The traditional stereotype image of a ghost is one that lurks around dark, dank miserable places like graveyards and cellars. If this is to be believed then the last place you'd expect to find one is in a modern, bright, friendly health club like Bannatyne's in Ingleby Barwick. Since it's opening in 1998 it's staff have been privy to several bizarre and unnerving experiences.
They call their ghost Olga. Only one reported sighting of the entity has ever been reported, and then its gender was indistinguishable, so it was not immediately clear as to why the staff had given it a female name. After chatting to Pat Woodhouse, a cleaner at the club and a fascinating lady to boot, Pat presumes it may be because Olga is a cute nickname one might give to a pet of some description. So because the spirit is seemingly un-malignant and friendly the moniker appears to have stuck.
Pat, who has worked at the club since 1999 has witnessed many bizarre phenomena such as objects moving by their own accord, lights flicking on and off and doors opening and closing by themselves. It's as though Olga is merely being mischievous. Pat gave some examples of this playfulness.
For example, at night all lockers in all the changing rooms are checked, wiped over and left open to air. Pat told me in the morning, before any staff or club member has used the changing rooms the doors are occasionally all shut.
Showers are also checked at night to ensure they aren't left on. Again when no one else has been near them, in the morning, rows of them are on full blast.
In the kitchen area staff have witnessed utensils being disturbed before their very eyes such. Knives and spoons have been thrown around as though flung by a naughty child. On one occasion a jar of chutney hurled itself out of the fridge when the door was opened, smashing several feet away on the floor. It didn't just fall out, it was literally thrown out.
Within the Bannatyne's complex is a tanning, hair and massage salon. Pat heard that a customer had been enjoying a body massage one evening and was left alone in a cubicle for a moment. She lay, face down, basking in the hypnotic calm a massage evokes when she became aware that two hands were touching her shoulders. This made her snap out of her relaxed serenity and look round as she had not heard the masseuse re-enter the cubicle. And indeed she had not. There was no one there. The customer leapt up from the bed and raced out in sheer panic, all hint of relaxation shattered.
Even more distressing was what an ex-membership advisor saw. In one of the corridors she witnessed a hazy mist moving independently in front of her. Unlike how smoke or fog might move, spreading or thinning from it's source, this apparition was within the vaguest confines of a human shape. Pat could only describe what the advisor saw as 'like looking through an oddly shaped window covered in condensation.' The thing moved away from the petrified girl and out through a solid wall. As you can imagine, she turned on her heels and exited the corridor by the other direction a lot quicker than the ghost did.
Pat herself has had many a spooky experience in the health club working late at night, but maintains she is rarely scared. 'It's more like Olga's having fun with us. I was once alone emptying bins in a changing room when I suddenly became aware of no longer being alone. It was eerie, but more of an inconvenience because I had so much work to do. I actually shouted at it, like you would with a naughty kid who was deliberately trying to test your patience.'
The Bannatyne's case is classical insomuch as it shows how a familiar, friendly environment can suddenly turn into a foreboding and alien one. Olga, wouldn't hurt anyone, but the very thought that 'she \ it' is there is enough to send people into cold panic. Why is she there? What does she want? Why can't she rest? The land Bannatynes is built upon is ancient woodland and archaeological digs have found conclusive proof there was an Iron Age settlement there, so one can only hazard a guess at what's buried beneath it. Several years ago two skeletons were found in the area where new houses where being erected. The Police were called, but it turned out the bodies were not recent murder victims as first thought, but that of people who died over a thousand years previously. Perhaps when the club was built Olga's ancient grave was disturbed. Luckily for the staff, in life Olga was an inquisitive, playful sort and remains so even after death.
