Vanessa Mitchell lived in The Cage, St Osyth, for almost four years; during this time, she experienced a lot of paranormal activity. 

According to Essex Live , Ms Mitchell purchased the property in 2004, unaware of the exact details of its chilling and haunting past when she moved in.

The Cage was a prison during the 1500s, renowned for imprisoning those accused of witchcraft - including Ursula Kemp.

Vanessa, 46, fell in love with her new home to begin with but after unusual things started happening, she couldn't wait to get out.

The Cage in St Osyth, Essex is regarded as 'Britain's most haunted house'

She lasted four years in the house before putting it up for sale; since 2009 it remained empty as she struggled to secure a buyer.

However, after 12 years, Vanessa has finally sold the property and is ready to put the horrors of her experience behind her.

'The house chose me'

Originally from London, Vanessa moved to St Osyth in Essex when she was a child.

The mum-of-two doesn't know why she purchased The Cage but insists that the house chose her.

She said: "I was working away and I came back for a weekend and I saw it was up for sale.

"I thought 'how can I get the tenants out and get my house on the market in time to buy The Cage'?

"I spoke to a paranormal reader, something I never really did, and she said 'this house has chosen you'. I gave three months' notice to my tenants and they were out within two weeks.

"I was living in The Cage within weeks."

Vanessa had grown up hearing stories about the history of the building but didn't know the exact history and details of its gory past.

She added: "There's a plaque on the side of the house that explained who was kept there and that's what I knew.

"I didn't know much else.

"I knew that it was a witches' prison and that the previous owner had not long hung himself in there. I was on my own but my friend Nicola came and lived with me."

The wrinkled man

According to Ms Mitchel, the paranormal activity in the house started the day she moved in.

She had always believed in ghosts and even claims to have seen them in the past, but nothing compared to things she saw while living in The Cage.

She said: "It started happening more and more. Something in that house wasn't good, I was going to be in trouble.

"When you're with someone else you're not terrified, Nicola was with me. I'm used to stuff happening but I did feel more scared now." 

Her first paranormal sighting was of 'the wrinkled man'.

She said:"I know it was warm because the door to the house was open.

"I was watching TV and then a man with long, black, scraggly hair and wrinkles on his face appeared.

"He wasn't old, the wrinkles were just because of his skin. He had really deep laughter lines. But he felt nice and I wasn't terrified.

"The TV kept going up and down and there was activity before he turned up."

'There were blood splatters all over the hall floor'

When two of Vanessa's friends came to visit, they experienced something that couldn't be explained.

Vanessa said: "One was a sergeant major in the army and one was an NHS worker. They came in and sat downstairs on the sofa and Neil said 'where's all that blood come from?'

"I just ignored him. But he said 'you need to come and have a look at this'. There were blood splatters all over the hall floor.

"Maybe 20 or 30 droplets on the floor, it wasn't smeared. Neil was asking if a window was open and if a cat had brought something in, or if a bird had flown in. He was a solider so he was trying to work this out.

"My friend Kirsty had a go at him and said 'he's a trained solider, he knows he shouldn't touch blood without gloves'. It was blood." 

After Vanessa had her first child, Jesse, in 2007, the paranormal activity in the house began to escalate.

She said: "I isolated myself in one room and I was terrified of the house. 

"I was in bed with Jesse when I heard something coming up the stairs. 

"The latch on the door was smashing up and down. You know when people say they can feel their heart coming out of their chest? I now know what that feels like." 

Ms Mitchell also reported seeing figures in the house, doors slamming without explanation, objects appearing in different rooms.

However, one incident in particular forced her to leave the house forever.

Vanessa with her son, Jesse

"At the bottom of the stairs you have to open a door to get up which has a little latch," Vanessa explained. 

"It would always open and slam. 

"This happened three years after moving in. Jesse had all these toys and I went downstairs to do some ironing. I was just living in my bedroom completely at this stage. 

"I went to do the ironing in the prison room and Jesse's Thomas the Tank Engine toy turned itself on and started chugging around my feet.

"I ran to the stairs where you have to open the door and there was a man standing at the top. He had a white shirt and chinos on, he wasn't from the old days. 

"I decided after that incident to move out, and this was in the spring of 2008. So many things happened over those three years." 

An infamous location 

The cage has been a location of great interest to paranormal investigators and movie directors.

Some say it's the most haunted house in Britain, and Vanessa even claims that it's one of the top ten haunted properties in the world. 

For 12 years, she was unable to move away from the paranormal hotspot.

She said: "I wanted to move out a long time before this, but I had nowhere to go and no money to move.

"A friend then asked if I wanted to move in with her in Colchester and within two days I was packed and gone. 

"I rented the house out to two tenants, one stayed for three months and one stayed for five months. They said exactly the same thing, that it was haunted. 

The door to the stairs would often 'open and slam'

"I went to multiple estate agents over the years but none of them could sell it. Some were telling me to sell it at auction for a much lower price."

In May 2019, Homes Domus 360 (estate agent) had a marketing strategy that appealed to Vanessa.

Florent Lambert, a representative of the estate agent group said: "At first I didn't know anything about The Cage but I asked her about it and she told me it was haunted. I was very interested.

"She said a number of estate agents had said it was impossible to sell and they suggested she tried selling it at auction. 

"If we know a house is haunted we are obliged to tell people. We wanted to go all the way and play on the fact that the house has a reputation and a worldwide following." 

The company took a less conventional approach to photographing the property, taking pictures at night and using candlelight to emphasise the spookiness of the building, hoping to capture the attention of a paranormal enthusiast. 

Vanessa's book, Spirits of the Cage: True Accounts of Living in a Haunted Medieval Prison, was released in 2017

"It's not a property you would buy because it's immaculate," Florent added. 

"We tried to make it look gloomy and the pictures were very attractive.

"There were over 30,000 views on Rightmove in 2019, a record for properties in Essex. We made sure to share the listing to lots of paranormal groups around the world." 

To Vanessa's relief, a buyer came forward but she did not believe in the paranormal. 

Vanessa said: "Florent came along and paid a lot of attention to the house, I've never known an estate agent like him," Vanessa said.

"Others were all promises but he went out to sell the house and he did.

"It's life-changing what he's done for me. If he can sell this house he can sell anything.

"We received an offer on the house in September and it's going through the final stages now. We got £220,000 and it was on the market for offers around £240,000, that's far more than any other agent said I would sell it for.

She added: "The buyer doesn't believe in any ghosts, she knows the history and she's not bothered at all. 

"It will be interesting. The house has got a mind of its own."