Description of Place: Of possible Norman origin, the Marlish House definitely fits the appearance of a typical haunted house. Two stories tall on an open palatial estate above a large reflecting pool, the house has ten bedrooms, a downstairs music room, an attic separated into servants’ quarters and arched doorways and wide bay windows. There are few hallways and one must pass through whole rooms to pass from one end of the house to the other. Long dark curtains on every window and dull photos and foreboding portraits on every wall further intimidate the atmosphere of the house. Part of the property is set aside for a small graveyard.

Ghostly Manifestations: Crying noises at night, footsteps from empty rooms, windows that cover themselves, doors slamming shut at night, the apparition of a beautiful blonde woman moving through the place despite the fact she should not exist… Marlish House is one of the most haunted houses in the Channel Islands of not all of England.

The old decaying edifice today certainly evokes the style, atmosphere and presence of traditional haunted castles in England. One of numerous unrestored structures dotting the British Isles, the structure evokes tales that belong around campfires and in shadowy rooms. In the years after the war, the Marlish’s son, David, claimed that the ghost of a young girl who haunted his bedroom often ordered him to leave her room. The ghost of a young boy has frequently been seen racing past open windows. His parents skeptical at first of his tales soon began seeing the spirits of the strange children watching them from the shadows and often rushing from the light. Childlike whispers, voices from empty rooms and the scampering noises of small footsteps frequently come from the second floor. Clara Marlish once noticed the feet of a young girl dangling from the piano bench in the music room as she picked something up off the floor, but as she stood up and looked over the piano, there was no girl present in the room.

This phantom girl has been seen several times over the years, sometimes with and without the young boy. Clara once observed in her reflection the image of what she called a diminutive bride gliding around, almost dancing, behind her as she sat before a mirror. She later realized it was the girl in a communion dress. Children’s voices have been heard in all the rooms described as reciting lessons in the dark. One guest thought the voice was repeating Biblical verses.

The phantom children are not the only ghosts present. The ghosts of former servants also roam the house and property. One day as Victor Marlish returned home, he saw an old man on the edge of the property burning leaves near the cemetery. Figuring his wife had hired a groundskeeper, Marlish parked his car and came around the house to introduce himself to the new groundskeeper, but he found no trace of the figure, a sign of leaves that had been burning or of another person anywhere on the grounds. After several moments, he figured he’d just seen another of the ghosts.

Clara Marlish has experienced at least one if not two different phantom housekeepers. One appeared to be an older, moderately heavy woman, and another seemed to be possibly the same figure as a younger and thinner person. Whether they are two forms of the same apparition or two separate entities is unrevealed. Nevertheless, one morning as Clara headed down to begin breakfast, she became aware of the older housekeeper passing her on the staircase and evoking a friendly, nurturing grin to her. Reaching the bottom landing and realizing that she did not know the woman, she looked back and saw no one behind her on the stairs. Convinced someone was in the house, she quickly roused her husband and the two of them searched the entire structure to no avail.

Regardless of the frightening and alarming appearances, the ghostly housekeeper (or housekeepers) gradually proved to be a harmless and beneficent spirit. After a picture was accidentally knocked off the wall, Clara went to collect the broom and pan to clean up the mess. They were missing from their regular place so she walked out and retrieved an extra broom and pan from the old caretaker’s house, then the guest cottage. Returning to clean the broken glass, she found the broom, pan and damaged picture leaned against the wall and not a piece of broken glass anywhere.

Cups and glasses often left out have often been found cleaned and put away. An oily frying pan left unattended was once washed stored away by invisible hands. Water faucets sometimes come on by themselves or the sound of running water pervades the place. Loud thumping noises come through the ceiling from closed off rooms. The scent of perfume sometimes wafts across the top landing. One summer while sensing the passionate aromatic odor, Victor Marlish stood on the top landing looking down and realized the Dark Lady was back.

The Dark Lady is possibly the most alarming presence of the ghosts in the house. So named because she wears dark gray period clothing consisting of a house frock and long floor level skirt, she has been seen drifting silently through the house several times. Young David saw her first depart from the music room and vanish under him while he stood on the balcony. About a month later, Clara noticed her drift across the top of the second floor landing and noticed she had no feet touching the floor in the brief inch her skirt reached to the floor. Almost beautiful with white skin and dark blonde hair, the Dark Lady one terrified Clara so badly that she scooped up David and ran from the house screaming. She had entered the master bedroom and had seen the Dark Lady sitting in a chair and staring fiercely at if as if she wanted Clara out of her house.

No one knows who the Dark Lady is, but her intimidating presence has distressed everyone who has ever been here. Victor Marlish once woke up one morning and screamed his head off as the strange woman stared him from bedside. She then turned away and vanished through the closed door to the hallway. David once ran from her disembodied head and vague figure coming down the attic stairs toward him.

When the Marlish’s first purchased the estate, they had all noted the dark dismal state of the interior and the tall black curtains that covered the windows. It was almost as if the previous tenants had eschewed sunlight, but as often as they tried to get sunlight into the otherwise dismal mansion, the curtains closed themselves. Once the curtains sprang open just as fast as Clara could turn around. Eventually, Clara took them down entirely to wash them and replace them with new curtains. Early one morning after taking nearly much of the night to remove the curtains, Grace awoke to hear horrible screams and hurried footsteps racing through the house. Gathering up David, she fled from the house just ahead of all the doors and cupboards opening and closing through the place. When Victor and Clara finally returned, they discovered the house had been devastated and virtually every cupboard, closet and trunk dispelled of its contents. They had had enough. They finally contacted noted paranormalist and author David Ash to investigate the house for them and find what was happening to them.

Most of the phenomenon occurred during the ten months in 1948 that the Marlish Family lived here. Ash never saw the house in person himself, but during a séance the following January 1949, a Spiritualist, a reporter and a self-proclaimed witch and psychic made contact with the ghosts in the presence of Victor and Clara Marlish. The psychic felt the earthborn spirits of two children, possibly killed here by their mother, who later took her life here, possibly. During an attempt to talk to the ghosts through spirit writing, the enigmatic message, “Not Dead,” came through while the psychic was trying to communicate.

As late as 1982, random investigations at Marlish House have recorded and filmed orbs, sounds and strange light effects. A photograph taken in the early morning hours of June 1982 shows the dark form of a woman staring down from a second floor window. Several locations have analyzed the photograph trying to explain it and believe it just might be genuine.

History: The future Marlish was built around the turn of the Eighteenth Century by an obscure family of nobility, and five generations lived here until the fatal tuberculosis epidemic that hit the island in 1891. Parents, servants and children both died, some even infants as young as a few months. The virulent virus claimed so many innocent lives that photographs instead of written records were kept of the family. So many family members were claimed that the surviving family members left the once grand edifice to live on the mainland.

Difficult to be sold because of its remoteness, the small estate was finally sold in 1938 to a RAF lieutenant heading off to war for his wife and children, but he died in action to never be seen again. It is believed that this is when the haunting legends first started. The lieutenant’s family lived here cut off from the outside world for three years without servants or human contact. The mother described sensations of people they could not see in the house and noises from unused second floor rooms. Finally, a new village doctor in 1943 discovered the misplaced medical records of the children and headed to the house to update his records and found the mother and children dead in house of unspecific reasons. The Marlish Family acquired the house in 1948 and stayed only about ten months before they realized they couldn’t live there. The local magistrate then retired without selling the house again and since then, it has stood where it is now; untouched and uninhabited for over fifty years.

Identity of Ghosts: No records are available of ownership of Marlish House prior to 1945, so there are no confirmed records beyond verbal stories passed down since 1948. It has been suggested the ghosts in the house possibly date from two, possibly three, separate time periods. The séance in 1949 described at least six ghosts here consisting of servants and unnamed family members, but there are no known records for identifying these spirits.

Source/Comments: The Others (2001). Description based on the movie and numerous actual cases, most notably Little Dean Hall, Gloucestershire, England.