Woodchester Mansion - A weekend of terror

Woodchester Mansion is world renowed as being an extremely haunted location.  Built originally as Spring Park the mansion was eventually knocked down and restored as Woodchester mansion in the late 1800's.  The most intriging thing about the mansion is the way that it looks today.  With doors that lead nowhere, rooms with no floors and stairs that end in mid air you may wonder how it came to be this way.
In the midst of restoring the mansion 7 workmen died, 6 of them accidently and 1 murdered.  One day in the late 1870's all workmen left the building abandoned and fled the gothic revival mansion with no reason and never returned.  Today the mansion still stands, from the outside looking complete but from the inside it takes you through a time warp back over 130 years.  What made the workmen leave that day, no-one will ever know but whatever it was has left a lasting inpression on the mansion and all those that visit it.

Woodchester Mansion, England May 06

On the approach to Woodchester Mansion I didn't really know what to expect, I had not researched into the location as I like to work on my senses rather than know all the history beforehand.  Turning off the main road we followed a long stretch that seemed to go on for miles, turning a corner my breath caught in my mouth as the building came into view.  It was spectacular but it didn't seem too eerie (in the evenings that is a different story altogether).

After a short walk around we decided to start the Investigation, I couldn't get over the size of the place and the energies that came from the walls was overpowering.  The tools from the workmen were still present and left in the same spot that they had been dropped all them years ago, something evil was lurking within and by this time my excitement and anxiety about what the night would bring filled me with a mixture of emotions.
One of the first areas we started the night vigil had a big stone bath rub, getting into the tub I had a weird sensation of feeling like I could taste blood and a lot of it, after a few moments I actually felt like I was going to choke on my own blood, I got out of the tub to be told that someone had died in that exact spot, something I perhaps would have liked to have known before I climbed in, but then at least I knew my senses were working properly.

There were 6 girls all stood in the bathroom and we decided to do a seance (you should always protect yourself before doing anything like and protect your circle, something we didn't do this time around and we suffered the consequences). 

We were holding hands, it was dark but not pitch black that we couldn't see each other. We were asking out as one of the mediums was picking up on a man and a young girl in the room. The man didn't like women and wasn't happy at us being there and the girl was scared of him.

Well I thought 6 girls against this one guy we would be Okay so I suggested that the young spirit girl come into the circle and we will protect her, as soon as the words had left my lips Dee a girl in the circle who I knew flew backwards (it was lucky someone was holding her hand either side or she would have fallen over) she said something had hit her and was holding onto her eye.

Taking a look with the torch we were all shocked to see she had a huge gash across her eye and it was bleeding, for me this is one of the scariest things that I have ever witnessed (another scary thing happened later) she was very shaken up as we all were and by the morning (the event in question took place around 1am) she had a huge black eye and was very scared and upset.

Later on we all went into a long dark corridor on the bottom floor near the cellar, and it was a very narrow corridor and I decided to stand opposite Martin the medium with us because I felt safe near him wrong decision on my half.

He (Martin) was talking to what appeared to be a demon, he was saying that whatever was here had been here longer than anything else. Martin started to make strange noises and he had warned us on past events that he may go into trance (when your body get taken over by an entity, spirit or demon to communicate) but we had never witnessed it before.

He began to talk in a different voice, no human could make the sounds that were coming out of his mouth.  It was almost as if they were coming directly from his voice box at certain times.  I had never heard anything quite like this before in my life and the whole experience left me pretty shaken up.  The demon told us that we should all leave, he kept laughing and saying we would regret it if we didn't.  Another medium was confronting him and asking why he was here, he replied that he predated anything that had ever stood here before.

Throughout the night we heard lots of strange noises and caught a fair few orbs.  That was all on the first night, we went back and did it all again the second night but nothing much happened, maybe it had taken the spirits and demons of Woodchester mansion so much energy to get through to us the first night that they decided to give us a break the next day.

I would definately revisit WoodChester as I felt it to be extremely active and there was an energy there that I feel is still with me to this day.

Overall scare factor: Night One 10/10 Night Two 4/10

The Fortune Theatre - Paranormal Investigation

Ghost Hunt October 31st 2008
Fortune Theatre, London

The night began at 7.30pm where Simon Deacon and his colleague Chris took me along with them to the Fortune Theatre in London for an all night ghost hunt. Arriving in London at around 10.00pm we headed inside to meet the group that were accomping us on our hunt. There were around 11 people all from around the local area that either worked in the fortune theatre or in the surrounding theatres in London.

After the meet and greet where Simon introduced me to everyone as a medium and I was asked several questions. We headed around as a group to have a little history tour and get a feel of the place with the lights on.

After a short while we were sent off, myself and a lady called Ruth who is also sensitive headed around by ourselves and picked up on a strange feeling on the stairway almost like you feel rooted to the spot and your whole body becomes heavy, a man's presence was felt here.

Since I had arrived at the theatre I kept getting the name Maurice in my head, I kept that in mind and it came in handy a little later on.

Stephen Griffiths, Richard O'Connor and his sister Helen arrived shortly afterwards and now the night could begin.

Again going off into small groups with some paranormal devices my group that consisted of Ruth again, Collin and Geri who worked for this particular theatre all headed to the stairwell and got settled. I kept getting the name Maurice again and felt that he was on the stairs watching us but our conversation was not to his liking so he wouldn't come forward. I then heard what sounded like a rifle clicking twice almost like someone was reloading, after telling the others Geri informed me that during the war they used to use the theatre as a lock out point and that could explain the sound I heard.

Talking about the war I felt Maurice come closer almost so he was right behind me, he was obviously interested in this topic and particularly took a liking to Geri who in his own words I heard him say "I like her she is very well educated and knows what she is talking about".

In my minds eye I could almost see a very well dressed, well spoken man I tried to sure for the word and in my head I heard him saying "I think you mean daper young lady" in reference to how he looked. This made everyone laugh.

After sometime talking with Maurice I was also getting the name George Brown, Geri said that Maurice could be a stage name and George his real name, I tried to pick up on a surname but nothing came to mind.

Going up to the top floor and the small bar area we took a seat and Ruth felt she was being hugged. I could sense a lady in a dress kind of like Jack the Ripper era but she was moving about busy and it was like she was lower than the floor which makes sense as when she was around the building would have been something else and designed differently. I felt she was a prostitue or a madam and myself, Ruth and Geri felt protected in this room like we were 'her girls' whereas Collin felt uncomfortable. The name Amanda came to mind.

Everyone else joined us and we did some glass divination in the bar room. We picked up on someone for Ruth who claimed to be a relative with a message but after sometime we all began to feel on edge, this was not a relative so we all stopped. Ruth was a little frightened by this.

Break time came and went and we were all taken around and dropped off one by one to do a quick 10 minute vigil alone. I opted for the stairway again as I wanted to contact Maurice somemore, almost as soon as I sat down I had the surname Bovell or Brovell in my head so my man was Mr Maurice Bovell.

The lone vigils ended and we all joined downstairs to do some more glass divanation, everything had gone silent it was like the ghosts and spirits were on a break now.

Simon decided that now would be a good time to use the rods to see if we could pick up on any hot spots, so in turn people walked around the theatre to see what they could find. Myself and several others found a potential hotspot, also there was a chain with a hook on that holds the doors back that was moving for about 5-10 minutes almost like it was being pulled then held before letting go.

It was now around 530 in the morning so we decided to go back to the bar upstairs and proceed to do the glass divination again. The boys went first but were getting nothing so the girls tried and although Ruth was nervous she joined in. We found out that it was a child that Ruth had spoken to before who was playing around with us, I asked if his name was Nathaniel and it was, I asked was his mother Amanda the lady I had picked up on before and there was a loud bang across the room and a very strong yes on the glass.

Back downstairs we talked about our night, Geri had found a book she had on some of the history of the place and there was a little boy called Nathaniel who had died here along with his mother. Unfortunately she wasn't called Amanda and as yet we have no information on Mr Bovell but I feel for my first investigation I came up with some good facts and that this is the start of a very interesting jouney.

George and Pilgrim Hotel - A Paranormal Investigation

George and Pilgrim Pub, England Feb 11th 2005

The investigation at the George and Pilgrim hotel began at 10.00pm on Friday the 11th of February; the evening began with a brief history of the location and the surrounding areas and a walk around the grounds to get acquainted with the areas. Martin Jeffery’s took our group around the 14th century hotel and took us into each of the eight bedrooms in this two storey hotel telling us about each room in turn and what had happened in these rooms on previous ghost hunts. We also learnt what guests who had been staying at the hotel had seen and heard in these rooms.

One of the bedrooms called the Monk’s Abbey has had it’s fair share of activity on previous investigations, people were hearing the sound of water running in the bathroom when their had been no-one around but them, the only way into the bathroom would have been to go past them, once they entered the bathroom to check where the water was coming from they all saw a blue face floating which had caused the whole group to scream and many people did not want to go back in to this room again after that. Activity was being picked up in this room again on our ghost hunt and it had a very dark oppressive feel to it, although like all the other rooms it had a window in it with a street light on outside it was unbelievable dark and it did not feel right. After the walk around we were split up into two groups and went to do a vigil in one of the bedrooms, one group went with Martin and the others went with another Martin who was the psychic medium for the evening.

Group one, our group went into the Monk’s abbey first and heard lots of knocking on request, we asked three times if there was anyone there and every time a bang was heard from above us. The creepy thing is that there is nothing above that room but the roof as the Monk’s abbey is on the second floor.

We later conducted a séance in the same room and heard water running in the bathroom quite rapidly and after about a minute it stopped as quick as it had started, when someone went and checked the bathroom there was no sign that any water had been in there and everywhere was dry.

Our group later in the same room again took it in turns for someone to either sit or stand by the doorway of the bathroom many people did not feel anything but one girl felt very uneasy and she felt like she was being pushed and pulled by someone, at one point she almost fell over.

Both Martin the group organiser and Martin the medium picked up on a man they referred to as ‘The Judge’ who haunted the building, he was thought to be a very powerful, evil man who in his day used to burn witches at the stake and torture people.

 

Myself and another girl in the other group later on in the King Arthur bedroom contacted a spirit called James (who the medium had picked up on earlier) using a upturned tea cup, we asked questions and found out that there was an evil presence in the room we were in (that they had picked up on earlier) who had killed himself in that bedroom after murdering a woman and her sister in a revenge killing, apparently this man had a business partner who ended up conning him out of lots of money so he killed his wife and her sister out of revenge.

Martin Jeffery’s confirmed this was true and both Martin and the rest of the group including myself were astounded that we had found this information out.

A door was heard banging from the inside as if someone was kicking it, the door was locked at the time but upon investigation there was nothing in the room but the banging’s had been witnessed by several people (myself and my friend included) and caught on tape, on a later attempt to contact spirits a group contacted the spirit of a lady called Emily who said that she was the one who had been banging on the door in the room ‘the confessional’ and that she wanted to be let out, the group were beginning to feel uncomfortable with this entity and believed it to be something that it was not.

The evening ending and both our two groups got back together in the great hall to discuss the events of the evening and to tell of our findings.

Both groups had had very interesting and active nights both picking up on noises and catching Orbs on their cameras/camcorders, the experiments each group did were equally successful, group one had contacted the spirit of a man and found out lots of information from him, they also contacted the spirit of a man through the use of Pendulum Dowsing which is where you have a crystal on a chain you hold in mid air and ask questions, the Pendulum will move accordingly to whichever is the way for yes and the way for no.

Group two had contacted a number of spirits using the technique of table tipping which is where you stand or sit around a table and place your fingers on the edge and ask questions, the table in response to these questions should move and it did.

Experiments had been set up during the evening in a locked bedroom but unfortunately nothing was recorded or picked up on the camera except for a few sound changes when the banging had been heard earlier on in the evening coming from ‘the confessional’.

Overall Scare factor 7/10

History 6/10

Beauty 5/10

Tutbury Castle - A ghost hunt

Tutbury Castle, England Febuary 18th 2005

The investigation at Tutbury Castle took place on Friday the 18th of February at 7.00pm.

The hunt started with a tour of the castle and the grounds, we had a brief history lesson of the castle which was built in 1066 and were told what ghosts are roam the castle and its grounds.

Mary Queen of Scots is the main ghost of this castle and has been reportedly sited there on many occasions.

We all then went to The Grand Hall for a sit down meal and conversation with like-minded ghost hunters and sceptics. After the meal we went back downstairs and into the castle grounds where we headed to the dungeon which was a fairly creepy place. Once in the dungeon we were told about the things that had gone on in there over the castle’s 1000 years and we were also told about the things people still witness to this day when they go in there. Pretty freaky stuff.

People began feeling uneasy in the dungeon but it is not surprising really after everything that has happened in there over the years. One lady took some photographs with her digital camera one after the other of the same spot and in the first picture there appears to be an arm on the left hand side of the photograph and there was no one there when she took it.

Our group was then taken back into the castle and headed upstairs to The Grand Hall again and we were told some more stories about the ghosts that made themselves present in the castle.

Leslie the owner of the castle performs re-enactments of Mary Queen of Scots for the public and it is said that when she puts on her outfit and starts her speech that the real Mary Queen of Scots presence can be seen or felt because Leslie is so accurate in portraying. Mary Queen of Scots comes back to watch her and to scare any unsuspecting people when she does.

A smaller group of people were then put into The King’s bedroom, which is a room off The Grand Hall that is said to have a lot of paranormal activity. The story goes that a young girl is often felt, seen and heard in this room, she is a very happy young girl who likes to play games with people but she is apparently unaware that she died a very violent death, there is also a man who is seen and felt in this room, this man makes people feel uneasy and ill especially the men and people have been known to pass out before in the room because they felt so uneasy.

This man is supposed to be the little girls protector, apparently when this little girl was murdered this man had seen it all happen but was unable to do anything to save her as the man that murdered her was far more superior to him, he was just a servant, so people believe that he is trying to protect her in the afterlife like he could not do when they were both alive.

A lady collapsed in the King’s Bedroom but this could all be down to the fact that people knew the stories about what had gone on in this room and that people are prone to fainting and the room was very hot at the time.

Neither of our groups experiences many strange goings on in the King’s Bedroom or The Grand Hall but this could be due to the fact that it was not an all night ghost hunt and it finished at 11.00pm so people did not have enough time in each room to pick up on anything peculiar.

Our groups finally headed downstairs for a coffee before we all left and had a brief discussion on the events of the evening, all in all the evening was not very eventful.

Overall Scare factor 2/10

History 5/10

Beauty 5/10

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