On
Upon our arrival to the nursery Dave and Jacky took us on a tour of the house. It is lovely with Victorian fireplaces and other features. Almost immediately in one of the cloakrooms, Emma felt something tug at the back pocket of her trousers. She looked really shocked for a minute.
We wandered around the many rooms of the house. In one room there was a slide for the children. Nettie immediately recoiled and said that she did not like this room. I felt fine in there. I tried to link in with what Nettie was feeling but I could not feel anything. But poor Nettie felt so awful in that room, she quickly left. Pete said that there was a dark feeling to this room and he did not like it either.
I thought I heard voices upstairs on the third floor but I knew that there was nobody up there as we were all accounted for on the second floor. We climbed the stairs to the third floor and I immediately felt a different atmosphere. It was not a negative feeling but I felt that we were being watched. Pete said that he had been looking for marbles during our tour of the house as he had heard marbles rolling and hitting each other. I thought that Dave was going to pass out with shock as previously he had been told by the nursery staff that as she entered the building in the morning, she sometimes heard the sound of marbles rolling and bumping into the skirting boards. Only Jacky and Dave knew of this so we were all impressed with Pete’s information.
As we stood in the top room, Dave said that he could feel a
presence in there. I could also feel this presence and as I said previously, I
felt like the presence was watching us. Pete said that voices had been heard in
here. I was surprised by this as I had heard voices from the third floor while
standing on the second floor landing area. Pete said “even the children have
heard voices.” Jacky said that she had a dragging feeling and she had the
sensation of heaviness. Pete said that there was a young female in that room
who had been heard singing. She presents herself in her mid-teens and she has
“the voice of an angel.” Dave said that that his legs and back felt strange.
Dave often gets a feeling in his back which he feels when the presence of a
spirit draws near. There was a small door on the third floor landing. Loretta
and I likened it to ‘an
As we stood inside the rooms upon the third floor, Pete said that he could see children playing in period costumes. He dated the time-frame as the mid 1800’s, possibly earlier.
Pete said that he does not think that Dave and Jacky had been told everything as he feels that staff members have been hearing voices and giggling and discovering that it was not the voices of their charges. Also Pete feels that when the children are having ‘their nap,’ staff hear the running of little feet and they investigate who it is that is misbehaving and to their astonishment, all the children are actually asleep or just lying quietly. We decided to go downstairs. As Emma walked out of the room on the third floor she distinctly heard a female child’s voice say “don’t leave me.”
We went downstairs again and had a look at the cellar. Pete did not like the cellar at all. Emma, Loretta and I did not feel anything of a spiritual nature in the cellar.
At this point, two staff members came into the building to see how we were getting on. The lady that experiences the marble rolling was there. She told us that she was the only person to experience this and was impressed with Pete that he had connected with it.
We went into the kitchen. This was a lovely, warm and comforting room and we decided to use this as our team room. We split into three teams. Emma, Loretta and I decided that we would start upstairs. We went into one of the rooms on the third floor and situated ourselves so we could see into the other room also. I felt quite spooked but I did not feel that there was anything negative in there. Emma and Loretta agreed and Loretta said that “her hackles were up.” I saw an orb with my naked eye fly past Emma and as I exclaimed this, Emma took a photo in front of her. Strangely, the camera had captured an orb which was the same size and height as I had seen. I am not a great fan of orbs as I think that most orbs captured on digital cameras can be explained as a dust particle, moisture or an insect. But I was left feeling unsure about this orb after visually seeing it with my own eyes and then Emma capturing a photograph of what I perceive may be what I saw.
We sat on the floor and started to ‘call out.’ I still felt that I was being watched, mainly from the adjoining room and I felt that the atmosphere was closing in. My left hand started to tingle which is what happens to me when I feel that spiritual energy is drawing close. We were quiet for a moment and heard a scraping noise. Emma took some photographs and the photographs that she captured in the adjoining room all had orbs in them. The photographs in the room in which we were sat did not contain orbs.
We ‘called out’ again. We heard a strange noise and I thought that it sounded like the small cupboard door opening. (When I looked later at the cupboard door, it was closed).
I looked up and noticed that the flag was moving. I thought that this was due to a natural breeze but when I looked at a wind-chime very close to the flag, the wind-chime was completely still. I looked around the room and everything else which was suspended and hung from the ceiling was not moving either. I thought this was slightly odd and I mentioned it to the others. I asked if it was spirit that was moving the flag, could they move it with a stronger motion. We all agreed that the movement of the flag increased and moved more. It really did look as if the movement was controlled and not just fluttering in a natural breeze.
We ‘called out’ again. We had placed our fingers around a small table and we heard a definite knock on the table, on Emma’s side. After a while, there were some other bangs and knocks which seemed to be coming from underneath the table. Additionally, we heard a scratching under the table and it really did feel like it was little fingers making the scratching sound.
Emma said that she saw a double flash in the adjoining room and as I looked up, I thought that I saw a shadowy movement in there. We all still felt that we were being watched.
The atmosphere felt electric and like something was brewing. There were a couple more taps on the table. Loretta said that she felt as if there was a larger, etheric body growing and over-taking our bodies in size. As I looked across at Emma, I saw a little arm go around Emma’s shoulders and a tiny hand rest on her shoulder for a second. As soon as I realised what I was seeing, it had disappeared. I felt quite shaken. I told Emma what I had seen and she said she felt like she wanted to cry. As we sat there, the energy around us seemed to be dying down.
We decided that we would ‘call out’ again. We wondered if there would be any spirits of the servants of the house. We felt that one of these rooms were the original nursery and perhaps the other room was sleeping quarters for the servants who cared for the children when this building was a private house.
Loretta told us to look into the adjoining room. She said that she had seen a door with a doorknob that wasn’t physically there. We all looked out of the doorway of the room we were sat in and through the open doorway of the other room. I clearing saw a light moving in the doorway and Emma said that she could also see it. We were suddenly all really shocked and riveted to the spot as we could all see a shimmering light moving towards us and coming towards the doorway. The temperature seemed to plummet and the room was icy cold even though it had seemed warm enough moments before. The three of us could see sparkly lights and Emma said that it was as if we had put glitter onto our eyelashes. It was exactly like that. As we watched transfixed, it came out of the doorway of the other room and just stayed on the landing. We could not move or hardly breathe. We were both scared and elated. It then transformed into an outline of haze, like a heat haze and then it really sparkled. After a while, we asked if it could come nearer. I could hear my heart pounding. It didn’t come any closer but it became a bit misty, small swirling dashes of mist. I was shocked at seeing this image so clearly and Emma and Loretta were stunned also. Eventually, Emma took a photograph but the image she captured showed nothing. This was disappointing. After this, the image we could see seemed to retreat slightly and as it moved back we could all see something else which looked as if it was peering around the door. I saw a couple of sparkly lights moving and Emma said that she could see them too. We captured a couple of these lights on Camcorder.
We all heard a sound which sounded like ‘ooohhh.’ We were amazed. Emma asked if a spirit would come forward and hold her hand. Emma reached out her hand towards the spiritual energy and then exclaimed that she could not see the end of her hand. I could see what she meant by this. It was strange.
After a while, we felt the energy fading away and we realised that we could see nothing now apart from the landing and the room. We also all realised that the room felt warm again.
We left the third floor and investigated the second floor. We did not experience anything strange on the second floor. We returned downstairs to the kitchen and had a drink with the other teams. We did not mention our visual experience with them. (Later at the end of the investigation, we were shocked when Jacky’s team had experienced an almost identical visual energy as us. They had no idea of our experience and had told us about their experience which occurred after ours See Jacky’s report).
We decided to hold our next séance in the cellar. I did not hold much hope of anything occurring in here as I had felt nothing during our walk-round. We all felt the same about this although we were aware that Pete had not liked the cellar so we hoped that we were wrong. It was colder in the cellar but probably naturally so. Pete had asked us to record anything we heard, felt or saw in the cellar so he was obviously hopeful for us.
We stood in the cellar, ‘calling out’ but not feeling much. Suddenly, Loretta asked if anyone had heard a noise like someone clearing their throat. Emma had heard it and thought it was me. I had heard it and thought it was Emma. We wondered if perhaps something was down there with us. All of a sudden, something vibrated on my arm. There was nobody touching me and I was not leaning on anything. Our mobile phones were back in the kitchen. It was very strange and had made me jump considerably.
We knew that something in the cellar had already scared Dave and we asked if it would frighten us as well. I had an incredible feeling of naughtiness all of a sudden and also felt that I was tipping back. We heard some clicks which we could not work out the origin.
Emma said that she had seen a light with her own eyes which had a red glow to it. I heard a knock. I asked for more knocking and we heard another knock and then another. I started to look through the Camcorder as it was recording and became really frightened that I would see something really scary. We then heard four taps close to us. The sound was metallic, like something tapping tin. I asked any spirits there, if they could bang the drum and Emma said that she immediately heard five taps. Emma felt an energy right by her.
Suddenly, I felt a massive cold draught by my right ear as is someone blew on me. It was so sudden and strong that I really jumped. I then felt something on the right hand side of my head, which was tickling me. I asked Emma if she could see anything black and crawly on my head as I was afraid that it was a spider. Emma said that she could see nothing on my head but she and Loretta started laughing as I was shaking my head trying to get whatever it was, off! While we were all laughing, I felt something very cold touch my face. Emma got her glasses stuck on her head and we all dissolved into giggles over this. We usually find that when we laugh during a paranormal investigation, things seem to happen as we believe that laughter raises the energy thus giving spirits the power and strength to make physical contact with us. While we were still laughing my Camcorder captured a light anomaly that I thought looked amazing. (Since reviewing the light anomaly on a big screen at home, I am less hopeful that its origin is paranormal but I will publish it on the website so that people can draw their own conclusions).
Nothing of further significance occurred in the cellar after this so we moved into the Minnows room where the marbles are heard rolling. I noticed a baby-monitor and I switched it on. I didn’t know where the other monitor was so but as the first monitor was making a ‘white noise,’ I left it on to see if any spirit voices would come through. We listened to the ‘white noise’ and ‘called out’ requesting that any spirit people use the noise to speak to us. Every time we requested this, the ‘white noise’ became considerably louder as if it was answering us. But we did not hear any voices.
We heard footsteps just outside the room and I went outside to see if there were any team members walking around outside. It was Dave. I returned to the room. The temperature seemed to plummet and then there appeared to be the sound of footsteps coming through on the ‘white noise.’ This was strange as the other baby-monitor was not switched on so it was definitely not the sound of the team walking around upstairs. We asked any spirits present if they could make the sound of rolling marbles. This did not happen but the door handle to the room rattled immediately. I quickly jumped up and opened the door but there was nobody there. I called upstairs to ask Jacky if all the team members were with her. She answered that they were. This was impressive as the door handle really rattled as if by human hand. I started looking around the rooms downstairs and found the other baby-monitor. I switched it on and spoke through it to Emma and Loretta who were still in the Minnows room. I went back to the room. I chatted with Emma and Loretta and we suddenly heard a sound like marbles clicking when they hit each other. We were excited by this.
We sat there a while and then the other members of the team joined us. Pete and Nettie were leaving. The rest of us decided to sit in the kitchen and discuss the night’s events. As we were chatting together, we heard running footsteps from above. This happened several times and there was also a considerable bang. We were alone in the house so we found these audibles impressive.
On behalf of Twilight Shadows Paranormal, I would like to thank Arlene for allowing us to investigate her lovely nursery. We had a wonderful time.
Written by: Maria Williams
JACKY'S REPORT
On
When we arrived we were surprised at the size of the building which was formally a private residence before it became a children's nursery. Before we even started our tour of the building Emma exclaimed that she felt her trouser pocket being tugged.
Before we started our investigation, Dave was told by a member of staff that when she went to let herself in, in the morning, she heard marbles being rolled along the floor as if being played. Naturally this alarmed her as she automatically thought that someone had arrived early but when she let herself in, the rolling sound stopped and there would be nothing there. While we were having our mini tour Pete felt sure that marbles had been heard rolling along the floor down on the ground floor and also a female possibly in her teens had been heard singing and was described as sounding like an angel. With this revelation Dave looked very startled. He had only just found the information out about the marbles before we started the investigation that night and to that point, only I knew about them.
We decided to use the kitchen area as the team hub and split into 2 main teams and one small sub team. Team 1 was made up of Maria, Loretta and Emma, team 2 was made up of myself, Pete, Chris and Dave and in team 3 was Nettie and Ethan. Team 1 went to the top floor to start their investigation, team 2 started in the cellar and team 3 went off to explore the other rooms.
We descended down the steps to the cellar which we noted looked a lot older than the rest of the building. On the very bottom of the steps there is slate set into the stone that I noticed nearly everyone walked over being careful not to tread on it. We turned the lights out and after a brief period of quiet we started to call out. Dave felt very uncomfortable being stood in the left hand corner of the room and moved towards the doorway. Pete went to stand where Dave had been stood instead. I noticed that as Pete was talking, he had started to cough. I also noticed that Dave had started to cough too. Dave said that he felt like his chest was being crushed and Pete likened it to being in sand. Pete said that he had picked up on 2 male spirits. One he felt had died from asphyxiation possibly from a gas leak in the cellar and Pete also felt that this accident was witnessed by a male that was already in the spirit world. Chris and I could smell incense but Dave and Pete could smell a sour odour. During our time in the cellar, two of the team did feel that they had come up with a few names but these are yet to be verified.
After our time in the cellar, we decided to move to the Minnows room what we now refer to as the marble room. Again we got ourselves comfortable, turned the lights off and sat quietly for a brief time. I was filming with my camera and caught an orb almost immediately. Orbs are light anomalies that some believe are the first stages of a spirit manifestation. Pete said that he sensed two female children, one aged four years old and the other six years old and he got the names Emily and Mabel. He felt that they were from around 1865 and dressed in traditional Edwardian clothing of tunic/smock dress. I tried calling out and Pete said that he could see the girls were attracted to my voice and were sitting on the floor right at my feet like I was telling them a story. He suggested I sing a few nursery rhymes. First of all I tried Jack and Jill but apparently they did not recognise this. I then tried singing Ring O Roses, The Mulberry bush and then had an idea. As Pete had tuned into the two girls energy, he had witnessed a scene that he said filled him with warmth. He saw a scene of the girls playing in the room we were now in, it was Christmas time and they were bathed in a lovely warm glowing light that was cast from the roaring fire which they were sat in front of. I remembered from when I was in infant school a Christmas Carol which I sang. The carol was ‘Here We Come A Wassailing.’ Pete said that he was suddenly overcome with emotion. This was a rhyme that their mother sang to them. He felt that the children wouldn't have seen their mother much and most of the childcare would have been from a Nanny. He said that this was a family that was very well off and it would have been expected of the mother to socialise, which Pete felt the mother was not keen to do. He also felt that the room, in which we sat, would have been the father’s study.
After a break we decided to move to the very top floor. While we were in the room it didn't take long for activity to start up. Almost as soon as we settled down we heard a large bang and a cupboard door flew open. This made us all jump. We then noticed that there were some crayons on the floor spilling out of a pot. We just couldn't remember them being there before and what seemed even stranger was the crayons seemed to splay out of the pot even further but we we were watching them the whole time but we didn't see them move. We also heard scratching noises that sounded like the wooden chairs moving ever so slightly against the carpet.
We started to call out to see if we could get any paranormal activity happen. I felt like there was some energy building and felt it was female. Pete and Nettie were sat next to the doorway and I asked Pete if he could sense anyone materialising. When he asked me why, I said that I could see a figure stood just behind him. I can only describe as a very hazy outline of a person approx just over 5 ft tall and I felt that it would be female. Pete said that he had gone very cold and said that he felt that this was a watcher. He also felt that with all the energy from the children playing, that things would be seen or moved but either this would go unnoticed or unmentioned for fear of being made fun of. He also felt that spirit children would be seen but not necessarily noticed.
Pete also wondered if there may have been a fire in the building at one point or another.
As it was getting late, we had to bid farewell to Pete and Nettie.
We did continue for a short while after with not much else witnessed upstairs by us but we did notice a very strong smell of tobacco smoke and a very sudden drop in temperature in the nursery room on the ground floor and whilst Myself, Dave, Maria, Loretta and Emma were chatting over the nights events in the kitchen we heard several sets of footsteps overhead and also a male voice was heard upstairs on the next floor. Maria also captured a stunning light anomaly on Video Camera in the Cellar.
We would like to thank Arlene Caddow for permission to investigate such a wonderful building and I would also like to thank the team for giving up their Friday evening and making the investigation a great success.
Written by: Jacky Skidmore
