When I was perhaps seven, I can recall staying in the house of some friends of my mothers.

I was put to bed, while the adults carried on drinking and talking in to the night.

It was a peculiar house that they lived in, the Northern most wall of it was actually the remains of an abbey, that had in fact managed to survive the reformation in a diminished form, but then had been completely ruined by the roundheads a few generations later.

The house was made of recyled stone with the odd patch of brickwork, surrounded by collapsed ruins into which several other buldings had been made in a similar fashion, the effect upon my young mind was most erie.

Returning to the story, having fallen asleep, then suddenly awoken, I could hear the sound of talking and laughter downstairs.

Some impluse made me want to go downstairs and find them.

I slowly crept along the long dark landing, trying not to creak too much the ancient floorboards.

I felt something cold brush past me.

I froze for a long time, then I continued down the stairs.

The hallway was dark and the noises began to get strangely quieter.

Then I saw that the door to the living room was slighty open, from it came a flashing green light, the sound of laughter became much louder.

But it was the laughter if a type I had never heard before, there were strange voices that I did not recognise, saying things that I could not make out.

I approached and the green lights flashed brighter and the voices got louder.

Suddenly as if coming out of a trance I started, and ran back to my bed as fast as my legs could carry me.

Time went by and it left my mind.

However, not long ago I decided to search for information about the history about the strange site of that house.

In my search I found out about the founder of the abbey, who was a Norman Knight of the most treacherous and blood-soaked variety.

But what interested me most was from the eighteenth century, a doccument I found on the archived site of the local history society, told of some rennovations that had been carried out.

Part of the buildings shallow foundations were taken out and in one room underneath were human remains, during the upheaval snd destruction of the war the line between the graveyard and the abbey had been lost and the gravestones destroyed.

The builders of the house had put it partially above the cemetery.

The owners then moved out instead of disturbing the bones.

The house breifly fell into ruin, before being restored, by it's new owners.

Were they aware of the bones beneath them?

Were they eventually removed?

Was my experience with the lights and the laughter just a dream?

It is, unsettling to think about if nothing else.