MARTIN and Jayne Jones have finally decided enough is enough.
The couple and their children are moving house – and their reasons are more than a little out of the ordinary.
The family has resigned themselves to finding a new home away from their current abode, dubbed ‘Wrexham’s most haunted house’.
Jane, 37, and Martin, 43, last featured in the Leader in 2008, claiming their dream home had quickly become a nightmare.
They say that, since then, continual strange happenings have caused real disruption in their lives.
Martin suffered a heart attack earlier this year and the family is planning to move next year.
But they say they have had so much interest from paranormal enthusiasts – including a film-maker from Australia and an investigator from the United States – that, rather than selling, they are to rent out the property for ‘ghost weekends’.
As the reporter who wrote the article on the spooky activity three years ago, the Jones’s invited me to find out just what life in the house has been like.
A couple of days later, I found myself driving around Brynteg and Pentre Broughton as my sat nav got totally confused as to where we were going.
It was a crisp autumn day when I arrived at their Brynteg home, where I found the couple in the kitchen talking to Leader photographer Melissa Cross.
The house dates back to 1899 and the room was very pleasant, I thought: modern fixtures and tastefully decorated, retaining some original features.
In truth, it was very similar to a thousands other kitchens.
The Jones’s greeting me warmly and offered a cup of tea which I gratefully accepted.
As Martin went to the kettle Jayne said: “You must have a look at this photograph.”
She led me through to a sitting room-cum-study, explaining the couple’s four children – twins Solomon and Sampson, aged four; Isaac, 11; and Jacob, 14 – were at school, and opened the computer.
A few seconds later I was looking at a picture of a mirror with the glare of camera flash in it and, below, a sinister looking face.
I have to admit it sent a shiver down my spine.
“It was taken by our next-door neighbour’s grand-daughter,” Jayne explained. “She was really upset when she saw it and her mum deleted the photo.
“I got rid of the mirror soon afterwards.”
We returned to the kitchen, where Jayne recalled her very first ‘encounter’.
“It was Christmas Eve, the day after we moved in, and we were waiting for my mum and dad to come over.
“I was pregnant with the twins at the time, Martin was in the garage unpacking some boxes and the boys were upstairs in their room.
“I was stood by the sink washing up and I saw a little boy in the next room.
“I thought Isaac had come downstairs. I looked around and the boy started walking towards me, then he disappeared.”
Terrified, Jayne ran to fetch her husband, an ex-serviceman who was working as an HGV driver at the time.
“I just brushed it off,” he admitted. “I just put it down to the pregnancy and Jayne being tired.
“I always considered myself a level-headed guy and I just didn’t believe in anything like that.”
But his opinion would soon change.
“That night, the boys were in bed, Jayne’s mum and dad were in the spare room and we were lying in bed.
“It must have been 1am and we heard a noise, like heavy footsteps coming up the stairs.
“Then the floorboards started to creak in our bedroom as though someone was making their way to the en suite.
“The door rattled for a moment and then it stopped. That still happens most nights.”
And that wasn’t all.
The couple say they often hear terrifying noises coming from the downstairs annexe – a flat in the bottom floor of the house – which is empty.
They will sometimes come down to find every kitchen cupboard door open, hear the noise of chairs scraping across the slate floor and, they claim, the TV will sometimes flicker on even though it is not plugged in.
The couple also claim they and others who have been to the house have “seen things” – the little boy, an old woman and something Jayne could only describe as being “not human”.
However, they also say that things have calmed down since they took steps to appease the spirits.
“We asked the local vicar to come and bless the house and he said a prayer in every room,” Jayne said.
“He didn’t doubt us and even said that, if it didn’t work, he would get in touch with a Catholic priest who might perform an exorcism.
“A friend of ours had a picture of Our Lady which she had blessed by a priest from Oswestry.
“Since we’ve had that hanging on the kitchen wall, nothing bad has happened.
Things still happen but nothing negative.”
I asked whether the couple thought Martin’s heart attack might have had anything to do with living in a ‘haunted house’.
“We have a hectic lifestyle anyway but this sort of thing doesn’t help,” he said. “It can be stressful.”
I didn’t see any ghosts on my visit to the house but there is something about the place that is a little unnerving.
Whether it was simply a reaction to the stories I was being told, I couldn’t say.
But plenty of friends of theirs who have stayed in the house have since refused to spend the night there again.
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