Woodchester mansion

Investigated in 2009 and 2013

On Saturday 11th April 2009, some of the Twilight Shadows Paranormal/ Phoenix of Wessex Paranormal team members joined Paranormal Devon at an overnight investigation at Woodchester Mansion in Gloucestershire.

HISTORY

Woodchester Mansion is situated in rural Gloucestershire, in a secluded spot within 400 acres of beautiful countryside. It is a Victorian Gothic Mansion and has 27 rooms, all unfinished apart from one room - the drawing room. In 1868, after 12 years of hard work constructing the mansion, the workmen mysteriously downed their tools and 'walked out' leaving the mansion in its unfinished state. Woodchester Mansion was a dream of William Leigh who decided to build his Gothic Mansion at the site of a previous house. Reclaimed stone was used from the original Spring Park House so it is uncertain whether the ghosts of Woodchester are all from this mansion or are connected to the reclaimed stone of SpringPark.

The site of the Gothic Mansion has extensive history and was previously used over 2500 years ago by the Anglo Saxons. The Romans also used it and there are stories of Roman soldiers marching up the driveway towards where the mansion is now situated. The site of the mansion was visited by several Kings and Queens of England.

This spot was the site of bloody battles and it is thought that satanic worship was practised here.

Woodchester Mansion is home to a rare species of bat. The Lesser and Greater Horseshoe bats live here.

SUPERNATURAL ENCOUNTERS

Sightings of a hooded Monk figure

A headless horseman

Strange blue lights

Unexplained banging sounds

Apparition of a man in military uniform

Voices (including children's voices and laughter)

Voice saying "I want to go home"

Sound of woman sobbing

Groaning

Hair pulling and touching of people

Large black dog growling in the cellar

Electrical equipment being switched off

Poltergeist activity (things being thrown)

Sightings of a ragged dwarf-like creature

VISIT ONE

INVESTIGATION

We drove down the seemingly never-ending lane to the Mansion. As I saw the Mansion for the first time I was taken aback by its sheer beauty. The huge windows and stone masonry were awesome, with beautiful (I thought so) gargoyles. Some which looked like wolves were probably hunting dogs as the mansion stands upon the site of an old hunting lodge.

We gathered in the drawing room (the only room that was finished) and left our belongings. This is a beautiful room with magnificent windows and an open fire which had been lit. As tempting as it was to spend time in this room we were eager to explore the rest of the mansion. Gloucestershire Paranormal were there and gave us a tour round the building advising us on safety as there are sheer drops with no floor in places (luckily barricaded across). We were informed of many interesting facts as well as ghostly tales upon our tour. Unfortunately we were told of the cave spiders which dwell in the cellar which made Loretta determined not to go into the cellar again!

UPSTAIRS CORRIDOR

We split into small groups and my team started in an upstairs corridor. There were two wooden coffins in this hallway which had been left there by ITV from when they filmed Dracula, approximately two years ago. (Loretta and I have since watched this production of Dracula and it is strange to watch, recognising the building where we spent the night). The ceiling of the corridor was amazing with majestic archways. We settled down and eventually started to 'call out.' There were several flashes of light but I was unsure that the flashes had a paranormal origin as I wondered if they could be attributed to camera flashes somehow reflecting off walls from other teams' cameras elsewhere in the building. Some people said that they could see blue pin-pricks of light darting about on the walls. I did not see this but I have since read that these strange, tiny, blue lights are recorded paranormal phenomena connected with Woodchester.

We could hear owls hooting and sheep bleating outside through the glassless window. Someone from another team radioed on the walkie-talkie and asked if we had heard a woman scream as they thought that the scream had originated from upstairs where we were. There is a record of a young servant girl who was strangled in this corridor. Nobody from my team had heard a scream but a second earlier we had all heard a lamb bleating loudly outside. We wondered if the other team had heard the lamb or perhaps an owl screeching.

After a while we heard a door slamming. We went towards the noise but all the doors were shut with nobody near them. They had been shut firmly when we first entered the corridor. This happened several times. We wondered if the sound originated from doors on a different level being slammed (although it definitely sounded like they were the doors near us). We radioed the other teams and asked if doors downstairs were being slammed by the teams or even by unseen hands. The answer was "No!" It really did sound like the doors were in our vicinity but we could not work it out.

At one point we were standing near the top of the stone stairway and we heard a stone (or some small object) being thrown down the stairs away from us. It bounced down the stairs until it reached the bottom. I was going to run downstairs and see if I could find this object but someone from another team ran towards the bottom of the stairs and shouted up to us "Did you just throw that, down the stairs?" I can honestly say that nobody from my team had done this as I was standing nearest to the stairs. This happened again a little while later but this time the downstairs team were not close enough to acknowledge this occurrence.

One thing we all agreed on, we all felt as if we were being closely watched in this corridor, something (I later learned) that most people experience in this area.

BATHROOM

This was an interesting room and apparently very paranormally active. There have been sightings of a man in military uniform here which is not surprising as this room was used by the American armed forces in WW2 for training purposes. Twenty of the soldiers stationed here were killed in a doomed D-Day exercise, when a pontoon bridge collapsed drowning the soldiers.

Some people actually experienced paranormal phenomenon in this room but I didn't experience anything. I actually liked the feeling of this room.

CELLAR

As soon as I walked into the cellar I became aware of a strange chemical smell. I was surprised to learn that the smell is actually from a chemical source. This room was used as a laboratory and was apparently connected to experiments with animals. The chemicals used have seeped into the stone flooring and can still be smelt distinctly.

There were some more coffin props in the cellar (also left by the makers of Dracula) and they looked far more eerie than they did in the upstairs corridor. I half expected them to slowly open revealing a vampire who wanted to come out to play. Wishing I had worn a scarf to cover my neck I sat upon a ledge and tuned in to the atmosphere. After a while I became aware of a gentleman spirit who was clearly a workman who liked to whistle while he worked. I think he said that his name was Joseph, (my interpretation as it was not clear and I could detect an accent). I asked him questions but instead of answering me I was given the impression that he would show me what had happened to him. I thought this meant that I would be shown in a clairvoyant manner, like a visual recording. But suddenly I got an excruciating pain in the left side of my head. I felt weak and dizzy and felt like I was going to collapse. I asked my spirit guide to make this spirit take these physical conditions from me which he did immediately. I asked my spirit guide if I was feeling physical symptoms akin to what this spirit man experienced and he said "Yes!" I assumed that he had collapsed due to natural medical causes but I later discovered that someone had been hit on the head with a large piece of stone. I wondered if this was accidental but was informed that a medium (previously at the mansion) had said that a spirit man had been murdered in the cellar. I am unsure if we had connected with the same man.

Someone thought that they felt the presence of a dog with us in the cellar. There is a legend that there is a dog connected to Woodchester which is a 'death portent.' Basically, anyone who sees the dog will die. Luckily the dog did not appear.

The cellar is reputed to have stones thrown and groans heard. It has a few chambers attached to it and although we investigated all areas of the cellar, we did not experience either groaning or stones thrown at us.

GROUND FLOOR CORRIDOR AND TOOL SHED

This was interesting as bats were flying around. Although I love bats, I must say it looked eerie, the way that they were flying around the corridor. It went along with the Dracula theme.

Mysterious lights on the walls are also experienced in this corridor but I didn't encounter anything on a psychic level.

We looked at the tool room. All the tools which were suddenly laid down and abandoned have been stored here. We all wondered what had happened to make the workmen suddenly abandon their tools and leave the mansion unfinished. Most people felt that it was connected to a murder. It has been said that the murdered man was a French Glassblower.

CHAPEL

William Leigh had converted to Catholicism and the stonework inside the chapel illustrates this. That is apart from a Pagan, Green Man stone carving upon the ceiling.

Jacky, Dave, Loretta and I went to the chapel. This room has scaffolding insitu. I did not feel like we were alone in this room. There were no other team members anywhere near us but I felt as if we had been joined by another person just on the peripheral. We 'called out' for a while and although the atmosphere started to build we became distracted and started chatting about the stone masonry and the skill of the stone masons. We were looking upward to see if we could see the carving of the Green Man on the ceiling. Suddenly a stone was thrown near Jacky. We all jumped and although we were really shocked, we were very excited. It was thrown quite high up and Jacky actually saw it arc before it started to fall. It seemed to have been thrown from above our heads. We carried on chatting as it felt like the stone had been thrown to get our attention. Another stone was thrown from nowhere (there really was nobody there). It hit hard into the scaffolding and made a 'chinking' sound.

A previous medium has said that the spirit of a French man haunts this area. He was a French Glassblower and he is lonely. EVP's of French voices have been captured in the chapel but we did not capture any EVP. Mediums have said that this is a male spirit who is responsible for the throwing of stones etc., whether to scare people out of the chapel or to merely get their attention. I feel it is the latter and when Jacky said "Right, you have my attention," I felt mirth in the atmosphere as if he was laughing.

We told the spirit we were leaving the chapel and going into the kitchen.

KITCHEN

The kitchen is reputed to be a very paranormally active area. Things are thrown and it used to contain a clock (which was originally moved from the main tower) which would start and stop by itself. The clock is no longer in the kitchen.

We walked into the kitchen and chatted to each other. It really felt like a male spirit had followed us in. We had not been in the kitchen very long when a small but significant stone was thrown at us (we feel mainly at Jacky). It was hilarious. I was filming with my Camcorder and Jacky fled from the room omitting a few choice but very funny words. In Jacky's panic, Loretta did not know what to do and she made a grab at me, nearly climbing on top of me. I think Dave went to see if Jacky was OK. (This camera footage is very funny and I will upload it onto the website at some time). I am sure the spirit who threw the stone found this whole spectacle extremely amusing.

We did not have any more phenomena occur and as it was morning we decided to end our investigation and start the long journey home.

We would like to thank Paranormal Devon for arranging this investigation and Gloucestershire Paranormal for the interesting information they provided.

Written by: Maria Williams

SECOND VISIT

On Saturday 14^th December, Twilight Shadows Paranormal joined Bristol & UK Supernatural (BUS) for a paranormal investigation at Woodchester Mansion in Gloucestershire. There were only ten of us to investigate this huge, amazing old mansion. Using the drawing room as a hub, we decided to start our investigation in the cellar.

CELLAR

Jacky started to 'call out' to any spirits that were present with us in the cellar. As she was filming with her Camcorder, she said that she was capturing lots of light anomalies. Something was thrown towards us and Dave and I heard footsteps nearby. It sounded like a woman's footsteps walking towards us. We checked to make sure the other team were not nearby. We were definitely alone down there. Something else was thrown. We all noticed that there was a strange mist in the room that we were in. Two more small items were thrown.

The cellar was divided into separate, small chambers. We decided to move into another of the chambers. Jacky said that she felt scared in this room. We heard footsteps again. We decided to conduct a séance and obtained the following information.

George

Hell

(We could hear a sound like water emptying. We could not work out a rational explanation for this. Dave heard some footsteps and we all heard some large banging sounds. We could hear movement behind us).

Adieu

Well

(Something was thrown behind us).

Drown

George

Hole

Cold

Side

Dead

Be careful

(There was further movement near to us and Andrew went to investigate).

Made tell

Andrew put the K2 on the table and Jacky 'called out,' The table tapped. Jacky said that she could feel a breeze swirling around her fingers and her face. We all heard a voice. There were no words spoken, just the sound of a voice. We all heard a strange noise behind us. We asked if it was George but we received a negative response. The table started moving about. I heard a noise right by my head. It was like a wheezing/buzzing sound. Jacky heard it also. Neither Dave or Andrew heard it which really surprised Jacky and I. The table moved and I became aware that the area around me was freezing cold. The table suddenly shot across the room and we heard a massive knock.

Jacky asked, “Are you friendly?”

There was a loud knock on the table.

“Was the strange sound that Maria and I heard, you?”

Loud knock.

“I can't believe that the boys didn't hear the noise you made. Was it just for us girls?”

Loud knock.

“Can you speak to us?”

I heard a loud intake of breath.

There was an air of expectancy. The table was rocking backwards and forwards and there were strange breezes. The table lifted suddenly, followed by three large knocks. The table started twitching and knocking. We started to discuss what sort of spirit we had with us. Dave wondered if it was an elemental spirit. We wondered if the strange buzzing sound was the sound of the spirit coming from its realm into our earthly realm. There was movement by the entrance to this part of the cellar. Jacky said, “I feel afraid of this one. George did tell us to be careful.” Jacky asked the spirit if 'it' liked us and it knocked the table. I decided to leave the table at this point to check my Camcorder and the table lurched over to me as I walked away.

We stood still for a while and a small stone was thrown. It landed in the middle of the table. The table started moving again but it felt like a different energy had joined us. This went on for a while and despite us 'calling out' this was all that happened.

KITCHEN

As soon as we entered the kitchen, a pebble was thrown at us. Jacky asked if 'they' could throw another one. They did and again. Dave and I heard footsteps. Dave went to investigate. There was nobody there. Dave walked to the right of me and said that it was like walking into a freezer. At this moment a loud groan was picked up by our recording equipment. Jacky said that she could see black smoke/mist going across the room. Jacky asked the spirit of Agnes (a known spirit who is said to reside in the kitchen) to rattle the pots and pans for us. We heard movement from some of the ornamental dishes on the shelves within the recess of the wall. A pebble was thrown and landed at Jacky's feet. Another pebble was thrown shortly afterward.

W e heard a sound like a child laughing. Another stone was thrown. The door started to rattle. This may have had a rational cause but it was the first time it had happened. A big stone was thrown at us and another stone which landed near Dave that made him jump. We heard a strange whooshing noise just outside the door, then we heard footsteps. We checked the area and again, there was nobody there. We all heard a deep rumbling sound. We had no idea what it was.

CHAPEL

W e went to the chapel. Almost immediately, a stone was thrown and we heard footsteps. We decided to walk up to the balcony. I was the last person up the stairs and when I got to the top, I turned around and went back down several steps as I wanted to take a photo of the spiral staircase from the top. As I went to take a photo, I heard footsteps running up the stairs. They ran right up to me and then I ran back to the others rather quickly.

UPSTAIRS CORRIDOR

We assembled on the third floor. It felt very spooky. We stood in the middle of this long room so that we could see both ends equally. Dave looked around quickly and he said that he had seen a foot. We could hear strange music playing but it was very faint. As the mansion is in the middle of its own grounds and we were locked in, we knew that the music was not from a passing car. Jacky 'called out.' We could still hear the music. A stone was thrown which Jacky caught on her Camcorder. It materialised mid-air. Dave jumped and started rubbing the back of his neck. Jacky said that she could see a figure at the top of the room by the window. She was looking through her Camcorder. We shone our torches and we couldn't see anything. But we could see it again every time we looked through our Camcorders. We thought that it was probably pareidolia until Andrew moved forward and 'she' seemed to turn her face to look at him. Jacky named her 'Raggedy Girl.' We stayed here for a while and we heard a growl behind us. After this, all was quiet.

We returned to the hub and met up with the six members of the BUS team. We decided to all go to the cellar and conduct a séance together. The details of this séance are written in Jacky's report. Twilight Shadows Paranormal would like to thank Claire Stevens of Bristol & UK Paranormal for arranging this amazing paranormal investigation. We look forward to working with you soon.

Written by: Maria Williams

JACKY'S REPORT

On Saturday 14th December 2013 we found ourselves at the wonderfully spooky and Gothic, Woodchester Mansion. This is a personal favourite location of mine and it had been a while since our last visit. The previous investigations I had attended here had been some of the most para-normally active investigations I have ever been on and I hoped this evening was going to be the same. I was truly not disappointed.

Not only were we at my favourite location, we practically had this place to ourselves. Our team for the night consisted of Maria, Dave Andrew and I and 6 team members from B.U.S. We split into 2 groups and we chose the cellar as our first area to investigate. The cellar is made up of several small chambers and 1 large chamber.

CELLAR

We started our investigation in the largest chamber. We called out to see if we could get some paranormal activity starting. I quickly saw a light anomaly on my camera and we did hear something like a small stone being thrown in the far corner. Being conscious that this may just be falling from the ceiling we asked again. Nothing much happened for roughly10 minutes but then I felt like I was touched on my right side. I said this to the team and then asked if it was a spirit, could it do this to another member of the team. I saw a light anomaly move towards Maria on my camera and she then said she felt like someone was playing with her hair. I asked if this spooked her at all but she said she felt fine and it was not freaking her out at all. We also heard what sounded like footsteps which sounded like it was coming just outside the door near the other smaller chambers. This did not sound up on the video though. I said to the others that I felt safe in this room but I did not feel very comfortable about leaving this larger chamber. Maria agreed that she felt the same.

We decided to confront this feeling and left the chamber. As we rounded the corner I noticed a mist show up on my camRera in one of the smaller chambers. This was not our breath. We seemed to all make our way down to the end chamber and were delighted to find that there was a small table in there. We decided this would be an ideal opportunity to try out my new spirit board. We set the board up and started to ask out. We soon seemed to get a response which was very slow. We made good communication with this spirit which seemed sad about his passing. As we continued to communicate with him he seemed to get stronger and more animated.

We were aware of some noises coming from the corner of the room and we also thought the other team had come to join us. This was not so. We continued with the séance and it seemed to us that the spirit was tiring. It was confirmed that the spirit was tired so we decided to try some table tipping. We asked if the spirit would stay with us and he said he would. We moved the board and stood around the table. We didn’t have to wait long for things to start happening. The table started to pulse under our fingers which we find usually happens when energy is building up. We got the usual taps, creaks and knocks that you get but then Maria and I heard something very strange. It was like an electrical buzzing sound just behind Maria. This made her jump. Dave and Andrew did not hear it at all. We were just talking about it when the table really shifted position. We usually get warning before this happens and it is really rare for the table to move so drastically and so suddenly in such a short space of time. We asked if this was the spirit that we were talking to via the board. Nothing. We asked if this was another spirit and we heard a loud tap on the table, then the table shoved over towards Andrew and tilted up on 2 legs. It then moved over towards Maria and tilted up on 2 legs again. It was hard not to feel a little alarmed at such forcefulness that the table was being moved. We tried to ask questions by saying tap once if (and then we asked a series of questions). This was a little hit and miss so we didn’t really learn much about our ghostly companion but he was sure a lot of fun to have around.

Dave needed to take a natural break so we continued to go with the table. However, things changed once Dave left. First, a stone seemed to be flung at Andrew which hit him on the foot with quite a bit of force. I have experienced stones being thrown at Woodchester before from seemingly nowhere so this was not a surprise to me. We did learn a little later that this phenomenon had not been experienced for a while. We concentrated back on the table and it appeared our ghostly guest had left us. I said that maybe he had gone with Dave. This made us laugh and the table seemed to knock in response. It then seemed to rock from side to side. The energy around us felt different. More gentle that the last. We felt this was female and tried to communicate with her. The table constantly rocked from side to side. I stopped the table and said I was just trying something. I tried rocking the table just to make sure it was not on an uneven floor. It was not. It did not rock when I tried to recreate what was happening. We went with the table for a while, however nothing else was happening and we could not encourage this spirit to communicate with us in a different way. We thanked her and decided to move to another area. On our travels we bumped into some of the other team who had just come from the 3rd floor. They had not experienced much so we suggested they went to the cellar where we had just been.

KITCHEN

We decided to try the kitchen area. We were told that a spirit called Agnes liked to hang around in this area and that she liked to rattle the pots and pans. We got ourselves comfortable and started to call out. I had just started to film when I saw a black shadow disappear into the scullery. Playing the footage back this was more like black smoke. You can see the video footage on our Facebook page. I also captured a lot of light anomalies. It was not long before we heard the familiar sound of a small stone hitting the floor. This made us jump a little. Dave and Maria also heard footsteps coming from outside in the corridor. On tape I do not hear the footsteps but I do get an audible female voice which murmurs something indecipherable but you can clearly hear her say, “Shhhhhhhhhhh”. We also heard what at the time sounded like a plate or pot lid being chinked and a few more stones were thrown at us. This is all available to view on our Facebook page.

CHAPEL

After a short break we decided to stop off in the chapel area. It was here on a previous visit that I had witnessed a stone appear out of nowhere, shoot across the chapel and hit the far wall. The spiral staircase which was not accessible on our last visit was open and it led up to the gallery. We climbed up to the platform above and took a few pictures. Maria went to take a picture of the stairs and came darting back in clearly spooked. She said she had just heard footsteps coming up with staircase but no-one was there. We stood there chatting and we heard footsteps coming from just beyond the corridor, where the hub room was. Expecting Claire or one of the B.U.S. team we stopped and looked. No-one came through but at the time we didn’t think anything of it. We later found out this was none of the other team. We heard a stone hit the scaffolding which is in the chapel. We called out to see if we could get any other type of response. We felt not quite spooked but not welcome where we were so we decided to try up on the 3rd level.

UPSTAIRS CORRIDOR

The last time I visited the Mansion, the upper levels were in quite a rough state and you had to be careful with the loose floor covering. I was relieved to find that the floors had been improved. I noticed that my tummy had started to feel a bit funny so I told the other team members. They all then said that they felt the same. Deciding to go with it we got ourselves comfy and focused on the upper level. During our last visit on this level Dave and I had experienced a little girls voice which sounded like it was under water, a scream, a dog growling a not so nice older gentleman and big band music. We started to call out and I quickly saw light anomalies on my camera. It didn’t take long before the stones started appearing and we were just trying to see if they could have fallen from the ceiling when I realised I could see a figure on the camera right up in the far corner of the corridor. Thinking it maybe Pareidolia, I called the others over to have a look. They could all see it on screen but if you looked to where the figure was standing you couldn’t see anything. There wasn’t any shading on the wall to create this affect and when we shone a torch on the wall the figure stayed. Andrew went up to see and on the screen it looked like the figures head moved to watch him. To us the figure looked like a girl dressed in rags. I called her the Raggedy Girl. Andrew came back down to see on the screen again and Maria said she could now see her on her camera too. It was here that Dave let out a yell and Maria lurched forward and grabbed my arm. They had heard a very nasty guttural growl which Dave said was right in his ear. I did not hear this but you can hear something on the video footage. This is available to view on our Facebook page.

We went back down to the hub where the others were. After quite a long chat we decided that as the other team had not got much in the way of paranormal activity, we thought it would be a good idea for us all to do something. I suggested the cellar again as this is where we got most of our activity.

CELLAR.

Again we seemed to be drawn to the larger chamber. We stood in here for a while but didn’t really get much in the way of activity. We then decided to try in the little room with the table tipping. It was a good decision. We very soon got the table moving like before. Some of the team members now with us had never been on an investigation before and none of them had tried table tipping. I could see they were a bit sceptical and probably thought we were manipulating the table. I told one of them to push down on the table if it tilts up on 2 legs. The table did this and they tried to push it down. They really struggled. With table tipping it usually seems to favour one side which was happening now however as the experiment progressed the table did rise on both sides and we also got it to copy our taps and to tap out the end to 'shave and a haircut.' (We love it when they do that).

Simon from B.U.S seemed to get the most response from our ghostly companion who said he was in the military. Simon was also from a military background so he and the spirit seemed to forge a bond during this experiment. Chris who is responsible for most of the investigations at Woodchester was amazed. He said that he had a team of nurses coming to the Mansion the next day and the spirit seemed very pleased to hear this. We continued in the cellar for a while though I do not have this on camera as my batteries and film had run out. We decided to move to the Kitchen though not much happened. As it was getting late, we decided to call it a night.

I would like to thank B.U.S. for including us in this investigation and also Dave, Maria and Andrew for making this investigation one of the best yet.