Clifton Hall, Nottingham - Haunting

Haunting

A reputation of Clifton Hall stretches back to at least the time when it was used as a school. Anwar Rashid, a businessman with a £25 million fortune and a portfolio of 26 properties, bought Clifton Hall in January 2007. The 52-room hall cost £3.6M and features 17 bedrooms, a private gym, a cinema, ten reception rooms, and ten bathrooms. Rashid made his fortune from a chain of nursing homes and a hotel in Dubai. Thirty-two-year-old Rashid and his family – consisting of his 25-year-old wife, three daughters, and a son – moved into the hall the same month as they bought the place. From the first day in the house, they allegedly experienced paranormal activity, leading them to believe that Clifton Hall was haunted. On the first evening they spent in the house, there was a knocking on the wall and they heard a voice say "is anyone there?", however they did not find anyone making the noises. Rashid said "The day we moved in we had our first experience. We sat down in the evening to relax and there was a knock on the wall. We heard this, 'Hello, is anyone there'? We ignored it the first time but two minutes later we heard the man's voice again. I got up to have a look but the doors were locked and the windows were closed." On another occasion Nabila, Anwar Rashid's wife, thought she saw her eldest daughter watching television downstairs at 5 am, however when she checked in her daughter's room, Nabila discovered her daughter was still in bed. Eventually, the family's friends refused to go round to the house.

Eager to get rid of the ghosts the family believed were haunting them, they invited Ashfield Paranormal Investigation Network to investigate the hall. The investigators were unable to stop the haunting and the leader of the group said "Clifton Hall is the only place where I've ever really been scared, even in the light. It's just got a really eerie feeling about it". When drops of blood were found on the baby's quilt of their 18-month-old son, the family decided to leave. Rashid said "When we found red blood spots on the baby's quilt, that was the day my wife said she'd had enough. We didn't even stay that night". After spending eight months in Clifton Hall, the family moved out of the house in August 2007. They stopped paying the mortgage in January 2008 and, on 18 September 2008, the Yorkshire Bank reclaimed the property. Speaking of his experience in Clifton Hall, Rashid said "When people used to tell me about ghosts, I would never believe them and would say 'whatever'. But I would have to tell any new owner that it was haunted having experienced it".