Whole Team - Victorian Street
We started the night with all guests and staff together in the area of the Victorian Street. We carried out our introduction held by Chris and then followed with our white light protection, held by Cam.
We then proceeded with a call out. We heard footsteps and shuffling. Our team member Robbie saw a shadow person next to the carriage which was also witnessed by other guests. We also heard what sounded like chains being moved or clattering together. We asked if we had been joined by a spirit who had been held in the prison for a crime. The area where we were standing would have been the exercise yard. Was the spirit residual and going about their exercise time?
We continued with our call out and Cam heard footsteps behind her, as she turned around she saw a shadow figure stood right in front of her, of shoulder height to her. This was confirmed by one of the guests who also saw the figure.
We all heard what sounded like ‘children’ playing and talking.
One of the guests said she felt like we were in the presence of a female lady spirit, with the connection to a ‘pocket watch’.
We went with this and asked spirit if she was female and if she was linked to a pocket watch. We heard a series of taps. We repeated the questions but asked for a response of 1 tap for No, and 2 taps for Yes. We received a ‘Yes’ response to both questions.
Cam suggested that perhaps one of the little shops in the Victorian Street had a pocket watch in it. We all checked the windows and sure enough, there was a little shop with pocket watches in the window.
We moved to the area near the little shop and the carriage at the other end of the street, where one of the guests had seen 2 figures. One of child height. We placed a K2 on the floor near to where they were seen and called out.
We received responses in the form of loud taps from the carriage area. One of the guests mentioned the name ‘Gertrude’. We went with this and when we asked if this was indeed their name, a few of us heard an awful noise come from the stairwell. We weren’t allowed up the stairs to investigate the upper levels so we can’t identify what this could have been.
Cam took around 10 of the guests to the area which was a small school classroom and police station with the cell.
We didn’t receive any activity when in the classroom.
In the police station cell, we received quite a bit of unexplained activity.
Half of the group were sat on the prison bed in the cell, and the rest of the group were stood very still on the other side of the cell door, which were bars.
We heard a lot of footsteps from within the same room. Not heavy footsteps though, they were quite delicate but heavy enough for us to feel them in the floor. We also had responses to Yes/No questions in the form of taps and also a scent wafted passed us which then disappeared.
We put all the male guests in the cell and closed the door. We had a few responses but when all of the females were in the cell area, this was when we had the most unexplained activity.
We were calling out and all of a sudden we heard very loud, heavy and quick footsteps come towards the cell area. The area also lit up.
We didn’t have torches on and one of the male guests went outside to check that it wasn’t another team member of guest from the other group walking past. It was not, they were nowhere near us.
We didn’t get any more activity from in the cell.
We moved back to the Victorian Street, just outside of the police station and we all heard footsteps and shuffling. We also saw a figure moving about quite slowly and heard what sounded like an old man. One of the guests said the name George. Was this an elderly man who was called George?
Chris and his guests - Condemned Cell & Hanging room
Chris and his small group experienced cold spots & movement in the corner next to the coat stand. Guest's seen movement on the other side of a locked door along with movement coming from other side. Guest's picking up on sadness and potential gentlemen lurking in the corridor.
Chris and his guests - Victorian Street
Chris and his guests carried out a Human Pendulum. They encountered a male spirit who gave the name called George. Was this George who Cam’s group had also encountered?
George communicated with Chris and his guests that he worked in one of the shops along with a coachman for the carriage in the middle of the street. Wasn't aware he had passed but was willing to help us.
Alan, Kathryn and Rebecca’s group – Cells Area
We took our guests right to the bottom of the prison wing to the area that has been set up like a 1960’s street. The guests spread out across the area, as well as Alex, one of the curators at the museum who would be with our group for the evening.
A guest immediately picked up on the image of an older gentleman who was a solider, he was wearing a grey uniform and a round brimmed tin hat, he had a gun slung on his back and was stood next to a box of ammunition. The overriding impression was that he was part of the artillery unit. The guest said the name Richard/ Richards as his name and he did not believe that the war was over and he still had to be on guard. There was some debate to which was he was still on guard for due to the colour and description of the uniform, but Alex informed us later that prisoners from other armed forces had been held there at the prison so he may not have been in the English army at all. This gentleman’s energy stepped back and this allowed two little girls to come forward by the names of Emily and Alice, they were young and wearing matching dresses. Despite all this information being provided by the guests we did not have any hits on the pieces of equipment that we had dotted around the room. There was however a lot of shadow movement reported when speaking about the gentleman that was with us at the start.
The group decided to move further back along the corridor towards the cells, Kathryn took half the group into one of the larger cell rooms and conduct a human pendulum, one of our guests called Pam was chosen to go into the middle of the circle and Kathryn joined her to support her and ask questions. We were able to establish that we were talking to a gentleman called William, who was imprisoned on the jail around 1690’s. He had managed to escape at one point but was caught and brought back to the jail. He had had two sons by his first wife, George and Edward, no name for the wife and they lived in the city. He was imprisoned with his second wife who was called Charlotte and they had a daughter while they were locked up also called Charlotte, his daughter unfortunately died of plague at a young age in the jail. His brother also called George was imprisoned as well but was able to pay off his debt and leave were as William was unable to and died there of old age. He was there as he had a very bad gambling problem and lost everything they had when William was caught trying to fix fights or matches using animals. During this session William also told us they he didn’t like the Jailer called Richard, who would beat the prisoners but wouldn’t hurt the women or children. Richard was still in the jail too. William also recognised Alex who worked there and like to follow him around when he was at work.
During this session the spirit of a little scotty dog was picked up on but the dog didn’t belong to William and he could not see it.
We had placed a music box on the room next to us, a cell of a similar size and twice William was able to go next door at set it off for us when asked to do so. When Alan came back with the small group he had been with to join back with the rest of us, the music box was going off constantly. It was William. He did not like Alan as he reminded him of the jailer Richard and he was trying to scare him away from the room.
Kathryn and a number of guests saw a small shadow, of a child, run past the door way and past the open window of the cell in the corridor away from us. William confirmed it was his daughter Charlotte. Alan had taken a group to the cells and they spread out to explore the individual rooms. One guest (Paul) had already had a very strange experience in the cell that had previously housed an inmate called William Hartley. Paul had an overwhelming sense of sadness and said he had never experienced anything like it and could not shake it off.
At the start of the evening, Paul had been quite open about being a sceptic, so this was a new experience for Paul. Alan and Paul decided to go back to this cell and do a 2 person vigil. Paul and Alan sat on the floor at each end of the room with a K2 meter in the centre. Again, Paul had an overwhelming sense of sadness and appeared to connect to the spirit of William Hartley. Although there was no interaction with the K2, we got the odd tap next to the cell window after asking out. At one stage both Alan and Paul sensed spirit was with us and the room went extremely dark. We were then joined by another guest who sat in the corner as we called out. Paul appeared to be receiving messages from William and at one stage Paul kept saying “it's all about his kids he doesn't want to leave his kids”. On three separate occasions the room appeared to go extremely dark and this coincided with Paul feeling very emotional and upset. Paul explained that he had sensed William was being hung for something he had done, but hadn’t wanted to be involved.
When we spoke to the curator Alex, he told us the story about William Hartley who had been a Luddite and had been executed along with many others for a famous crime that he did not want to be involved in. He was a single parent and his kids were left with nothing.
We then headed for a break.
Cam, Chris, Robbie and guests – Cell Area
Upon placing the rem bear in the Victorian cell, we received numerous responses whom we believe we were communicating with a female spirit near the window in the cell.
One guest picked up on sadness & seeing shadows moving directly in front of her as she did a Lone Vigil in one of the cells.
We attempted a bit of role play. Chris was the Jailer and was shouting to spirits that they needed to be back in their cells but this didn’t bring didn't bring any responses to our questions.
We placed the music box in one of the cells but this wasn’t triggered.
We received the name Richard come through on the ‘Portal’ app on Cam’s phone which was confirmed through called out questions, with a series of taps.
We decided to move the ‘Dick Turpins’ cell. We had half of the guests in the cell with the door closed and the rest on the other side of the door with the portal spirit box.
We didn't have many responses from the portal spirit box but it did malfunction at the start of the session. Chris had to take it out of the area & reset it due to thickness of the walls.
One of the guests told us that his real name was ‘Palmer’ and that he was enjoying the acknowledgement. However, he wasn’t giving us much activity so we decided to switch it up and call out to other spirits. We soon started to get responses from him. It appears he doesn’t like being ignored.
One of the girls felt a connection to Wendy our K2 doll. The doll only triggered when she was asking the questions, which ranged from amber to red.
A lady was also picked up on during a human pendulum that was deported but couldn't understand as this was the male cells & exercise yards.
Cam had placed the rem-pod in the doorway of one of the cells at the start of us entering this area.
When we were all at the other end of the cells, we could hear the rem-pod going off.
We immediately headed back to that area and were able to communicate with spirit using the rem-pod. All of a sudden the rem-pod continuously went off and then we got nothing. When we checked the rem-pod, it was totally flat.
We moved to the 60’s memorabilia area but didn’t receive any responses during a call out or even with the use of the Ouija board.
Alan, Kathryn and Rebecca’s group – Victorian Street
We allowed the guests to explore the area and then we all spread out along the street and Alan began to call out. There was a definite atmosphere of being watched and feeling uncomfortable in this area. Especially around the work shop area which has the carriage inside it.
Kathryn heard noises of the chains rattling and shuffling footsteps so we moved the touch sensitive bear inside the room.
One of the guests said that there was a figure standing over, watching when the bear was flashing. Kathryn asked it to be lit up, and it was immediately. This happened three times when asked to do so by the spirit and also the chains hanging on the wall could be seen moving in the light from the bear.
We decided to separate into two of the smaller rooms off the street for the last part of the investigation.
Kathryn and Rebecca took 10 guests down into the condemned women’s cell and Alan went into the school room.
Kathryn’s group got some taps and bangs and K2 spikes up to red when Chris joined the group but nothing else happened after he left the room.
We then swapped rooms with Alan’s group but nothing happened while we were in the school room. Alan’s group got no immediate activity in the school room so decided to conduct a session using the crystal and board. The first guest got a female spirit through who tried to spell her name and this could possibly have been either Nora or Morag. When we pushed spirit with more questions the crystal was swinging in a big wide circular motion as if spirit was either confused or did not want to communicate further. Another guest tried the crystal board and was fairly confident he had the spirit of his grandmother come through. He explains that when he was young his grandmother used to use a crystal and showed him how to connect with spirit and we would do this on a regular basis. The guests seemed quite happy and content that it was his grandma and that she was happy to come through.
Another great night for LVI, which another fantastic group of guests.