Page 28 - FWG_Issue 7_2022

Lifestyle

GHOST HUNTING IN

PRETORIA

B Y SIAN CLARK

any of us have heard ghost where the market was, the church and the there are certainly stories which make the
stories of the abandoned businesses,” says Melissa Lindeque curator hairs on the back of your neck stand up.
hospital in Kempton Park and of the museum.
Mthe Chimes Hotel in Benoni, so The house was named after Melrose Abbey
when History Channel asked me to produce She is young and enthusiastic and has in Scotland where George Heys and his wife
a short ghost story, it wasn’t hard to find no qualms about working late at night in enjoyed their honeymoon. The Phoenix
something interesting. this building. But she has heard footsteps Paranormal team have visited this home
overhead and been told about twitching many evenings to pick up noises and voices
My TV crew and I joined Paranormal curtains being moved in the morning room. on their EVP (Electronic Voice Phenomenon)
Investigator, Wynand van Zyl of Phoenix Nothing fazes her. Machine.
Paranormal, on a ghost hunt and discovered
that Melrose House in Pretoria is in the Its original owners are rumoured to still “Our investigators have been turned icy
top 5 of Gauteng’s List of Haunted Buildings. roam the hallways . . . and where there’s cold, pinched, and one was pushed down
history . . . there’s mystery . . . the stairs,” comments Wynand.
Melrose House stands in Jacob Maré Street
in Pretoria, across from Burger's Park, so it’s Melrose House was built in 1886 by a The home is magnificent. It has a Dutch
practically in the city centre. It’s a remnant successful Durban businessman, George gable, it has turrets and gables, and it
of the colonial South Africa of times past Heys, who made a fortune from a coach was lavishly furnished in the style of the
and it’s now a museum. transporting business called Heys & Gibson Victorian era. It's surrounded by a lovely
during the diamond rush in Kimberly. His rose garden with a fountain and, in the
“So where the house is would have been wife Emma and their daughters, Pearl, corner, there is a massive wild fig tree which
the very rich area in Pretoria. It's close to Mabel and Jessie lived here. is 136 years old and reminds you of either
Church Square. And in those early days, Enid Blyton’s Magic Faraway Tree or Game
Church Square was basically the gathering So while there is no mystery about the of Throne’s Weirwood Tree – depending on
place where everyone came together. It’s former inhabitants of the massive home, your era.

Fourways Gardens • 26 • August 2022