On Saturday 12th October 2013, Twilight Shadows Paranormal conducted a paranormal investigation at a private location in the South West of England. I have personally always wanted to investigate this building. It is steeped in history and was once a popular theatre. Originally built in 1470, this old building has always filled me with intrigue and I was so excited to be able to take the Twilight Shadows Paranormal Team here.
We assembled inside the hall and split into teams. My team began our investigation in Location 2.
LOCATION 2
We set up our equipment and sat in different places and began to 'call out' to any spirits that resided in this area. Andrew switched on his Laser Grid and Spirit Box. Jacky saw a light shoot across the room. I asked if a spirit would walk past the Laser Grid so that we could see them. I 'called out' and again and we heard some knocking sounds which seemed respond to my voice.
(At this point, team member Daniel called me from Location 5 and asked if I would go there. Dave and I went to Location 5 to see what Daniel wanted. Daniel wanted me to get the lights switched off in this location but while we were there he wanted us to see the phenomena that his team were experiencing. At either side of this quaint room (which was once a restaurant) are two short sets of stairs which lead into a low loft-type area. The sides of the lofts are latticed windows, some of which are broken. The boys had ventured up into these very creepy loft areas and there was nobody up there. But we could hear footsteps walking up and down the stairs but visibly see that no-one was there. I nervously went to the bottom of the stairs and called up and asked if the footsteps could walk down the stairs to me. The footsteps stopped. Daniel said that he could feel something watching him from the broken panes of glass).
Dave and I went back to our team at Location 2. Jacky had been asking questions to the ghosts via the Spirit Box. Tracey said that she had seen little light anomalies with her eyes, not via a camera. Jacky told us that they had experienced lots of knocking sounds while Dave and I were out. Something was responding and knocking once or twice when asked. I really felt the presence of a woman and felt like she was trying to speak. Jacky said that a female voice had said the name, 'Eleanor' while Dave and I were out and as she said it, the Spirit Box said 'Eleanor' again and we all heard it. It then said, 'Hello.'
LOCATION 3 AND 4
Whilst in these rooms, we did not experience anything of a paranormal nature.
LOCATION 1
We settled ourselves in here and I started 'calling out.' There was movement on the stairs to our right. Andrew switched the Spirit Box on. As we looked behind us, we could see shadows moving to and fro in the Gents toilets. We just sat quietly and watched as we knew that if we approached the area, they would disappear. I saw a flashing light fly to the front. Andrew said that he saw it too. I asked that the spirits would show us something else and as I finished speaking I saw a black orb shaped object with my own eyes fly over in front of me and into the corner. Ben also saw this. He said that he kept seeing things in that corner. I asked for the spirits to do something else and there was a loud knocking by the stairs. I really could feel a strong spiritual presence. I knocked and it copied me. I felt like we were being watched carefully.
The Gents toilet door banged. We were the only team in this location and we were nowhere by the door. Loretta and Matt said (at the same time), “I've just heard another bang”. I 'called out' again and we heard a scuffling movement behind us. A voice from the Spirit Box said 'Help.' We then heard a sound like a female opera theatre, twice. We wondered if there had ever been any operas in this old theatre. Ben said that he saw shadows in the corner again.
LOCATION 5
I walked in to Location 5 and was immediately bombarded with small flying objects being thrown at me. I could see them materialize in mid-air. They were coming from the area of the stairs again. I walked towards the stairs with a small metal disc that had been thrown at me. I threw it up the stairs.
We assembled around a table and Jacky and I both took turns in 'calling out,' The table started knocking in response to questions we asked and suddenly, the disc that I'd thrown up the stairs, was thrown back at me with considerable force. I threw it back.
The previous team in this location had the distinct impression that men were not liked by the spirits in this room. I wasn't sure that they liked me either seeing as they kept throwing things at me. The boys decided to sit out of this séance to see if the spirits would react more favourably to the girls. I heard a footstep from the corner of the room.
As the girls were standing around the table, Jacky asked Andrew to move to the left as she could see someone (not one of us) standing behind him. Andrew moved and the shadow moved too but not at the exact same time that Andrew moved. Tracey heard a knock where she was standing at the table. Jacky and Dave left the room at this point.
All was quiet for a while and then we heard footsteps upstairs in the loft area. The table started to tap continually and lifted a bit on one side. I had the feeling that the spirits were beginning to lose interest. We started chatting amongst ourselves and as usual when this happens, the table started to move more.
I noticed that there was a shadow figure standing behind Andrew again. It went very quiet for a while. Trying to provoke a response, I threw one of the metal discs and asked for it to be thrown back. Immediately, we could hear footsteps walking up and down in the loft area. Loretta had something thrown at her and then all was quiet for a considerable time.
We thought it may be an idea to tell the spirits some jokes and we immediately received a positive response of table rapping and movement. We were unsure whether the spirits liked the jokes or wanted us to stop. We carried on telling the jokes and the table started moving with more force, more so when the jokes were really bad or a little bit rude.
DRESSING
ROOM AREAS AND OLD BOX OFFICE
Apart from feeling a foreboding presence here, my team did not experience anything of a paranormal nature.
OTHER DRESSING ROOMS
This area was very creepy but we had no ghostly experiences in here.
LOCATION 5
Andrew and I came out of the restaurant area to the other room, looking for Jacky and Dave. We both saw a figure which we assumed was Dave and Andrew said, “Oh look, there's Dave. He's waving to us.” But when we got closer, there was nobody there. We later learned that Matt had also seen a figure in here waving to him and as he approached the seat was empty.
I would like to thank the management of this beautiful building for letting us investigate their premises. We loved our time here.
Written by Maria Williams.
JACKY'S ACCOUNT
This evening’s investigation was being held at an exceptional building with lots of history. It is a place that Maria has always wanted to investigate and all the credit is due to her for arranging this amazing location.
We had quite a large team with us this evening so after a quick tour of all the buildings area’s and possible paranormal hotspots, we then divided the group into teams and allocated areas.
Our team headed to our allocated area which I will call Location 2. We settled down into positions around the area and Andrew set up a laser grid, K2 and spirit box. I had my night vision camcorder, stills camera and digital voice recorder. We started to call out to see if we could encourage spirit activity. Almost 5 minutes into this we heard a huge bang which was so loud it reverberated. Concerned it may have been one of the other teams we checked in with them all but everyone was fine. To my knowledge no one else heard this bang so I will mark that as possibly paranormal.
During our vigil in Location 2 we heard taps (to order). Maria thought she saw a figure over to the left of the stage which made some of the laser point’s blank out. Tracey also said she thought she saw something there too. We also heard a big thud to the left of me which sounded like a seat being lowered. This can be heard on the video footage which can be viewed on the Facebook page. We also captured some very good light anomalies on video and a response on the Spirit box which we believed was from a female spirit called Eleanor. This footage can also be viewed on the Facebook page.
For our next area we moved to Location 3. We spent a while in here and not much happened. Andrew had his Spirit box and K2 meter on but we did not get any response via these devices at all. While we were in Location 3 another team ventured in. We had a little chat with them about our experiences and decided to move on.
We headed for Location 1 which was the largest of the areas to cover. We got ourselves into position and started to call out. I got some really good light anomalies on video camera at the beginning of the vigil although the light activity seemed to stop after this. The activity we witnessed during this vigil seemed to be more personal experiences. Maria thought she saw a black orb and Matt thought he could see shadows moving.
We didn't really get a definite response with the Spirit box though we did all witness one incident. Just as we had decided to move on to the next area we all heard a very loud thud behind me and I actually felt my chair vibrate. This sounded very much like in Location 2 where a chair has been lowered but this time with force. Unfortunately I had switched off my video camera so did not capture this on the footage. However you can hear it very clearly on the Digital Voice Recorder.
We moved onto Location 5 which still had a team in there. We joined them as they were attempting to try a table tipping exercise. They also told us they had, had quite a few things thrown at them which sounded like coins. We set up some cameras and joined the team around the table. At first we didn't get much from the experiment but we did get something thrown back at us after Maria threw the object into the corner and asked for this to be thrown back. The team also advised us that the spirit in the room didn't seem to like men. We asked the men to leave the table and just the women remained. After 10 minutes or so we did start to hear the familiar pops and taps you get when energy is building up during a table tipping experiment. We also got another object thrown at us. We did get the table to move which it did in a rhythmic motion. We did not get it to tilt though. I also captured some very good light anomalies on video which can be viewed on the Facebook page along with the objects being thrown.
At this point I decided to take a break so went back to the hub. Dave came to find me and advised me that one of the teams had lost something somewhere in the building. We decided to go to Location 6 to look for it. During this time we probably had the strongest paranormal activity even though I did not have any recording equipment with me. While in Location 6 we suddenly felt the whole atmosphere change and I heard what sounded like a foot scuff on the steps behind us. We went back to the steps and just where we had been stood we heard something hit the wall like it had been thrown at us. We walked back to where we were and immediately felt threatened. We decided to leave the area and it took all our resolve not to run from there. As we went back up the steps we heard footsteps following us. Dave and I kept walking until we were back in the hub and could not believe what we had just witnessed.
During the remainder of our time here we investigated a couple of other areas though nothing significant happened.
I would like to thank Maria Williams for arranging this investigation
Written by: Jacky Wicheard.
DANIEL AND TRACY'S TEAM
LOCATION 5
For the first part of our investigation we went to Location 5,where immediately Nicci took a fantastic orb photo. We called out to the spirits to do something so that we could see them or hear them. I asked for them to walk around us so we could hear their footsteps and straight away that is what we all heard, which was brilliant. We then took part in a séance but we did not have receive any information.
DRESSING ROOM
We decided to head down to the dressing room area. Once there Nicci managed to take some more really good photos, and when I looked through her camera screen I could see lights flashing all over the place. However, when Daniel pointed his camera in the same direction we could see nothing. Most of the activity during the evening seemed centered around Nicci. We then asked out for the spirits to bang on something if they wanted us to leave and they did immediately bang on the pipes. We said thank you for that and that we would leave them alone but we really would like to talk to them.
Dave came in at that point to see how we were getting on and at that moment, the atmosphere became very negative. Nicci said she wanted to leave that area now as she felt that the spirits did not like her, so we said our goodbyes and started to leave. Just as we were walking out, a screw was thrown at our backs as if to say "get out."
We all had a brilliant night with all of us hearing footsteps. Sophie and Corinne had a feeling of being pushed to one side, I had a feeling that my hair was being touched and when the lights were turned back on, Sophie and Corrine said my hair had moved and was stuck up on one side, which was interesting.
Chris spent time in Location 5, up in the balcony on his own whilst we were calling out, and he felt footsteps around him.
We had a brilliant night and would love to come back to this location again.
Written by: Tracy Hughes
LOUISA AND MELODY'S TEAM
DRESSING ROOM AND OLD DISUSED BOX OFFICE
We turned the lights off and went in to one of the rooms and started to call out. The atmosphere turned thick and heavy. Melody and I were swaying back and forth.
DRESSING ROOMS NEAR TOILETS
We called out in one of the rooms and heard a consistent tapping. I asked 'Yes' and 'No' questions. The tapping grew a little louder and more defined when we held hands in a circle.
We sat in another one of the rooms next to the 'crawl through' near the stage. We heard footsteps, rattling and banging from near the 'crawl through' door.
We had previously found an old WWI hat and Ben placed it on the stairs. We noticed that the hat had moved. It was now on a lower step and further into the middle. Dave put it back on the 5th step up.
LOCATION 2
We held a séance and communicated with a female who worked in the restaurant. She answered 'Yes' and 'No' but said 'Goodbye' when I ran out of questions.
LOCATION 4
Written by: Louisa Benson.
SHARON AND WARREN'S TEAM
LOCATION 1
We heard lots of movement up by the stairs, near the toilets and exit door. There were cold breezes around certain seats and we heard some knocking noises. The Gents toilet door swung open slightly and then shut again.
LOCATION 5
We went into this room and stones were thrown at Warren from up in the loft space. We held a séance and made contact with a spirit with the initials DB who was aged 45.
Maria and Jacky's group joined us just as things started to get thrown at us. Plastic lids and small metal objects were thrown from the two loft areas.
We gathered around the table and asked the spirits if they could move it. It started to tap but only from one end. We saw shadows moving about behind Andrew and we saw a light suddenly shoot across the table.
CORRIDOR/DRESSING ROOMS
We held a séance in here and made contact with a male with the initials QC and the date of 1949. He claimed to be a fireman who seemed reluctant to share much information with us but he did say 'Goodbye' when we said that we had to leave. He seemed a very shy and friendly spirit.
Written by: Sharon Jefferies.
LAUREN'S ACCOUNT
DRESSING ROOMS
There were things I felt down in the old dressing rooms (the ones where the hat was found). I didn't say anything at the time as I wasn't sure what I was feeling and it was the first place we went to and I wanted time to process it before speaking up.
When we first went in there during the walk through I felt as though I was literally backstage before a performance, with that nervous excitement and the bustle of people getting ready. I felt this threefold when we went down there later. It was so strong it was as if I were literally there! Rehearsing lines, warming up voices, doing up costumes etc. This died down a little as we investigated all the rooms, but always there in the "background".
As we were down the other side of the hallway I was really drawn back to the little staircase (where the hat was) and that little area at the bottom of those steps. One of the doors was shut and I felt SO STRONG that there was a young female (I'd say around 20yrs) in the chorus, who was excited we were there but didn't want to come out because she wasn't dressed!!?? Like 'she couldn't go onstage as she didn't have her costume on'! I feel it may have been her moving the hat, as a way of making contact without being "seen".
I also got a feeling about a teenager who was the 'dogsbody' of the stage crew. The one who had to crawl under the stage etc and do the jobs nobody wanted. We moved on before I picked up on anything else, but I thought I'd mention it anyway.
Written by: Lauren Hillier
