Confused ghost got cross over changes

The woman, who has lived in Lowden for just over a year, said the attacks, which started in January felt like "something was trying to get in me".

She said the first time it happened in her bedroom her cat was sitting on a pillow making funny noises, before it shot out of the room.

Unknown to her, at the same time her partner began experiencing such bad headaches he considered contacting his doctor and he kept waking up at 12.30pm every night.

The attacks got so bad the woman approached ghostbuster Shane Adams for help.

Mr Adams and his partner Lynda Matthews discovered the spirit of an old woman who used to live in the house and seemed very confused.

Mr Adams said he thought in life she might have died from a brain tumour.

He said the couple had carried out major renovations on the house, which is 100 years old, and Mr Adams felt the work could have upset her.

Mr Adams and Mrs Matthews spoke to the old woman and explained she needed to move on.

As they performed the exorcism they felt a brushing sensation against their legs. They asked the couple if they had ever experienced any similar sensations and the woman's partner admitted sometimes he did feel pressure on his chest.

Mr Adams said it was because the old lady kept cats.

The woman said: "There was nothing eerie about the house, which was why I found it hard to accept there was anything wrong, but it was scary because I'm really not into that sort of thing.

"I wouldn't say I totally believe in it now, but if someone was to tell me a strange story I would believe it because I have been there.

"I remember the upstairs was always colder than downstairs, which was a bit odd, but I always thought that perhaps we'd left a window open.

"Shane said the headaches may have been us going through the suffering the old lady experienced and they think she may have died at 12.30pm, which is why my partner kept waking up at that time."

The ghostbusters performed the exorcism two months ago and the woman has experienced no more problems.

Shadowy figure frightens workmen in old shop

Stonemasons renovating an ancient Chippenham shop reputedly the site of a fire in which a child died have reported some spooky goings on.

The shop at 20 High Street, a grade II-listed building, is undergoing extensive renovation for the leaseholders, Clinton Cards.

Just over a week ago stonemasons Andy Michael and Ibby Greenslade began work repairing the outside wall.

"Ibby was on the first floor and I walked downstairs. I saw a moving shadow," said Mr Michael. His first thought was that Mr Greenslade had come downstairs but when he called out he was still upstairs.

"It was a nice sunny day but I had a strange feeling. And the building does creak a lot," he said.

Following the incident with the shadow, an elderly Chippenham woman told the stonemasons the shop was once the site of a fire, in which a child was burned to death.

She said during the fire, which had taken place during her lifetime, someone had accidentally closed a door, trapping the child inside.

Just after the visit the stonemasons uncovered an old window frame in the wall, blackened and charred by fire.

The building dates back to Elizabethan times and is one of the oldest in the High Street.

Features of the early Elizabethan origins of the shop have been uncovered, including a wooden mullion window, but the early building was updated and extended over the centuries, burying the original building inside.

Mike Stone, the manager of Chippenham Museum and Heritage Centre, said the building was a horse harness and leather shop in the 19th and 20th centuries.

"In 1877 it was first recorded the shop was occupied by J Newman, a saddler," said Mr Stone.

"It is quite likely the building dates back to Tudor times."

The exorcists

JUST like Cole Sear, the troubled youngster from the supernatural movie thriller The Sixth Sense, ghost-busters Shane Adams and Lynda Matthews claim to see dead people all the time.

The duo use their unusual skills to help people plagued by spooks and spirits and have performed various exorcisms in Chippenham, including in a number of shops in the High Street.

Mr Adams, 27, who lived in Chippenham for five years before moving to Trowbridge, said a mysterious presence in one Chippenham store caused several terrified members of staff to resign.

He said objects at the shop were moved around, people's clothes were jerked and pulled when no one was near and staff heard voices in empty rooms.

Mr Adams was called to the shop by the manager and said he was thrown across the floor when the troubled ghost of a 15-year-old boy charged him. He said the spirit felt scared and trapped and the incident petrified the already frightened manager.

Mrs Matthews said the moment one of her bachelor clients brought a girlfriend back to his quiet home in Cherhill all hell would break lose because a jealous spirit of a woman had fallen in love with him.

"Yes there are angels and yes there are demons, which we can deal with," said Mr Adams. "If we couldn't, people like us wouldn't have been born."

The ghost busters prefer to call exorcisms "house blessings," where they help spirits, who are trapped or who want to leave the physical plane.

Mr Adams said spirits can also call at unexpected moments, pleading to be released.On one occasion he was looking at videos at a shop in Bath when a spirit poked him. It was trapped in the shop and Mr Adams said he had no alternative but to perform the ritual in the store, while hiding behind a pillar.

He said he was glowing and bathed in sweat by the time he had finished channelling the spirit to the light and staff looked at him oddly when he paid for his cassettes.

But Mr Adams and Mrs Matthews, who worked as a psychoanalyst in Harley Street, both agree that the ability to communicate with the dead can sometimes be an upsetting experience.

Mr Adams, who is a medium, palmist and astrologist, claims to have been woken at night by a spirit killed in an accident who was badly disfigured.

He said he did find it startling, but it is something he has become used to.

Mother-of-four Mrs Matthews, 47, of Brake Mead, in Chippenham, who is studying for a doctorate in religious studies, once lived at Stanton St Quintin, near the M4, and claims to have often experienced premonitions of motorway accidents before they happened.

"It can be a painful experience because sometimes you know they're there when they manifest how they died in physical form through you," said Mrs Matthews.

The physics, who have both been ordained in the Universal Life Church, met two-and-a-half years ago through Mrs Matthew's son Kieron, who is a friend of Mr Adams.

Mr Adams claims he has been able to talk to spirits ever since he was a child, when people assumed he had lots of imaginary friends.

The pair have both experienced suffering in their lives, which has helped them to appreciate and hone their unusual gifts.

Mrs Matthews suffers from the effects of being a Thalidomide baby.

Mr Adams, who dabbled with heroin when he was a teenager, said spiritualists often have to experience the "dark night of the soul" or rock bottom before they can know themselves.

They have also suffered verbal and physical abuse from people because of their powers.

Mr Adams said he has had a knife held to his throat and has returned home to find Christians convinced he was the devil praying outside his house.

Spirits enter our office via fire escape

HAVING watched Disney's Caspar The Friendly Ghost from behind a sofa I was nervous when Chippenham's spook-busting duo came to search the Gazette office for spirits.

The Chippenham office in the Market Place, which backs on to the graveyard of St Andrews Church, was believed to be a medieval building, which was built on and added to over the centuries. But I was particularly concerned because I often work late in the office on my own.

Within minutes of arriving at the office, physic duo Shane Adams and Lynda Matthews located the spirit of a five-year-old girl.

They asked if we had experienced any problems with our computers on Wednesdays, when the paper goes to print. Bizarrely, last month the office computers went haywire.

Mr Adams said the little girl, who was wearing clothes from the 18th century, meant no harm, but enjoyed watching frustrated reporters with tight deadlines threaten to hurl their machines out of the window.

Reassuringly, they said there was the spirit of an enormous moustachioed knight in armour guarding the office's front door.

They then encountered the spirit of an elderly man wearing spectacles who they said dealt with money or may have once used the reception area of the office to count his cash.

Mrs Matthews claimed she could see the spirit of a woman who died in a fire. She described her as stocky, holding keys and chains, wearing black clothes and a headscarf, who may not have been English.

At this point I vowed never to work late again but the pair reassured me if there were any bad spirits in the office they would take them with them.

"Spirits sometimes don't realise they're dead or don't want to know," Mr Williams said.

Mrs Matthews added: "Spirits usually go to places that meant a lot to them when they were alive."

They said the spirits were entering the office from the graveyard through the fire escape.

As an added precaution they performed a ceremony to seal the back door and dissuade any more spirits from entering the premises.