21-05-2025
‘I live in a cemetery — it's not the dead you have to worry about'
'There are ghosts in our house, we hear them,' says Derek Shilling, aged 79. He is believed to be Britain's last remaining 'live-in' sexton and has spent the past 51 years on-site in his two-bedroom, one-storey house at the Haslar Royal Naval Cemetery in Gosport, Hampshire. As well as some ethereal beings he also shares his home with his wife, Monica — the view from their garden is of the graves that he has dug over his lifetime.
Living with ghosts is not something that bothers Shilling. 'I'm not scared. The TV switches itself on and off from time to time and we often hear knocking and footsteps. When my son was young, we heard a child singing and checked his bedroom, but he was
