ST OSYTH WOMAN PLAGUED BY GHOSTLY WITCHES

`The Cage` A former prison for witches

 See other post update NEWSPAPER REPORTER INVESTIGATES HAUNTED WITCHES PRISON

A FRANTIC mum fled her dream cottage clutching her baby son — after finding twelve GHOSTS there.

Terrified Vanessa Mitchell, 37, told how weeks after moving in the spooks started:

Sneakily HITTING her from behind, PULLING her hair and trying to SHOVE visitors down the stairs. They also invisibly MOVED objects around, RATTLED doorknobs and TURNED ON taps. Then they made BLOODSPOTS appear in the hall.

The final straw was after she gave birth — and when son Jesse was four months old she saw a male apparition standing over his cot.

Vanessa, who had spent three years putting up with the ghosts and counted at least a dozen, said yesterday: “I thought, ‘As a single mum I can’t live like this’.”

She is still shackled with the mortgage on the £147,000 two-bed cottage — once a prison for WITCHES in St Osyth, Essex.

In a desperate bid to make ends meet she is opening it up to ghost tours.

The house – called The Cage – started as a medieval jail and is often home to spooky activity.

Not only do door latches lift up on their own but Ms Mitchell, 37, also claims to have been hit.

‘It’s a bit of a nightmare,’ she said. ‘It’s a gorgeous home but it just can’t be lived in.’

Vanessa Mitchell

Expert Chris Palmer, 36, said of the 500-year-old building: “It’s got one of the most negative atmospheres I’ve ever come across.”

The Cage is best known for imprisoning Ursula Kemp and other local women accused of witchcraft.

Thirteen women from the village were imprisoned while awaiting trial, although Ursula was executed beforehand in 1582.

She was reportedly the most powerful and notorious of all the women, making her living as a midwife and a healer.

She had a reputation of removing spells from locals who thought they were being attacked by black magic and many would go to her for medicines.

Sources: TheSun Metro