The Manor 36

Introduction:
Ghost Connections are, Kim Slater, Patrick Noble, Ian Batchelor and Dave Godden. On the 11th September 2009 we had the opportunity to move into uncharted territory as we were able to conduct our first 36 hour investigation.

The venue was not unknown to us in fact it was a place we were very familiar with. As you will see from glancing through our previous investigations we had been there ten times before, for more background and to see what happened on our previous investigations have a look at our reports from 2008 and 2009 titled “Undisclosed 14th Century Manor House”.

During these previous visits we have experienced all manner of phenomena including hearing and recording odd sounds and heavy foot falls, we have recorded voices that were unheard by us at the time (EVP), the sensation of being physically touched or poked and even the odd sighting either inside or outside in the grounds or outbuildings.

Unfortunately our agreement with the owners is such that, in exchange for virtually unrestricted access, we cannot divulge the name or location of this venue, neither would we want too as this is the least we can do help protect this marvellous place from unwarranted attention.

The difference this time would be the length of our stay. Normally our investigations start at 8.00pm and can last for up to eight or nine hours over a Saturday night, this time it was going to be for thirty six hours, from Friday night through until Sunday morning. This was a rare opportunity and we were very much looking forward to indulging ourselves. After all, it’s not every weekend that you get the chance to spend two nights with your colleagues sleeping in an allegedly haunted bedroom. We had been here before..... But never like this.

We had also planned to conduct a few experiments over the course of the weekend. Admittedly this was partially to provide entertainment for us during the daylight shift, but also because these were subjects we had shared thoughts on at length over the last few months and had discussed the possible testing of such things. This weekend afforded us the time together to consider doing such tests and also the perfect location free from interference.

Method:
The weekend was to be made up of effectively nothing more than a vigilant sleep over on the Friday night given that it was the end of our normal working week, followed by a day of daylight investigation and experiments flowing into an evening and night time investigation in our normal fashion. All our normal equipment was on hand as you can see listed below.

Apparatus:

Camcorders:

Samsung VP-D351 with night vision
Sony DCR HC-24E with night vision and Sony HVL-IRM IR light
Sony DCR-HC19 with night vision and Sony HVL- IRM IR light
Sony DCR-DVD110E with night vision and Sony HVL- IRM IR light

Digital Camera:
Canon 400D
Fuji Fine Pix S5000
Fuji Fine Pix S5500
Fuji Fine Pix S5500
Pentax K-100D Digital SLR
Sony Erickson C905 camera phone

Voice recorder:
Olympus VN-2100PC
Olympus DM20
HNSAT DVR958

Other:
Tripods
Torches
Video tapes (MiniDV)
DVD-RW's

The Investigation:
This is explains what we did, where and when. Please refer to the results section of this report to read what happened and what was experienced.

Friday night:
We arrived one by one and when all assembled began to set camp. The bedroom chosen for the weekend was a room we had previously investigated known as The Tudor Room. Not only were there stories attached to this room but it was also the most comfortable, containing the last remaining carpet in the building and it also possessed the last remaining functional en-suite bathroom! Camp set we returned to the dinning room, which was to be our base of operations for the weekend.

We checked and readied our kit for the weekend and then spent some time relaxing in the normal way enjoying some friendly banter as we do so well, after all we were not investigating this night, just spending time and sleeping over. This gave us a chance to simply make our presence known and to enjoy some down time.

This ended up going on later than we had intended to stay up this night as we had all been at work and were weary, so we decided to call it a night and save the remainder of our energy for the rest of the weekend, and got ready for bed and our first nights sleep in The Tudor Room!

Saturday daytime:
Dave was first up with the Lark the following morning after a surprisingly good nights sleep, given the reputation of the room. He said the house was calm, almost serene to wake up to. He had a cup of tea and a pleasant morning stroll in the grounds before the other three surfaced. Ian had to leave due to family commitments but was due to return for some of the afternoon experiments, Kim, Paddy and Dave remained to continue, but only after returning from a hearty breakfast.

The first experiment on our list was the Ouija board. This is not a tool we use or would recommend but we had been discussing theories as to why the board apparently seems to work for some people in some situations.
We spent some time with our purpose built home made board on a large round table in the old dinning room, after a while this was reversed to show an alternative experiment we had devised to test the theory of glass divination.

After a break the next experiment on our list was Psychometry. We had asked colleagues at work to provide items about which they had historical knowledge, these were enveloped individually by Dave and we each choose a couple at random.

Our third experiment was to do something that we have all developed a passion for, the recreation of alleged paranormal photographs. Some of our previous attempts can already be seen on this website, see the “Fakery” tab on the left hand side. Kim had done some research and found a good candidate for a source photograph, this was a photo from 1909 showing Polish medium, Stanislawa Tomczyk demonstrating Macro – Psychokinesis, the levitation of small objects, as she allegedly forced a small pair of scissors to rise into the air. Kim was to stand in for Ms Tomczyk and we went about attempting to recreate the scene.

Again Ian had to leave but was due to return later before the evening’s activities and final night at the manor. This left Kim, Paddy and Dave deliberating over where to go out for dinner.

Saturday night:

Kim, Paddy and Dave returned from dinner to find Ian had returned and was raring to get on, so we reconvened in the dinning room to prepare for a full investigation. Before long we had decided that we needed to follow up on occurrences from previous visits. This lead us to conclude that we should spend time in the kitchen from where noises and foot falls had been heard previously, as well as time in the upstairs corridor where these foot falls appeared to have originated from. Also upstairs both Dave and Ian's previous camcorder footage had recorded odd noises, shuffling and creaking boards whilst we knew no one was up there.

We started with a séance in the kitchen. Ian's camcorder was set recording the group from within the kitchen, Dave's was set recording the same but through a hatch in the kitchen wall with his camcorder situated out in an adjacent corridor. Kim and Dave's voice recorders were running for the duration. We sat around the kitchen table, and conducted a séance for some considerable time. After a break we returned to the same location to continue. After a while we had to stop to examine something that occurred before returning for a third session.

After a further break we moved upstairs to the corridor. Some time was spent seated around the corridors whilst calling out, but unfortunately it was not long before this became physically uncomfortable for some of us so we had to call an end to the session.

We decided on a final stab at the Ouija board only this time in the kitchen, this again was not to last for any great length of time as it appeared that our unintended late night the night before was taking its toll, and the whole team was beginning to feel the effects of tiredness and lack of concentration. For his reason we decided to call it a night after a short while and to retire for our second night in the Tudor Room. This time we set our camcorders running to at least capture the first hour and a half, and also to attempt to conduct a vigil in the room from the comfort of our sleeping bags. This lasted for some time until the comfort took hold and we fell asleep, camcorders still running.

Sunday morning:
We awoke early again to a peaceful house, all still feeling exhausted we decided that after a slow waking up process, including copious amounts of tea and coffee, it was time to leave the manor.

The following morning Paddy commented that he had woken up during the night and in a half sleepy state had seen a the figure of a child, that or a crouching adult, in the middle of the room between where he and Ian were sleeping.

Saturday day:
Again during the day there nothing untoward happened to make us grab a camcorder, so there are no results of this nature. This day was mostly taken up with our experiments. To read our separate reports on these experiments please click here.

Saturday night:
During our sessions in the kitchen some interesting happenings occurred. We had by this point commented that there was an absence of odd noises to be heard about the house during the day and indeed Friday night, but no sooner had we sat down and started séances and or vigils then noises could be heard from around the building.

Noises and taps could be heard from the corridor outside the kitchen. Dave led us into some calling for anyone with us to make themselves known, both he, Ian and Paddy did this throughout our time here. Ian reacted sharply to what he described as a poke in his right temple, only to be followed by the same in his right thigh, this caused chills though his whole body. Paddy had to ask about this as it timed nicely with his thought that there was someone with us as he could see a shadow hovering towards Ian's right. Ian then said he thought he saw a hand come into view over the table between he and Paddy. It was a right hand and was clenched with its index finger pointing. This image waved in front of him for a split second and was gone, this was not seen by the other three.

Kim in the meantime was having problems with a heavy weight upon her back, she could not explain this sensation but it felt as though she was being pushed forward, and this was becoming uncomfortable. Paddy had his own problems with a painful stretching sensation in his left hand side. With continued calling sporadic noises could still be heard from the corridor and from within the kitchen, although none of these appeared to be in response to our requests.

Some noises of a rustling nature were heard from the corridor through the service hatch to the kitchen, during a break we thought this could have been a rodent of some kid moving the bags of building materials that were there, so as there was one to hand, we took the unusual step of setting a trap by these bags, this was not set off during the investigation.

More noises were heard throughout our time in the kitchen that we were unable to explain, but these followed no pattern. This is, however, odd when there was none earlier in the weekend or during our breaks. There was an odd noise heard by all the team during the second session in the kitchen, the sound of a growling dog! There was also the sound of what appeared to me short legs running across the floor above us, this would place them in the corridor outside our bedroom. These did not sound like human foot falls as they were too rapid and the whole team agreed the sounded like the short legs and claws of a dog trotting across the floor boards, this was uncanny given the growl we had all heard before in the kitchen. The video footage of these moments can be seen on the video that accompanies this report.

Our time in the upstairs corridor provided no results on which to comment.

Our final session of the night with the Ouija board back in the kitchen gave us no results and there was no movement of the glass.

Video footage of the brief time we spent investigating the Tudor Room from our beds provided no results and the person Paddy thought he had seen in the room with us the night before did not return.

Sunday morning:
No results for this time.

Other footage and recordings are still being scrutinised and should more results be found this report will be updated.

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. Should you wish to discuss this information please email us.

For our conclusions on the experiments we conducted please refer to the links above and read our separate reports.

During our full investigation a lot of odd noises were heard. Mainly taps and knocks whilst we were asking if anyone else was with us. It was noted that no such noises were evident whilst we were not questioning and during the breaks. This we find odd but have no rational explanation for. Unfortunately none of these noises appeared to be in direct response to our questioning.

The physical sensations felt by the team, Ian being poked in the head and thigh, Kim's weighty feeling across her back and Paddy's uncomfortable stretching on his left side are all very interesting, but again inexplicable as rational reason can be used to explain these.

The fact that Paddy thought he saw a figure besides Ian when he was touched and that Ian thought he saw an image of a finger waving in front of him cannot be substantiated as none on this came out on any video footage.

The noise thought to be that of a growling dog was caught on audio and camcorder footage, this can be viewed on the video that accompanies this report, please go to our videos page or use the link below. We first thought that this could have been a passing motorcycle on the main road nearby but then had to dismiss this as we would have heard this for a longer period. This as yet cannot be explained and you are encouraged to watch this and come to your own conclusions. The same is said of the short sharp foot falls that were heard from the floor above, which it can be said almost sounded canine like, in that they were short quick scratchy steps almost like those of a small Terrier or Jack Russell. These breeds are mentioned solely to give a comparison.

A good weekend was had by all. This was a departure for us and it was fun to be able to spend the whole weekend at a venue. It is a shame that our theory of spending more time and hoping to become more familiar to others did not bring the results we had hoped for. Some interesting moments were had, some recorded and lots not, and that on the whole were not explainable. Once again we seem to have come away with no answers but may be more questions, no doubt we will have further opportunity to examine any results we did get on a return visit in the future.