Tamworth Castle - Ghost Hunt

My first official Paranormal Investigation. Tamworth Castle, England March 5th 2004

Ghosthunting Supper 8pm-1am

When we first arrived at the castle we were seated and Martin our tour guide and the genesis behind the whole venture introduced himself and the staff at the castle to us. They then talked about there experiences and how they got into ghost hunting in the first place.Feeling nervous as this was my first proper Ghost Hunt it was nice when we all got to know one another and had a bit of something to eat and drink before starting our first tour of the evening.

Going around in a big group we were told the history of the rooms and experiences that had hapened to people, by this time I was feeling Okay until I got to one of the bedrooms and I suddenly feel a complete change and shift in the atmosphere. I felt as though I was being pushed and pulled by unseen hands it wasn't a nice feeling especially as it was a small room and there were lots of people in it.We later split up into four groups and made our way to seperate rooms, two groups were one side of the castle and the other two groups the other side.Three out of the four groups had someone with them (medium or tour guide) but one group would be alone, we were in the first gruoup to be left alone (gulp) It was quite scary to begin with as we didn't know what to expect.I was sat by the door which was wide open and freaking me out as it was pitch black but luckily nothing happened in that room just some temperature changes. We then joined some of the other team members in another room which was also pitch black so we didn't notice a woman (member of staff) sat in the corner on a chair, it's safe to say when I did spot her I almost had a heart attack lol.After a while we began hearing footsteps outside and within the room and Martin had picked up some strange noises on his voice recorder.A short while later a lot of people moved to the room we were previously in, the remainder of us were shown how to contact spirits in a safe way using a crystal called a pendulum (see Glossary for more) and asking questions (no questions about the future are allowed to be asked though). You have to start with a question such as "is my name Gemma?" to find which way it swings for your yes then say "is my name Simon" to find your no.

My yes was that the crystal would swing round clockwise and no was side to side (this has never changed over the years but you still have to start with the yes/no question to begin with just to make sure because sometimes it is different for people each time).I made contact with a gentleman who was over 50, bald with a moustache who said he lived at Tamworth Castle, we asked if there was a picture of him in the room we were in and the pendulum said yes. We looked at the pictures and asked him to pinpoint it down and sure enough we found a picture matching this man's description.It was strange at one point because I felt like someone was holding my hand and the crystal was really responding, Martin told me I had a gift and was a sensitive.We asked the gentleman I was in contact with if he could maybe turn on a light to scare the other groups and prove that he really was there, within moments the emergency lights came on all through the castle which was pretty cool.Also when we were doing the crystals we heard a rather loud and distinct sound of furniture being moved right above us in the unused nursery, it was very creepy especially as that part of the castle was closed off because it was unstable to walk on.In the next room we did a visual and contacted a boy called Samuel who was 8 years of age. We kept hearing little footsteps around us in the room, the medium with us said that he took a shine to me and it made me feel happy and peaceful.The next room was the room we had been in previously on the walk round at the start, the room that I hadn't liked but I felt nothing in there now although I did catch some orbs (Check Glossary for defination) on my digital camera which I found to be pretty fascinating.

We then went into a few other rooms and caught more orbs and heard more furniture moving again the EMF kept reading danger but we couldn't find the source of it.At 1.00am we all went back down to the grand hall and sat in a big circle to talk about what had happened, the door behind me kept opening by itself which was freaking me out and I felt I was being watched, one of the mediums said that there was an executioner in the room by the door behind me so that made me feel even more freaked, just as we were all talking amongst ourselves about our experiences that evening we heard a massive bang from the hallway but couldn't pinpoint where specifically it had come from.All in all it was an interesting experience for my first ghost hunt, scary in places but good and I would definately recommend Tamworth Castle to anyone who is interested in Ghosts, History or just seeing a beautiful Castle.

Overall scare factor 4/10

History 7/10