In 2002, I decided to sit down and write my ghost-hunting memoirs; since 1995, I have been on over 20 cases, and I felt that I needed to put some form of permanent record down to catalogue my experiences, from a first-person point of view, rather than recording what is "wrong" or "right". Naturally, some cases are well documented; these are the first few, where the whole ghost hunting phenomena was still a novelty; some cases are notorious and hence leave an unpleasant "taste in the mouth"; and some cases are well remembered simply because they are the most recent. Naturally, some places have requested anonymity.
I intend this to be a living document, so that I will add to it as I go on more and more cases. Apologies for the wealth of spelling and grammar mistakes in this document: these will be corrected eventually, time permitting, and new photographs added.
Often I wrote these stories out in a hurry, determined not to forget any detail and as such, any spelling mistakes etc. will have been forgotten about in the hurried, frantic process of mechanical typing. All pictures have been obtained, or donated from the internet - hopefully they are public domain, but if anyone has issues with their inclusions, please email me.
I am grateful to Mark and Julie Hunt for their kindness and generosity in allowing me to participate on their vigils: you can read more of their own exploits here or email them here.
(For more info on the Queens Head, click here)
To return to the homepage, click here....
| Location | Date | Organiser | |
| 1. Dudley Castle | October 1995 | Parasearch |
|
| 2. St.Williams College | November 1995 | SpookySoc | |
| 3. Charlton House | November 1997 | ASSAP | |
| 4. Clerkenwell House of Detention | May 1999 | The Ghost Club | |
| 5. Charlton House | October 1999 | The Ghost Club | |
| 6. Belgrave Hall/Talbot Inn | November 1999 | ASSAP | |
| 7. Private Home (Beckton) | July 2000 | ASSAP | |
| 8. Legal and General Building | November 2000 | The Ghost Club | |
| 9. Oxford Prison | November 2000 | ASSAP | |
| 10. Abandoned Cottage | February 2001 | The Ghost Club | |
| 11. Manor House pub | August 2001 | Parasearch | |
| 12. Dudley Castle | September 2001 | Parasearch |
What's New?
|
| 13. Hatton Court Country House Hotel | October 2001 | ASSAP | |
| 14. Sea Fort | December 2001 | ASSAP | |
| 15. Woodchester Mansion | January 2002 | ASSAP | |
| 16. Private Home (Plumstead) | February 2002 | ASSAP | |
| 17. The Ancient Ram Inn, Wotton-under-Edge | April 2002 | Mark and Julie Hunt/"The Ghost Detectives" | |
| 18. Angel Inn, Pershore | October 2002 | Parasearch | |
| 19. Beaulieu Abbey, Hampshire | March, 2003 | Heidi Graham and Mike Burden, Ex- Ghosts-UK | |
| 20. Brockett Hall, Hertfordshire | April, 2003 | UK Ghost Investigators | |
| 21. Farnham Castle, Surrey | June, 2003 | UK Ghost Investigators | |
| 22. The George Hotel, Ashford, Kent | August, 2003 | Mark and Julie Hunt/ASSAP | |
| 23. The Ram Inn, Vigil 2, Wotton-Under-Edge | September, 2003 | Mark and Julie Hunt/ASSAP | |
| 24. Maes Artro Village | October, 2003 | Ghosts UK | |
| 25. Wymering Manor | August, 2004 | - | |
| 26. The Edinburgh Vaults | September, 2004 | Ghosts-UK | |
| 27. The Newcastle Keep | November, 2004 | Ghosts-UK | |
| 28. Ye Olde Trip To Jerusalem, Nottingham. | March, 2005 | The British Paranormal Alliance | |
| 29. The Ghosthouse, Nottinghamshire. | July, 2005 | - | |
| 30. Margam Castle, Wales. | November, 2005 | ASSAP | |
| 31. Theatre, Shropshire. | May, 2007 | Parasearch |
Dudley Castle, West Midlands
October 1995
This vigil
was organised by Parasearch, a group founded in 1986 by Dave
Taylor in the West Midlands; although at the time, I was invited
along as an interested observer, I was to have close contact with
Parasearch in the
coming years.
I first heard of the vigil from Graham Dillon, who had joined York University as a DPhil (PhD) student a few days before hand. After briefly chatting with each other, we learned of our mutual interest in ghosts and the paranormal, and he told me of ASSAP, a group of whom I had never heard of until that point. Graham told me that he and his brothers, Mark and Sean had been informed of a vigil in the Birmingham region from their local ASSAP co-ordinator Ros and that people were needed to boost numbers. Graham invited me along and one Saturday evening we all went to Dudley castle.
The castle is mostly a ruin, and stands on top of a hill in Dudley; surrounding it is a zoo. The keep and living quarters are in ruin, but the chapel ("undercroft") area is quite well preserved. After brief introductions (and the only person who stood out afterwards was a "psychic" called Pam, with whom I had long discussions about The Stone Tape theory), we settled in for the night. Sadly, not a lot happened!
The vigil session in the crypt itself was quiet, although compared to the other areas of interest, it was the warmest!
The session in the Castle Keep/battlements region was again quiet, but provided some small points of interest and excitement. Graham had noticed some water on one of the stairs but couldn't locate the source - probably a mundane explanation. I recall seeing a shape across the lawn and trained my torch on it, only to be disappointed- it was a bin surrounding local sources of light.
I also recall, after chatting with Pam, that she said that she was going for a wander on her own. Imagine my surprise a few minutes later when I shone my torch up on a window high in the battlements and saw a figure in white! I stared at it for a few seconds and saw it wave back at me! It was Pam. She later admitted that she waved because she realised what I must have been thinking!
The derelict living quarters were next, and again, were very quiet. A few strange noises proved to be the animal enclosures directly below the castle.
The last area of investigation was a lodge for workers, at the base of the hill, called "The Round House". By this stage, word had started to filter to the team members about the odd events in this building, which was a pity as it probably coloured our views of what was to happen.
The Round House is in the grounds of the zoo, and we had to drive there to get to it. There is no inside toilet (the nearest convenience was across the car park), and access at that time of night was facilitated by climbing over an iron fence. Inside, on the ground floor, there is only a living room, and a doorway to the sealed cellar. Upstairs were a bedroom and a study. The whole room was musty and not pleasant to be in.
I recall that we placed a video camera in the bedroom and a tape recorder in the study. Then the lights were turned off. I remember I was last down the stairs and I couldn't get down them fast enough. Of course, when I got into the lounge, the only chair was right next to the staircase!
The session lasted half an hour, and for the first 15 minutes I was absolutely petrified by ...something. I kept looking over to my right, up the stairs, convinced that something was going to come down at any second. The fact that the stairs curved to the left and thus made visibility into the rooms upstairs impossible was also disconcerting. I thought I heard creaking noises upstairs, a cross between someone walking on the floorboards and a rocking chair.
After 15 minutes, the atmosphere lifted so much that I fell asleep. It was odd, as if the blackness enveloping the Round House had gone.
After the session had finished, I had a chat with Pam and she agreed that the atmosphere wasn't very pleasant in there. The other two in the group, Sean and Graham Dillon didn't sense anything untoward.
In the next few weeks, I heard from Graham at work that the video camera had picked up a bright flash in one corner of the bedroom, but this was never confirmed. After we had finished at the Round House, we drove back up the hill to the castle and compared notes. We had time for one last half-hour long session, and were down to 6 people. We all agreed that the most disconcerting place was the Round House. The others agreed that, if we pooled our equipment and if we placed two people in each room, with a video camera and a tape recorder, we would pick up something. I recall they had to use a lot of persuasion to get me back into the building, but I agreed ("Safety in Numbers"). Of course, nothing happened, and the atmosphere was nowhere near as black as it was before.
Later, we would hear some of the stories connected to the place: that summer, the Round House was the home for a children's entertainer, Bonkers the Clown (I kid you not). It seems he had been woken up by someone banging on the front door to the lodge. Given just how inaccessible the place was, it seems unlikely that someone would scale the castle and Round House fences, that is, after hunting in the darkness of the castle grounds for the House. Anyway, not too long afterwards, Bonkers was again woken in the middle of the night by a monk bending over him and saying, "What are YOU still doing here?"
Needless to say, Bonkers didn't stay long.
St.Williams' College, York
November 1995
At York University, I was a member of
the now defunct group SpookySoc (Spooky Society), a social group
that revolved around experimentation with Ouija boards and
occasionally booked guest speakers, hosted video evenings etc.
One of the very few, if not the only vigil that was organised was St.Williams' College. For this, we must credit Richard Openshaw, the society's secretary. He had written to the Treasurer's House, site of the famous sighting of the "Lost" Roman Legionnaire by Harry Martindale in the 1950s. He got no reply from them, so he tried a building just up the cobbled path, and just metres away from beautiful York Minster.
St.Williams' College was, and probably still is, a museum that describes the history of the Minster. It also doubles as a function hall for weddings etc. That night, Rowena Wiesneska Richard Openshaw Matt Brown and myself had a brief session at the College. Because of security, we could stay for only as long as we were supervised by museum staff: an odd, and paranoid feeling to recall that museum staff were only a few metres away staring at us. Sadly, I can't recall much of the events there, except to say that the curator has encountered strange noises in his office, in the rafters of the building, and a mysterious crouching figure had been seen close to one of the exhibits.
Being new to this business, all four of us sat down, talked a bit, meditated, got bored and went for a wander. One of the few things I do recall is a fantastic scale model of the Minster in a glass display case.
After a while, we got bored, and with permission, we went across the courtyard to the main banqueting hall, where we sat down in near perpetual gloom and tried a ouija board session using one of Rowena's rings in place of a wine glass (!). About the only memorable things were: the distractions caused by the pubs closing at 11.00pm; and I managed to smuggle some Kentucky Fried Chicken into the building. The vigil finished not too long after. It was nice to see a fantastic old building but, being so young and inexperienced, we had no idea what to do. Fortunately nothing happened: how would we have coped if it had!
Charlton House, London
November 1997
All pictures of Charlton House courtesy of Roger Downham.
The site of the ASSAP investigator's training day in 1997, Charlton House has long had a connection with ghosts and the paranormal. It was a site for visitors on "A Bus Trip to Murder" paranormal tour of London in the mid-1980s. Charlton House started as a Jacobean mansion house: today it is community centre, run by Greenwich council (although I have heard that, as of December 2001, it is run by Greenwich University).The day at Charlton House was eventful, and had a full schedule of events for would-be investigators. In addition, many new contacts were made, such as Dr.Melvin Willin, who recommended afterwards by email that I join the lamentable Ghost Club.
During the vigil, we were split into teams, and the usual invigilators check lists were handed out: by correlating events on the lists, we could rule out natural, or normal events that had been recorded by different teams. On one of the questionnaires before this check-list was handed out, we were asked if we had any psychic ability, and if so to tell our team "leader", a member of the ASSAP executive. This was to prevent bogus "psychics" afterwards coming forward and spouting unverifiable nonsense. I told the member of the ASSAP exec (I won't name him to spare his blushes) that I had been told by another psychic in York that I was psychic. He snorted and brushed this off: "thats what they all say!" he said. Needless to said, his brusque handling of this matter did not impress and I made a point of mentioning it on my checklist! The vigil passed off fairly uneventfully. Most haunted locales are famous for their cold spots, but Charlton House was like a sauna! Everyone had brought jumpers and blankets to keep warm. We soon found ourselves stripping off to our shirts!
A few things stood out: whilst in an adjoining room to Williams Langhorne's bedroom (one of the alleged ghosts, desperate for a male heir and taken to assaulting women to this day!) we all heard a metallic ringing noise, like a coin being dropped, coming from the direction of the staircase. Many other teams heard this, but there was no explanation. The team on the stairs heard footsteps behind them as they sat on the landing.
I was also later to learn from a friend I made years later that he was in the Long Gallery on the top floor and felt a sharp pain on his wrist when he pulled back his shirt, he saw a big bite mark, complete with teeth marks. He was sure that this was the same vigil that I was on, but it he said anything in the post-vigil de-briefing, he didn't say anything.
The only other thing to happen was in the Grand Salon. A lot of us had gathered there for some reason (the remains of our buffet meal had been left their for us to pick at) and we were settled down for a session in darkness. Then, two very bright flashes erupted, very closely in time, from the fireplace. We all looked at each other but no one moved. My reason was I didn't want errant footsteps to fool people in the rest of the building. I said at the time that it looked like a flash gun going off. Anyway, when the lights came on, I went to the fireplace and checked - and found a flashgun rigged inside the chimney breast! The rest of the ASSAP exec arrived and said that it was put there deliberately to see if we would react and investigate. They also asked if an open tool box, next to the fireplace had aroused anyone's suspicions!
The only other interesting thing was after the flash gun incident but before the lights came on. As you look towards the fireplace in the Grand Salon, the left hand doorway leads to the White Room, and the right hand doorway leads to the staircase. For some duration, I heard floorboards creaking in the White Room.
I got increasingly exasperated by this, as everyone was supposed to remain as silent as possible. The creaking was intermittent, like footsteps. During the debriefing, the team at the time in the Long Gallery (on the other side of the White Room/staircase landing) remonstrated with us for making so much noise. Our team looked at them and said, "we thought it was you!" Obviously, someone in a room between us (The White Room) was making noise. At the time, it was unexplained, but now I think that it could have been the place where the ASSAP executive "hid" during the sessions, when the flash gun went off. Who knows?
Clerkenwell House of Detention, London
Note: if you're reading this because of "Most Haunted's" visit to the House of Detention, you really should read this website. It catalogues their list of lies and deceit.May 1999
This was my very first vigil (or "investigation" as they prefer to call it) with the Ghost Club. The House of Detention was built many centuries and was London's biggest remand centre in the 19th century. Some time ago, the huge complex above ground was demolished, leaving just the cellar area, which was then filled in. Until recently, these were being excavated, and the place had been opened at as museum: I did hear a year or so back that the area around the House of Detention was in the process of being converted into flats and the museum closed: a pity.
The Ghost Club had been involved in "investigations" in the House of Detention before: in 1997/8, a BBC film crew accompanied the team down into the gloom. Of course, the psychic picked up "impressions", including that of a little girl, and there was a large temperature drop which no-one could account for. Before hand, I had gone into Kingston (near where I live) and purchase some equipment; some of these were mundane (like a thermos flask), some were cheap pieces of kit (thermometer and compass, to detect a change in the ambient magnetic field)...and a very expensive (150) image intensifying scope from Dixons!
I was aware of the very anti-science, anti-equipment stance of the club, and had even been informed by John Fraser (Vice Chair and Investigations) that a club member in Nottingham had donated a big box of mercury thermometers. And that, it seems is the limit of the Ghost Club's use of equipment!
(Jumping forward in time to a vigil by the Ghost Club in the summer (??) of 2001, Club members asked the psychics if they would be happy if equipment were brought along, and they said "no". Typical of the Club, the question should have been asked to those people with equipment, but I doubt if they would have allowed the alleged psychics to take part.)
So, in addition to all these thermometers, we also had some stuff that the members have brought along; member Lionel Gibson had brought along some ex-Soviet army issue image intensifying goggles. And Rita Leek, a true gem in the Club, brought along a picnic hamper with salmon rolls and a bottle or two of fine white wine! It was just a shame that her leather coat made such a rustling noise that it made aural observations very difficult at times.
When we got to the House of Detention, the blasted thermometers were put in place, together with a log sheet so that people in each area could record the fluctuation in temperature every so often. I noticed at the end of the evening that only a very few readings had been written on the sheets. Also placed were a few trigger objects, which it was hoped, would incite the ghosts to move them around. Why they would actually want to do this is anyone's guess.
I placed my voice activated tape recorder near a flagstone, in an area where the temperature drop had taken place on previous investigations. This area was now used for storing chairs and tables. This turned out to be a bit of a bad idea because John Fraser had a whistle which he used to summon Club members from the various part of the prison remnants in case something happened, or there was a change in shift. So, every time the whistle was blown, the tape recorder would activate. Most of the used portion of the tape had been used due to this alone.
The most disconcerting area in the whole prison was the "out-of-bounds" area right at the very back of the prison cellar. This was an area that was on the point of being excavated, and thus, was very dilapidated. Rubble was scattered all over, pipes hung from the ceiling, there were big holes in the floor ... and worse, there was no power down there! Obviously, this area was not open to the public and was barricaded with "keep out" signs. Regrettable, hooligans had broken into the cellar complex and had daubed witchcraft symbols on the walls. These were still there when we visited and it gave the whole room a very uneasy feeling. Thank God for my image intensifier - "I like to see what I'm scared of!"
It was in this area that Ray Watkins. One of our psychics, picked up a name ("Sheila"). A very 19th century sounding name I think you'll agree, unless they meant the Irish variant "Shelagh" ?
It soon became clear that one of our more attention seeking psychics, Zeta Collins was running the show. Whenever anything happened, the club members jumped to her every whim (I plead guilty to this too, being inexperienced with the nature of vigils).
I recall sitting in the dark "out of bounds" area when the whistle blew, and the three of us in that area (Rita Gideon Sadler and myself) rushed to our main base, which was the main entrance hall where we had assembled some chairs and tables. When we got there, we found Zita mumbling something from her spirit contacts, and fellow psychic Jeanette Watkins (daughter of Ray) was also saying something about "whatever it was" that was allegedly down there with us.
However, Zita was running the show. We all looked at each other, no-one daring to speak but just looking nervously at each other. After all, it could have been genuine!
Other instances like this spring to mind, all similar in nature.
I was sitting comfortably with Rita in the kitchen area, again completely blackened, with our torches providing the only illumination. We were having a great discussion on the nature of observed reality, quantum mechanics and the like (as you do in a dungeon at midnight on a Saturday evening). All of a sudden, other Club members joined us. And then more, and then more, until everyone was with us. Rita and myself whispered "what the hell is going on?" It turns out that Zeta had had a psychic message telling her "to go to the kitchen", and everyone had followed her like lost puppies. So, Jeanette and Zita sat side by side along one wall, everyone else encircling them. Quiet whispers from ourselves were met by a loud yell of "QUIET!" from Ms.Collins. There then erupted a cock-and-bull story of little Victorian girls and an axe-wielding poltergeist. At least something that she said corroborated something that another "psychic" had said, which had not been mentioned or reported up till that point. Zeta reported smelling "burnt beef" (and despite it being a prison kitchen, there was nothing "in the pot"!). The impression of the previous psychic was a smell of "burning flesh". So, perhaps something was picked up, but the theatricality of it destroyed whatever credibility she once had.
Later on, just before we left, Jeanette, Zita, myself and one other (probably Gideon) agreed to do one small sitting in the kitchen, just the four of us. Jeanette is a young girl, very quiet and polite: she certainly doesn't publicise her "psychic gifts" like Zeta did. I recall Lance being there, but he denies this.
Anyway, I sat next to Zeta. She could tell I was a bit nervous (a combination of a few glasses of wine, plus the mirk of the place plus what we had been told early on), and told me not to worry as her spirit guides would protect me. She then gave me a quick-peck kiss on the cheek and let out a huge giggle. Oh dear..... So we sat and waited. It didn't take long for the stories to emerge, which culminated in her telling me "its the bloody poltergeist. Its right behind us and it has got an axe". Now, who WOULDN'T be alarmed by a message like this?!
At some point, we enquired about Jeanette, whose unease was showing. She went next door into a connecting store cupboard. Zeta cornered her and asked what she was sensing, but Jeanette didn't want to confront it. Zeta kept saying, "come on. Say it" and finally got Jeanette to pipe up. It looked like Zeta was feeding Jeanette, perhaps to be the centre of attention? Finally, some threatening message was picked up (I can't remember what) and we all got out of the Kitchen area as fast as possible into the main entrance hair via one of the huge air shafts. Both Zeta and Jeanette have severe mobility problems (arthritis for the former, and a degenerative bone disease for the latter), so this caused problems.
The session ended some little time later, and we all went home (although I had to stop at Rita's house that night because there were no trains running to take me home to Surbiton)
Looking back, I am a bit angry that the whole evening was dominated by one person. The investigation seems like a badly organised run-around. I am not impressed.
Perhaps I should finish this section with something that Gideon was saying all night along - that the unease down there was due simply to the "power of suggestion"?
For the Ghost Club's write-up of the House of Detention
investigation, please click here.
Charlton House, London
October 1999
A return to Charlton House, this time with the dratted Ghost
Club. I was not too keen on going on this session for a number of
reasons: I was dubious about the Club's expertise with
"investigations": I had done Charlton House and it was
a case of "been there, done that": I was stressed out
from excessive commuting forced upon me by my job: and also
because Zeta Collins was going to be there.
This time round we had a large number of non-Club members. They came from an organisation that provided "alternate", "interesting" nights-out to people who wanted to try something different. Looking back, I am amused to recall that Alan Murdie, the Chairman of the Ghost Club was still chasing up this "Activity Superstore" organisation for the fee for allowing its members on one of our ghost hunts.
This time round, Charlton did have something to show for itself: at a previous Ghost Club vigil a few months beforehand, team members stationed all around the house heard a colossal explosion-type noise in the Grand Salon. This was coupled with the movement of a trigger object (a small carved, wooden mushroom) about 10 feet. Whilst the latter event might be due to a hoaxer (something that never occurred to the Club incidentally), the explosion was truly inexplicable. It made people jump and run for the Grand Salon from their positions. Plus beforehand, one of the psychics had received a "message" just beforehand that "something was going to happen".
For those of you who believe that ghosts and other paranormal events may be due to recordings which are then played back when circumstances are just right, I should say that the section of the House from which the noise occurred was hit by a bomb in World War 2. If you look at the front of the house, you can see that the style of bricks is different in that area of the house.
However, sadly, NO-ONE TOOK A TAPE RECORDER WITH THEM THAT NIGHT. Therefore, a great opportunity to record, and later analyse a possibly unique event was lost forever. I personally find that unforgivable.
Back to the evening's events ... we all had hopes that there would be a re-enactment of the "boom" that October night in 1999. Alan Murdie had even brought many of the wooden mushrooms with him in case this triggered something off. To the non-initiated virgin spooksters, this must have been bewildering, but all was explained at the end of the evening.
We had a brief warm-up session, at the suggestion of Alan, where we introduce ourselves to a stranger and tell them our favourite comedian. This was to get us into a more relaxed frame of mind, which is usually very effective when triggering paranormal events.
We split up into the usual teams, and this time I was Zeta Collins and Ray Watkins. It was mostly very quiet that night. In one session in the Long Gallery, Zeta saw a shape through my image intensifier, which could have been lens flare. Or imagination. Needless to say, I didn't believe a word she said anymore!
One of my friends, an electronic engineer named Tony Vilches was setting up a camera in the White Room when he happened to remark to Zeta that there was an "old lady crouching by the fireplace". This stunned Zeta - she hadn't picked up on this at all! Tony later told me that he only has mild psychic abilities, and certainly doesn't broadcast his talents to all within earshot.
In one shift, Ray, Zeta and myself, and two activities superstore people were sat in the Grand Salon, where the famous "boom" originated. We were sat just staring into space when we all heard a distant "boom-boom" noise. I recall I turned to look over my shoulder, where I thought the noise came from, way beyond the house. Zeta was pacing up and down, trying to pick up anything, when she heard the noise, stopped in mid-stride and spun round. Zeta is convinced that the noise came from inside the room, as did Ray I think. I got conflicting stories from the activities people. At the time, they thought it came from inside the room, but John Fraser, who wasn't there that night, said that they thought it came from outside.
Zeta wouldn't budge on this issue. She was convinced it was a "spirit rap". I thought it was a firework. After all, this was only a week before November 5th and we could hear fireworks exploding all round the house all evening, but these sounds came from quite a distance away.
Unlike the Club's previous excursions at Charlton, I DID take a tape recorder with me. I had placed it in the White Room on the windowsill and had not put it into voice activated mode, so that it picked up everything (wasteful on tape I know, but fortuitous since it would not have picked up the sound otherwise).
What you get on tape is a distant, but still audible "BANG-bang, BANG-bang", the second and fourth bangs being much quieter than the first and third. Then there are the sounds of a commotion, probably us in the Salon.
It does sound reminiscent of a double gun shot. I am familiar with the sounds that guns make thanks to my interest in the assassination of President Kennedy, and I know that a gun makes three sounds in very close succession. The first is the sound of the bullet being fired, the second is the bullet breaking the sound barrier, and the third is the sound of the target being hit. I must add that not too far from Charlton is the East End of London, where there are occasional sounds of gun shots due to gang fights and robberies etc.
I recall that I did see something odd in the top right hand corner of the House, near the Newton Room. I was looking down the staircase, over the banister where the elevator was located and caught a brief flash of someone coming up the stairs. I looked away, and then realised what I had seen, and by the time I had looked back about a second later, it had gone. A trick of the mind? Almost certainly. I recall that the other staircase still has a strange feeling to it, but as for the rest of the house, I didn't feel alarmed. I could easily wander around with no apprehension at all. Some of us familiar with Charlton later remarked that whatever it was in the house has dissipated.
And then the evening drew to a close...before we left, I asked the security guard to clear one mystery. I had read in one ghost book that the mummified remains of a baby were found in a fireplace during renovation work. "The Good Ghost Guide" even says that this was in the North Wing of the house after the building had been bombed (presumably the incident in World War 2). I asked the guard which fireplace this was, and he said that it used to be in the place where the elevator is located now. I found this strange. For one thing, this is in the South Wing. Secondly, the elevator is built around the stairwell. Why would anyone build a fireplace into a stairwell? Normally, a fireplace is used to keep a room warm. Why would anyone want to keep a stairwell warm? Looking back, I don't believe this story at all!
Perhaps the fireplace is the one in the Grand Salon from which "orbs" were to be seen emerging by the Ghost Club the following year? At least someone had the presence of mind to record them with a camera!
The whole evening was very quiet and perhaps people were too desperate for something "odd" to happen, even going so far as to ascribe anything to the spooks after the success in the previous vigil?
As for the bang noises: why settle for a supernatural explanation when a mundane one will do?
For the Ghost Club's write-up of the Charlton House
investigation, please click here.
Talbot Inn and Belgrave Hall, Leicester
November 1999
Thank
heavens for a well-organised, scientific vigil! This session was
organised by ASSAP as part of its annual training day. Belgrave
Hall had achieved worldwide fame due to the anomalous shape
recorded on a CCTV (see picture below).
The shape has since been identified as a falling leaf, but at the time, no-one knew what it was and researchers zeroed in on the Hall. Rather coincidentally, the pub just down the road, the Talbot, also has reports of phantoms. It was in this pub that Mike Lewis, then ASSAP National Investigations Co-ordinator saw his first phantom in 35 years of ghost hunting. It was so real and life-like he didn't recognise it for what it was until later when he realised that it had walked into the skittle alley (with no exit) and not emerged. Mike had this tape recorder and camera in front of him but didn't think to activate them. Anyway, all this was to come...
It has to be said that the evening was quiet, and cold, particularly the shift in the local graveyard. Over the next few years, I learned that Julie Hunt (who will re-enter our story later on) had seen a figure in the graveyard and had taken a photograph...but strangely, when developed the whole roll was blank! This was not on our vigil, but the first ASSAP session early on in 1999 when the CCTV footage was broadcast.
One of the more humourous aspects of the vigil was in the Talbot. We had to wait quite a while because the jolly activities in the pub lasted well beyond the chucking out time of 11.20pm. When we finally got in there, myself and a friend from Paraseach got strange results from our magnetic field meters and spent ages tracing field fluctuations on the wall, or behind it. Perhaps a power cable. The real mystery is why people use Gauss to measure magnetic field strength when the accepted unit these days is Tesla. And why do they pronounce Gauss as "Gause" rather than the correct "Gows"?!
Incidentally, this was the first appearance of my Natural Trifield meter which I had purchased from the US in the summer.
All-in-all, not a lot happened, although it was good to meet up with some old ASSAP chums (Stephen Hall, Phil Walton) and meet up with new ones (Val Hope).
The only event of any note in this vigil was after everyone had gone home. There was only Stuart, the curator of the Belgrave museum and one other invigilator who was getting a few hours sleep before going home. All of a sudden, there was a colossal crash from the house. Of course, after a thorough search, nothing was found to be amiss.
Now I know why ASSAP call the Belgrave Hall sessions "Night of the Living Cold"!
Private house, Beckton, London
July 2000
I was invited by Phil Walton to attend this investigation into poltergeist activity in a private house on a modern housing estate in Beckton, London. Also in attendance was Catherine Crayford of ASSAP, and her friend (now fiance) Steve.
Although, not a vigil as such, it was a chance to see some very odd activity, and we inspected the damage and talked to the family at the centre of the events. We saw none of the classic signs of the domestic tensions often at the root of poltergeist infestations.
The activity had been occurring for at least the last few months and manifested itself as attacks on the walls. It seems to have started in a wardrobe, before moving into the room beyond this. The walls were literally covered with thousands of tiny little pin pricks, peeling off the wallpaper, and often tunnelling into the masonry beyond to expose the metal mesh in the walls. There were literally hundreds of marks in a square inch, each one reminiscent of a nail having being hammered in. Most of the walls in the room had been damaged. The "entity" was prone to moving from room to room, from the wardrobe to the next room and back again. No-one had seen any damage themselves.
One night, one of the family went to bed, and when he woke up, he was covered with plaster, with fresh damage above him! Whatever it was, it was very quiet not to have woken him.
The family dog had a similar experience. Members of the household noticed that there was a patch of dust and plaster on its head. When they checked, they noticed an outbreak of fresh damage. The dog must have sat and watched the thing chiselling away at the walls (we joked afterwards about fitting a webcam on the dog so that we would see whatever it was seeing!)
Phil Walton had devised a plan to get some measurable data from this outbreak. He had placed a tape recorder with a contact microphone inside a large case, and then sealed the latches with wax. He then plugged in two leads, which ran around the box. These leads didn't actually do anything: the whole purpose of the box was to make it look like it did do something! We asked the family to leave the box where it was, propped up against the wall where most of the damage had occurred in the hope of picking up some sounds.
I know very little about the outcome of this case. Phil told me a few months later that the box seemed to have scared the "...whatever..." back into the wardrobe.
I never heard anything more about the outbreak.
Legal and General Building, London
November 2000
Yet another Ghost Club ramble, but at least this one was without the nauseous Ms.Zeta Collins who had been ejected from the Club early on in the year for insulting the friend of a guest speaker.
In this case, most of the occurrences had been sighted in the basement of the Legal and General insurance building in the City of London, where a lot of the records are held. It certainly was interesting to see thousands of records stacked up on the shelves in this massive room. We were told that something had been seen in this room near one of the fire escape doors in the corner of the main records room.
The evening was, again, quiet, livened up by Lionel Gibson bringing a bottle of red wine into the session. Philip Carr, the new Ghost Club newsletter editor took some photographs of the events that night, one of which wound up on the ghost section of "The Big Breakfast" on Channel 4 last Hallowe'en (despite me being in the foreground, I wasn't mentioned possibly because I had stormed out of the club in disgust as its ludicrous and unfair pricing policy in August that year).
Not much springs to mind on this case. I recall feeling a little dizzy and disorientated as I passed some of the big garbage skips outside the records room ,and a few others felt the same way there. In all, the atmosphere wasn't very intimidating at all and I even went for a few private sessions, first in the main room, and then at the bottom of a pitch black corridor, where I surprised Helen Edwyn-Jones by waiting until she was only feet from me before switching my torch on! Ha ha!
The only interesting thing that night was the Ouija board session. We alternated the board members, but we only got something when Rosie Murdie (Alan's sister) was in contact with the board.
The Ouija session was partially garbled: perhaps random outpourings from our minds. In the few seconds of coherence, we found that "it" was British, was possibly called "Jainai", was female, born in 1829 and was aged 29. "It" was alive during the reign of Queen Victoria (1837-1901), which is significant since most "ghosts" can even get basic facts right. "It" also said that is family name was Jones (so, very easy to trace then!) but significantly, couldn't spell out where it was born, what its job was or how it died (respectively Marlgila, snirxoz, ilk)!
In fact, when we asked where it was born, and it spelt out "Marlgila", we said "is it Marylebone?" and it said "yes". I find this is very silly to do during a seance/Ouija board session. Whilst at York, we used to indulge in sessions every week, and sometimes we would ask "How did you die", and it would spell out "H-E-" and one of us would interject "Heart Attack?", to which it would obviously answer "yes". If the ouija board is just people subconsciously pushing the glass then we have just told the other on the board what the answer should be! This makes the results suspicious....
I digress. Shortly afterwards, "Miss Jones" moved the planchette to "Goodbye". We then got in touch with something else, and this moved the planchette very rapidly. Its name was gibberish, didn't want to say whether it was good or evil, and had a message. It died in the area, but not by someone's else's doing although it wasn't an accident - it was suicide. "It" was 72, and died in the year "9" (1909? 1809?). It was female, and her husband had died. The name was "JONS" OR ""JOUNS", and her husband was buried in "Kathni" or "kip" church (I wish ghosts knew basic literacy and were consistent!)
Furthermore, she lived in London, didn't regret suicide but was looking for her husband. "It" also said that Rosie knew where her husband was. Rosie was quite alarmed by this and wanted to end the session but we persevered. "It" said we/Rosie could help by praying for her and her husband's soul, and Lionel offered one for her.
The Ouija session becomes very muddled after this point: the "ghost" now said that her husband was still alive and that his name was Reginald Fox, who lived at ** Sughe Way in Hatfield (obviously I have removed the number in case the address does exist and someone does live there).
I should note here that about a month before this, a train had crashed near Hatfield with loss of life. It is highly likely that this was still in our mind, hence the possible reason that the name of the town appearing in the session.
Obviously none of us thought that the session was worthwhile since no one at the Club requested a transcript of the Ouija session and certainly no one bothered to see if Mr.Fox did live at the address.
Later we were told that the main entity was a monk-like figure seen in the vicinity of the fire escape that I mentioned before, and in a back passageway. With the ruins of the Temple of Mithras being just outside the L&G building, this made sense, but having been told this it made for a nervous trip retrieving my bag from the room where the Ouija board session was held!
An interesting evening, and certainly better than most Club's events.
Oxford Prison, Oxford
November 2000
A fun night in a prison was to be had in this vigil! Like the previous two years, this was part of the ASSAP training day, and was also a case of "too many cooks spoiling the broth": there were 40 of us in the prison that night. Sadly, an Oxford ghost walk failed to occur and there seemed little to do except retire to the pub, of which Oxford is suitable blessed. The evening started off with a trip to the pub where a fair amount of alcohol was consumed. We even managed to smuggle half a bottle of red wine into the vigil!
After some trouble getting in due to our slightly late arrival, we met up with Mike White who was organising the session. Oxford Prison is now a deserted shell and was to be refurbished into a hotel complex. Before this evening, the prison had been used in the filming of a movie of some description, and there were Korean or Japanese symbols daubed all over the walls in red paint. God knows what the film was!
We assembled into teams where I was pleased to meet up with Andrew Homer of Parasearch as well as other ASSAP stalwarts, like Stephen Hall. In our team were myself, Rita Leek and Bob Savage (all of the Ghost Club). We soon became very bored just sitting down waiting for things to happen and we all knew that nothing was going to happen. We therefore elected to explore the prison as we would (hopefully) never be in one again in our lifetimes! Buoyed by alcoholic bravery we literally went all over the place, even winding up in the attic space above the cells' galleries, the shower room and the administration wing. Rita and Bob even made it onto the roof, alas I couldn't join them because I got vertigo going up the spiral staircase and ladder. By about 3-4 o'clock we elected to go back to our hotel and thanks to the generosity of Bob, I got somewhere to sleep that night after he offered to share his room with me.
As an example of the "too many cooks..." syndrome described earlier, as the three of us tried to leave the prison, we took a wrong turning and went down a totally black corridor. I asked if the way out was down there, and then, a second later, half a dozen torches snapped on in front of me! There were at least 6 people standing in a corridor no more than 10 or 12 feet long, everyone being within touching distances of each other. Just what were these people expecting to happen, or to see?!
Funnily enough, I never did find out what was supposed to be in the prison; all I did find out was that it wasn't in our wing. However, some people did get some strange glowing shapes when their films were developed: these were not visible when the pictures were taken...
Abandoned Cottage in Levington, near Ipswich
February 2001
Above: A view of the abandoned cottage the next day
This cottage, in the village of Levington, near Ipswich, had been abandoned since August 1997 when the owner, an old lady, fell and injured herself. She was placed in care shortly afterwards and the building has not been inhabited since. On the desk, there are newspapers and bills dating from 1997, and the place is festooned with dust and spiders webs. In some of the rooms, it looks like the plants and bushes outside are forcing their way into the house.
There is no gas, and the electricity supply is very erratic; so much so that we were asked not to use it unless very necessary. For nearly the whole session, we used our torches plus some candles that we had brought. Needless to say, it was freezing cold that night!
The house had been on the market for many years but had failed to find a buyer. What brought the place to the attention of the Ghost Club was the presence of a footprint in the dust upstairs. Remember that no one had been in the place for years! Local people had said that, when the old lady lived there, their children did not like going into the house, and a figure had been seen in the upstairs window (though this could be due to a trick of the light).
The investigation at the cottage was a two-stage affair. Alan Murdie led the team on Friday evening and John Fraser on the Saturday. Later on, Alan would tell me that he didn't think that the cottage was haunted, but that sightings of phantoms was possibly due to the effect of electromagnetic pollution on the brain: there is actually a mobile phone mast within sight of the cottage.
The place is certainly antiquated, and the upstairs made you feel claustrophobic, because it was one large room partitioned into two with a serving hatch in the middle. The story is that the husband, before he died, had been a prisoner of war captured by the Japanese in World War 2. He had been tortured so much that when he returned to England, he had constant nightmares. He would arise from his bed and go into terrible destructive frenzies as he relieved his wartime experiences in his dreams. For this reason, his wife had the partition installed and she would sleep in the other section of the house.
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None of us relished the idea of spending all evening in the darkened shell, so we adjourned to a pub for quite a few drinks and a nice meal. By the time we arrived at the house to start, it was quite late and the alcohol had given us a sense of bravado.
From an equipment point of view, two other members (Matt and James) had brought their own equipment, cameras...and their own TriField meter. None of us picked anything up. The only other thing smuggled in was a bottle of Romanian Plum Brandy, which no-one drank!
Our session was certainly very quiet. There are reports of a "sigh" from the downstairs bedroom. We held a Ouija board session but picked nothing up apart from something calling itself "Legion". I recall I remarked that "this is starting to sound biblical", but John Fraser asked the "entity" what Legion it meant (!!!) in light of the story of the man of the house which we did not know at this point. After that, we tried to get some sleep which was difficult considering how extremely cold it was!
Above: The bedroom in which the sigh was heard
In a show of defiance to the spooks, we manhandled the ornamental door knocker outside. The local legend is that bad luck with come to those touch it. A year on, and I'm still here.
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For the Ghost Club's write-up of the Levington investigation,
please click
here.
Manor House, West Bromwich
August 2001
By this point, I have become sufficiently dissatisfied with the Ghost Club to elect to "have nothing more to do with it" on the grounds that it was elitist and its subscription policy was "morally offensive". I thought that by making a stand and leaving it would prompt a re-think of Club policy. Nothing like that happened. Everyone's attitude was "Oh, bye!" and I have become a pariah. None of my friends in the Club contact me anymore.
However, by the early half of 2001, I had become more and more involved with other groups, such as ASSAP. I had asked Parasearch, based in the West Midlands to give the Club a talk in early 2001 and we were all sufficiently impressed by the quality of evidence and equipment they had to want to form strong ties with them. I personally went one step further, by joining them as an associate member. Because of the distance involved, I was unable to go to every vigil, but I still go on as many as I can, train bookings allowing. The Manor House is the second Parasearch vigil that I went on, after Dudley Castle 6 years earlier. The place is a pub, and is of great age.
It has its own chapel/museum and has a moat, now empty. Many ancient artefacts found in the moat are now part of the museum. Many years ago, when the pub was being refurbished, the front facade came away to reveal an even older front to the pub. The decor inside is certainly very odd, with low hanging ceilings and oak beams, hanging draperies etc.
Parasearch had been to the pub many times, but this was the first time under new management and the proprietor was fascinated and asked to take part in the vigil. Previously in the last few days, psychics had told him that "something" was going to happen that night. This new landlord had experienced heavy doors being opened and repeatedly re-opened in the night when he was doing a routine check-up of the building.
Things looked promising upon arrival as one team member asked if anyone (a woman) had been in one of the darkened front rooms. The landlord said no, but then pointed out that that room is easily accessible from the upstairs bar just around the corner.
Previously, Parasearch had seen odd things in the upstairs bar, including a figure that materialised against one wall in full view of two people. Unfortunately, the video camera was pointing slightly off to one side and missed this.
Also, Carolyn Adey, David Taylor's (Chairman) partner actually saw a crouching figure near the downstairs food bar. More importantly, the figure seemed to see Carolyn and reacted to her, as if it was trying to hide!
It seems that the prediction of the psychics was off the mark. It was a very quiet night indeed. The only "exciting" part was when I was going up some stairs towards the darkened room where the female figure had been seen. I didn't notice the low lying beam at the top of the stairs and I cracked my head! The pain was so intense I recoiled from it. According to everyone else, it certainly made a very loud noise. Fortunately, the pain soon went. I noticed that the darkened room made me feel uneasy, and this due to my perceptions: in the far corner, was a staircase and because of the way it curved round and followed the wall, I couldn't see the bottom of it. This made me feel very uneasy, and it brought back memories of the Round House staircase before. It didn't make me feel in control of the situation when part of the room was obscured.
The rest of the night passed off quietly. There was a loud noise by the downstairs bar as the evening drew to a close, and perhaps some small light effects, but nothing spectacular. In stark contrast to the Ghost Club, the pub was filled with equipment!
But the only thing that I saw that night was stars. Ouch!
Dudley Castle, West Midlands
September 2001
A return to Dudley. Again, a very quiet session but a few things do immediately come to mind. Only a very small contingent could make it (4 of us plus the curator); Carolyn Adey wanted to make it but was ill. It was hoped, via myself that members from the Ghost Club could come to boost numbers but I felt disinclined to help the Club in any way at all.
The vigil was in the midst of the UK's foot and mouth epidemic and because of the zoo animals, we were all obliged to walk through a disinfecting tray before going into the castle grounds. Also, because of the foot and mouth, no cars were allowed into the grounds so we had to carry our boxes of equipment up the hill. Surprisingly, it wasn't that far to walk! David Taylor informed us that this might be the last trip to Dudley Castle because the site is being developed into a business park. However, because of good relations with the current proprietors it was felt that access might be allowed in the future. What this means is that the zoo will probably close down, hopefully the castle will remain open though.
Also, the Round House, much to my great disappointment was inaccessible due to the fact that it is now used as office and storage space. Damn!
The castle looked the same as it did in 1995, with one or two changes. Part of the ruin had been converted into a visitors centre and (rather tacky) shop. It was in the shop that strange things had been noted but I can't recall what they were. In front of the shop was a stage for amateur productions for the public. With the wind, and later rain that night, the tarpaulin flapping in the wind made an eerie noise.
It has to be said that the evening was very quiet, and the atmosphere was not threatening at all inside the castle and undercroft area. I was determined not to fall asleep because, with any luck, upon waking the phantom(s) would be right in front of me: that always seems to happen. An anomalous electric (or magnetic ? - I can't recall) field strength reading was quickly traced to a nearby fluorescent strip lamp in the shop which was emitting an audible hum. Nothing was picked up on our Trifield meters though.
Very, very quiet unfortunately.
Oh, by the way, in an effort to muster funds, Dudley had formed a "sponsor a ghost" money making scheme. David thought this was a great laugh!
Hatton Court Country House Hotel, near Milton Keynes
October 2001
This vigil was
organised at very short notice (about 5 days!) and unusually took
place on a Sunday evening rather than a Saturday. The quality
more than made up for the brevity of notice.
Stephen Hall, the National Investigations Co-ordinator for ASSAP phoned me up and asked if I wanted to do a session at the "Hove Hotel" near Milton Keynes. Of course, I said yes. He also said that also in attendance that night would be a film crew from Meridian, filming a piece for one of their Hallowe'en slots that year. Also there that night were three others: Caroline Searley, Eileen Rodgers, and Ian Percy, all wonderful people.
That night was memorable for more than one reason: when I left my flat in New Malden, the weather was clear. By the time I got to Milton Keynes it was raining. Very heavily. I asked a taxi driver to take me to the "Hove Hotel". he had never heard of it! For one second, it looked like I would be heading back to London again! Fortunately I had Stephen Hall's mobile phone number and I got the correct name of the hotel. It turned out to be a very long distance outside of town.
When I got to the hotel, the only people there were the film crew and they informed that there would be an imminent announcement about the US stance on terrorism: in fact, the reprisal bombings on Afghanistan started that night. Myself, the two cameramen then drove to the nearby (!) pub to meet up with Caroline and Eileen and get something to eat. Stephen and Ian arrived quite late having run into traffic congestion on the M25 from Bournemouth, caused by the bad weather (although it had stopped raining in Milton Keynes at this point).
I was told something of the place. The main seat of the hauntings was in room 7, and was usually left unoccupied unless a guest insisted or there was no other space at the hotel. One night, a rugby player was given the room because there was no where else. He awoke in the night and went to the bathroom, where there is a huge mirror. As he looked into the mirror, he noticed a figure behind him. He fled and spent the rest of the night in his car.
Before I got there, the light switch on the landing near Room 7 turned off by itself. It was a proper press-down style switch, not a push button so it required force to switch it on/off. The light was taped in the on position to see if it would switch back. It didn't.
Also, in room 9, where the film crew had set up their equipment, you could feel an instant chill the moment you crossed the threshold. It was as if an air conditioning unit was mounted just above the door, except for the gust associated with such a unit. There was no air conditioning unit. It was obviously a few degrees colder as you walked into the room.
The first session was spent in room 7. There were minor cold spots in there, although not as obvious as the one in room 9. Actually, walking into room 7, it didn't feel as cold as room 9. In room 7, we tested the temperature with a remote heat sensing gun. Everything was fine (although the temperature around the wardrobe did fluctuate quite a bit), except for Ian Percy whose temperature was well below everyone else. He said that he did feel cold, and was wearing a jumper (everyone else was wearing shirts, or loose clothing). In the darkness, it was fairly nondescript and uneventful. Caroline picked up a green orb on the night vision scope on her camera, and there were a few other minor light effects (I should point out that night vision scopes show everything in green anyway). Whatever it was, I don't recall seeing it with the naked eye.
The evening was so eventful, I am unsure as to the exact sequence of events, but I will try and place them chronologically anyway.
We then held a Ouija board session, and Eileen elected to opt out at this point. This was the best Ouija session that I have ever attended. Every single answer was in perfect English, with no garble, although some of the syntax seemed "old". It was as if the "ghost" was sitting right next to us. Again, I can't recall much of the detail because so much was said/communicated, but the information pointed us to a painting on the wall of the dining room, which showed the original family, when the hotel was a private home many, many years ago. The "ghost" also said that the father of the house was a cruel man, who had taken to drinking gin, and that the ghost was looking for her children who had drowned in a now-filled in pond outside in the grounds. We had heard this previously and it is a local legend, so maybe this was colouring our views of the place and affecting the session? Funnily enough, Ian Percy described a craving for gin afterwards, and he normally can't stand the stuff.
The "ghost" was very conversational. At one point I joked whether it wanted a drink, and it said "tea". I asked whether it wanted Earl Grey, Darjeeling etc. and the ghost gave me a rebuke saying, "don't mock me"! One of the film crew was having a quick nap on the floor, and the ghost enquired about "sleeper", saying that his shoelaces were untied (I don't think they were but everyone else swears that one of the laces was coming undone).
Four of us were on the floor at this point; myself, "sleeper", Ian and Caroline. Caroline later remarked that she was getting very cold, and her hand felt cold to the touch. Only Ian and Caroline were in contact with the board, and they weren't obviously pushing the planchette. Stephen was sat on the edge of the bed and toppled backwards, to get some rest. The "ghost" asked "Why is Stephen asleep?" No one had noticed that Stephen was now lying prone on the bed. Ian was quite shocked to learn this because he had his back to Stephen!
Also, the other crewmember from Meridian was playing about with the hand-held temperature sensor and joked that it was like something from Star Trek. "Beam me up, Scotty!" he said. Quick as a flash, the ghost replied "Who is Scotty?" (!)
At one point, we asked the ghost where it was, and it said "next to Ian". This put it right beside Ian and myself. I placed Stephen's Dr.Gauss magnetometer and my Trifield meter on this spot and both went bonkers! Things quietened down and we asked where "it" was now, and it said "on the bed". Again, when we ran the magnetic field meters over the bed, they went off the scale. After the quietened down, "it" was asked where it was and it said "everywhere". Wherever we placed the meters, they shot off the scale. We then asked "it" whether it was going this and it said "yes", but it asked that we stop using the meters as it didn't like them. Very eerie and very convincing.
We decided to have a break for a drink in the bar and examine the painting in the downstairs dining room. We sealed the room up and place my Trifield meter in there (its a good burglar alarm too!), a motion sensing burglar alarm, video cameras, tape recorders and a baby alarm (so that we could monitor sound levels in the room remotely). Sometime around now, Stephen Hall found that the battery in his camera had drained to nothing!
So we all retired downstairs and had a chat. We tentatively identified a figure on the painting as the "ghost". Stephen's baby alarm picked up nothing but a strange pulsating noise, which one of the cameramen said sounded like a radio trying to lock onto a signal, which was odd as the transmitter was only about 10 feet above us! To give you an idea of what it sounds like, it you have a voice activated tape recorder, when you play a tape back, you get the rhythmic click-click-click sound of the motor whirring as it is recording. Possibly nothing paranormal, but I should point out that Stephen had huge problems with the baby alarms originally. He was unable to pick up the signal from the transmitter adequately even when in the same room.
And then it was time to be interviewed for the Meridian news item. Alas my contribution ended up on the cutting room floor. Oh well. By the way, at this point it was 3.00am, and all of us were feeling pretty groggy and cold. If only we'd been interviewed hours before!
Finally, we went back to room 7 for another Ouija session and even managed to get Eileen to sit in. Although interesting this session was not as exciting as the first and seemed to repeat a lot of the information. After this, we all got a few hours sleep in the haunted room. Again, nothing happened, but bearing in mind the rugby player story, we were all nervous when we went to the bathroom and tried not to look in the mirror when we got in there!
Definitely the best vigil to date.
Sea Fort, London
December 2001
Another
marvellous vigil, again organised at short notice. This time I
had the huge pleasure to meet Mark and Julie Hunt, two
exceptionally nice people. They became famous for their
photograph of the shape on the stairs of the Ancient Ram Inn in
Gloucestershire in 1999, and are veterans of dozens of vigils.
The Sea Fort is built on the shores of the Thames and was designed to protect London from attacks during the Napoleonic days by firing across the river: a similar battery, facing south and on the other side of the Thames made the protection complete. Any ship passing by would have been broadside by the massive gun emplacements. During World War 2, it was used as an army barracks and again, huge guns protected the Thames from assault by the Nazis. Today, the Fort is owned by the council, but run by a team of volunteers who are restoring the site as a museum. In the grounds is a very old church, and the bodies are monks are buried nearby.
The Fort is comprised mainly of two underground tunnels. As you go into the main entrance, where the main security desk is located, there is a tunnel leading to the right, and a very long U-shaped tunnel leading to the left. As far as we could ascertain, there is no other access point to the tunnels. The right hand tunnel was the location of a bizarre encounter between a security guard doing his rounds and a figure dressed in out-of-time uniform (alas I cannot recall, or was not told the period). The security guard had reached the end of the tunnel and turned round when out of one wall stepped the figure. The figure turned towards the guard, stamping his feet twice, as if coming to attention, and turned to face the guard. The figure was saying something but although the footsteps were audible, the voice wasn't. The figure either turned and walked through the opposite wall, or vanished (I can't recall which).
In the left hand tunnel, a few strange things have been seen or encountered. In one room, there is a recreation of a room where shells were stored. The shells are extremely heavy and impossible to move without assistance. At one point, one of the volunteer workforce noticed a green mist in the room, and when he checked back later, he noticed that one of the shells had moved.
Further down the corridor, at a junction between the tunnels, an odd shape was once encountered. A visitor to the complex noticed that one of her rings had disappeared and despite extensive searching, was never found. An insurance assessor visited the Fort afterwards, and the guide who showed him where the ring was snatched noticed a dark shape at the junction of the corridors. He didn't say anything at the time. However, back in the security office, the insurance assessor asked his guide "did you see that black shape down there?" Needless to say, this piqued Mark and Julie's interest and after a short delay were granted access to the Fort.
Joining us that night was ASSAP equipment custodian, Adam Bailey. Occasionally dropping in to visit us from time to time were two people who volunteered to remain on site (in the workshop where the restoration takes place). Mark and Julie set up their video camera in the junction of the tunnel where the black shape had been seen, and Adam set up his camera trained on the other tunnel where the army figure had walked through the wall. It was an odd feeling to walk down the narrow tunnel knowing that monks bodies were probably buried just a few feet to the left and right.
We had also managed to get the security cameras working, so that we could view most of the tunnel network, but without sound unfortunately. The system cycled through a setting, so it would alternate through all the cameras; some of the cameras were malfunctioning, giving shapes like the back of a chair (a tunnel) and a flying Rubik's cube. Oh, the jokes we had that night! The depth and the layout also meant that our walkie-talkies did not work either so communication had to be done face-to-face.
I had set my Trifield meter at the end of the U-Shaped tunnel, so that it would activate an alarm if the sum of the magnetic and electric field exceeded a threshold. Further up the corridor, going towards the entrance was a burglar alarm. Anyone down there would set at least one of these off. The Trifield meter kept beeping at regular intervals, as if the field strength was either increasing then decreasing or increasing or decreasing. It is impossible to know which. At a few times, Mark and Julie noticed the meter "screech" loudly which only happens if the field strength peaks.
Nothing really happened that night until Adam and myself took the watch in the left hand, U-shaped tunnel. The corridors were full of crystalline material, a mixture of mould, condensation and some other, fibrous substance, which got all over our clothes. I was sat with my back to the wall, looking down the end of the tunnel where the Trifield meter was. Adam was a few feet away, in the tunnel itself. We were talking amongst ourselves, when we heard a distant "bang" and then a "stamp-stamp" noise (remember the story of the phantom soldier early on, although we didn't make the connection at the time). Adam and myself looked at each other and went down the end of the corridor, setting off the burglar alarm in the process. All Mark and Julie, based in the control room, could see was Adam and myself talking between us and wandering about on the CCTV monitor.
Unable to find the source of the noise, and confident that there was no way anyone could have found their way in, Adam and myself started talking again when we heard the same noises. Being subterranean, there was no way that noises outside could have been transited into the tunnels. Besides, it was late at night and we couldn't think of anything that could have cause the sound. We later learned that the restoration team's workshop was inactive at this time. We had to conclude that there was no obvious source for sounds. Additionally, Adam did observe a green/yellow mist. After a while, he satisfied himself that was the substance off the wall evaporating, or falling and catching the light down there, and could only be seen at certain angles, such as standing flat against the wall. Thinking about the green haze in the shell room, did this solve this mystery?
Mark and Julie joined us and we related what we had heard. We chatted about the theory that paranormal activity usually tends to happen when you least expect it, when you are in a relaxed frame of mind. To test this theory, we stood around in the tunnel and told some (rather risque) jokes. We were goading the ghosts, and it didn't work! However, whilst going up the tunnel, Adam noticed that his mobile phone, which he had placed on a nearby table had suddenly gone into "locked" mode, and that only happens if someone touches the keypad. No one had of course.
Later on, having given so much attention to the U-shaped tunnel, we went into the right hand "straight" tunnel. We walked in and walked straight back out again! The temperature was 11 degrees C; in the other tunnel, it was 16 degrees (probably nothing paranormal in that, it could be due to the fact that this was about 2.00am, plus a combination of cold air from the river and the layout of the tunnels). It was lethally cold that night.
The biggest surprise was well afterwards. I found one particular part of the network to instil great apprehension. At another junction (between the place where the black figure was seen and the room where the shell was moved), there is a pitch black room. I felt nervous walking by this room, as if something was ready to pounce or something was following me. The power of suggestion perhaps? Anyway, I had placed my voice activated tape recorder in the doorway and left it running. Most of the noise it picked up was the sound of us talking and moving.
There were, however, extra voices on the tape.
At some point (and it is impossible to say, since the tape lacks a timecode), a male voice, distorted as if speaking through a radio (recall that ours wouldn't work down there) says something - to my mind, it is "Do it again". There then follows a weird, two-tone wailing noise. At this point, a male voice, similar to the first and similarly distorted, says in a slightly sarcastic tone "Thank You!". There is then a strange giggle and then a bizarre voice saying "We have ways of making you work", lampooning the stereotyped Nazi saying of World War 2. The voices do not belong to Mark, Julie, Adam not myself. Mark things that the "We have ways..." voice is female, but I think it is male, with a silly falsetto. To give you some idea of what it was like, think of the Nazis in the BBC tv sitcom "Allo Allo". Adam has a theory that someone, or something was trying to get the tape recorder to activate by making the weird noise. The noise itself is artificial, not produced by the vocal chords as far as I can determine. It is not the walkie-talkie, or the burglar alarm, or the Trifield meter. For the voices and sound to have been picked up, they would have had to have been quite close to the recorder. Just how close is a matter of further research. I recall that there is a ruined air-raid siren down there, but it didn't work. At any rate, we were just 20-30 seconds walk away from the tape recorder and we would have heard something as loud at the noise from our position.
Having heard the voices, Phil Walton and Adam Bailey, ex-ASSAP members, are convinced that the voices are Mark and Julie Hunt. I must say I do agree. However, they have never confessed.
I was so convinced that I hadn't picked up anything that it took me a full month to actually work up the enthusiasm to play back the tape. Only about 10 minutes had been used on a 90 minute tape, but what has been picked up is mystifying and intriguing. We hope to go back for more research!
Woodchester Mansion, Gloucestershire
January 2002
Until
very recently, Woodchester Mansion had been thought to have been
free of phantoms; the grounds, on the other hand, are replete
with stories of figures, angels, red mists and even a levitating
coffin-shape! The mansion is built into a huge valley, comprising
seven lakes, and is very remote (the nearest town is Nympsfield,
about a mile or two up the road). Work on the Mansion started in
the 19th century, but finished after quite a few decades, never
to resume leaving the house about 1/3 unfinished. Inside, rubble
and masonry litter the floor, and the architecture looks vaguely
Mediaeval.
Last September, at the request of the Fox television network (who were making a documentary on the world's most haunted houses), the Ghost Club was invited to send representatives to participate in a vigil. Apparently, a lot of money was spent on the programme, including the hire of a helicopter for panoramic shots (the noise of which succeeded in annoying a neighbour who lives in the proximity). It has to be said that the evening was eventful for the Ghost Club. First of all, they noticed phantom letters on the wall, to the right of the fireplace in the drawing room (these letters already exist as graffiti on the wall, however).
Then, there were a few bangs on the wall, and then all hell seems to have broken loose. I haven't heard the recording made by Fox (and they don't seem to have given a copy to the Woodchester Mansion trust), but it is variously described as sounding like a steam engine crashing, a jet engine and bags of coal, or whatever being dragged along the floor. This sound seems to have been centred on the main staircase, a beautifully restored example of Gothic-Victorian architecture. Apparently, the film crew were so frightened, they kept dropping their camera! No source of the noise was ever located.
Needless to say, this attracted my interest, and I was initially hopefully of being allowed on the next Ghost Club investigation in November, despite me no longer being a member. This was vetoed because my name could not be provided to David Price, the head of the Woodchester trust. Or perhaps because I had fallen out of favour with the Ghost Club?
I was determined to spearhead a professional vigil at Woodchester. Knowing the Ghost Club's methods, I know that they would provide no recorded data. One of the Club's methods is the use of "Trigger Objects", (as described in the Clerkenwell account above), and in this case a 2p piece went missing. (All this proves is that there might have been a thief at work, something not considered by the club). That and the trusty thermometers used amounts to a pretty worthless investigation. I couldn't bear the thought of such poor techniques being seen by lay people as the way that professionals operate, thus giving other teams a bad name. I was also horrified by the reaction that the show could generate in the US, where they have wonderful equipment; compared to our American friends, the Ghost Club is still chasing phantoms with bell, book and candle.
Funnily enough, when the documentary was eventually broadcast, just about all of the footage relating to the Ghost Club had been excised!
With the help of Wendy Milner, who is an ASSAP member and tour guide at the Mansion, we negotiated access for a night in January 2002. David Price was a bit suspicious at first, saying that he didn't want "thrill seekers" but only people who were seriously interested in the field (how ironic!). Wendy had collated ghost stories from the valley, but had never heard of anything occurring in the Mansion itself. The only proviso for vigil was that each member pays 10 to go towards the Mansion's upkeep, and that there be a minimum of about 12 people. In the end, we managed to get about 18 people including Mark and Julie Hunt, Caroline Searley, Stephen Hall, Ian Percy, Andrew Homer (from Parasearch), and Mike White and Michael Lewis from the ASSAP executive. We rendezvoused in a local pub in the afternoon, before heading off to the Mansion in pitch darkness at 8.00pm. Sadly, due to problems with communications and the difficulty organising so many people, two of our team found themselves outside the locked gates after the rest of us had entered, and headed back to London.
When we got to the Mansion, we realised just how cold it was. With the exception of the drawing room, nearly all the rooms were open to the environment, and its fire couldn't combat the gnawing cold. Copious amounts of coffee and electric fires all failed to get us warm- thermometers were obviously useless in this place! Another odd aspect was the cows. They were in surrounding fields and were very noisy, lowing all night long. Both the caretaker and David Price said they had never heard them that agitated before. Odd......
I must admit that I was daunted by the size of the group. Outside of the ASSAP training days, this was the largest group that I had seen assembled. And, what was worse, suddenly everyone turned to me to lead. I was very apprehensive, but looking back I think I did very well considering this was my first such vigil. That, and the few beers inside me gave me some much-needed courage, not to say warmth.
A few interesting things happened that night:
In the kitchen area was the clock for the main tower, removed for restoration. It seems that, whenever no-one was looking at it, the pendulum would start swinging, to varying amounts. This happened on the Ghost Club vigil last November too. The floor is solid stone, so there are no floor boards to transmit vibrations. The clock itself was not working, but, in under an hour, the hands of the clock moved from 12.15 to 5.25. Paranormal activity or....?
The other phenomena we experienced were mainly auditory, with three exceptions: three girls (including Wendy when she was locking up after we had all left) had the sensation of their hair being pulled, or touched. One girl, in the basement at this point, thought that she had caught her hair in her jacket zip. Julie Hunt had her hair pulled in the chapel area, when her back was to a darkened, unoccupied corridor.
Two team members reported the sound of a train, first of all close to the cellar, and then some distance away in the valley. This was early in the morning, when any nearby trains (and the nearest line is miles away) would not be running. At any rate, there are no trains in the Woodchester valley itself. Mark Hunt picked up the possible sound of a train on his videotape in the Kitchen (pointed at the pendulum). The wind was never that strong that night, but early in the morning, we had about half an hour of rain, which could have caused the "rushing" noise caught on tape. However, the tape lacked a timecode on it, so its impossible to know if this was the sound of the rain. Later, I was to learn from Wendy Milner that the wind causing the roof tiles to rattle causes a very similar noise.
Mark's video also picked up another interesting event whilst it was trained on the clock/pendulum. There is the sound of approaching footsteps approaching, then a couple of flashes along the side of the screen (probably caused by a torch). There is then the sound of a door being slammed, a bolt being drawn and then further smaller sounds. Now, there is a door in the vicinity, leading to the caretaker's apartment, but it is a light, flimsy thing and could not have caused the loud slam caught on tape. Mark Hunt pointed this out and I agree with him. Wendy however thinks that the door could have caused the bang, and also says that there is an inside door, which tallies nicely with the "internal" sounds picked up on tape. Mysteriously, if it was the janitor, then the flashes of light, thought by myself to be a torch, become more mysterious. The janitor knows his way round the building and doesn't use a torch. ASSAP member Mike Lewis was using a torch, but he never entered the janitor's flat. Also of note is that, rather strangely, Mark Hunt had enormous difficulty recharging his video camera battery that night.
Strangely, a week later, the Ghost Club held another vigil (where the astronomical number of 30-odd people turned up), and Andrew Homer's video camera also picked up the noise of a door being slammed, from its location near the top of the house. It must also be said that sounds are very deceptive in the house; due to the Mansion's unfinished state, many of the floor are missing and sounds transmit very easily across great distances. For instance, at the top of the restored staircase, I heard doors and footsteps from what I thought was right above me, on the landing, but they turned out to be from the main hall almost directly below me! In that part of the building, the floors are completely absent, and the sounds had become transmitted upwards to my location.
The most interesting event was at about 12.05, when we all heard the clear chime of a bell. At first, we just attributed it to a clock in the building, or the one in the kitchen. We were perplexed to learn that there is no clock in the Mansion with a clapper. Fortunately, Andrew Homer had actually caught the sound on tape. It was later confirmed that there IS a clock in the house, in the main turret, but access is very difficult. The wind could not have caused the bell to sound, and the nearest town is too far away for it to have originated from a local church. A horologist confirms that the bell is being struck "correctly" by a hammer or clapper. One of the most interesting aspects of this bell sound is that the sound seems to have been very localised. IF the sound did come from the main tower/turret, then it is odd that everyone in the drawing room (furthest away from the tower) heard it, the video picked it up (a floor down from the tower and in another wing of the house), but no-one in the cellar or the Kitchen (three floors below the tower/turret) heard it. Given the ease with which sounds transmit in the house, this is very odd indeed.
Andrew Homer and his Parasearch friends also indulged in some infrasound experiments, following on from the work of Dr.Vic Tandy at Coventry University. I don't know what, if anything Andrew detected that night.
One other odd sound, again picked up by Mark's video camera in the kitchen is a sound similar to a tuning fork being struck, then a few minutes later, the sound is repeated three or four times. As stated above, it is impossible to know when these noises occurred. However, shortly after the bell sound, and Andrew Homer confirmed that he had captured it on tape, we went upstairs to listen to it. Whilst he was searching the tape, we got a few squeals of audio feedback. Perhaps this is the sound of the "tuning fork". Perhaps Andrew had also got some feedback when he played the tape back for himself and noticed the bell sound? If so, this initial feedback wasn't heard by anyone in the drawing room.
A few of us were suspicious about the noise heard during the Ghost Club television extravaganza in September. We thought that someone may have sneaked away from the recording session and banged the external scaffolding to create the odd sounds. In an attempt to test this hypothesis, David Price went outside and banged and banged. All we heard was a scaffolding pole fall somewhere in the chapel area (which we could not locate). It didn't sound much like the described noises. However, I believe it would have been very easy to hide a loudspeaker within the debris the Mansion, and play back odd noises, to the bewilderment of all. Likely, we shall never know: apparently, the Fox TV team were sure that the noises were not by any human agent. But Wendy Milner, like myself, is sceptical of ghost reports in the Mansion itself. If ghosts are "the spirits of the dead" then just who is infesting the place? No one had ever lived there, and certainly, other than a tale about a builder being killed and his body hidden during construction, no-one has died there.
Of course, with such a large team, co-ordination was very difficult between teams, but there were a few moments of levity.
I recall that I was in the kitchen, whilst Caroline, Ian and Stephen were in an adjoining room: this room had had crucifix-style graffiti drawn on the wall, which had since been painted over. The team in there had reported some low-level light activity, such as little red lights on the wall. All of a sudden, the whole room lit up! We ran for the room and talked excitedly about the "event". When we compared notes with other teams, it transpired that Mark and Julie had been taking flash photographs in a nearby room. Later on, I found a 10p piece in the Kitchen right in front of the pendulum mechanism, and thought that the ghosts were being kind. Checking with other teams, I soon learned that Mike Lewis had placed it there as a trigger object!
On the Tuesday after the vigil, Wendy reported a strange event that the live-in caretaker had witnessed. He was woken early in the morning by his dog barking, and then discovered that all the lights in the mansion were on. Thinking he had disturbed an intruder, he climbed out of his window to confront the miscreants. There was no-one there, and the Mansion was locked up securely. Additionally, to switch the lights on, the master switch has to be thrown, which would have provided a very large "clunk" noise, which he hadn't heard. However, he hadn't heard the September Ghost Club sounds, or the times when the burglar alarm had activated.
So, what do we make of these stories? I personally don't think the Mansion is haunted, and neither does Wendy. The whole building, despite being cold seemed calm and without any disturbing atmosphere at all (although I wouldn't want to spend any time there alone). It is worth visiting, but any future vigils have to be postponed, due to the bats breeding in the Mansion between March and September.
Private House, Plumstead, East London
February 2002
The next case was a private home in Plumstead in London. This was the ground floor flat and had had reports of both poltergeist phenomena and apparitions. Mark and Julie Hunt kindly invited me on to this session and gave some background to the case. It seems that unlike most ghosts, which dissipate in activity when a lot of people are in the vicinity (the "too many cooks..." syndrome noted at Oxford Prison for instance), this one actually thrives on the presence of people! Mark said that on one of his first vigils, a comb that he had placed on the table top was flung against the wall with such force that the teeth of the comb dragged on the vinyl tablecloth making a rasping noise!
The kitchen seems to be one of the foci of the haunting, although rappings had been heard all over the house. In the kitchen, things left on the table have been found on the floor in the morning (the owner hears the crash during the night but is so common, he doesn't even get out of bed to investigate). On one occasion, a glass tank containing stick insects was hurled against the wall!
Red lights, like eyes had been seen in both the back bedroom and a recording studio that the owner had built into the back of the garden. In fact, the ghost plays havoc with the electrical equipment in the studio.
The theory is that the previous owner of the house, now deceased, had a rose garden at the back of the house; it was his "pride and joy". When the current owner moved in, he ripped up the roses and built his studio on the site. Apparently this angered the old man! When the studio was being built, animal bones were unearthed in the ground below.
Once, a quiet session was held in the studio, the house being empty. A tape recorder had been placed in the owner's bedroom. When the tape was played back, to my friends' amazement, there was the sound of a frantic search in the room. Whatever it was seemed to be rifling through papers etc., and there were a couple of loud crashes, as if someone/thing had lifted something up to above head height and than thrown it on to the ground. Needless to say, there was nothing amiss in the room when my friends returned.
So many events have happened in the recording studio that I can only recall three of them: the owner's daughter was playing on the piano, minding her own business when she heard the sound of one of the guitar's strings being plucked. When she turned round, there was no-one there! On another instance, the owner got so "spooked" in the studio that he fled, and as he ran from the door, he quickly turned, took a picture and then bolted. The photograph (which admittedly I haven't seen) apparently shows a misty white shape in the doorway (such shapes, orbs and streaks of light have been seen all over the flat, studio and garden).
On one of the previous vigils, Mark and Julie were sat in the studio, the only source of illumination being a candle. They watched in sheer amazement as the candle got lower and lower (as if it was the flame on a gas cooker, and someone was turning off the supply). After a while, the flame was restored to its natural size and brightness.
On our vigil that night, there was myself, Mark and Julie, Adam Bailey and Mike Lewis. Due to discussions on the UFO phenomena between the Mike, and the owner (who is fascinated by the paranormal anyway), the vigil started somewhat later than planned.
The tone was set for the evening when Julie went to the toilet, passing through the kitchen. As she passed the threshold going from the kitchen, something made her scream. Mark and myself ran to see what had happened. On the floor was a baseball cap, obviously from a nearby set of coat hooks. However, the owner of the house assured us that the caps and coats had been securely pegged on. Additionally, the sound that the cap had made when it hit the floor sounded more like it had been hurled onto the ground, rather than just falling.
If we thought that further things would happen in the kitchen, we would be disappointed. A problem was in the active period of the phenomena: most things happen between 8/9pm and 3am, and we were running out of time.
The recording studio was altogether different. We sat in there, first of all with a candle, and then in the dark. At first, the owner, Mark, Julie and myself were all based in the studio itself. The owner had his back to the mixing room, and he said that he could hear something moving about inside, although we couldn't make out anything at all in there. We had even switched the computer off to ensure that the noise of the fans didn't mask any other sounds.
The temperature dropped noticeably, although the thermometers didn't change to any great extent during this period, and we got a few interesting light effects on the wall behind and above Julie. From where I was sitting, I couldn't see these however.
In the next session in the recording studio, Adam and Julie sat in the mixing booth and the rest of us sat in the studio. I sat where Julie had sat previously, and the owner observed two bright flashes above my head that Adam Bailey also picked up on his video camera. A picture that the owner took shows a dark shape seated to my right, where the drum kit is located. Obviously, no one was actually sat there.
I mentioned that, if everyone was in the same room, the phenomena might return to the mixing room, so Adam and Julie joined us. It was at this point that I smelt an odour of perfume (not Julie's by the way) and we made the connection with the old rose garden story. The smell didn't last long, but a few others picked up on it too. In this final session, all five of us cramped into the small studio, the atmosphere was very different. It wasn't as cold as before, and the atmosphere was lighter too. Evidently, we had passed our 3.00am ghostly curfew! One other things stands out in my mind during this session in near total darkness: despite none of us moving at all, the red LED on the alarm sensor on the wall was blinking occasionally.
Of course, we had placed tape recorders, videos, a burglar alarm and the Trifield meter in the bedroom where the bangs and crashes had been picked up by Mark and Julie last year. The only thing we picked up was the sound of the alarms going off as Julie inadvertently went into the room to change tapes over!
An interesting night, and hopefully a return visit will occur soon enough. The only disconcerting event was the owner saying that the ghost likes to follow people home for a few days! My reaction was quite a strong expletive, and a nervous nights' sleep!
The Ancient Ram Inn, Wotton-under-Edge
Note: if you're reading this because of "Most Haunted's" visit to the Ram Inn, you really should read this website. It catalogues their list of lies and deceit.April 2002
Widely
regarded as one of the most haunted locations in the UK, I was
kindly invited by Mark and Julie Hunt to their 13th vigil at this
place, a former public house dating back hundred of years (the
13th/14th century?). The vigil was organised by Mark and Julie as
an event separate from ASSAP, under the The
Ghost Detectives" umbrella. Sadly, a member of this
team, (as well as the Ghost Club) poured water on their
involvement by telling Ross Hemsworth, the head of the
"Ghost Detectives" that "The Ancient Ram Inn isn't
as haunted as it makes out". That, and a worrying, but
probably inaccurate report about the electricity supply in the
building, forced the detectives out.
Despite all this background politics, the trip was very interesting. The Ram Inn has many stories associated with it, too many to mention here, and the owner, John Humphreys, has kept a visitors book and scrapbooks of newspaper clippings full of reports and stories. For instance, there are reports of strange sensations in the haunted Bishop's Room, which have been connected with incubi and succubi, or sexual demons. There are also stories of babies crying, poltergeist activity etc. Mark and Julie had managed to take their famous picture of the vaguely human shaped vortex on the stair case in 1999 (see below), and had also snapped a "crouching monk" near the dressing table in the Bishops Room. This latter photograph is tinged in an eerie red colour. The staircase photo was taken on their first vigil, and in later excursions with Parasearch, the team has set up a video camera at the head of the stairs to capture ...."whatever".... on tape. When they returned, someone (??) had angled the camera upwards towards the ceiling and nothing was filmed!
The day started off well, with John Humphreys regaling us with some of the many tales: he himself had seen a ghostly "black sheep" in the kitchen earlier that day, which he took as being as portent of some impending ghostly activity. John sleeps in an annex off the main house, above the kitchen, and has dozens of mirrors littering the place - "to ward off the evil". The door from his lounge to the most haunted place is locked. Apparently, one of the ghosts is thought to be that of a teetotal, and there a re numerous bottles of booze around the building to see off the spooks.
Since we had arrived early, we embarked on a tour of the building. The atmosphere inside was dark and gloomy, and very untidy, with reminders of its days as a public house littering the building. It was also very menacing inside, and lacked basic sanitation (no bath, toilet). The building is in a very bad state of disrepair and despite it having listed building status, money is not forthcoming from the council to perform the necessary work. A shame. John has high hopes of the building re-opening as a pub. In fact, considering the number of people who dropped by unannounced to hear of the ghosts (and John gives all of them a tour), he could make a fortune marketing the place. All he asks is a small donation to help the upkeep of the place. Sometimes people leave money; more often than not, they don't.
A few strange things happened during our tour. Whilst investigating the attic, Mark, Julie and myself heard a panting noise on the landing below us, similar to a large dog. Of course, there was nothing there. This happened twice. And, when we got to the Bishop's Room, Mark and myself tried the door handle, but it was stuck fast. Mark pointed out a nearby shepherd's crook and said that you had to bang on the door three times with it, and ask to be let in. Feeling foolish, I tried this, and the door opened first time! I remember being so shocked I took a step back. And then, as I crossed the threshold into the room, I experienced a horrible dizzy spell.
We decided to retire to a nearby pub before starting our evening session. Our friend Wendy Milner from nearby Stroud was also coming later that night, so we couldn't start before 11.00pm anyway. After a few beverages, and possibly some of the worst fish and chips I have ever tolerated, the evening began. It has to be said that during the day, the Ancient Ram is cold, despite the weather. At night, it is freezing. Of course, there is no heating in the building, but this chill was biting. Fortunately, a nearby off-license was on the way back, and we purchased a bottle of very cheap, extremely poor whisky to warm up.
Sadly, the evening was very quiet. Mark and Julie had never experienced anything themselves in their first 12 visits (apart from the photographs) and were optimistic this time round. An interesting event did take place shortly after John Humphreys had let us in and we were talking about spooks over a cup of tea. I had my back to the window, and Mark was sat opposite me, facing me. All of a sudden, he raised his arm and waved out of the window. I turned and looked over my shoulder, but there was nothing there. Mark said that he had seen a non-desript 14 year old boy, dressed in white (like "Randall and Hopkirk deceased") look in at us, wave back at Mark, and then turn left to the main entrance. John rushed to the front door to ask this person about his intrusion into the car park area, Mark and myself followed John, but no-one was there. In the few seconds it took for us to get to the door, no-one could have run out of the car park, and there were few places to hide. John did tell us that he was being pestered by local hooligans who use the car park for their activities, so maybe it was one of these ruffians...?
Wendy arrived at midnight, fresh from her friend's party, and with a handy little hipflask of quality whisky, which we consumed readily. We tried the Ouija board, both in the lounge and the Bishop's Room, but we got gibberish. The only other companions were had were the rats and mice, rustling away in the rubbish on the floor.
At one point, Wendy needed to go to the toilet (basically a bucket!), and Julie agreed to go with her as Wendy was feeling nervous on her own (and I don't blame her). Whilst she was in the toilet, Wendy heard male voices over to her left. Of course, the men were downstairs, and she was very apprehensive. However, Mark and myself were seated in the room directly below, and to the left of where she was. And the next day, I noticed that a small window in the direction of the voices, had been left open overnight. Perhaps this is what she heard...?
While the girls were up there, Mark and myself heard strange noises on the baby monitor which we had set up close to the toilet/Bishops Room. They sounded like someone breathing on the monitor, but it may have been the girls up there. Wendy also confirmed that she had heard this noise (she described it as being like a dragging noise) coming from a gap in the ceiling above and to her left. Julie was outside the toilet at this point, standing on the landing between the toilet and the Bishop's Room.
Even a drowsy session in the Bishops Room failed to arouse the phantoms. We tried the Ouija board. No result. We sat in darkness, waiting for the small light effects (blue/green lights near the fireplace) to appear. We looked in the mirror hoping to see the figure that sometimes appears within. Nothing. We ended up snoozing, with Wendy and myself on the famed "haunted" bed. Wendy eventually had to leave as she was due to be a tour guide at nearby Woodchester Mansion the next day. After she had gone, we all drifted off to sleep again, but I kept the lights on just in case! As the sun rose, I gained the courage to switch the light off. So much for the ghosts!
Next day, Mark and Julie elected to take some photos using their brand new digital cameras. We did a tour of the house with Mark's video camera, and I did a quick survey with the Trifield meter (failing to pick up any anomlies). We did find a cold spot near the Bishop's Room, where a phantom lady is said to disappear.
When it came time to take still digital pictures, and having taken some excellent exterior shots, whenever Julie came inside to take pictures, the cameras only took one picture. We thought it might have something to do with the darkness defeating the camera ability to take pictures, but on closer examination, the batteries had been drained. Funnily enough, Wendy had also said that her camera's batteries had drained the night before. Odd, since I know that Mark and Julie had put brand new batteries in their cameras before going to the Ram!
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Left to right: me, John Humphreys (owner) and Mark Hunt. Picture courtesy of Mark and Julie Hunt
Angel Inn, Pershore
October 2002
A new case for Parasearch, at the Angel Inn in Pershore, in Worcestshire. This had recently come to light and had been reported in the book "Haunted Holidays" co-written by Parasearch founder and chairman, David Taylor. This case reported a figure seen near the fireplace in the restaurant.
The Angel itself is a fairly old building, and is now a public house and hotel, selling nice (if somewhat pricey) souvenirs. We arrived at about "chucking out time", and, after waiting for the regulars to leave, or guests to retire to bed, we settled down. We interviewed one of the assistant manageresses, and she said that there were a few places that she felt uneasy (including an outside corridor), but we didn't have access to these places. She did say that, during a post-work curry a few nights before, a plate had fallen off a plate holder on the wall (the holder was still in place)!.
We made a few teams and concentrated on a few areas- the reception area fireplace, the restaurant fireplace, and the front bar. This last area provided some amusement from couples wandering by the window, arguing intensely and unaware that we were eavesdropping. Otherwise, the pumps and fridges made strange noises, like human breathing, that alarmed me for a while.
One of the team members was a dowser and produced the usual claims about "energy fields" etc. Yawn. The only thing that was reported that could have been inexplicable was somewhat strange lighting effects in the reception area (by the fireplace and by the ladies toilets' door), but these were very low-key and inocuous. George Gregg, the Parasearch equipment master ("Inspector Gadget") reported a strong EM field in the front bar, but we figures that this may be due to cables beneath the floor, or equipment in the cellar, which was sealed.
A very, very quiet night on the whole. We left about 3 or 4 am, feeling exceptionally bored!
Beaulieu Abbey, Hampshire
March 2003
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Two views of the Abbey ruins.
A break-away faction from the Ghosts-UK group (which is well worth visiting not only for its wealth of pictures and discussion, but also because it is free) recently decided to form their own UK investigations group, dedicted to ghost-hunting. The founders are Mike Burden and Heidi Graham from Hertfordshire who have amassed an enormous casebook of 50 vigils for 2003 alone!
We arranged to meet in a local pub close to Lord Montagu's Beaulieu estate (in the New Forest) at about 6.00pm. After initial introductions, which included Heidi's mum, 17 year sister, and two students from a college in Farnborough making a documentary about a ghost hunt, myself and Chris, a very nice man from Wokingham who gave me a lift down, were a bit astounded when Heidi laid the ground rules down - "only one alcoholic drink". I was actually a bit shocked at this and thought the rest of the evening would turn out to be run like a military operation (I was to revise this opinion when I had a chat with Heidi later on and found out that she is actually a very nice lady. I may not agree with all this psy-kookiness, but she is one of the few "psychics" who I felt I could actually respect. Anyway, back to the plot....)
The others had come in two cars, and a big white van (without any windows: it must have been very uncomfortable for the 4 or so people stuck in the back). We decided to go and get some food, so we were told that there was a McDonalds twenty minutes away, or a Tescos two minutes away. We opted for the latter, and, even though Chris and myself took a wrong turning when we lost the van, it still took us 20 minutes to find the place. When we got there, we found out that the others wanted something warm to eat, so we all headed off to McDonalds. Except we couldn't find it. After another 15 minutes (at least) of trundling around the outskirts of Southampton (in other words, back the way we had come!), we thought "sod it!" and went to a fish and chip bar, where they took ages cooking my Haddock. By the time I got to eat it at the Abbey, it was cold!
One very pleasant surprise was to be told that the 15 vigil fee had been waived! Well done to Mike and Heidi for organising this!
So, we got to the Abbey eventually around 8 pm and set up our base in the undercroft/exhibition area (see the picture below), and then went for a tour of the ruins. The Domus ( undercroft/dining area (now a banquetting hall) and adjoining chapel) were in a extremely good state of preservation, but the rest of the Abbey was a ruin, having been demolished by Henry VIIIth during the Disillusion in the Middle Ages. I actually found the whole site very peaceful with no sense of fear at all, except for the very dark areas where you'd expect such feelings.
The undercroft/exhibition area, used as a base by the team.
After our tour, we were split up into teams of two, and I was with Heidi. She established a few rules: no couples (i.e. her sister and boyfriend), all vigils to take place in darkness and in silence (because otherwise "it frightens the ghosts" !!!!) and equipment and bags are to be cleared of an area in the undercroft to allow the ghosts to pass. I was a bit worried about where this investigation was going at this point!
Heidi,a medium in training, picked up the name Brother Moses and said the place was very haunted. One impediment we found was that, although the exhibit lights downstairs and heaters (ha ha - the place was bloody freezing) were working donwstairs, the powerpoints didn't, so everything had to be charged upstairs in the dining area, which was adorned with very beautiful tapestries and had a balcony, the staircase to which was blocked with replica banners and staffs. Also, one camera had mysteriously been drained of power. A couple of cameras and a tape recorder (for EVP experiments) were set up in the dining area and was initially declared out-of-bounds.
We had a couple of group photographs taken, one of which showed an orb between myself and Donna's (Heidi's hairdresser and best friend) head. There was a feeling of ecstasy in the group, but all I could offer were false platitudes. I am convinced that most, if not all orbs are camera malfunctions - a hypothesis shared by my friend Chris. Little did I know what was going to happen later on... oh, the horror, the horror.
Another picture was taken and, on the LCD screen on the back of the camera, the group were slowly convincing themselves that it showed a monk with its hands outstretched walking towards the camera, the sleeve holes making black voids on the picture. Then they realised tha