FT268


Horror films have taught us that it’s unwise to construct posh housing developments on ancient burial grounds, but it would seem that spirits and spectres can be disturbed by less dramatic forms of building work. A number of reports suggest that ghostly phenomena sometimes accompany or closely follow building renovations, and that disturbances to the ground caused by road works or tunnelling can often precipitate similar phenomena. Writing in 2008 (FT234:20–21), Alan Murdie reported that members of a committee of the Society for Psychical Research had been conducting a survey of hauntings reported in 2007. Referring to figures for the first half of that year, Murdie noted that building work or demolition featured in nine per cent of the cases involving haunted premises.