Been away for a while - Halloween night 2015

Hello again spook people.  I have not posted for quite some time I know.  We have not really been going out to hunt for Slimer and co with the PP management getting all married up and we did a hunt I forgot to blog about a bit back so I am not going to attempt to remember the details of it now.  It would come out all wrong and I like to report finding as accurately as I can.

So we came back with a bang on Halloween night at Knottingley town hall.  The hall is one of the most active places we have found in this local area.  There was plenty of fancy dress going on too.

The night started out with entertainment in the form of a Friday the 13th screening followed by food and a raffle.  The proceeds went to the Make a Wish childrens charity.  I have never watched the film before and found it more funny than scary.  It did keep me entertained though and the food after was wonderful.  The atmosphere was very friendly, relaxed and chatty, but when the hot pot and cake was gone and most of the fancy dress had been shed it was time to get down to the real stuff.

There were a lot of people there so we all gathered on the ground floor to kick off with a sit in the dark calling out.  We all spread out over the hall way and some in the side rooms.  I was in the dance hall.  While we were just calling out and listening a few people had various feelings and could hear little sounds.  The lights on the K2 were flashing a lot so I was told but I couldn't see it myself.  I felt an odd sensation in one spot on my back that I can't quite explain and then I went from being a comfortable temperature to quite quickly really very cold.  Susan the medium was picking up on a man and a dog but I can't recall the exact words about them.

We split in to three teams, one on each floor.  I was in team one on the top floor.  We did a human pendulum which did bring a few answers from a female spirit who worked in the building.  It worked with two members of the public but not with another.  We then tried a seance and I moved away from the table as I feel things better when away from other people.  I felt as though someone was stood near the doors and then that they moved closer to me but did not want to go over to the table.  Then they left.  As I may have said before, I do get these feeling from time to time but I am still unsure as to what they are.  Could be real, could be in my head.  I do believe there is something but I take quite a bit of convincing.  We also then tried some table tipping which did give a small result but nothing dramatic.  However the people around the table, all public, seemed to feel it was very real and it left them scratching their heads for an answer.  We ended the session out in the hall near the toilets where nothing much happened but there was a girl who kept feeling like something was messing with her hair.

Everyone came back together to have a cuppa and swap stories before heading out as two groups.  The energy seemed to be better in larger teams.  We headed down to the cellar where I spent the rest of the night.  We tried calling out but again had little response and then some table tipping with a stronger result but still nothing OTT.  We had public trying their hand at scrying with wax and crystal balls as well as using pendulums and a Ouija board.  We had another go with table tipping but got nothing.

After all the public had some more tea and cake they cleared out saying they had had a great night and some had seen or felt things that they couldn't explain.  For me the night was very flat and had little energy but that is the nature of ghost hunting.  You don't know what you will find and the spooks do not come to order.  We had some very strange things happen in that building before, but this time I didn't really find anything.

Later on, when it was just a few crew left, Mark saw something in the doorway.  It made him jump.  It was a very tall figure in a long black cloak or coat but it was a momentary, fleeting glimpse.  We gathered in the cellar for one last go at calling out.  Lindsay got very creeped out but nothing really came of it.  We had the Franks box on with what sounded like the odd reply but nothing really made too much sense.  

The night was fun as always but the spooks didn't come out to play.  It is a bit disappointing but as I said, you can't make it happen.  If you do make it happen then you are a theater company, not a ghost hunting company.  Forced results are pointless results.  I do still have some audio and video footage to look through but I am not expecting anything special.  If I do find anything I will get it posted up.

There is a crew only hunt coming up later this month.  I shall be sure to give you guys a write up on the results of that one.

The new venue - The RAFA club

Bit late getting this written up but better late than never as they say.

The RAFA club (RAF association) was a members only club during the war for service men and their partners.  The club still stands and is still trading, but it's many members have become aged and left this world, leaving low numbers of the original members and only a few newer members.  The building was home to a doctors surgery before it was the RAFA.  I have not done any digging as yet to find information on the building and the land as I thought knowing may affect the initial investigation, so I shall be doing the research soon and may post a report on the place.

We got settled in and went around baseline testing.  For those who don't know, this is a record of each room's temperature, both ambient and surface, humidity and EMF.  EMF (electromagnetic field) should normally be zero but you can find hot spots sometimes and if you walk around you may find places close enough to something electrical to set it off.  This is all noted as well as anything you can see that may affect the results, things like a draft, cracked window, hole in the ceiling (as there was there) creaky floor boards, that kind of thing.  I noticed that as we were doing this, there was one room I didn't like the feel of before I even opened the door.  I didn't really want to open the door, but I did anyway.  I really didn't like the room.

After baselines were taken we sat in the room where the Lions come to meet.  We had the modified baby monitor on and were getting sounds but could not quite be sure about feedback levels and had some debate about it.  It was decided to use it as a good old fashioned listening device and the sending unit was placed in a front room with a drum kit in it, so we named it the drum room (inventive I know, and this was the room I didn't like).  While the monitor was in this room we could hear sounds as though fabric was rubbing on the mic.  I wondered if it might actually be a breeze blowing as this was the room with a hole in the ceiling, but while the room was very cold, it didn't have a breeze you could feel.  The noise was constant and was then joined by another sound, a low bumping sound that was almost train like in rhythm.  This sound then continued on and was joined by a further more strange sound.  We could hear breathing.  Not too heavy, but it was as though someone was quite close to the mic, just breathing.  We called out but didn't get any replies, just these same sounds.  The room it had been placed in was locked and we had the key with us.  It was mentioned that it may be the sound of traffic outside but I have never heard traffic sound like that, and as I have a young child now and use a baby monitor at home, I have heard many traffic sounds come through, but that sound was very different.  That sound was more like when my son had stood up in his bed, reached over and grabbed the monitor and was playing about with it.

The monitor was moved to the toilets and it fell almost silent.  We had the slight sound of the mic being touched for a while but then it seemed to stop and we didn't hear it again.

We had a break and then went down to the bar area.  The Ouija board was set up and was very active.  I don't have my notes on all that happened, they were taken by mistake by one of the team, but I wouldn't want to say too much in detail yet anyway.  We had names and numbers coming through.  Service men and their wives, and also some who may have been related to it being the doctors.  The board just kept going and going, some conversation and then a goodbye, followed by large circles as another stepped up.  If you know me then you will know I don't have much faith in Ouija boards at all, but it was interesting to see one going as much as this.  Plus, there was a word used that I'm sure none of us knew.  Migmow.  The board had kept spelling out gibberish and had said they were laughing at us, so when this word came out we said that isn't a word, it said yes, so we asked if we looked it up it would be a real word, again it said yes.  Mark looked it up and there is an urban dictionary listing for migmo (without the w) "a word used to confuse others."  Given that the spirit had already said they were laughing at us and spelling out gibberish to take the micky, it seemed a fitting word to use.

I played some 40's/50's music on my record player, lit a candle, used my new crystal pendulum and took photos and video, but didn't really get too much from it.  The only thing I found with my video was that it looks as though the camera is constantly moving, juddering but was set down on a solid surface.  I thought it may have just been something to do with the camera, but on testing it out at home I didn't get the same result.

We didn't end up doing a lot of experiments that night but we did get to have a good look around and got some activity.  This place needs more investigation for sure.  I am convinced there is something there.  I tend to only really feel spirits properly when other people are not too close to me to distract me.  I have been in some creepy buildings, Newsham Park Hospital for instance.  I walked around in there with no problem, on my own, away from the group in a huge creepy abandoned asylum with no electricity.  But here I was, in a building the size of a large house, still in use with all the lights on but my goodness there was something there making me feel uneasy when the crew weren't close by.  I even heard the upstairs toilet doors moving, I thought it was Mark, but I went back down stairs and there he was, sitting with everyone else.

A new venue?

Tonight I am going to check out a new venue.  By new venue I mean a pretty old building with plenty of history in it but as far as we can tell, no one has ever hunted in it before.  If this goes well and there is activity in there as reports suggest then it may even become a regular place to investigate for us.  We have been thinking of setting up workshops there to introduce people to the world of divining and the tech side of the hunt so that may be sorted out tonight too.

I shall have a report from tonight's venue and any information on these workshops up by tomorrow.....provided I don't end up in the wars tonight ;)

Come hunt with me

Pontefract Town Hall is a very beautiful old building.  It has stood since 1785 and was the Police station for the town 150 years ago.  We are told that this is home to many, many spooks so I am very excited to get in there and get hunting.

If you want to come and have a go 8pm til 3am, Pontefract Paranormal are selling tickets for Saturday 6th June for £35.  This includes use of all kinds of equipment and full instructions and help in how to get the most from your hunt.  Any other ideas are always welcome too.

Click here for tickets

Knottingley Town Hall 6/2/15

I had been told that the hall normally has quite a bit of activity but the first time I was here with just the crew on my interview day nothing much happened really.  I was very keen to get back in and see what happened this time.  The hall did not let us down, we had some very interesting results.

We split in to two groups and started in the cellar and the on the 2nd floor, leaving an empty 1st floor between us to reduce sound from each other interfering with our findings.  My group was in the cellar first which is a large room with a door then leading to a corridor.  This then has other smaller rooms sprouting off from it used for storage of various items.  We used the last room at the end to the left, with the room to the right's doorway just opposite.  The first thing we did was to stand in a circle and to do a grounding.  We then had some calling out and lights out time.  Our medium for the evening Susan was picking up on a few things, one being that she felt that someone had hung down there and that there was at one time lower levels under the cellar.  She also picked up on monks and some kind of injuries to someones shoulder.

As we were stood there in the dark, many of us felt that there was someone watching us from the opposite doorway.  There glimpses of shadows and shapes but I don't think there was anything too amazing.  We put some light on and split again in to two groups, one in the same room with the Ouija board and one down the hall with pendulums and dowsing rods.  I stayed with the Ouija board.

There was a lot of various bits came through and I can't even remember it all.  I do remember a young girl and then a man telling us to 'f**k off go away'.  As some of this conversation was going on, the EMF meter was going crazy.  I got some video of it flashing away.

One thing we had a lot of down there was noise from above.  It sounded like heavy tables being dragged on laminate flooring but the 1st floor is mostly carpet.  The dance studio has hard flooring but I don't recall anything heavy in there, plus none of us would be so disrespectful to drag anything around on the beautiful floor of their studio.  We guessed that the sounds must have been made on the 2nd floor and just sounded like they were right over us.  It is an old building so the sound could just carry through.  However at break time when both groups came together for tea on the 2nd floor we both said 'You lot were making some right racket, what the hell were you doing?'  No one could recall doing anything that would make that noise and both groups said that no one had split off and wondered away, yet both groups had heard lots of loud scraping.

We swapped over for the second session, they went off to the cellar and we stayed on the 2nd floor, again keeping the empty floor between us.

We started off with a human pendulum.  We stood in a circle with a girl in the middle.  Then Jane and I stood in front of and behind her.  Susan asked questions and the girl sway forward for yes and backward for no.  Susan and another lady said they could see a mans face showing over the top of the girls face.  The man coming through seemed to be a bad presence, controlling and dominant.  The girl in the middle said she was having trouble opening and then closing her eyes.  She collapsed and burst in to tears and it took a while to calm her.  We had a second pendulum circle with different people and some answers coming through but the previous one was still distracting a few of us.

We played some music on my record player for a while, wanting to try and provoke activity.  I did feel as though people were coming in through the doors of the hall, dressed up and ready to dance.  We shut off the music and sat around the table ready for a seance.  As we sat around there were sounds from all over the room.  Lots of little clicks, taps and creeks which you could argue away with it being an old building but the volume and frequency of them was very unusual.  The dragging noises were back too right below us and people from the cellar kept coming up every now and then to check it wasn't us as they were hearing it down there too.  The strangest sound we heard though was a sound of rushing foot steps towards us.  It came behind me and scared one girl so much she jumped up from her chair and jumped on to her friends lap.  I think we all heard it.

As well as this one of our crew seemed to just fall unconscious at the table and took a long time to come back.  Then a male member of the public said he kept feeling an anger running through him, but it wasn't his anger.   

We all came back together for a break and still no one could figure out how we were all hearing the dragging sound or where it could be coming from.

After the break we all took different rooms on the 1st floor.  A Ouija board, but didn't really bring many results but our time sat in the court room was strange.  A few up on the judges stand said they felt like they had choices to make and that other people in the room didn't agree but they were all wrong.  I had been feeling little tickles all over the sides of my face and back of my neck all night, but in this room it was very intense.

I can't recall much else from the night, I have had problems getting this written with my lap top dying on me so it's been a week since it happened.  I have a small voice recorder on the way in the post now to document everything as it is happening, so I hope to be able to bring back all the goings on with me.

The first Fryston woods investigation report

A second hunt team doesn't now seem likely.  There is a lot going on right now and the weather is against us.  So I have decided to just release the post about what happened in the woods that night.




Fryston woods has a huge amount of history.  I couldn't even begin to try and recall it all.  The grand Fryston Hall once stood on the land and has left behind what is now known as the white wall, a section of wall which now only runs along the ground.  It was also an area used by the Romans and a whole chariot was excavated there, only one of two in the country that was found complete.  There are also links to the Druids and going way back in time, used to be a beach along the coast line.

I was very excited to get out there, even though I have lived around this area my whole life I do not recall ever going to the woods.  I have heard ghost stories and people talking about the white wall for as long as I can remember.  I think this area and the Mary Pannell woods get mixed up in these stories.  I was always told that the white wall was Mary Pannell's house.  The story I always heard was that she was said to be a witch that was burned alive at her home in the woods by the locals.  The truth is that she wasn't really anything to do with the white wall, that is a different area to where she lived.  She has got a slight link to the hall that stood here, but it was not her home.  The basics of her story can be found in the links below.

On entering the woods in the dark it did feel quite strange.  I wasn't sure if anything would happen, but I had my fingers crossed.  When we first set up and settled in to the spot near the wall it did feel a little like we were being watched.  Like someone was around us, looking at us through the trees.  When the K2 meter was turned on it instantly started to flash brighter than my Christmas tree.  It was going crazy and wild.  We made sure all phones were off but it just kept on going.  For the K2 to register any electro-magnetic impulse from a device, it has to be almost on top of it, but it was reading it like mad just sat on a table in the middle of us with nothing anywhere close to it.  As well as this, Steve who runs events in the woods saw a man stood not too far from us.  He said it is only the second time anything has happened to him that has sent the shivers down his spine.  He said at first he thought it was someone out walking a dog, however they seemed to have no torch and there was now sign or sound of a dog.  The figure just appeared and then vanished with no sound of foot steps.

The K2 kept starting and stopping all night and when it went it really went.  The lights were dancing like crazy and were likened to a graphic equalizer, like someone speaking.  It kept lighting up all the way in to the red light at the top end and staying there sustaining a strong reading.

Steve was worried about using a Ouija board, so we used the small table we had with just a glass and we asked yes no questions.  Angie had her dowsing rods too.  Through the rods and the K2 we were told that spirits were there and we should cross the wall to speak to them.  We went over and as soon as we tried with the glass on the table we had instant very strong movement.  Angie and Shez both had the name Mary in mind and the glass and rods confirmed it.  Angie also got that she was 34.  We knew it would not be Mary Pannell and Steve looked on Google to try and find who it might have been.  I wouldn't recommend doing that while still investigating but he wanted to look.  He found a Mary Constance and said a few things about her, her husbands name, Rev Benjamin Hemsworth.  The spirit we were speaking with said she was called Mary but didn't have a last name and was without a child and unmarried.  When the information came from Google, this changed and she agreed that this was her.  I find this very unreliable but do not rule out the idea that we may still have been conversing with a spirit for real.

Something that I did notice though, was how I had felt a little apprehensive before, but once we started talking with Mary I felt very calm.  I felt relaxed and almost welcome like I had been invited for a chat.  I also feel as though I have been invited back.

Mary told us that she had never had anyone contacting her in this way before and that she was enjoying talking to us.  This does beg the question though: with the reputation the woods and the wall have, has no one ever done this before?  I think someone must have been down there with a Ouija board or something at some point.  Maybe they have but just didn't get through to Mary.  Who knows.

The movements came and went but tended to be very strong and definite.  Shez and Angie both had the glass moving when they were the only one touching it, but it wouldn't happen for me.  We tried back at the other side of the wall where we had set up before, but didn't really get anything so we went back to where the reactions had been good.  Unfortunately nothing much was happening now and we started to ask if anyone else was there instead.  Steve and Chris got on the glass and started to ask for Benjamin.  It took a few moments but they did get some reactions.  He would not agree on yes and no positions and kept pushing the glass off the table.  The K2 was also going like crazy while this was happening.  Steve felt very freaked out as he said he could feel the glass pushing against him when he could see that Chris was hardly touching it.  This is also when I saw something I can't explain.

As I was watching them, I saw that their hands were still, their fingers did not move at all but the glass moved.  I watching it slide across the table under both of them.  I could see no place where any force could have come from, it really did just move beneath them.  Angie said she saw it too, and then just as I was trying to process what I had just seen, I saw it again.  I can think of no way that this was possible other than it being the influence of something unseen.

Things were starting to wind down after this so we took the hint and decided to pack up for the night.

Research

After the investigation I did take to the net to search. I did find Mary Constance, but Constance is her middle name.  We had asked if that was her surname and she said yes, but it had been Duke and became Hemsworth.  She came from Wiltshire.  We had thought she had moved in to Fryston Hall with Benjamin and we saw her as a grand woman.  She was a grand woman and a very artistic woman, however it was not Fryston Hall she lived in, it was Monk Fryston Hall.  This is a different place and is still standing and in use.  Also, Angie had placed her at 34 years old.  I can't see a birth date, but her wedding date is 1894 and her death date is 1940, with 46 years between her wedding and her death we can see she was clearly much older than 34.

Conclusion

It could have been a mix of our imaginations and subconscious actions causing the results we saw, but I still have no explanation for the movement of the glass I saw twice with my own eyes.  The K2 had no reason to keep going as mental as it did either.  Although the information from Google may have thrown off the investigation with suggestion, there is still every possibility that we were speaking with someone else by the name of Mary.  It is a very common name and if it is true that it was her first time making contact with the living, she may have been over excited and maybe a little confused.

Further investigation of the area is needed to try and confirm our results.  I have suggested a separate PP group go and see what they find and then we can compare results to see what happens.  That is why this report has been posted so long after the investigation we did, so our results are not seen by the second group to go in.

I can't wait to see what they come up with and to get back in there with different equipment.  I get the feeling we would do very well down there with a little EVP.

Some links

About Fryston Hall

Monk Fryston Hall History

Fryston Memories website

Mary Pannell