Ghostly goings-on in the Village Hall

Paranormal in East Anglia, United Kingdom

It didn’t feel strange, at first.

We had held a number of charity clairvoyant shows there before we carried out any paranormal investigations and when you are busy, with over two hundred people to cater for ‘strange’ is not something you really notice.

I suppose we should have realised something was going on when some of the Mediums we employed started to talk about ‘the boy’ and complained that stones were being thrown on the stage. And why did some of the female customers hesitate to use the toilets; complaining that they felt weird and that it made them uneasy, insisting on using the staff facility?

This was our local village hall! It couldn’t be haunted, could it?

Built in 1910, Coronation Hall, Mundesley is the hub of this lovely North Norfolk fishing village. Situated on the cliff edge overlooking the sea it’s hard to imagine that anything “paranormal” could affect it, let alone turn out to be a featured story in a magazine and the subject of a YouTube video clip.

There always seemed to be an atmosphere in the backstage storeroom, we had videod a strange incident with a chair once and when one of our team got touched on the shoulder while sitting alone on a vigil in the dark; her screams still linger in the memory, we decided a full investigation was necessary. What we discovered amazed us.

We knew from local knowledge that the hall was used for wartime dances and that over the years there have been many amateur and professional variety shows performed there. We questioned older locals to gain an insight into any strange happenings that may have occurred.

Paranormal Norfolk; our regional ‘spooky’ magazine, had asked to be involved and in fact published the story as the main feature in their second edition.

And so it was that in January 2006 we gathered together two very different teams of paranormal investigators, one which, at the time was Spiritually based, us. The other a local paranormal group, rooted in the scientific side of investigating.

As a precursor to the nights events we decided to play some 1940s music; Glenn Millar, Vera Lynn, The Andrews Sisters etc, just to raise the vibrations and entice memories of a bygone age in the hope we would encourage Ghosts and Spirits from the past to join in.

Our investigation revealed a number of energies in the hall, from a distressed man in the back storeroom who conveyed his name as Edward, who with the help of one of our Medium friends was crossed over into the higher vibrations of the light; we never leave a distressed Spirit in the lower vibration of this plane. A woman called Rosemary and other male Spirits in the ladies toilets were also picked up, (the name Edward also came up again but we were not sure if it was the same energy as before) one was not very nice and during a Planchette experiment in there one female participant was touched on the head and was so overcome with a feeling of dread that she had to leave.

On the stage one investigator had a distinct feeling of falling over and banging his head, this feeling proved to be quite revealing. You will have heard of the old theatrical cliché of dying on stage, well this wasn’t a cliché it really happened, to a young boy.

We discovered that during the 1950s a boy about 10 years old had had an epileptic fit while on stage and had fallen over and died. All we knew of him was his name, David and that he liked having people around. It was him that affected the table tipping experiment, making it spin around the hall and who had made a series of knocks in response to questions.

We did ask him about stone throwing but he was strangely quiet.

We have carried out a number of investigations there since and David is always happy to be involved, from knockings and table moving to displays of dancing lights when his name is called out; and all this in our local village hall.

So the next time you attend an event in your local hall or community centres don’t imagine that everyone you can see is everyone that is there. If, when the curtains open and the lights go down you feel a cold breeze on the back of your neck, keep your eyes firmly on the performers on stage. Do not be tempted to turn around!

St Benet's Abbey

Paranormal in East Anglia, United Kingdom

The Abbey of St Benets lies on a sand and gravel island called Cow Holm surrounded by grazing marshes beside the River Bure. In the Middle Ages it was approached by land along a broad causeway from Horning to the north west and by river along the Bure. It is quite likely that the causeway was only usable during the summer.

The place has an over-riding sense, even today, of extreme isolation, and no doubt before the marshes were drained in the eighteenth century it was often a true island.

During the 1530s the brothers of St Benet's Abbey undertook the work of restoring the rood screen of the Church of St Helens at Ranworth. The task was entrusted to Brother Pacificus who, in the early morning would row a small boat, with his dog in the prow, across from the Abbey to the Church and return in the late evening by the same route.

One evening upon his return to the Abbey, Brother Pacificus discovered to his horror that his brother monks had all been murdered. A broken man, he lived like a hermit for a while in the Abbey and when he died the locals buried him in the churchyard at St Helens. Sometimes of a morning when the mist is just rising, or on a quiet summers evening, a ghostly figure in a habit can still be seen, with a small dog standing in the prow of a boat; rowing across Ranworth broad back to the Abbey.

The ghost of the traitorous monk, who opened the Abbey gates to let in the Kings troops, is said to still haunt this old Abbey. The Abbey itself is said; on a summers evening, to revert back to it's former glory with torches lighting the early evening and the sound of chanting drifting on the still air of the broads at sunset.

If you’re on that part of the broads at sunset moor next to the ruin and wait, quietly.

Will the Abbey change? Will the faithful Brother Pacificus appear?

Or will the screams of a traitorous monk, nailed to the gates of the Abbey he betrayed and skinned alive by the troops he let in; echo across the still dark waters as the night closes in?

Ghostly Monks of Dragon Hall

Paranormal in Norwich, United Kingdom

Dragon Hall; the name itself stirs the imagination.

This medieval site is Grade 1 listed and one of the most important and stylish buildings in the history of Norwich.

Located close to a former Augustine friary the residual energy of Monks can still be felt in the lower cellars and old excavations in the bowels of the building.

As they walk the lower corridor their chanting can still be heard in the energy from a bygone age.

If that sounds scary then how much more would a ghost hunt at Halloween excite the senses? A number of guests were about to find out as they joined us at this recently refurbished building in the heart of Norwich, for its first ever paranormal investigation. With around a thousand years of habitation on this site who knew what they would encounter?

In the early 15th century the building was owned by Robert Toppes and was one of the great trading halls of Europe. During the 19th and 20th centuries Dragon Hall was home to pubs, shops and businesses. The land between the Hall and the river Wensum was a maze of poor quality housing. Eventually, 'Slum clearance' and industrial decline took its toll and the area was in danger of becoming derelict.

As guests entered the hall on Halloween weekend 2006, hand carved pumpkins and candle light set the scene for what was to become a nerve jangling night and after an excellent supper small teams were formed for an adventure into the paranormal.

Each team was assigned areas to investigate using scientific and metaphysical tools and after the spiritual protection ceremony the night’s proceedings began.

Laser thermometers and EMF meters were mixed with glass moving, table tipping, scrying and vigils in the dark with a video-cam on night vision but it was from the cellar and a mystical writing tool that the first heart stopping moment of the investigation came.

Everyone had just settled into their respective tasks when a scream, echoing from the cellar, filled the building. As soon as fingers had been placed on the ‘Planchette’ one of the participants was so overcome by fear that they were unable to contain the feelings welling up inside and had organisers and guests rushing to see what had happened.

Others experienced various unexplained events from the sound of horse’s hooves, the smell of hay and beer, lights turning off and on during the table tipping and a temperature drop of 5 degrees centigrade within the space of ten feet with no draft or open doors to account for it.

Light anomalies were picked up on the night cam and scrying in the mirror showed some strange and disturbing images on the face of some participants. Glass moving revealed a heartbroken family man with two children who had fallen on hard times and was evicted from one of the houses during a cold harsh winter.

Other Spirits from past eras were also picked up including a butcher, a monk and a small boy who had drowned in the river.

The investigation concluded with a ‘grande séance’ and closing protection to ensure none of the guests left with more than they had come with.

As for the person who screamed, they had been touched on the back of the neck by something unseen who then, through the Planchette, revealed itself as a priest, linked to a former monastery, who was angry that his space was being invaded.

Ghosts from the past, angry Spirits, or just the influence of Halloween?

You can judge for yourself. Visit Dragon Hall, stand quietly, alone in the cellar and see if the hairs on the back of your neck stand up!

Woodchester Mansion

Paranormal in West Country, United Kingdom

Woodchester Mansion is a Victorian mansion that was never completed and fully lived in. It was built by the freemason William Leigh and replaced a Georgian country house called Spring Park. Since his death in 1873 the Mansion has been the focus of investigations into its unusual symbology and hauntings.

Many sightings have been reported over the last two hundred years. Why the Mansion is so haunted no one knows for sure but one theory is that it stands on the site of three previous buildings and it is haunted by the ghosts of each of those structures. In 1902 a local vicar saw a strange apparition at the gates to the mansion and a few years later a phantom horseman was also seen on the drive.

But it is the Mansion itself that is the epicentre of hauntings. From the Tall Man of the Chapel to the elemental in the cellar, the Mansion has some of the most fearsome ghosts in England. Visitors have collapsed uncontrollably and been attacked by invisible forces. In the bathroom is the ghost of a man who often manifests to visitors as a floating head and nearby the ghost of an old woman likes to attack women by grabbing them in the dark.

Woodchester's cellar is, thought by many to be the most haunted part of the building. With its high vaulted ceiling and lack of light the cellar gives out a daunting atmosphere. Behind these many and varied manifestations, there seems to lurk one powerful, possibly elemental presence. On a number of occasions a figure, often described as a 'ragged dwarf' has been seen.

U.S. and Canadian soldiers once occupied part of the mansion during the Second World War and on a tour of the cellars I could distinctly smell TCP. Apparently medical supplies were once stored there but it’s hard to imagine the smell still lingers after 60 years, unless it was a residual memory from the past. The kitchen is also a place to be wary of; my wife was pushed to the floor by an unseen hand on our first visit.

I also heard the story of a redheaded woman who hanged herself or was hanged there. Details are unclear but in a picture taken by me on a disposable camera it appears that a red headed woman in a white flowing gown is still ‘hanging around’.

Death with a View (The Town House Hotel)

Paranormal in Norwich, United Kingdom

The Town House Hotel. Norwich.

Table 15. River view.

You turn to your dinner companion with a smile that suddenly freezes on your face when the glass you were about to drink from is thrown from the table by an invisible hand.

You stay the night and someone or something opens your bedroom door. You go to the washroom and the hairs on the back of your neck stand up as you feel the presence that no one can explain. Oh - and the other thing about this hotel……the reported ghost of a feared and iconic figure from 1960s London who died in room 4. Disrespect is not an option.

Twice we have held public paranormal investigations at this picturesque riverside hotel in Norwich, situated on a side water of the river Wensum and overlooking a small island. With superb views over the South West edge of the Norfolk broads it’s difficult to imagine that death (and a famous death at that) could mar this idyllic setting. There have been other deaths in the past, just as famous in their day but not in our era.

The site dates back to 1720 and was once a row of cottages which were later combined into one. It has been a hotel since 1930 but prior to that in 1841 it was owned by Edmund Cotman.

It is believed that he bought the house in an attempt to provide some relief to his ailing son John Sell Cotman (1782-1842) a famous son of Norwich and a member of the Norwich School of Painters. The view from the hotel formed the basis of his last painting (From my Father's House at Thorpe. 1842)

Our recent investigation uncovered a number of anomalies, from temperature fluctuations of up to 25 degrees F in room 4 where we used the Planchette, to unaccountable EMF meter readings and contact with a number of Spirits in room 19 and the corridors. Three separate groups picked up a young girl called Sarah with blonde hair who drowned in the river.

The Table Tipping in the bar area was a bit hit and miss, some groups got nothing at all and others had lots of movement, in particular when the name of the person who died in room 4 was mentioned.

The Glass moving on table 15 was more active, maybe because of the energy that has been known to move the drinking glasses of unsuspecting diners; however when the special name was mentioned the glass almost flew off the table and had to be caught to prevent it smashing onto the floor.

Coincidence? We don't know for sure.

All we do know is we had to be very careful not to be disrespectful of any of the resident Spirits just in case one of them was the man who, not too long ago, died in room 4.

The late Mr Reggie Kray.