VISIT ONE
On Saturday 11th May 2013, Twilight Shadows Paranormal conducted a paranormal investigation at the Rachel Fowler Centre in Melksham, Wiltshire.
HISTORY
The Rachel Fowler Centre was formally a Congregational United Reform Church founded in 1778 by Reverend John Honeywill. The building was completely renovated between 1883 to1900 and a school room was built on adjoining land donated by Miss Rachel Fowler. The organ which is still insitu, was installed in 1894. The relics of Reverend John Honeywill, the presumed remains of his wife and another family member are buried within the building. Memorial plaques to John Honeywill and Jacob Jones remain.
Rachel Fowler was a member of a well-known business family in Melksham during the 19th Century. For her time, Rachel appeared to be a leading and strong-minded individual who was interested in the welfare of the people of Melksham and showed particular concern to widows and spinsters who had fallen upon hard times.
Following her death, Rachel Fowler was buried in the churchyard of the Quaker Church in King Street. The area has since been cleared and the headstone of Miss Fowler has been donated to the Centre. The old Melksham town stocks are also stored here.
The Rachel Fowler Centre is currently utilised by various local groups and we were delighted when we were given permission to conduct a paranormal investigation there.
INVESTIGATION
The Rachel Fowler Centre still has the sense of a church about it even though the altar and pews no longer remain. I could feel the sensation of worship within the building. It was tranquil within, although slightly foreboding. I couldn’t wait to see if it’s spirits would be willing to communicate with us.
We started our investigation with a séance in the main hall. No sooner had we started, there was a loud thud from up in the gallery. Jacky and I both ‘called out’ asking for any spirits present to make contact with us. There was an immediate tapping on the table. The tapping sounded like the keys of an old fashioned type-writer.
We asked questions:
Are you female?
Yes.
Are you Rachel?
No.
Did you come to church here?
Yes.
How many spirit people are here with us? (Three taps).
Are there three of you here?
Yes.
Are you happy?
No.
Is this because this building is no longer a church?
Yes.
Do you watch the groups here?
Yes.
Are you watching us now?
Yes.
Are you happy that we are here?
Yes.
Thank you for communicating with us. Are you able to move the table? As there are three of you here, you should be able to move the table. (The table shuddered).
Jacky asked whether the spirit could say their name through some of our electronic equipment. All was quiet and we thought that the spirit had gone so we started chatting amongst ourselves. Suddenly, the tapping started again. We all felt unnaturally cold and the atmosphere in the building started to change. Jacky thought that there was a big energy coming through. We were all watching one particular doorway as we felt as if there was someone watching us from there. We were also aware of a specific area of the balcony and it felt as if we were being observed from up there too. Suddenly, we all heard footsteps from the door that we had all been watching which ran upstairs to the balcony. We were all together in the main hall and nobody could have got into the building. We asked if the spirit could shut the door on the way up or down. Tony saw a shadow figure move across the door but this was a different door to the door we had been watching, although it was on the same side of the hall. We asked the spirit to join us.
Dave heard a whispering conversation coming from the other side of the hall. He could not decipher the content of the dialogue. Tony suddenly jumped and said that he had a sharp pain in his hand. He said that it felt as if someone had jabbed him and that it was really painful.
We continued with our séance and we were soon communicating with a spirit. This spirit was a female called Harriet. She told us about a man called Jacob. She said that Jacob was kind.
Harriet told us:
You’ve got to go.
You’ve got to go or do we have do go?
You.
Why do we have to go?
Bad.
What’s bad?
Bad man.
Are you worried that he can harm us?
Yes.
What can he do? He can’t harm us.
Go. Nasty.
Is he here in this room, watching us? Can you tell us the man’s name?
Edward.
O.K. He’s nasty, his name is Edward. What can he do to us?
(The spirit seemed hesitant at this point).
Is he stopping you from talking to us?
Yes.
(There were more footsteps)
What can he do?
Frighten.
Do you think he’s going to frighten us? We’re used to it.
Be careful.
We will. We are really grateful for your concern about us. Can you stay with us?
Unhappy.
Are you stuck here?
Right helm? (Since discovered that Jacob was drowned on a ship).
(There were noises behind me).
Are you unhappy to be here? Are you stuck here? Are you unhappy that Edward’s here?
Yes. Tonight.
Are you unhappy that Edward is here tonight?
Yes.
At this point we became aware that another female spirit wanted to communicate with us. Her name was Helen. We were told that Edward was lurking over by the door where we heard the footsteps earlier.
Bad. Unhappy. Get out female.
You want the females out?
Goodbye. Female evil.
What us?
No.
That female spirit is evil?
Yes. Who are you?
There was a gap between communication and then: (We seemed to be speaking to two spirits initially).
George.
Are you female?
Yes. Goodbye.
Do you want us to go?
No.
What is the name of the female that you would like to leave?
Harriet.
Don’t you like Harriet.
No.
Does Harriet like you?
No.
So is Harriet not kind?
No.
Do you think that Harriet might be bad to us?
Yes.
But Harriet said that she was concerned for us because of Edward.
Ace male.
That’s quite a modern expression. Are you from the 20th Century?
1980’s.
Were you young when you crossed over?
Yes.
Who were your favourite pop group?
ABC.
(Jacky): That’s fantastic. You were around during the early 1980’s then? I’m just getting into Adam Ant again.
YMCA.
How old were you when you passed over?
18. Car.
Was it a car crash?
Made me die.
(We could hear the sound of footsteps walking around up in the balcony).
Get out.
Us?
No. Edward.
(Something was thrown).
Using the Spirit Box, we asked George to speak to us. We all heard a male voice say, “Might do” through the box. We asked if Edward had a message for us. The voice distinctly said, “Go.” I asked, “So, you want us to go” and the voice replied, “Go.” I asked why George or Edward wanted us to go and the reply was, “Assertive.”
We then realised that the energy had changed and we were now talking to a different entity. Jacky asked the new spirit, “Do you want us to leave too?” The voice replied, “No, do not.” Jacky asked, “So, you would like us to stay?” The answer was, “Yes.”
Dave started a conversation with the spirit.
Are you watching us?
Yes.
What’s your name?
Fred.
Your name is Fred?
Stop asking me.
(Some of our detectors were all giving high readings at once).
Can you give us a message please?
Choice.
At this point, something was thrown. We asked, “What did you throw?” We did not receive an answer to this. Dave got up to have a look but he could not find anything. We asked if the spirit could shut doors and the answer was, “No.” We all heard a noise which sounded as if a pair of curtains had been closed. We checked the curtains but none had been moved.
We decided to go up to the balcony area. We had previously left the balcony door which was at the bottom of the stairs open but we discovered that it was now shut. We opened the door and leaving it open, we went upstairs to the balcony area. (We stood watching the door before we went upstairs making sure that it did not swing shut on its own. It stayed wide open against the wall). However, when we came downstairs again, the door was firmly closed. We had not heard the door close. We heard the sound of chains being rattled.
We went back to the central area downstairs again and asked the spirits to use the Spirit Box. We had left the door at the bottom of the stairs open. We asked if it could be shut again.
We asked:
Can you shut the door again?
Tell us your name?
(I could hear noises as if someone was moving about behind Andrew and I).
Andrew asked, “Who’s coming in?”
Edward.
Was Edward a holy person here?
Is Edward a bad spirit?
He always has.
We decided to use the writing planchette. We sat quietly and suddenly the smell of burning candles enveloped us. As the building was previously used for Christian worship the smell of candles seemed fitting. We asked a spirit in the room with us to write something. The planchette started to write and when we looked it had written, “By you.” It then spelt out a name that we decided that we would not publish due to privacy issues.
Jacky asked, “Do something spectacular.”
Yes. Leave.
Do something amazing.
Really am.
Do something really amazing, outstanding, I can feel your energy building up.
You. Will you now ask?
Can you finish what you were writing please? Just one last word.
Bang. Bang when you least expect it.
(We heard the sound of a door closing but it did not bang).
Do you want to bang something?
Yes.
Is Edward still with us?
Are you put off by the sound of drunk people walking by?
Yes.
Do drunk people annoy you?
Yes.
Do you ever scare them away?
Yes.
How?
Yes. Halloween.
We all laughed at this and at the same time, the lights started flickering. All of our electrical equipment flickered as well and the table which we were sitting around shuddered and then knocked. Jacky asked if the spirits could please move the trigger objects that she had set up earlier upstairs in the balcony. We stayed chatting for a considerable time amongst ourselves until we were aware of the strong smell of candles burning again and we also heard the sound of chains rattling again. We wondered if the sound was a censer (containing incense) being swung on a chain during a religious service. As soon as we said this, the table shuddered and we heard the chain sound again. Dave said that he felt really uncomfortable where he was sitting. He was sitting with his back to the area where we had heard footsteps and where the door had closed.
We sat here for quite a while but the spiritual energy died down so we decided to end our investigation. We would like to thank the Rachel Fowler Centre for letting us investigate this beautiful building and a big thank you to Jacky for organising the evening.
Written by: Maria Williams.
VISIT TWO
On Saturday 4th January 2014, Twilight Shadows Paranormal made a second visit to the Rachel Fowler Centre in Melksham, Wiltshire. We began the evening with a séance in the main hall. Jacky 'called out' and immediately a stone was thrown from the balcony upstairs. We soon received contact from two previous spirits that made contact with us upon our first visit. They quickly told us that a spirit named Edward did not want us there. There were more stones thrown and we heard the sound of a sinister laugh which was also picked up as an EVP. Jacky felt that this was Edward.
Most of us became aware that there were little breezes swirling around our fingers. Nicci said that she had just seen a 'little dancing pebble of light.' Everything became quiet for a considerably long time and Matt said that he had heard movement. He said that it sounded as if someone had stood up and made a rustling sound with their clothes. Nicci said that she had heard movement from the same direction also.
Matt decided to go up to the balcony area. All was quiet for ages and then something was thrown. I 'called out' and then something was thrown from the balcony but from the opposite side from where Matt was. We started chatting amongst ourselves and another stone was thrown from the same direction. We all could feel a presence up there which felt mildly malevolent. Another stone was thrown and another. Nicci kept jumping as they were landing near her. Matt was sitting on one side of the balcony where we could see him and we all heard footsteps on the other side of the balcony. Matt 'called out' and we heard a groaning sound which we picked up on our recording device.
I asked for any spirits to makes themselves known and after a long while we heard footsteps down in the room with us. We were all sitting together and the footsteps were from the far side of the room. There were also more footsteps heard up on the balcony. Matt said that he could feel them on the floor boards. We all felt a presence up there looking down on us from a particular corner.
Some of the group went into the other room and I stayed in the main hall with the rest of the group. Nicci went upstairs to the balcony and sat in the corner that we had felt watched from. She said that she was suddenly enveloped in an awful smell. She described it as sulphur. It is thought that the smell of sulphur in 'haunted' locations is related to bad spirits which is linked to the biblical reference of 'fire and brimstone.' (Brimstone is an archaic word for sulphur). We had been warned by the other spirits that Edward was an evil spirit but we were not unduly worried about his presence alongside the smell of sulphur. If he was responsible for this smell, it may have been in the hope that we were superstitious and would show concern about the smell of sulphur and the notion of evil spirits.
Ben jumped as we all heard something clatter. I saw a small white light with my own vision and Nicci saw it too. For a long time, nothing happened and then Tony saw a shadow figure move from one side of the balcony to the other. Nicci and Matt had come down from the balcony by this time so there was nobody up there. The atmosphere felt flat and we decided to have a small break.
We continued with our investigation and we could feel the atmosphere changing as if a spiritual presence was building up again. I was leaning on the table and I felt it tap which was followed by another tap, which Ben actually heard. We heard movement up on the balcony and Matt heard knocking up by the organ.
We all went up to the balcony and I played some church organ music. This seemed to have a positive effect and the atmosphere became very thick and heavy. I felt the presence of a woman closely watching us as the music played and Nicci could feel her too.
After a while, we went into the other room to join Jacky's group. We shared our experiences. Jacky said that they had been asking for the sound of footsteps but they only heard them faintly. She wondered if their request was granted, but for my group in the main hall as we had heard footsteps several times. Jacky's group had been conducting a séance in this room and the table had been moving. They'd also been talking to a spirit called Lynne via the Ghost Box and learned that she liked vodka. They had also been conversing with the spirit George who we'd previously 'met' on our first visit to the Rachel Fowler Centre.
I walked back into the main hall by myself and several stones were thrown at me. Everyone else was accounted for and were with Jacky in the other room. The others eventually joined me and we decided to conduct a séance together. We talked with three separate spirits who all warned us that Edward was a danger to us. We heard a strange blowing type sound which was also picked up on our recording equipment. There was movement on the balcony and a stone was thrown from up there. I looked carefully at the size and shape of the stone and then I threw it back up there. A few moments passed and then a stone came back at me. I looked at the stone and was amazed to find it was the exact stone that I had thrown up there. Jacky asked the spirit to throw another one and it did. Before long, stones were just hailing down from the balcony. We started throwing them back and they were constantly returned.
The stone throwing continued from the balcony and we made contact with a Reverend Edwards and Jacob. Matt said that he had heard a noise on the balcony that sounded like a roll of carpet being moved. Suddenly, a stone just dropped from the ceiling It wasn't thrown but was dropped straight down from the centre of the hall ceiling. That was amazing.
Some of the team went to sit in the other room by themselves but I stayed with some of the others in the main hall as I love this room. Later the other group told us that they had been conducting a séance and were told, “Take care of Edwards.” They told us that they had put the K2 meter in the centre of the table and when Jacky asked whether the spirit could show itself in light form, the K2 meter had lit up. She obviously did not mean this kind of light form but they then started to communicate with the spirit responding via the K2 meter. The table was also knocking and moving.
We all assembled together in the main hall. Matt said that he could hear a breathing sound near to him. We had a camera right by him and this had picked up the audio phenomenon. Some of us were sitting at the table and it suddenly began to move, forcing us to stand up and follow it around. The K2 meter started to give off positive readings. I saw a light fly across the room with my own vision. Tony suddenly stopped and looked around and said that he had heard a door closing upstairs on the balcony. I heard it too. Dave asked if there was someone up there but the team were all accounted for down stairs. All was quiet for a while and then a stone came down from the balcony.
Harriet began to talk to us and said that she was afraid of Edward. Ben started knocking on the table and each knock was repeated back. A spirit came through which claimed to be from WW1. The K2 began to flash to red and Jacky could smell tobacco smoke. Nicci said that she could smell it also. The wartime spirit said that he could not tell us much. A stone came down. Nicci threw it back but this time, it was not thrown back. The smell of tobacco dissipated.
Harriet said that it may be William throwing the stones at us. We attempted to communicate with William and we were told that he was a lay-preacher. I suddenly smelt tobacco smoke. A strange thing happened next. We asked some questions and the answers that came back were pretty strange. Tony smiled and said, “I understand this, he's communicating in a West Country dialect.” William informed us of a 'Firez.' Tony asked William where he was from and he said 'Zummerzet' and then said that he had lived in 'Brizzle.' He told us that he was 74 years of age. I asked him to throw a stone at me and we were told, 'Ere tiz' and a stone came flying across the room. Later, we were looking at all of the plaques and we discovered that there was a Reverend William John Farr that had been at the chapel from 1912-1928. William chatted to us and said that he knew of Harriet but when we mentioned Edward, William became very quiet. When we asked him other questions, he replied but every time we asked about Edward, we received nothing.
After this, the table knocked and moved around for a while and a few more stones were thrown. It was very late so we decided to end our investigation. On behalf of the team, I would like to thank Jacky Wicheard for arranging this investigation.
Written by: Maria Williams
JACKY'S REPORT
For today’s investigation, we were very lucky to have the chance to revisit a location that turned out to be surprisingly active when we were last here.
On the first visit we experienced audible footsteps, sightings in our peripheral vision, stone apports and light anomalies on our night vision recording equipment. We also managed to capture a very intriguing picture of what looks like a male head floating just above the floorboards in the main hall which to be honest didn’t look too friendly. With this in mind we were hoping that this investigation was going to be just as active. We were not to be disappointed.
Our team for tonight included, Maria, Andrew, Loretta, Ben, Matt, Nicci, Caz, Sherri, Dave, myself, Tony and his daughter.
As it was a bitterly cold night, we decided to all start as one big group in the main hall (while we waited for the heaters to work their magic). We set up a séance in the middle of the room and Dave and Matt took their recording equipment to the upstairs gallery.
We start out by asking if there are any spirit people who would like to make contact. We didn’t really get much happening but just as I ask if they would like to throw anything you hear a tap and on the video camera you see a light anomaly move away from the table we are all sitting around. We continue to call out and you hear a strange high buzzing noise on the video camera and 2 light anomalies move towards the table. Just as I ask if any of the spirit people are around (and name some of the names we got on our last visit), you hear a stone clatter to the floor. You can see us discussing this when I mention the name Edward (which is a name given to us on our last investigation. Edward was a grumpy spirit that didn’t want us there.) When I ask if Edward is now with us, you hear a ‘ha’ on the video. I hear it and ask Dave if he heard it. While we have a small discussion about this you see a light anomaly going to the right of the screen. Nicci exclaims just after that she has seen a small light which would have been in the direction of the orb I had just captured on video. As the séance progresses, Matt says he has heard movement up on the gallery in the right hand corner. Nicci also agrees that she thought she has seen movement up there in her peripheral vision.
As not much is happening (or so it seemed at the time) we decide to use the spirit board. As we are setting up we are unaware of what I had captured on camera. As we are getting things ready I can hear a male voice say Tom. At first I thought it might be Matt but after listening to it a few times I can now rule this out. Maria calls out. After a brief pause another stone clatters to the floor. We go look for it but can’t find it. We continue to call out but nothing happens for a while. After about 10 minutes we hear another stone clatter to the floor. This time Ben manages to find it. It looks like a bit of plaster, however, the ceiling is wood. We do not rule out that this maybe falling from the wall at this point. As the name Edward is mentioned again, you see a light anomaly travel pass the camera. Nicci says again that she feels there is something up on the gallery in the top right hand corner. We soon hear another stone clatter to the floor. Nicci goes to investigate and exclaims how much colder it is in that area. Buried within the building are the relics of the Reverend John Honeywill and what is presumed to be Mrs Honeywill. Maybe the bodies are buried in this corner where most of the stone apports seem to be happening. Dave goes to get the laser thermometer and confirms that it is a lot colder in that area of the room. As we are discussing this, another stone apports in this area which takes Nicci by surprise.
Maria suddenly exclaims that she hears a tap on the table, at the same time Dave tells us to Sshh. We all stop what we are doing. He points above us and says, “I heard footsteps.” Maria also heard this. I have heard something but not realised that it was footsteps. This does not sound up on the video though which is a shame. Nothing much else happens so we decide to have a break. As we get up to leave you can see a large bright light anomaly also move towards the table going towards the foyer area as it if it is going in the same direction as a majority of us are heading. I left my camera on while we had a break and you can clearly hear another stone clatter to the floor. Again it is in the right hand corner where most of the others were. Maria, Sherri, Tony and Andrew all come back in to look for it but do not manage to find it.
ROOM 2
After our short break we split into 2 groups. Our group headed to the smaller meeting room while the others stayed in the main hall. We all sat around the room to begin with and started to call out. Almost immediately the K2 meter flickered into life. (K2 meter is an emf meter which has lights to show the presence of high emf levels). I turn my camera onto the K2 meter but the lights stop flickering. Just after this you can see a light anomaly on the video camera. We decide to set up a table and just as we sit around it you see another light anomaly near Caz. We also hear a stone clatter to the floor. I ask if the spirits are with us and call out but nothing much happens for a while.
We feel as if the table is pulsing and this is something that we have experienced when the energy is building up around us. I call out trying to encourage any spirit activity. We also ask for the spirit to activate the K2 again. Just as we are about to give up, the table lifts. You can see the total surprise on Sherri’s face and we ask her to try and push the table back down. (This is to prove to her that none of us are cheating. It is Sherri’s first investigation). We ask some questions and ask for the spirit to tap on the table. We do hear a tap in the corner of the room but do not get any more responses for a while.
The Rachel Fowler centre is right next door to the Navy Tavern which is a very lively pub. We can hear people in the beer garden (despite it being a very cold January night.) and ask if the spirit likes to join them in the garden. No response. We ask if the spirit is male (no response), female? Yes. We ask a few more questions and the table tips and comes down with a big thud. We ask if the spirit would like us to introduce ourselves and we get a big thud from the table. We say our names in turn. I say it is a shame that we cannot hear the spirit. Andrew suggests we use the ghost box. (A ghost box is a device that is basically a radio that is set to sweep the airwaves. It is believed that spirits can use the white noise to communicate through). We switch on the ghost box and call out. We ask what the spirits name is. We get very clearly the name Lynne. We ask a few more questions but nothing clear comes through. I ask if Lynne knows she has passed on and to tip the table in response rather than talk through the ghost box. The table tips almost straight away. I ask if she minds us asking questions like this and the table tips. I ask her to tip the table if she isn’t happy to answer questions like this just to clarify and the table lifts. We ask her what she wants to talk about and as clear as day we get the word Vodka come through the ghost box. We all laugh at this and ask a few more questions like ‘does she visit the pub next door if she likes a drink?’ We did not get a response but we ask her if there are any other spirit people in the room with us. We hear a very faint tap on the table. I ask Lynne to tap out how many other spirit people there are. The table lifts 3 times. I ask a few more questions and the table lifts instead of taps. When I ask if the spirit does not want to tap but would rather lift the table, the table lifts.
We have not had a spirit yet that prefers to lift the table. We say this and say that it is usually easier to tap rather than lift the table for the response. The table slams down when I say that as if it is getting impatient with my questioning. I say I am sorry if we are getting on the spirits nerves and say that I am not psychic so cannot hear the spirit. The table slams down again as if to disagree. I am a little surprised with the force this is done but calmly repeat I am not psychic and I am sorry we cannot communicate a little easier.
I ask if this is George (who we spoke to the last time we visited). The table rises and lowers very gently. We are all pleased to speak to him again. We ask if Edward is still with us and George lifts the table. We asked if Edward still wanted us to go. We got a yes. We asked if George wanted us to go and the table did not move (meaning no). We asked George if he ever goes to the pub next door and he said yes. As the conversation progresses George tells us he is there to protect us. We ask George if we can hear his footsteps and I ask him to really stomp around the room. We can hear very faint footsteps but on the video footage this is drowned out by the loud music from the pub next door. I jokingly ask George to touch Caz’s hair. Someone makes a joke about her being a red head which she shoots back “not a natural one” The table slams down as if in agreement. We all laugh. We find out that George has been following us to the ladies (which is a little creepy) but funny. The others come in to join us. They say that they heard footsteps. We tell them that we had asked to hear footsteps and this is brilliant news. As Matt mentions the footsteps the table moves as if to confirm this. We ask George if Lynne is still with us (and tell the others about our experience with her). George confirms she has gone. Tony asks if George would like us to get the spirit board. The table thumps in response. At this point I go for a coffee break but some of the others carry on. George spells out for us to take care. Ben asks why and George spells out the name Edward. Ben asks why we have to wary of Edward and George spells out Bad. We ask will he hurt us and get the answer no. We ask how old Edward is and get 54 years old and that he is a 'wrongun.' We find out he doesn’t like females.
While the other team continue, Maria, Nicci and I are in the main hall getting stones thrown at us. We are throwing them back and they are returning to us. We realise they are the same stones we have thrown. This is amazing and continues for 15 minutes. We call this type of manifestation an apport.
Back in the other room my tape runs out at this point, however the team say that just after this the board become unresponsive. They decide to go for a break. On the return I go back into the room to try and get the board moving again. After chatting with Matt I feel that there isn’t really a spirit called Edward and maybe we are talking to just one mischievous spirit. I decide to put this to our ghostly guest to see if I can encourage some type of response.
First I challenge George with my theory. Nothing happens. We get absolutely no response. I then challenge Edward. I say that if he is this malevolent spirit all the others are warning us about, then prove it. I point out that so far he has thrown a few stones and walked about a bit but this is hardly scary stuff. Just as I am about to call it a day the K2 meter starts to react. On the video camera you can hear the interference from it as the lights have gone all the way from green to red and stayed there. I turn my camera on the K2 meter expecting it to stop. It continues. I challenge the spirit to stop affecting the lights and the K2 stops immediately. This is amazing. We hardly get an intelligent spirit that does this request. The K2 goes to red again and the table then tilts. Tony asks if the spirit is 20-25ish in age. The K2 lights respond to this question. As Tony asks another question you see a light anomaly leave the table. The K2 lights up again. As Tony asks some more questions you see an orb move away from Dave. The table starts to move again. Matt comes into the room and said that while he was in the main hall on his own, he could hear sighing. Ben suggests everyone around the table stand up rather than sit down and almost immediately the table shifts position. I challenge the table to come over to where I am standing. The table moves in my direction. We have fun with this where I move to a different part of the room and the table follows me there. Finally it comes right over to where I am standing so I ask it to go back to where the table started off from. The table moves back in a series of 4 moves. The K2 is activated during this whole experiment. We ask it to light up to red if it wants us to move back into the main hall. The K2 red light comes on.
MAIN HALL
As we are setting up in the main hall I noticed that my hand is tingling and so is Maria’s. We both get this if the energy is building up. We settle down and start to call out and almost straight away we hear a stone in the top right hand corner again. Another stone then lands on the table. Nicci throws it and asks for the spirit to throw it back. Maria calls out to see if she can get a response. The table starts to faintly tap. Maria tries to encourage the table to move. She asks if George or Edward can step forward. She goes through some other names we have picked up on during this and the previous investigation. When she reaches Harriet’s name there is a loud tap. We ask Harriet if we can speak to the ever elusive Edward. We get no response. We ask if she can see him. Is he grumpy? Why is he grumpy? As we are asking these questions I have captured a strange noise on the video camera. I am not quite sure if it is low sigh, groan or other noise. This can be seen on the footage posted to the Facebook page. As we are talking Dave tells us to shush. He points upstairs. We all stop and listen. He has heard footsteps which Maria and Ben hear. I have heard something but didn’t interpret them as footsteps. This is not captured on the footage though. We ask some more questions but we don’t really get any clear responses. Maria asks Harriett if she knows any Morse code. We do then witness some rhythmic tapping which Tony tries to decipher. We ask if Harriet worked in the navy and we get a tap in response. Tony asks if we can use the spirit board again and we get a tap in agreement. Nicci exclaims she can smell tobacco again and another stone clatters to the floor in the corner. Nicci says that this is the stone she threw earlier which landed on the table. We ask if it is Edward that is throwing these small stones. We get a small tap in response. Maria suddenly asks ‘who smells of tobacco?’ The board spells out William. Maria asks who William is. We get the word Layman. We have a small discussion on what a Layman might be. The definition of a Layman is 'someone who is part of a religious organization but who is not paid or specially trained.'
We ask if they can throw anymore stones. We get the word 'hit' spelt out to us. Maria then says ‘hit me with a stone’. We then get the sentence ‘Ere tiz.' We also find out William came from Bristol (or Brizzle as he spelt it) and he died aged 74. We get the surname Tardin and he goes on to spell ‘say, bevor’ (we think he means before). The next few words are a bit confused and when we say this we get a yes as if to confirm this. We ask a few more questions to William. Do you know Edward? No. Can you play the church organ? No. Can Edward? No. Can Harriet? She tries. (Oops) We laugh and say he will be in trouble for saying that. As we are talking about the church organ, on the video camera you can hear a piano key chink. No one notices this at the time.
The séance is getting a bit slow. Ben wants to try to get the table moving so they stand up like we did in the other room. After about 5 minutes the table starts to move.
My tape runs out at this point. Not long after this we decide to wrap things up as it is getting very late.
During this investigation we had some amazing experiences. We witnessed stone apports, footsteps, peripheral visual sightings, audible captures on video camera (and also heard in real time) and light anomalies. We had reasonable success with our ghost box experiment and the K2 meter was very successful. For the good old fashioned séance experiment we witnessed taps and got the table not only to tilt but to move. All of this evidence will be available to view on our Facebook page.
I would like to thank all the team who made it out tonight and for helping this to be a very successful and enjoyable evening. I would also like to say a big thank you to The Rachel Fowler Centre for allowing us permission at this fabulous location.
Written by: Jacky Wicheard.
