The owner of a house reported to be haunted was shocked to discover a secret vault door hidden inside the walls after a series of ghostly happenings he thinks led him to it.
Rupert Ellis bought the house in Camborne, Cornwall a couple of years ago and had no idea of the secret history within its walls.
He said a series of strange goings-on aroused his suspicions when lights began switching on and off and he would wake up in the middle of the night at certain times.
Others reported to hear footsteps.
While these spooky events were going on he was unaware that the house – which was built by the famous Basset family around 1832 – was the former head office of the Tehidy Minerals Company.
He told Cornwall Live : “It’s a little bit nuts but I do have a suspicion the house is haunted.
"There have been a lot of coincidences in this house and things that have happened. I get a distinct feeling that I was chosen for this house, rather than me choosing the house."
Rupert added that he believes the particular room where he went on to make the discovery had been trying to get his attention, perhaps to discover the secret vault.
He said: “About three or four months ago I had an incident with the lights switching on and off. It’s not the first time that things have happened in the house – there are certain things where I think, I can’t explain that.
“When I first moved in there was all manner of banging going on. I do get woken up at a certain time each night as well. A friend stayed here who claimed to hear footsteps. There have been some unexplainable scenarios."
Rupert said that after a tarot reading in the room with a friend the vault door emerged with its badge saying T Withers and Son, from Bilston in the Midlands.
He said: “You can put things down to being coincidental but there are so many coincidences here. So I think I have a responsibility to put the house back in the way it wants to be put back.”
The vault would have originally been a walk-in safe with a strong room at the back, which Rupert believes may still be hidden by plaster. It would have contained mine plans, wages and ore.
The infill on the sides of the safe contains big nuggets of turquoise copper, which probably means mine waste was used in the building of the house.
Rupert’s bedroom was once the boardroom, seating 20 staff around a large oak table, while the original tiles in the hall were buried under modern laminate flooring.
He said: “I’m restoring those and relaying original reclaimed parquet. I’m currently cleaning 5,000 blocks of reclaimed beech flooring to reinstate the original character of the hall.”
