York Break: The Haunted house in Stonegate

beautiful-stained-glass-window-haunted-house-stonegate-york

We visited the Haunted house in Stonegate.  We didn’t even know that this was there last time we went.  I have to say that the house is indeed strange: full of atmosphere.  The narrative starts in the first room and follows you though the house to the attics, to the depths of the cellar.

note-the-little-witch-doll-in-thie-corner-of-this-chimney

There are certainly some interesting stories told about the house.  Some of this is acted out in the narrative.  I think that this spoils the experience  a little.  The atmosphere itself is creepy enough, it doesn’t really need some of the ‘props’.

crystal-ball

The scariest room of all to me is the Seance room .  The biggest round table I have ever seen in my life, sits there, taking nearly all the room up.  In the centre is a crystal ball.  Dotted around are ouija boards!  Needless to say, I did NOT have a go….

a-planchette-or-ouiji-board

Here’s a strange thing.  Before going into the haunted house, that morning I had gone into this fantastic Oxfam bookshop.  I never knew there were such things!  This one was great, full of interesting books at very good prices.  A Paperback caught my eye and I was in two minds to buy it.  I didn’t.  I decided I would get it on the way back to the hotel.  The book  was ‘The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy’ by Lawrence Sterne, a book I had never read before.  In the first room of the haunted house, the narrative told a brief history of the house and said that it used to be (amongst other things) a printers and that ‘Tristram Shandy’ had been published there…..  Of course I rushed back and bought it then!

paraphanalia-down-the-cellar

The haunted house is well worth a visit.  I thought it was pretty scarey.  Others have been and felt nothing.  Apparently, the house was also a Spiritualist meeting place too…….