History
1750 – Land was purchased by Board of Ordnance from Jane Priddy
1756 – Defences were constructed which includes 2 demi-bastions, a moat and a covered way.
1771 – A magazine, office and cooperage were constructed with an ajoining camber basin on land within the ramparts.
1777 – Officer’s houses and large gardens were added.
1805 – Gunpowder from Waltham Abbey was delivered to Priddy’s Hard and stored in the Grand Magazine. Gunpowder was transported from the Grand Magazine to the Trafalgar Fleet via the Camber Dock, including Nelson’s Flagship HMS Victory.
1800’s – An office building and houses for the Officers, workers cottages, a cooperage and stables were added.
1848 – A laboratory complex was constructed to test the quality and condition of the gunpowder.
1850 – 1860 – Shell filling rooms were built along Forton Lake to service the new type of ammunition of Sir William Armstrong’s breech loading guns for iron-clad warships including HMS Warrior and HMS Black Prince which rendered all wooden warships obsolete.
1861 – C Magazine was built.
1879 – E Magazine was built.
1860’s – The fortifications were strengthened, incorporating brick gateways, carponniers and covered firing positions to cover the moats and Armstrong guns were fitted to the two demi-bastions.
1886 – More magazines and buildings were added due to the adoption of cordite as the main propellant, thus needing to separate then most dangerous testing and filling from the storage areas. A narrow gauge railway system was installed across the whole site to transport ordnance. The camber and Rolling Way were replaced by the new Powder and Shell Piers on the Harbour.
The site was updated regularly to meet the evolving needs of naval ordnance technology therefore improving the security of the site from both landward and seaward attack. During the 2nd World War the site was fully made use of and 2,500 women were employed due to the men being on active service.
1982 - The site was utilized significantly by the Royal Navy during the Falklands Conflict.
1988 – RNAD in Gosport vacated the site and relocated to Frater which is further north on the Harbour.
2001 – Explosion – the Museum of Naval Firepower opened, telling the story of naval warfare from the days of gunpowder to modern missiles.
(Details of history sourced from literature obtained from Explosion! The Museum of Naval Firepower)
Some members of Twilight Shadows Paranormal had already visited this lovely museum on 10th March 2007. I will write our previous experiences of each location within the museum above the details of our recent visit.
REPORT
We started the evening with a tour of the museum by Greg, our host for the evening. Greg is obviously passionate about the museum and its history and as he showed us around he told us the story of Priddy’s Hard. After our tour we divided into groups and began our investigation.
316 – containing missiles and models
(This room was not available upon our first visit)
We decided to start in this building as Jacky was very drawn to it during our tour with Greg. We went inside and stood watching a bat that was flying around in there. Eventually the bat disappeared and we wandered around the building, looking at all the missiles stored there. We wandered over to the back of the building and we felt an energy towards the left side. It was a nice energy and as we stood there we could feel the energy building. I ‘called out’ asking for any spirits present in that room to make themselves known to us. I banged hard on a missile and I asked if this bang could be repeated. I heard a tap but it was not as loud as my effort.
As we stood there looking towards the door end of the building, we saw movement which was strange as there was really nothing light enough to move. It was almost like a swirling energy and most of us saw it and it also made a sound
Nothing happened for a long while and then we became aware of a gentle tapping on one of the missiles very close to us. The tapping responded to our questions and suddenly I heard Jacky gasp. She was filming and there was a rapid onset of light anomalies. She asked them to continue, which they did and they seemed to intensify. I was also filming but my Camcorder was facing a slightly different direction and there were no obvious light anomalies showing up on my camera. It was as if some energy was walking towards Jacky. We were all hearing several knocks and taps throughout the room and then we heard a noise from a plastic sheeted covered area, from inside.
We all walked over to this area and entered the plastic sheeted protected area. Inside were models of ships, various other exhibits and even a Victorian-looking hat, coat and glove stand which I felt very drawn to. Dave told me that his grandparents had owned a piece of furniture almost identical to it. As Dave and I were looking at the hat stand, Jacky started to ‘call out’ and was astonished to find that this resulted in another array of light anomalies. Jacky said that it was like a light-show but she asked if ‘someone’ could make a noise. Shortly after her request, we all heard footsteps from the main room. We knew that we were the only people in the building but Dave went out from the plastic-sheeted area just to be sure. There was nobody there. We were excited by this because the footsteps were definite and walked right past where we were assembled but on the outside of the plastic. We stood silently for a while and Jacky said “There is something here, I can feel an energy building.”
We stood quietly and we all heard some more strange noises and a sound like the scuff of a shoe. Jacky asked if we could hear the spirit walking again. She told us that the orbs were still showing up on her Camcorder and they were not like normal light anomalies. I ‘called out’ and we heard movement from the main room and then there was a tapping on a missile near to us. A while later we heard a series of beeps. It was not our equipment and we could not find out its origin but it was probably not paranormal.
There was a bit knocking sound by Dave in the far corner. We kept ‘calling out’ and we heard a dragging sound. I asked for the spirit present to knock and we heard knocking. Jacky asked for some more knocking and three definitive knocks were heard. Jacky asked if something could be thrown and we waited a while but nothing was thrown.
A while later, we heard movement, followed by tapping. We were standing by a huge missile and it started to tap right by us. We were astounded. There was also tapping behind us. We asked if the tapping could be louder and we all a heard a very loud knock! We all heard a horrible cracking sound and we all stared at each other as we realised that some bubble wrap just beside us, was popping. That was pretty amazing.
C Magazine
(Nothing of paranormal significance happened in this location upon our first visit although someone took a photograph outside C Magazine and captured a misty outline of a small dog. I told Greg about this and he said that other groups have mentioned a small dog on the site and a spiritualist medium described it as a small terrier).
Jacky, Dave and I entered C Magazine. Loretta and Sharon stayed outside due to the mummified appearance of the spiders which were everywhere inside the magazine. The spiders look as if they have been coated with a white plastic but Greg told us that it was something to do with mould.
The energy felt very different in here, not as nice as 316. We stood with our torches out and we were in pitch darkness. It was quite horrible. We put our torches out and ‘called out’ for a while. Nothing happened and as we relaxed, something was thrown at us. I found the metal remains of a tea-light and I threw it to the back of the magazine. I asked for it to be thrown back but it wasn’t.
Dave said that he could either feel or psychically see heavy chains swinging. We didn’t discover the significance of this. Jacky said that she could see what she described as a ‘white shadow’ coming towards us.
We all felt as if something was watching us from the shadows. Jacky asked if the spirits in this magazine were happy if we were there or not. She then asked if the spirits felt sad that the magazine was now empty and no longer in use. There was no response. Eventually Jacky said “I really don’t like it in here, can we leave?” We left!
309 – Nuclear Missile Building
(On our previous visit, we spent a considerable time in this building). We heard a few knocks and taps but they were quite spaced out in time. We felt like we were experiencing psychometry from some of the artefacts and most of us were drawn (in a somewhat macabre manner) to the wooden coffin bearer in that room. I felt as if I could hear the activity around me of when it had been used. Vicky said that the hairs on the back of her neck were up and just afterwards, I felt as if I had been touched on the back of my neck. Vikki said that she saw a shadow move across the room)
We went into this building and looked at all the interesting artefacts. We discussed if we thought that it was possible for energies to be connected with the artefacts as well as the building. After we had explored we stood around quietly to see if we would get any activity here. We heard the sound of a voice which murmured “Mmmm, Mmmm, Mmmm.” It sounded like a man’s voice. We ‘called out’ to see if we could get any other sounds. I heard a voice behind me which sounded like “Ooh, Ooh.” It came from just behind me but I was the only person to hear it. It was not the same voice sound as the first voice sound. This voice was not as deep. I ‘called out’ and we heard a little knock. Jacky ‘called out’ and we heard a loud, metallic clanging sound. Dave tried to recreate the clanging noise but his clangs were louder.
Later we were talking to Matt and Melody and they told us that Melody had an awful feeling in that building and was really uncomfortable in there.
Grand Magazine
(On our first visit, I was terrified inside the Grand Magazine. I could not explain why as nothing of paranormal significance occurred in there).
We met Sam and John’s group inside the Grand Magazine. Sam said that they had been in there a while and they had heard a few noises in the corner. I told Sam that I didn’t like this room but I think it is too do with the huge cavernous space.
I suggested we try a séance. We decided to join John and Sam’s group for the séance, to produce more energy. After a slow start we made contact with a spirit who said J.R. We didn’t understand what this was about and then we were given the name Albert. We all felt that this spirit didn’t want us to stay and he kept messing us about by telling us something and then opposing the same thing. Jacky asked this spirit to leave and to let another spirit come through. Eventually, we were given the name which we interpreted Raward. None of us had ever heard of such a name and Jacky said “Are you messing with us?” She asked if we could be given the correct name and we were abruptly told “No!”
We were then quite shocked to be told to “F*** Off!” Jacky asked “Did you really say that” to which we received a definite “Yes!” Jacky then asked very politely “Please can you do something for us in this room?” The response was “Kiss my arse” followed by “P*** Off” and then “Go and f*** yourself!” John said “Have you got tourettes?” Sam asked “Can’t you be nice?” John said “You are very rude!” John then tried to find out a time frame for our swearing ghost and we think it was 1920.
We all sat in silence for a while and then Sam said “I can’t get over you swearing like that, your Mother would be ashamed of you!” Jacky immediately heard a man laugh right behind her, by her left shoulder. She swung around and checked with her torch but there was nobody there. Jacky asked the swearing spirit if he had just laughed and he said that it was not him. Sam asked how many spirits were there and we got several knocks on the table. John asked if we could speak to the other spirits and we were quickly informed that we couldn’t.
It was a strange experience as although the spirit was being awkward and rude to us, we still felt as if there was humour in the atmosphere. John asked “Are you the boss?” The spirit did not respond to John’s question but then told us that he was homosexual during his lifetime and that he had been hit because of his sexuality. John reassured him that his sexuality was nothing to be ashamed of, although he knew times were hard for people in that situation back then. John said “Times have changed.”
The spirit then told us that he had murdered someone very close to him through jealousy. We then heard a knocking noise at the end of the room. The spirit said “His lover couldn’t make up his mind whether he preferred boys or girls!” He said that he had been to gaol for his crime. We asked which gaol he had been sent to and we all listed out names. Each time we got a “No!” We gave up trying to guess and then we were told “Winchester.” None of us had thought of Winchester gaol. He did not tell us if he was in the Royal Navy or a civilian. We felt that he may have died in prison but he did not reveal this.
We all sat there quietly reflecting upon the information we had been given and were actually left feeling sad for this individual. There was a loud bang at the end of the room and I kept seeing small flashes of light with my eyes.
All of a sudden the spirit told us to “F*** off” again. John said “You were talking to us nicely just now, openly and honestly. Why did you have to get nasty again?” There was another big bang down at the end. Although the spirit appeared unfriendly, we all thought that he liked John. John’s wife Sam thought that the spirit may ‘fancy’ John a little.
Jacky and I noticed that Dave was looking a bit strange. It was hard to explain but he didn’t seem our normal Dave.
We thought we would try table tipping. We also asked if the spirits present could do anything else for us. John said “Oh God, I have been touched and it has really given me the shivers!” The temperature in the room seemed to plummet. Sam said “Someone has just pulled on my shirt!” We could all feel little breezes almost fluttering over our hands. Suddenly the table started tapping gently. This was followed by one definitive knock. The table moved slightly and then started rocking. We asked for the table to tip sideways but it didn’t.
Dave was looking very strange now. He was still moving about normally but his face looked wrong.
Finally we left the table and I threw a coin into the distance and asked for it to be thrown back. It was not thrown back.
Locker Room
(Nothing of paranormal significance occurred in here on our first visit).
We walked around the lockers which display various artefacts inside them. We saw the overalls which were worn during the 1850’s. The overalls were made of a heavy duty woollen cloth called ‘fearnought.’ Men wore tight caps on their head. During the 1st World War and also the 2ndWorld War, women were recruited at the depot and they wore dark coloured clothing and a cloth cap. The lockers were full of interesting clothes, letters and the workers personal possessions.
We didn’t feel any spiritual energies in here but Dave marched in (still not looking like Dave) and saying strange things. He kept repeating the worlds nonsense, profanities and farcical in the locker room. Dave also said Junna and Steve Bailey but we could not get an explanation from him.
209/209 – Administration Block
(On our first visit here, we made contact with a female spirit. She was slim, had dark hair and seemed to be a clerk. She seemed happy and busy and was sorting things out. She said that she drank or made tea.
Something dropped behind Vicky. Loretta said that she felt the ground was vibrating. James said that he felt sick and Caz suddenly had an odd sensation in her throat. Vicky put a letter into a pigeon hole to see if it moved later. Marian felt a spirit drawing close. I felt somebody tap my shoulder.
We decided to conduct a séance upstairs. We found a suitable place and started ‘calling out.’ Matt said “Did you hear that?” There was a tapping noise coming from the other side of the room. We all heard it. We started chatting amongst ourselves and then we heard a knock from just outside the room in the hallway. I had felt for a while that someone was watching us from the doorway. I told everyone how I was feeling and we all discussed what we would do if the closed door opened. The most popular answer was ‘make a bolt for the other door’ and as we were laughing, the other door (that was not completely closed) swung open slowly. We all froze).
During this visit we wandered around the Administration block. I remember liking this building and hoping that the female spirit that I had felt in there with Vicky would contact us again. She didn’t.
We went upstairs and decided to hold a séance in the same room that we held as séance upon our last visit. We ‘called out’ and something was thrown at us. We were quite shocked. All was quiet for a while and then we heard footsteps. This was chilling as there was nobody else there. Shortly after this, something else was thrown.
Laboratory
(We did not have access to this building on our first visit).
We did not feel anything in this building and nothing strange occurred.
Storehouse
(We did not have access to this building on our first visit).
We did not feel anything in this building and nothing strange occurred.
Back Missile Room
(I remember feeling terrified on our first visit. A definite energy was felt building up and there were lots of bangs and strange shifting noises).
I really wanted to conduct a séance in here although I knew this room terrified me. We all settled into a comfortable position and I did not tell the others how scared I was the last time. It didn’t take long for other team members to say that they felt uncomfortable in this part of the building. I was a terrified as the last time. I heard a quiet whistle behind me and then again.
We all sat perfectly still and we heard footsteps. We all froze as we were all accounted for. I could hear everyone breathing heavily. A short while passed and then there was a big bang, more footsteps and a knocking noise. I ‘called out’ and just as I had began to speak, we all heard a very loud bang. We all jumped and then we heard footsteps. We then heard movement in the adjoining room. Nobody was in there.
We all became aware of a tapping noise. We asked for more taps and the tapping began again. We all heard strange movements. It was really scary. After this, all was quiet.
We started talking amongst ourselves and then something quite large was thrown towards us. We heard movement coming from the top end of the room. Another noise was heard which sounded like coughing. The tapping started again and a strange noise behind Sam. We then heard a dragging noise which happened twice.
Shop/Entrance
As we were leaving the museum to return home, something was thrown. We were all very surprised but it was a great ending.
We would like to thank Greg and the staff at the Explosion Museum for an enjoyable and most interesting paranormal investigation.
Written by: Maria Williams
On the 21st August 2010, the Team had the privilege of investigating the Explosion Museum in Gosport! The Museum is an award winning museum of naval warfare which has been created within 18th century buildings at the Royal Navy's former armaments depot of Priddy's Hard, in Gosport, Hampshire.
This amazing museum is a group of listed buildings which centre on the original powder magazine of 1771. The site sits on the edge of a camber basin on the western shore of Portsmouth Harbour, with views across to Portchester Castle, Whale Island and the Naval Base.
As we arrived, I was feeling very excited about this investigation. The team consisted of myself and Dave from Phoenix and Maria, Loretta, Matt, Melanie and a dozen other guests made up Twilight Paranormal. We all met up in the Museums cafeteria area and our host for the evening Greg kept us all in coffee whilst we waited for everyone to arrive.
The evening started off with a tour around the site. We were shown around some of the outside buildings and were also given access to some buildings that previous paranormal teams had not been to before. Once we had been around and got our bearings, we all grouped back into the cafeteria, we had something to eat which was kindly provided by Greg and then split into 2 groups.
Our team started off in an outside building which housed missiles etc that the Navy used for demonstration purposes and teaching cadets to understand the internal workings of missiles and their guidance systems. On the tour around, I had felt that there was a presence in this building and was eager to explore this a bit more. At first the building felt very quiet and still. I moved up to the top far corner of this building with Dave, Maria, Loretta and Sharon and started to call out. I almost immediately captured a group of impressive travelling orbs on my infra red video camera which travelled from Maria’s direction (who was calling out at the time) towards where I was standing. Each time Maria called out I could see the light anomalies on the camera and they seemed to come from her direction. We noticed that there was a canvas covered area that housed models of ships etc and we decided to go in there and call out. Almost immediately again I could see lots of light anomalies and also we started to hear tapping which seemed to respond to our questions. We also heard footsteps and Dave stepped out to see if another team was around but they were not.
After roughly half an hour in this building we decided to go to go to C Magi. This building stood on the outskirts of the site and was one of the oldest magazines. It had been pointed out on the tour that in the entrance way to this building there were hundreds of spiders and because of this Sharon could not bring herself to step into the building. As Loretta was also not keen this left Dave, Maria and myself to venture inside. The inside of C Mag was completely black. Even with our torches on the blackness did not seem to lift. I felt very threatened in here and stayed very close to Dave. We walked down towards the end of the building and marvelled at an emergency exit that is practically 5 foot in the air (with no steps to get to it) and bolted shut!!! Not much good in an emergency but then we figured that if there was going to be a fire in a Magazine full of gun powder there wouldn’t be much call for an emergency exit! We walked back to the centre of the building and started to call out. As I went to walk towards Dave we heard a stone scuttle across the floor as if it had been thrown at us. I looked to see if I had kicked something but could not find any stones. We called out again for a few minutes but by then our nerves had well and truly gone so we decided to investigate another area.
Our next building was a big hanger full of missiles of various sizes and cannons off of ships. This building felt very interesting and we spent quite a while in here but we did not capture any paranormal activity.
We decided to visit the Grande Magazine next and this is
situated in the middle of the main museum.
Another group was in there but they said it was ok for us to join
them. We decided to hold a séance in the
middle of the hall because we had all felt that there was a presence in this
area. All joined in this séance, except
Dave and Loretta. We started to call out
and at first nothing much happened. It
felt like the glass wanted to move but the movements were very small and
sluggish. After about 10 minutes of calling
out the glass started to move but it did not move very easily. It seemed to rock or move towards John who
was a member of the team we had joined.
One of the other team had some printed cards with them and so we decided
to lay these out on the table and see if the spirit could communicate a little
better with these to help it. Again not
much happened and this spirit did not make much sense but all of a sudden the
glass got very agitated and it started to spell out obscenities. We were all a bit shocked but carried
on. We managed to get out of the spirit
that it was supposedly a male who worked at the site, was gay and murdered his
lover. The spirit said he ended up in
Winchester Jail but every time we tried to get a name it told us it was top
secret and went back to swearing at us.
During this Dave had nodded off while watching us, after a while Dave
got up and walked out of the area and I had assumed he had gone out for a
cigarette break. We carried on the
séance, I had noticed Dave had been gone a while but wasn’t worried as I
thought he was talking to Greg. A while
later I noticed that he had re-joined us but even though it was very dark in
this hall, I could sense something was not right with him. I excused myself from the circle and went to
speak to Dave who was pacing around the far end of the hall. He seemed very abrupt, aloof and assertive in
his manner and I could see his body language was again very aloof and
assertive. He seemed agitated also. I asked him to come out with me for a cigarette
break so I could talk to him. He told me
that this was all nonsense and farcical.
I asked him what he meant and he said that there was nothing paranormal
here. I asked him if he meant at the
site or in general and he laughed and said both. I asked him if he no longer believed in the
after life and he said no. Dave seemed
very agitated and didn’t want to go back into the building. I went back and told Maria that Dave was not
himself and said I would stay with him.
When I went back to where I had left him, he had gone. I called out and he emerged from a walkway to
the left of the car park. He walked up
passed me and went back into the museum.
He walked straight into a room we had not been too before and started to
get agitated and exclaimed that all the doors are locked. He went up to a wall and it was only then I
could see there was a door way there. We
had not been in this room on our tour and as far as I am aware Dave has never
been to the museum before.
Maria, Loretta and Sharon joined us now and we followed Dave into the locker room. Here he seemed very puzzled and mentioned a name Junna which I believe he was trying to say Gunner. We found ourselves following Dave outside and we decided to go to the office building.
Dave went straight into the building and disappeared to the left down a corridor. We wanted to go upstairs so we went up to a room which Maria had said on a previous visit had felt horrible. As we reached the room Dave followed us up. We started to call out and almost immediately we heard a stone scuttle across the floor as it had in C Mag, just like it had been thrown at us. Dave strode over to the window where I was stood and picked up a piece of paper. Maria asked what was on the paper and he said acquisitions. He put down the piece of paper and walked off. We went to look at the paper and it was blank. We called out again and heard a few taps and knocks but we came to the conclusion that it was a window that had a pain of glass out which in the wind was causing the noise.
After this, we went for another walk around. We went down to some of the smaller buildings that were open to us but nothing much happened there. We decided to go back to the main museum and finish the investigation there. As we neared the museum Dave walked off towards the car park. I said I would follow him to make sure he stayed out of trouble. As I followed him he went through an arch way into the grounds that surround the Grande Magazine. He was also calling after a dog? I watched him for about 5 minutes rather bemused by this. With that, a great big Badger came bombing past him and made a beeline for me. I jumped back in fright as this big badger came running passed me only to find Dave looking at me and was obviously not impressed. I said to him “did you see that?” and he said “what?” “That small black Terrier?” I said to him “That wasn’t a Terrier; It’s a Bloody big Badger! Look!” I could see the badger legging it across the car park and Dave was still insisting it was a small black Terrier.
After the Badger incident I managed to get Dave back with the team and we went to the Missile room for the last part of our investigation. During this we got quite a few taps in response to our questions. We also heard something thrown in there like a stone.
As it was now nearing 2am, we decided this was a good time to wind the investigation down. We spoke to Greg about our findings and when it came to the subject of the swearing spirit we felt a bit uncomfortable mentioning it. To our surprise Greg confirmed they are aware of “the angry man” who is usually present in the office building and is not keen on woman. He also mentioned that he isn’t felt much in the Grande Magazine but he has been on the move lately. As we went to make a move, almost like one last show of paranormal activity, we all heard a stone thrown by a model ship in the foyer. Greg said that there isn’t usually paranormal activity in this area and I like to think this was the spirits saying goodbye.
On the way home, Dave still didn’t seem himself. He said he felt sick and had terrible neck ache. I told him some of the things he had been saying like Farcical, and profanities. He laughed and said he couldn’t remember saying that. He also said he couldn’t remember most of the evening. All he could remember was up to going into the Grande magazine and watching us start the séance. Did he take on a persona of a past worker from the site? Who knows but he felt drained for days after our visit.
I would like to thank Greg from the Explosion Museum for being such a brilliant host and keeping us in Coffee and food all evening. I would also like to thank Maria for organising this amazing paranormal investigation.
Written by Jacky Wicheard
