Liverpool student flat poltergeist.

[Rowan2222]

I was in my 20's when I stayed overnight in a flat in Liverpool.
It was a 3 storey building - semi detached and I think built around 1920.
The property was divided into student flats, and I stayed in what was the downstairs front room, which had a kitchen and bathroom further back, and a back door - which was the only access to the rear garden.
Outside there was a side passageway, but it had a high overgrown gate, that was always kept locked. Behind the small garden was a high wall - maybe 8ft, and beyond that was a fairly large graveyard.

The front door was heavy, very wide, and had a nightlatch and a deadlock. All students had keys to both.
There was a small hall and then another large door, but this time it was glass - and rattled a lot.

We could hear both doors being opened and closed from withing the flat because it was right outside.

Outside the front was a very small garden - about 10ft, and a small gate. There was a waist-high wall between this house and the adjoined house at the front, although they had no gate.

It was half term, so all students - except my partner had left for the holiday break. We were the only people in the place, and all the rooms upstairs were private and locked.

It was about 8.30 in the morning. I had just made two coffees and was in the front room. We were both wide awake and had been for some time.
We both heard noises from upstairs. Not above us, but from the main stairway. It may have started from a door slam - I can't remember, but it was the sound of running in heavy boots that became louder, pausing only for each landing turn and getting louder each time it moved down a flight of stairs.
We looked at each other as if to question what it was.
When the noise reached ground floor - we both heard -and felt the boots run through our room!, Then approximately 2 seconds later - the outside metal gate slammed shut !

Initial thoughts -
Everyone had gone home - so it is possible we have just had a burglar run out of the building.
Not hearing the door slam or the rattly glass door means the door is now probably wide open.

We unlocked the flat door cautiously and peered out at the stairway. We walked over to the glass door - that was still closed and latched. Opened that, and looked at the front door- that was still closed - and deadlocked from the inside - as the keys were still in it. This she said was a fire precaution and they always did that, but it meant that nobody could get in through it either - even with a key.

We then checked upstairs doors and all doors were locked with nothing out of place.

I checked outside and it is not possible to use the side passageway to see if anyone could take a shortcut to make the front gate close with a bang.

I did not hear any sounds from next door and typically they have separate floor beams and do not share beams between properties in this date for fire reasons. Plus this would not explain the sounds starting from upstairs.

It was the feeling of the floor bouncing with these heavy footsteps that got me! And the door being locked would make it impossible to slam the gate outside seconds after the footsteps. This wasn't just creaky soft footsteps - this was heavy running in heavy boots down 3 storeys and then through the room we were in!

No idea who or what it may be, and didn't occur again.

 

[garnetsilver]

Very good description of your surroundings at the time; I could easily picture it all! Weird that it only happened one time, too! At first I thought it was the beginning of more activity but apparently it wasn't!

 

[Rowan2222]

Well I wasn't there that long to find out.

 

[garnetsilver]

Well I wasn't there that long to find out.

Smart move! (no pun intended )

 

[Duke]

I was in my 20's when I stayed overnight in a flat in Liverpool.
It was a 3 storey building - semi detached and I think built around 1920.
The property was divided into student flats, and I stayed in what was the downstairs front room, which had a kitchen and bathroom further back, and a back door - which was the only access to the rear garden.
Outside there was a side passageway, but it had a high overgrown gate, that was always kept locked. Behind the small garden was a high wall - maybe 8ft, and beyond that was a fairly large graveyard.

The front door was heavy, very wide, and had a nightlatch and a deadlock. All students had keys to both.
There was a small hall and then another large door, but this time it was glass - and rattled a lot.

We could hear both doors being opened and closed from withing the flat because it was right outside.

Outside the front was a very small garden - about 10ft, and a small gate. There was a waist-high wall between this house and the adjoined house at the front, although they had no gate.

It was half term, so all students - except my partner had left for the holiday break. We were the only people in the place, and all the rooms upstairs were private and locked.

It was about 8.30 in the morning. I had just made two coffees and was in the front room. We were both wide awake and had been for some time.
We both heard noises from upstairs. Not above us, but from the main stairway. It may have started from a door slam - I can't remember, but it was the sound of running in heavy boots that became louder, pausing only for each landing turn and getting louder each time it moved down a flight of stairs.
We looked at each other as if to question what it was.
When the noise reached ground floor - we both heard -and felt the boots run through our room!, Then approximately 2 seconds later - the outside metal gate slammed shut !

Initial thoughts -
Everyone had gone home - so it is possible we have just had a burglar run out of the building.
Not hearing the door slam or the rattly glass door means the door is now probably wide open.

We unlocked the flat door cautiously and peered out at the stairway. We walked over to the glass door - that was still closed and latched. Opened that, and looked at the front door- that was still closed - and deadlocked from the inside - as the keys were still in it. This she said was a fire precaution and they always did that, but it meant that nobody could get in through it either - even with a key.

We then checked upstairs doors and all doors were locked with nothing out of place.

I checked outside and it is not possible to use the side passageway to see if anyone could take a shortcut to make the front gate close with a bang.

I did not hear any sounds from next door and typically they have separate floor beams and do not share beams between properties in this date for fire reasons. Plus this would not explain the sounds starting from upstairs.

It was the feeling of the floor bouncing with these heavy footsteps that got me! And the door being locked would make it impossible to slam the gate outside seconds after the footsteps. This wasn't just creaky soft footsteps - this was heavy running in heavy boots down 3 storeys and then through the room we were in!

No idea who or what it may be, and didn't occur again.

So when you said you heard "heavy boots," does that mean one pair of boots, as in a lone individual, or multiple pairs of boots, inferring a number of people?

Any idea what stood on the site of the building pre-1920s? Is it possible the graveyard you mentioned could at one time have extended onto the site of the building, and then built over?

 

[Rowan2222]

I think the graveyard may have a bearing on the whole thing. It was just one individual in heavy boots running out like they were late. It was the clanging of the gate that confused me as that was outside.
I had to give a description of the layout so you can figure out it was not possible to have the sound from other sources, nor would it be easy for next door to run out through the gate as it is easier for them just to run out with no gate than vault a wall and open a gate next door.
The two main doors were closed, and the side access was also closed.

It wasn't light footsteps that people sometimes report either or an occasional creak in floorboards. This sounded like a heavy adult wearing heavy boots running downstairs as fast as they could.

I don't think there was anything on the land before the house, and the wall around the graveyard has been there as long as it has, so is unlikely they have built on it like they do in the states. It is almost unheard of to do that here.

Liverpool was however heavily bombed in the war, so that is possible, or that the person living there was blown up somewhere else.

 

[Duke]

I think the graveyard may have a bearing on the whole thing. It was just one individual in heavy boots running out like they were late. It was the clanging of the gate that confused me as that was outside.
I had to give a description of the layout so you can figure out it was not possible to have the sound from other sources, nor would it be easy for next door to run out through the gate as it is easier for them just to run out with no gate than vault a wall and open a gate next door.
The two main doors were closed, and the side access was also closed.

It wasn't light footsteps that people sometimes report either or an occasional creak in floorboards. This sounded like a heavy adult wearing heavy boots running downstairs as fast as they could.

I don't think there was anything on the land before the house, and the wall around the graveyard has been there as long as it has, so is unlikely they have built on it like they do in the states. It is almost unheard of to do that here.

Liverpool was however heavily bombed in the war, so that is possible, or that the person living there was blown up somewhere else.

How far is it from the building to the docks area?

Do you know if there was an Anderson shelter (or shelters) on the property, and if so, do you know where they were? Assuming the shelter(s) existed, would a former resident running to take cover in the shelter during a bombing raid have taken the route you described to get out to it?

 

[Rowan2222]

It was about 7 miles to the docks, but through the town. I don't know the history of it during the war, but in built up areas like that there were a range of options for shelters. One was a communal street shelter that several families would share and was usually a mix of brick and concrete. it could be the strengthened basement of one municipal building, or individual Anderson shelters outside in the back garden. In terraced houses sometimes you just had a Morrison shelter under a table which was strong enough to withstand building collapse.

It's possible it could have been an ARP warden too as they had to be first out if the sirens went off. By chance both my grandparents were wardens.

Sound was running out of the house through the front door and into the street.

 

[Duke]

It was about 7 miles to the docks, but through the town. I don't know the history of it during the war, but in built up areas like that there were a range of options for shelters. One was a communal street shelter that several families would share and was usually a mix of brick and concrete. it could be the strengthened basement of one municipal building, or individual Anderson shelters outside in the back garden. In terraced houses sometimes you just had a Morrison shelter under a table which was strong enough to withstand building collapse.

It's possible it could have been an ARP warden too as they had to be first out if the sirens went off. By chance both my grandparents were wardens.

Sound was running out of the house through the front door and into the street.

I went into an Anderson shelter at a museum in the UK, I remember thinking it would be a tight fit to get six people in it. Normally I'm not claustrophobic, but the idea of being in a buried shelter like that with five other people while being bombed was unnerving.

 

[Rowan2222]

One of my friends at work bought a house and started building a garage at the rear side of it. Some way down he struck concrete - and it was a communal shelter. He had to break it up to ensure the foundations were not connected to it - took weeks!
The outside ones were rather damp, but my mum had the indoor morrison shelter and used it as a wendy house with her dolls every day.

It wasn't just the threat of being blown up or buried. The fear of gas attacks was a constant threat, but thankfully didn't happen. Still all the children carried their gas masks.