A tour of one of Norwich's haunting Victorians

A bed that shakes violently, an uncontrollable banging coming from inside the walls and a Ouija board that moves by itself – sounds like scenes out of a scary movie.

But in reality, those were just a few of the experiences a family says they endured while living in one of Norwich’s numerous Victorian mansions in the late 1980s and early 1990s.

The family, who wished not to be identified, reported years of ghost/spirit activity on the third floor of the house, the location and address of which will also remain confidential.

Here’s a few summaries of their most recent testimony:

• The youngest daughter, 15 at the time, often complained to her mother that her bed shook violently at night, eventually bringing the mattress downstairs to sleep in her parents’ room.

• The oldest sister, home visiting from college, witnessed the bathroom faucets going full blast while she was taking a shower. “The faucets were very old, hard to turn and you had to turn them a lot to get them off and on,” she said.

• The younger daughter also said she used to leave the closet light on and door open when she went to bed and would find the light off and door shut when she go up. And whenever she played loud music, there would be a banging on the walls.

• The younger daughter (who said she is to this day very fascinated with spirits) always felt there were people with her when she went up and down the steps from her room on the third floor. “I never walked down those steps,” she recalled. “I always jumped so they wouldn’t touch me.”

• On one occasion, the teenager and her friends played with the Ouija board upstairs and when they let go “the thing went all over the place.”

• The mother said once, while doing dishes after a party, she felt surrounded by people so much so that she had to go outside and stand in the driveway for 15 minutes. “It gave me the cold chills and has stayed with me ever since,” she said.

The last family to live in the house claims to have heard music and doors opening and closing, but would say whether or not it was paranormal activity.

In an effort to understand these phenomenon, The Evening Sun staff and two local mediums explored the house; what they discovered was interesting, to say the least.

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This place didn’t creep me out until we hit the basement.

That’s where we were shown a portal that let evil spirits into the house from another, not-so-friendly dimension.

The rest of the house was apparently fine. The kitchen, living room, dining room, upstairs, and attic – all modern, seemed cozy; nothing that screamed “Amityville Horror.” It was very nice, too. So nice, in fact, that it made me wonder what kind of ghost could be horrible enough to make families run from the place.

Then we learned about the gateway to hell in the cellar.

I couldn’t actually see it. I don’t have the gift of second sight. But I could feel it, and an “expert” who says they have contact with the spirit world told us the portal was there, and was the source of all the disturbances in the house over the years. And, because I like to scare myself for fun, I believed them, whole-heartedly. And if you’re like me, and you like to believe, then the hair on your arms and neck would’ve stood on end. Mine did.