What is the strangest thing you've "inherited" when moving to a new house?

[mrs.chappie]

We moved into a house and found a bird of prey in the freezer. The previous occupants were keen on taxidermy and the bird had flown into the patio doors and died. They were intending to have it stuffed.

They'd stored it in an old freezer in the garage, but never got round to taking it to the taxidermist. I rang them up to tell them what I'd found, and they called back to collect it.

[mrs.chappie]

Sara, that sounds quite voodoo-ish! (Probably no such word, but you know what I mean!)

[naomi24]

Ghosts.

[sara3]

the place was a tip.. mouldy food in the kitchen, graffiti on the walls.. you'd think someone would have given it a once over!

my brother viewed a property with blue-bottle flies on the living room carpet... in the shape of a human body! apparently the "late" owner had lain undiscovered for a while!

[mrs.chappie]

Please tell us more, naomi! (I don't believe in ghosts .... well, I am almost sure I don't ..... )

[pussnboots]

In 1973 I bought and old terraced house that needed gutting, it was in a bad state. Whilst pulling out old cupboards I found a newspaper pushed behind, it was dated the same date, day, year etc as my birthday, it made my skin crawl at the time, turned out to a very unlucky house in many ways.

[craft1948]

In my last house when I stripped the wallpaper off in the hall someone had painted their name and the year 1933 on the plaster. My window cleaner was gobsmacked when he saw it as it was his grandad who'd been a painter/decorator.

[naomi24]

Wow! What a coincidence Craft!

Mrs Chappie. Well, doors slamming hard, very heavy footsteps (hob nail boots?) running across the hall and crashing up the stairs and crossing the upstairs rooms, pictures leaping off shelves, items going missing only to reappear months later in the most accessible and obvious places, all the leaves of large houseplants 'dancing' vigorously, guests being 'sat upon' during the night (one has suffered with asthma ever since), names being called, my car seen parked outside when I, and it, were in fact miles away, clocks and watches regularly being set back an hour - and lots more. Our ghosts were a daily occurrence in darkness or daylight. The list is endless. We eventually moved. :o)

[naomi24]

Sorry, I meant to add pussnboots story's an odd coincidence too.

[mrs.chappie]

I don't blame you naomi! Bet it scared the life out of you.

[IggyB]

an old box in the attic with old school work, diaries and school reports.

[naomi24]

Just a bit - but funnily enough you kinda get used to it after a while. We used to hear crashing coming from the upstairs rooms and say 'here he goes again'. Having said that, on the day we moved out I simply couldn't bring myself to go upstairs one last time to check we'd not left anything behind.

[pussnboots]

Turned out that my house was haunted, nobody believed me tho, untill a friend witnessed door slamming shut and noises unaccounted for.

[naomi24]

We never used to tell people about ours - but several found out when they visited.

[Answerprancer]

20 other housemates and no, I'm not joking.

[scotman]

I inherited a motorcycle helmet when I moved into this place. It looked unused but no-one wanted it so I threw it out.

[craft1948]

A true scot would have sold it...

[scotman]

I did try, really I did.

[askyourgran]

We had a new house in the early 70's and had a stone fireplace built the builder came and left the dressed stone in the lounge. I looked at the stone and they were all old gravestones. The longest stone went across the top of the fire the name on the other side was Annabella. If anything went wrong it was Annabellas' fault. we stayed in the house for 3 years not very happy for various reasons. The man who bought it from us was a copper, his mate was shot and killed he was injured on duty. The people after that had a daughter who became very ill needing a transplant. The house has changed hands a few times and I've lost track of the people who lived there now.

[rabbitygirl]

In the cellar of a fixer upper we found a mahogany cross about 2 feet high with a brass name plate. The name wasn't the name of the family who had lived there for about 40 years. It got moved about while we worked down there and when the work was finished we thought we'd best lob it onto the skip in case it worried the tenants!