20/07/2026
There is a room in Rochester that I have visited many times.
Hundreds of visitors pass through it every year. Most admire the timber framing, some recognise it from Dickens. Many glance around, take a photograph and move on.
Yet every time I enter, my attention is drawn to exactly the same place.
The window.
Not because there is anything remarkable about it. Quite the opposite.
It is an ordinary window in an extraordinary building, and perhaps that is why it has stayed with me. Whenever I stand there, I find myself wondering about the woman who may once have done the same.
Not for a few moments, not for an afternoon, but for years.
Watching the seasons pass, children grow up, people arriving in Rochester and leaving it again. Watching lives unfold beyond the glass whilst her own remained devoted to a purpose she had chosen long before.
Today we often celebrate the idea of following a calling, of finding a vocation or of dedicating ourselves to something greater than ourselves.
Yet every vocation comes with a price.
Every path chosen leaves another unexplored, and every life, no matter how fulfilled, contains moments of wondering.
Standing in that room, I found myself asking a simple question: What does it feel like to look back over a lifetime and know that you have given everything to a cause, a duty or a purpose?
Would there be pride? Contentment? Regret? Or perhaps all three.
The story connected with that window is one of the most moving I encountered whilst researching Rochester's past.
Not because it is dramatic or frightening, and not because it involves a famous name.
It stayed with me because it felt so deeply human.
After all, who amongst us has never wondered about the road not taken?
Who has never looked out of a window and allowed their thoughts to drift towards another life that might have been?
The answer to those questions lies in a story hidden within the walls of Eastgate House, in a story that became one of my favourite chapters whilst writing The Original Rochester Spooky Book.
And perhaps one of the most personal.
Over the last year I have spent countless hours buried in old newspapers, forgotten books and archive records, uncovering stories that once formed part of Rochester's life but which have now largely slipped from memory.
Some are strange, some dark… and some surprising. And a few, like this one, are simply human.
The result is The Original Rochester Spooky Book - a collection of stories gathered from Rochester's past.
Some are tales that regular guests on my Original Rochester Spooky Tour and Rochester After Dark Ghost Tour may recognise.
Many others have never appeared on any of my tours and remained hidden in old newspapers, forgotten books and archive records until now.
In many cases, this book is the first time they have been brought together and shared with a wider audience.
Together they reveal a Rochester that is strange, dark, moving, surprising and, more often than many people might imagine, absolutely true.
This particular story has always stayed with me because I suspect many of us, at one time or another, have stood at a window and wondered about the paths we chose... and those we didn't.
If you would like to learn more about the book and how you could become part of its story, simply comment:
BOOK
below and I'll show you how.
Photo | Shane Waterman
