniel also roams the halls and jumps up at guests before disappearing.

Mr. Andrews said: “The curator, sitting calmly at her desk, told me she had felt the dog, but only once.”

She told him: “It brushed against me when I was locking up. I definitely felt something.”

A 17-year-old, John Macfarlane who took his own life by jumping from a second-floor window after a maid rejected his marriage proposal, is also said to roam the place.

When Mr. Andrews asked Hannah how she stays at the property knowing everything about ghosts, she said: ‘I just shut my eyes and think it won’t come to me’.

“On the train home, I turned on my camera to check the photos. They were all jet black”, Mr. Andrews said.

 

 

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