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.