Rye Castle, Rye, East Sussex

Aim:
To re-investigate events experienced during our last investigation and explore the possibility that these events were genuine paranormal phenomena. That or provide an adequate explanation for these previous events.

Background:
Thought to have been built in 1249 as part of the town’s defences The Ypres Tower has had a mixed history first serving the town as a fort before becoming a private residence. Since the late 15th century it was used as the town gaol housing many vagrants, debtors, beggars, and people awaiting execution. New laws were passed in 1837 and so began segregation of male and female prisoners because of this the Women's Tower was built in the south east corner. The basement of the tower was later used as the town mortuary.
The castle had never been investigated prior to our first visit in April 2010 and with so much history we were very much looking forward to returning in order to further our investigations. We hoped to either explain the experiences we previously had or if we couldn't, at least experience them again.

Digital Camera:
Fuji Fine Pix S5000
Fuji Fine Pix S1600
Panasonic Lumix DMC FZ-38 X 2
Pentax K-100D Digital SLR
Voice recorder:
Olympus VN-2100PC
Olympus DM20
HNSAT DVR958

Other:
Tripods, Torches, Video tapes (MiniDV).

Investigators: Ian, Kim, Paddy and Dave.

Guests: Toby Mayor - Guide - Rye Museum Association

Method:
Using visual and scientific methods combined with spiritual theory, we had decided to adopt a method of simple vigils. On this our return we had decided not to split into groups as last time but to stay as a group so anything that occurred could be better corroborated as it would hopefully be witnessed by a larger group simultaneously.

Investigation:
First vigil - Women's Tower
The team of five took their seats on the first floor of the Women's Tower, Dave and Ian had their camcorders running as were Paddy, Kim and Dave's voice recorders. After a period of silence adjusting to the ambient and natural sounds Dave began calling aloud, introducing ourselves, our aims and asking for audible and visual evidence we could record on our equipment. After a considerable period of time following this format, and with little or no response we decided to end the session.

Second Vigil - Return to Women's Tower
Given some noises heard during the first session we decided to return to the same location where we repeated what we had done before with Ian and Dave both calling for activity.

Third Vigil - Ground floor, Ypres Tower
Same equipment running with the team spread throughout the ground floor. Dave on the stair well in the north east corner, Ian in the north west cell, Paddy in the south west cell, Kim and our guest, Toby, sat in the main central room.

Fourth Vigil – First floor – Ypres Tower
For the last session of the night the team moved to the first floor to investigate noises we had heard coming from this area during the previous session. We chose to sit about the main central area whilst Dave asked for activity and a repeat of what he had heard earlier.

First vigil - Women's Tower
During our first vigil we heard some odd taps periodically some seemingly responsive to Dave's requests. A rustling was later heard by Kim and Paddy coming from the corner of the room. Footfalls were heard by some of the team but placing where they originated from was difficult, some thought they came from the ground floor, the stairs, the room we were in or even outside.

Second Vigil - Return to Women's Tower
More taps and thuds were heard intermittently and people were heard outside the tower walking passed. Whilst Ian was calling out some noises were heard by the team and recorded on our footage.

Third Vigil - Ground floor, Ypres Tower
Some noises were heard coming from the floor above. As Dave was sat in the stairwell he was better able to hear the odd tap and sound of rustling or movement that he heard. The rest of the team did hear some noise as others were more pronounced. There was also the odd sound heard from the ground floor itself.

Fourth Vigil – First floor – Ypres Tower
Little was heard during this session until Paddy and Ian thought they heard a noise, followed by Dave's camcorder switching itself off. Later into the session Ian then thought he heard a groan or growl come from the south west cell, this repeated itself quite often. Dave and Ian swapped seats so Dave could hear this and he did, Paddy later joined Ian and Dave in the south west cell as the three tried to establish the cause. Nothing else occurred. Due to the late hour this was to be the last session of the night.

First vigil - Women's Tower
Some of the occurrences during the first vigil were recorded and the footage analysed. The taps heard at the start of the vigil could be caused by the building structure, it had been a warm day and the temperature had dropped, which would result in contraction of the building structure, creaks and taps. This would certainly account for the run of noises heard at the outset, less so may be for those heard later on in the session. Some of these noises appeared to be responsive to Dave's questioning but this could be merely coincidental.

The rustling heard by Kim and Paddy was not repeated and may well have been the noise caused by a moth or rodent in the vicinity.
It was thought that the sound of footfalls was from within the building. This is a noise we had heard during our last visit and would later be tested. See further conclusions below.

Second Vigil - Return to Women's Tower
Locating where some of the noises were emanating from was difficult, we are certain some were from outside and sounded more distant but some were from within the building. Shortly after we started some people walked passed and up some adjacent flagstone steps, we immediately recognised this as such but this then posed the question of was this what we had heard during the first session, or even during our first investigation? We have compared footage and confirmed that on this occasion the noise was much more quiet and although we are satisfied this explains what was heard previously that night it does not provide an adequate explanation for events during our first investigation in April 2010.
Some of the noises heard were recorded and be they few and far between some do appear to be responsive. This was later in the night and the building would have sufficiently cooled so we cannot attribute this to contraction of the building structure. These noises remain unexplained. Other noises were explained and found to be the rope against the flagpole above the main tower.

Third Vigil - Ground floor, Ypres Tower
Very little occurred but some of the noises were heard by the whole team, and recorded on our camcorder footage. These were very random and seemingly non-responsive to our requests for the same. Given this we can only conclude that these were naturally occurring.

Fourth Vigil – First floor – Ypres Tower
The noise heard by Ian and Paddy was not caught on or footage but it was decided this could be explained as the heaters were thermostatically controlled and we now believe these were the cause.

The growl heard by Ian was witnessed by Paddy and Dave, after some considerable time spent in the south west cell it was concluded that the wind had picked up and was causing an effect through the ramparts at the top of the tower that caused a noise to reverberate within the cell. It was agreed that this was uncannily similar to the sound of a heavy sleeper within the cell.

During our stay a certain amount of other information was forthcoming to the team of a clairvoyant nature. As Ghost Connections conducts scientifically based investigations we do not publish such observations, however, this information is held on a separate database and may prove interesting when compared to other peoples experiences. Should you wish to discuss this information please email us.