Sneaky's Daily Did You Know....? - Barmy Beliefs

In the wake of the deaths of her husband and daughter, California rifle heiress Sarah Winchester was told by a medium that their lives had been taken by spirits and that unless she built a mansion to house the spirits, she too would die.

Another stipulation was that the building work must never be completed and so for the next 38 years, right up until her death, Mrs Winchester feverishly added rooms to her house.

By the time she died in 1922, it had 160 rooms, 2000 doors, 10,000 windows, 47 fireplaces and miles of secret passages and corridors, many of which led nowhere.

She was also obsessed by the number 13. So she had her house built with 13 bathrooms, there were 13 hooks in every cupboard and 13 candles in every chandelier. In the sewing room, she insisted on there being 13 windows and 13 doors. There were even 13 parts to her will, which she signed 13 times.