Ghosts making a mark (From Richmond and Twickenham Times)

Ghosts making a mark

12:01pm Friday 9th January 2004

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GHOSTLY goings on have caused a stir at historic Ham House. Footprints in the Duchess's bedchamber and on the Great Staircase have aroused suspicion that the house maybe haunted.

Victoria Bradley, a house steward at the National Trust property, discovered the footprints in the bed chamber.

Speaking in the badly lit room, she explained how she turned around the only free standing light and saw the prints lying on the floor heading towards the fire place.

Miss Bradley has been a steward at the property for seven years and for the last three she has lived in the building.

"The house is full of noises of various kinds," she said. "It would not take much imagination to think someone was following you."

There are three footsteps in the Duchess's bedchamber, which were found just before Christmas, and seem to have just appeared about half a metre from the window. They followed the discovery, six weeks earlier, of similar mysterious naked footprints on the 400-year-old great staircase.

All those who work at the house regularly report strange odours, with pipe tobacco regularly being smelled in the marble dining room.

Anne Partington-Omar, the property's manager, who also lives at the house, said: "I am of the opinion that there are things here that happen that I cannot explain and that's the only way I can live here.

"I haven't got any explanation for the footprints, they just appeared. There are always strange things going on but they are never usually visual."

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