Ghosts at Christmas (11 page)

On my tape I said just after the incident, ‘I have never felt anything like that, ever, on an investigation – I honestly think that something has just walked through me, and that is bloody frightening.’

After five minutes or so after the incident, and while discussing it with the group, I felt something touch the top of my head. At this
point in the investigation however, I was jumping at shadows and everything else come to think about it. At one point I even got a fright when I leaned against the wall, simply because the wall was cold. I was absolutely useless to myself and the group, due to the terrifying experience, so, for the obvious reasons, I took it upon myself to end this vigil. Upon leaving the area I again left my EVP machine recording and this time it recorded for nearly one hour. On it was various knocks, taps and noises that I concluded were not of a paranormal nature.

Fiona’s group yielded no results; although one or two things did occur, rational explanations were found for them. Drew and his group yet again experienced nothing at all. However, in between these vigils it was noted by an investigator that the Ouija board that had been left as a trigger object had been moved. At first it looked as though the actual planchette had been moved because it was not central (the way it had been left) but, after looking closer at it, we realised that the round glass plate that is used to cover and protect the actual Ouija board was what had been moved, with the planchette still being central to that. Regardless, we had had a result in regards to trigger objects. It may be no coincidence too that the trigger object of the Ouija board actually moved in the very room where Lady Doxford conducted her Ouija board sessions.

At 2 a.m. we all gathered in the Ouija board room in an attempt to contact Lady Doxford via her own favourite form of spirit contact – the board! To cut a long story short, the whole session lasted about ninety minutes with eighty of those minutes being a complete waste of time. In the last ten minutes the planchette did actually move around the table with the letter ‘W’ being established, but, as per normal with Ouija sessions, the messages came jumbled up and were pure gibberish.

The last vigil of the night was spent investigating the foyer area of the house, as this had been one of the most interesting areas that had not yet been fully investigated. As it happened, we recorded nothing anomalous whatsoever, although Ralph did pick up on a young girl. He is adamant that a young girl haunts this house, but who she is and whether we can find her historical records remains to be seen. I attempted a number of five-minute EVP experiments, asking certain questions and leaving enough space between the questions for any alleged spirits or ghosts to answer. After three or four attempts and recording nothing we gave up. It was now about 4.30 a.m. and everyone was becoming really tired. The other groups all met up in the base room, but they had nothing further to report; any apparent phenomena witnessed was put down to sheer tiredness. It is known on investigations for the investigators to become so tired they begin to encounter auditory, and quite often visual, hallucinations; not good for an objective investigation. Due to this factor, we all decided that now was the time to wrap it up.

All in all, this second investigation proved to be great for some, and not so great for others, but that’s the way ghost hunting goes. The thumps and bumps that were heard in the Ouija room (from upstairs) during our vigil there were quite impressive, especially as they made the lights rattle in the room below. The fact the Ouija room door opened for the second time while Ralph and I were there to see it again is rather interesting too. In regards to what happened to me on the upper level of the building, well … who can say for sure. In retrospect it really does give me the
chills thinking about what happened, but was it really a spirit that walked through me? Or was it something else, something psychological? Maybe only time will tell. Further investigations inside this rambling old building in Sunderland have subsequently been carried out. Results of these investigations will hopefully be published soon.

The fact remains that the first two investigations to be held at Doxford House yielded some really extraordinary results to say the least and one can not help but wonder, was it really due to being so close to the festive season? One just before and one just after Yuletide. Who can say? I will leave that for you to decide.

On the night of 4 December 2009 GHOST arrived in the city of York to conduct a double Christmas investigation at numbers 22 and 44 The Shambles. We arrived at the top of the famous Shambles at 9 p.m. and were met by shop owner, Simon Cox, who took us down to his wonderful gift shops. As we entered the first shop, we were shown to the café section of the premises at the rear; this was to be used as our base room.

The building of number 44 is around 400 years old and has three floors. On each floor there is a passage leading to two rooms, one at the front and one overlooking the market square at the rear. The rooms on the upper level are used as storage, while the downstairs rooms are used for the gift shop and small café. The building also houses an ancient wooden stairwell, which links all these old rooms and landings together.

Number 22 The Shambles is entirely different. It is a much smaller shop by far, but this property has a hidden gem, well, two to be precise. Under the floor in the shop were two trapdoors. Trapdoor one led down into an old, foreboding cellar and tall stepladders were needed to get down into it. It is a large roomy area and, by all accounts, well worth investigating. Trapdoor two was the
pièce de résistance
. After negotiating your way down some old stone steps, you are led into another cellar area. This cellar leads you under the cobbled road that is The Shambles and under the neighbouring church which stands at the foot of The Shambles.

We unpacked our equipment and prepared for the investigation to come. Before we set about conducting the usual baseline tests prior to our investigation, I needed to speak to the individuals who worked in the shop. Of course, team member Fiona Vipond had already gleaned some information regarding the ghosts from Simon on her pre-investigation visit, and it was – it must be said – thanks to Fiona that we were here in the first place; but, for
my notes and for my personal files, I needed to interview those people who had had first-hand experiences with the alleged denizens.

I first spoke to Simon Cox and he informed me that his sister-in-law, Chantelle, had heard something rather strange while alone in the shop. Simon went on to tell me that his wife had seen a ghost of a woman dressed in black on the stairs of the property. I asked him if he knew who any of these ethereal visitors could be and he replied that he did not. This ghost was seen only eight weeks prior to our visit, so it seemed that the activity occurring within these premises were ongoing.

I then asked Simon if anything had occurred since Fiona’s first visit to the shop. He told me that a number of things had indeed taken place. He said that he had heard a growling noise on three occasions when no one was around, and mentioned that, for no reason, ‘strange stenches’ come from nowhere and then, as suddenly as they appeared, disappeared. As recently as the night before our investigation (on 3 December 2009) a door had opened for no apparent reason. In total, six different individuals claimed to have experienced paranormal phenomena at the premises and the staff and Simon were convinced it was haunted.

In regards to the ghostly activity in his other shop, number 22, he told me that objects fly off the stands and shelves (key rings, novelty signs etc.). He also said that the stands have been seen to spin around, which of course sends all the merchandise flying off, and bells have been heard ringing inside the shop. I asked what type of bells they were, as his shop is only yards away from the church. He laughed and explained they were little hand bells, the sort that people use on their reception desks when people need to ‘ring for attention’.

‘Not church bells then,’ I said.

‘No,’ he replied.

After speaking to Simon, I spoke to his sister-in-law, Chantelle Morris. Chantelle works in the shop at number 44 as an assistant in the café area. After asking her if she had had any experiences or
‘brushes with the paranormal’ while working in the property, she informed me that she had. I asked her what she had experienced and she replied that she had heard a ‘growling’ noise when she was standing at the bottom of the stairs. She said it was clear and definite, and, on looking around for people, to see if they were playing jokes, she found no one; it appeared that she was in the building on her own. On another occasion, Chantelle’s sister reported that she had seen a ‘weird’ man walk along the passageway and enter the café area of the building. When the two women both ventured in, to see who it was, the room was empty, but the door to the storage room (which leads nowhere) was wide open! No one was found.

Chantelle then went on to tell me about a visitor who came to the shop (about six months prior to our visit, making it around May 2009) who had supposedly seen an apparition of a man who ‘looked like a headteacher’ standing in the corner of the room. This man had a young boy sitting on his shoulders and both were dressed in old-style attire. Then, within a blink of an eye, they were gone. York is, of course, famous for its ghostly inhabitants and it is said that within the walls of this ancient city there are 140 of them. Well, we can say now that there are potentially at least another six.

Ralph Keeton, the team medium, arrived in York at about 7 p.m. and made his way to the shop. By the time I arrived he had picked up on a number of things of interest. I had a quick chat with him in a quiet room on the second floor prior to the investigation and this is what he said:

At this point, I caught a glimpse of something moving from the corner of my eye. It was on the stairwell landing and it moved very quickly. I said nothing. Just as I was about to turn and look towards the stairs to see what it was Ralph said, ‘there you go again, there is more movement over there.’ He pointed directly to the door where I had just caught the movement. It turns out we both saw something and I was quite surprised to say the least. Ralph tied up his thoughts by saying:

My preliminary interviews were complete and I knew all I needed to know insofar as we knew where we should place our motion sensors and trigger objects.

During the course of these tests, while making our way down the stairs to the lower section of the building, the most unusual thing occurred. Drew’s EMF meter began to show a high reading
in an area where it shouldn’t have. It was nowhere near the ceiling, nor was it near any walls, so hidden wires could be ruled out. As we progressed down the stairs (about five steps) the high reading persisted. We went back to the original site of the reading, five steps up, but now it had gone altogether! It appeared that the high EMF reading had come down the stairs with us! Then, when we thought it couldn’t get any stranger, it happened again. Down a few stairs we went and where we had just had the high reading, nothing! And it was now in the spot where Drew was taking the new readings.

It seems that there was an anomaly within the natural electromagnetic field. An anomaly that seemed to be following us down the stairs. It baffled us all as to what could be causing this. I am not saying that this odd reading was detecting a ghost or spirit. We don’t know that for sure. But there was very strange readings within the electromagnetic field where there shouldn’t have been. It also just happened to be in the very area where the ghost of a woman has been seen; an interesting occurrence to say the least. We finished the baseline readings on the ground floor and, apart from the aforementioned oddity, all went well. We were now ready to begin our overnight surveillance.

Drew Bartley, Fiona Vipond and Simon Cox staked out the cellars in number 22 first, while the rest of the group focused on number 44. I stayed downstairs with Mark Winter and investigation guest Barry Mason, while Ralph Keeton and Paul Dixon investigated the top floor.

I began the vigil by taking some new temperature and EMF readings and it was pretty much the same as earlier on. I called out to the atmosphere to see if we could gain any responses from any of the spirits or ghosts that are thought to reside there, but to no avail. Mark Winter set up his video camera at the foot of the stairwell looking up. If anything or anyone should make an appearance on the stairs, hopefully Mark would catch it. One thing during this vigil did occur, however, which is worth noting. At around midnight, when I was walking through the door to
return back into the main café area, I felt a succession of short, sharp tugs upon my lower trouser leg. It was a definite ‘pull’, as though someone actually grabbed my clothing.