Jersey - St Helier

Open Headland

Summer 1995

Personal Experience

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The first took place sometime around 1995 on a headland called Les Landes to the North of the island. The area was heavily fortified by the Germans during WW2 using slave labour. Many slave workers died on the island during these constructions. It was a summers night just after sunset. We'd been at the headland for a while just catching the sunset. There is one road in and out of the area. Nobody had arrived since we had been there for the previous hour or so, on car or foot. The headland is flat, with only the bunkers giving any cover. We were at the most northerly end, about 5 minutes walk away from the bunkers, in a car park in front of the ruined Grosnez Castle. We had a clear view of the surrounding area for half a mile or so. Nobody was around. I turned to mention to my girlfriend to suggest that as it was now getting dark and colder we may aswell get back to the car. I was standing in the centre of the empty carpark at this point (which is a totally flat gravel area, about 70 feet in lenght and 30 or so feet wide). Suddenly, coming from what sounded like about 4 feet behind my right shoulder, clear as day, came a shout of "Jah!" in German. I span around expecting to see someone there, but nothing. Nobody could have entered the area without us seeing, and if they had, there was nowhere to hide as the area is totally flat - it's so flat they put the islands Horse Racing track there. The area is very windswept during the winter months, so  sound could carry, however, during the summer it's stiflingly still, with no wind, very stuff - as was the case during the night in question.

Jersey - St Helier

Old School Building

Early 1988

Personal Experience

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The second occurence was more a 'presence'. When I was younger my first job was as a painter and decorator. My company had the contract to paint the outside of St Saviours Primary School (in St Saviours). I'm not sure of the age of the building, but it looks to be a typical 19th century schoolhouse type building, heavy granite and large 'churchy' windows. It's definitely not a modern building. We had to enter the school quite often after the kids had gone home to get water from the toilets. There was one passageway in the building in which I always used to get a horrible feeling of being watched - as if someone were poking their head around the corner at the bottom of the corridor, then pulling it away when I looked around. I have to point out here that I was the only person in the building when this occurred. All staff and pupils cleared the building by 4pm, and we were left alone with 1 key for access. The passageway led away from the main door (at the rear of the building), so nobody could have accessed it without having had me unlock the door and let them in first! I noticed this 'watched' feeling growing stronger over the next couple of weeks, and on at least two occasions heard the sound of creaking floorboards coming from that vicinity - despite the fact the floor did not creak if you were to walk there. I mentioned none of this to my workmate. I was a young apprentice straight out of school in my first job, taking my first faltering steps in the 'adult world' and he was an older qualified man, so I felt like he'd think me a complete idiot
if I were to explain the situation to him. However, after being at the school for 5 weeks or so we were talking one day  and it transpired that he was sending me into the building to get the water when it was empty as he had been experiencing the same feeling and noises as I, and in the same place! He mentioned this to me before I mentioned anything to him. This happended in early 1988.

Jersey - St Helier

September 1997

Personal Experience

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The events occured when both I and my then-girlfirend stayed in a flat belonging to my girlfriends sister whilst she was on holiday. I was alone in the flat during the day whilst she was at work. It started on the second day we'd been there. I felt a presence in the upper right hand corner of the room. Over the next couple of days that developed into a dark grey shadow, seen only out of the corner of my eye. When I looked up there would be nothing. It got so I was starting to worry about my eyesight. On day 4 I left a cigarrette burning in an ashtray on a shelf in the room. I left the room for a minute to go to the kitchen. All doors and windows were shut.When I came back into the room the cigarette had moved out of the ashtray, a distance of roughly 2 feet, to the opposite end of the shelf. Strangely it left no burn mark on the wood either. (It was around this period that I also started to notice a cold area in the passageway outside the kitchen). Later That night I was lying in bed. Above the bedroom door was a small glass window which looked only into the hall passageway. Being a small flat this passageway had no windows or areas where outside light could enter. I noticed something, again out of the corner of my eye, in the area of the window. Glancing up I caught sight for a second or so of a circling 'ring' of what can only be described as small candle-flames. Again, I thought something was seriously going wrong with my eyes, and didn't even consider a paranormal aspect.The next morning my girlfriend said she was woken in the middle of the night and saw the figure of a man looking down upon her - though this could be put down to dreaming. On our sixth, and last, day in the flat I was in the kitchen, which is accessed from the aforemntioned passageway.  I was alone in the flat, cooking, with the kitchen door open. Out of the corner of my eye a grey shadow shaped like a man (with no discernable figures) drifted past the door, roughly only 3 feet away from where I was standing - over the previously mentioned 'cold spot'. That's when I added everything up and realised my eyes weren't playing up, it was paranormal activity. As soon as I mentioned this to my girlfriend she recounted a couple of incidents which she had experienced, one being a pan 'leaping' off the cooker. I was not in the building at the time to witness this though.