Death Watch at Hampshire Haunted Mansion
Fancy being on the 'Death-Watch' and meeting a choir of spectral nuns? How about being manhandled by cold, ghostly hands? Or maybe listening to the whispering of unseen children as the temperature plummets to unnatural levels? Us neither! Employees of Perma-Fix Ltd, a Twistfix-registered contractor, showed extreme bravery recently as they took their chances with these frightening forces...
The story starts way back in the 11th century, when Wymering Manor was built in Portsmouth, Hanpshire. Records show the first owner of Wymering Manor was King Edward the Confessor in 1042, then after the Battle of Hastings, it fell into the hands of King William the Conqueror until 1084. With a confirmed entry in the Domesday Book, the property is reckoned to be the oldest house in Portsmouth and is a Grade II Listed Building valued at £375,000. But Portsmouth City Council have been unable to sell the property due to many reports of 'hauntings' going on within its walls.
The council took possession of the property in the 1960s, leasing it to the Youth Hostel Association until 2006. Since then, the property has been on the market but has failed to attract a buyer. Jeremy Lamb is a chartered surveyor, one of several who has tried to sell the spooky property. He said, "It's certainly a unique house. It attracts lots of people who are intrigued by its levels of paranormal activity; they refuse to work alone there at night."
Wymering House was finally placed in a property auction but failed to meet its reserve price and therefore did not sell. Portsmouth City Council then took the decision to donate the house to the Wymering Manor Trust, who plan to restore the house and open it as a tourist attraction.
When completed, repair works, including the substantial woodworm treatment, will have cost an estimated £500,000. To help get things going, Portsmouth City Council have provided a £30,000 donation and Perma-Fix Ltd were contracted to assist with a chronic woodworm problem in the hard-wood timbers of the property. Using Twistfix products, to achieve a truly professional eradication of the deathwatch infestation, the timbers were treated quickly and effectively.
To attract mates, these wood-boring insects create a tapping or ticking sound that can be heard from within the hard-wood structural timbers of old buildings on quiet sleepless summer nights. They are named after the vigil beside the dying or dead, and by extension those of a superstitious nature have seen the deathwatch beetle as an omen of impending death. Thankfully, no ghost sightings were reported by the Perma-Fix team!
A haunted house is certainly not what anyone wants to live in. But the fact is that woodworm could turn out to be a much more serious problem, particularly Death-Watch Beetle. Luckily, Twistfix are here to help with our professional woodworm eradication products. We may not be ghost-busters but we are definitely woodworm-busters. Check out our products NOW.