ABSTRACT
The temporal complexities run deeper, not least because ghost 'is figures that disrupt the linear procession of time that leads from the past, through the present, to the future'. The old objects and material fixtures and fittings of many homes remind people of this double sense of ghosts of their own and in current time. People's interpretations of haunted homes are shot through with an assumption that they have to be old houses. In many cases, building work is believed to herald the start of uncanny events. The ways in which the material and immaterial encounter each other also have different temporal dimensions. People live with the memory of past uncanny events and expectations of future ones, and this at times affects their awareness of particular spaces as they go about their everyday routines. The memory of uncanny events, repeatedly retold over time to form shared narratives, also reinforces social relationships between living inhabitants.
