Ghosting

Something is written in the dark

We used to explore an abandoned house in Lancashire. People said it was haunted: a family lost to a gunpowder explosion at the fireplace.

The records say it was messier. In March 1718 the head of the house hung his wet coat by the fire with a flask of gunpowder in the pocket. It exploded, the fire damaged the house, and he died about a month later. The family moved away. The ghosts came first, then the song.

When I took this, in May 2008, I shot with the fireplace behind me. Rubble covered the whole floor and I remember burnt timber, as if the explosion had only just happened.