TALES FROM THE CLASSROOM…

Neil Powney, an English teacher at De La Salle Roman Catholic School in Basildon, Essex, often uses bits of Fortean Times in his class. In particular, his pupils love Sidelines. His Year 8 class, aged 12 and 13, said they would like to have a go at writing some “It happened to me” letters, relating strange experiences. Out of 31 entries we chose the following seven.

The Gang of Fort would like to encourage FT-reading school teachers to get their classes writing their own accounts of strange phenomena that had happened either to them or to someone in their family – an enjoyable way of practising English composition.

In November 2015 my nan died of cervical cancer and my family decided to cremate her and keep the ashes in our house. In February my father and I were talking about my nan in the kitchen when the door opened and then about three seconds later closed again as if somebody had walked in. We thought nothing of it until it happened again some time later, but this time in my bedroom, the day before the anniversary of my nan’s death. I was on my bed when I could have sworn I heard my name being called from downstairs, where my nan’s ashes are. I asked my mum and dad if they had called me, but both said no. Nobody else was in the house.

My dad then told me about what happened to my great grandmother when her husband died. My great granddad fought in World War II and when he returned to his home in Billericay, Essex, he was afraid of the dark and slept with the lights on. For 17 years this was how my great granddad and his wife slept until he died, and like my dad, she kept his ashes at home. In the middle of the night before the anniversary of my great granddad’s death, my great grandmother, two great aunts and my nan woke up to find all the lights on in the bedroom, hallway and bathroom. Nobody else was in the house. There seemed only one explanation – my great granddad did it. Ruby Shayler (13)

One evening in about 1950 my granddad went out with friends to a local pub in upminster [a suburb in east London]. He became extremely drunk and decided to leave his car and walk back to his flat. He found the front door wide open. He cautiously walked in but

nobody was there. Then he found a bloody hammer lying on the floor in the front room. In his drunk state he opened the window and threw it out.

About 20 years later he returned to upminster on a day out with the family. They took a short cut to avoid a big crowd of people. The family ventured through a dark alley where he found a bloody hammer lying behind a bin! My granddad was so creeped out that he said nothing about it till now. Harry Pace (13)

When my mum’s granddad died, her nan asked her to choose a rose bush with her in remembrance of him. At the garden centre they looked for a special rose that not only looked beautiful but smelled lovely too. After much searching, they were about to give up when my mum felt a cold chill and a tap on her shoulder. She turned round expecting to find someone behind her, but instead found a rose bush that she hadn’t seen before. It was just the type of rose they were looking for. My mum said she felt her granddad was with her at that moment. Lauren Churcher (12)

One cold evening in the winter of 2012, I was waiting with my mum and my brother for an overground train at West Ham Station in London. We were returning from my great aunt’s flat in Shoreditch. I heard heavy panting coming from the stairwell and thought it must be a commuter in a hurry. The panting stopped and I turned round to see a ‘man’ glide silently past me. I was in complete shock and tried to persuade myself that my imagination was playing tricks on me. Then I heard the rumbling of the train coming into the station and stood up ready to board, when the ‘man’ appeared in front of me. I could see the train through him and his transparent organs alongside the see-through West Ham top and skinny jeans. I turned to see whether my mum or my brother had seen him, but they didn’t have the same flabbergasted expression as I did. We boarded the train with no further sighting of the ‘man’. Isabel Russell (12)

In 2014 my cousin and I were both 10 and I was staying round at her house. At 3am we were in her room playing with her tablet when we heard kitchen cupboards opening and banging shut. Everyone in the house was upstairs asleep so we rushed down to the kitchen to see what was going on. No one was there. The kitchen cupboards were closed and looked untouched. However, as we walked out, the kettle switch flicked (although it was unplugged) and a chair screeched across the floor. We sprinted upstairs to my cousin’s room, where we hid and didn’t get any sleep whatsoever. In the afternoon we walked to the shop. As we turned back we spotted something that seemed like a breath on the window, but no one was in the kitchen. Lauren Stevens (12)

A friend of my mother’s got married in 1992, aged about 32. Her husband just turned 40 when he was diagnosed with leukæmia, and he died two years later. A week after that was his widow’s birthday, when she had a get-together with her family and took a few photos. When these were developed, one showed her late husband beside her. He didn’t look real – he was almost completely transparent. Katie Finch (12)

In 2010, when I was six, there were many strange occurrences in our house. The previous owners had passed away in the house, and we had only been living there for three months. One cold and stormy night there was banging on the window, which kept me awake, but eventually I fell asleep. I awoke in the middle of the night to see a strange figure standing over me. I turned over and tried not to think about it. Soon after there was breathing on my neck, so I got up and switched on the light. As I turned round my door slammed. There was nothing there. It still scares me to this day. Jess Palmer (12)