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Undisclosed 14th Century Manor HouseKent

 

Investigation 1 of 4

Aim:
To investigate over four separate nights claims of paranormal encounters documented over the years as well as to examine and investigate other areas of the property, and consider the possibility of other so far unrecorded phenomena.

Background:
What a wonderful thing chance is. A chance meeting between one of our members and the key holder of this magnificent old house lead to Ghost Connections being given an fantastic opportunity. We were lucky to find that the key holder was very like minded and very interested to hear what we might find at this location, therefore, it was not long before a deal was struck and our next four investigation dates were filled. At the owners request we cannot identify the location, but as the title suggests, this is a place steeped in history, which also has royal connections. We can say that this is a seven bedroomed and five reception room 14th century hall house with later additions as well as wonderful gardens and an array of interesting outbuildings. Because of the size of the site the four separate investigations would be needed to adequately cover it all and look further into the various stories that have been handed down or documented over the years. Unfortunately we cannot comment on these stories in this report as this may help to identify the venue.

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

Digital Camera:
Canon 400D
Fuji Fine Pix S5000
Fuji Fine Pix S5500
Fuji Fine Pix S5500
Pentax K-100D Digital SLR

Voice recorder:
Olympus VN-2100PC
Olympus DM20
Other:
Tripods
Torches
Video tapes (MiniDV)

Investigators:
Ian, Kim, Paddy, and Dave.

Method:
As this was the first of our four investigations we decided to keep it simple and get a feel for the place. This was so we could identify areas that would warrant further investigation another night, although should anything major occur we would dedicate some time to it on this occasion. We were to start the night with a walk about to acquaint Paddy to the site as he was unable to join us on the pre-visit. Should anything attract our attention during the walk about then we could divert a little of our time to investigate further. Walk about over we would start the investigation by getting straight into some séance's and silent vigils in various locations. Although we are a scientific group in the results we offer we have found a spiritual approach to be useful tool, as we find there to be a higher chance of witnessing activity whilst carrying out séance's. This then enables us to use our equipment and hopefully capture the phenomena either photographically or on audio or video media.

         
 
 
         
     
     

The Investigation

      We arrived keen and early so took the chance to have a brief stroll around the beautiful grounds before the key holder arrived shortly after. We bid him farewell and began to set up base in one of the ground floor rooms, then had a walk around the main house and outbuildings help Paddy get his bearings. Whilst in the stable block Kim complained of feeling very unwell and then proceeded to have an odd turn including having a nose bleed, which she never normally suffers from.

After a coffee we began the investigation in the main hall. Dave filmed on his camcorder whilst Kim, Paddy and Ian joined hands for a séance. Both Kim and Dave had their voice recorders running. Temperature was 23.1 degrees centigrade. Dave called out for the duration of the séance asking for activity that we could record. There were a few knocks about the room during this session but these could not be pinpointed and were not repeated on request. There was a moment where the area by the fire place caught everyone's attention simultaneously, we could not explain why but we all agreed that this was because we had all sensed some movement from that part of the room at the same time. Unfortunately nothing further came from this so after persevering for a while longer we decided to take a break.

During our break we noticed some very large unusual lights flashing in the clouds above, seeming unusual we decided to allow ourselves to be distracted briefly and went further around the building to investigate. After observing them for a while it was established they were distant fireworks reflecting of the underneath of clouds. They were only barely audible but enough to identify, but we agreed we had never before witnessed such a thing caused by fireworks.

This was fortuitous as whilst we were in the garden Paddy and Kim appeared to wander off leaving Dave and Ian wondering where they had gone. Having been unable to find them Dave and Ian returned to the house to find that Paddy and Kim had re-materialised. Their explanation for their disappearance was that they both thought they had seen a figure standing by the gate and when it moved of they followed it. They followed this shadow to a large avenue of Leylandi and on down to the bottom of the avenue, where they both felt uneasy as there was the sounds of movement around them, so decided to retrace their footsteps, quickening their steps as they walked back up the avenue of trees back towards the house as they felt they were being followed. When they returned to the gravel path and walked towards the house they could hear foot falls in the gravel behind them. They described this as a very scary experience and took Dave and Ian along the same route, this time with Dave filming. Although in agreement with the fact that this did seem to be an eerie part of the garden at night Ian and Dave did not have the previous uneasy feeling experienced by Kim and Paddy, in fact even they felt less bothered by the surroundings. Neither was there the sense that someone else was with us, may be there is just safety in numbers?

After these events we returned to the house and to one of the upstairs bedrooms in the older part of the house for a vigil, Ian was to film whilst Dave and Kim had their voice recorders running. Temperature was 21.1 degrees centigrade. After we settled down Dave and Ian took turns calling out aloud asking for signs of anyone else being there with us. There was very little in response to this apart from the occasional tap or thump. At one point Paddy heard one outside the window but he could not find the cause of this when he looked out. Later Dave also thought he heard a similar noise coming from behind Ian and Kim although Kim thought it came more from the direction of Paddy, Ian did not hear this. Further into the session there was a whine heard by the entire team as well as all hearing a knock that came from the centre of the room. None of these noises were repeated when requested. Both Paddy and Ian heard something similar to heavy breathing, something only Ian heard again later on. More time was spent here but after a while things had quietened down and were fairly uneventful, so we ended the session.

After a break we moved to the stables where Kim had felt unwell earlier. The temperature in the stables was slightly lower being 20.6 degrees centigrade. It was by now the early hours of the morning and the team was feeling the effects of fatigue, but carried on regardless with Ian calling aloud for activity. Nothing was forthcoming apart from the odd noise which we considered nothing more than the natural noise of the timber building. Tiredness took the better of us after only a short while so we had to break and spent some time walking the grounds to get some invigorating fresh air to keep us awake as well as keeping our wits about us in case there was a further episode to the one experienced by Paddy and Kim before. After a thorough scout about the grounds we returned to the house for a coffee where we came to the unanimous conclusion that we could not continue, and that anything further would be best left to the next investigation. We collected our equipment and left.

         
     

 

 

 

 

 
         
          Results
  It was not the most active of nights, but the atmosphere of the place certainly does change when the sun goes down, more so outside in the gardens than inside the building. The walk around was eventful due to Kim's experience, which cannot be explained as she is not prone to nose bleeds and felt fine both before and after this initial visit to the stables.

We tried our usual techniques in the main hall, bedroom and in the stables but only vague taps, knocks and noises occurred, which given the age of the building would not be uncommon, and these cannot be attributed to paranormal activity.

We all felt the additional sense of movement and not being alone whilst in the main hall but this itself is not evidential.

We are unable to explain the figure that Paddy and Kim thought they saw in the garden, and the feeling of apprehension the felt when they investigated this. As for the foot falls on gravel there is no reasonable explanation for this, therefore, we can only suggest that these have a paranormal origin. It is a shame this was not experienced by the whole team but it is good that the event can be corroborated by two separate individuals. Sadly they were not recording with any equipment when this occurred. This was the high point of the entire night.

Some of the knocks heard by the team during our time in the bedroom were caught on Ian's camcorder footage but others were not, including the sound of heavy breathing. Given that the knocks and thumps were not repeated we can only attribute them to natural noises within the building. The heavy breathing heard by some cannot be explained, although Paddy did note that there was a noise coming from outside the window that was similar, and this could have been the wind... or not.

Eleven minutes into the film footage from the bedroom there is a clear and deliberate whistle heard on the camcorder audio. This is not commented on by the team as is normally the case when an odd noise is heard, therefore, we can only presume we did not hear it at the time. Certainly it was not one of the team and at this time this noise cannot be explained. We will endeavour to get a clip of this noise posted into this report in the near future.

All other locations visited on this occasion were very quiet and nothing else was forthcoming. Early indications are that nothing further was captured on any of our still pictures, video and audio recordings. This report will, of course, be updated if anything becomes apparent.

There was a limited amount of information forthcoming of a clairvoyant nature, but this cannot be validated. As Ghost Connections conducts scientifically based investigations we do not publish such observations, however, this information is held on a separate database.

 
   
  Thanks
 

We would like to thank the owners of this outstanding building for their support in allowing us access for this investigation and over the next few weeks to come, your trust in us is very much appreciated.

  Conclusions
  Not a lot can be definitely said of this location after the one night we have had so far. However, our early thoughts about the place are that there seems to be more secrets to unlock, and more time needs to be spent at different areas within the site. Once we have completed all of our investigations here we may be able to piece together a better picture of what is actually happening. It was a quiet night with a few points of interest along the way, but we are not deterred by this as it is suggested that repeated visits to a venue can increase activity. Among theories that we investigate are those which suggest that it may take a little longer for anyone else, if present, to get used to us somewhat akin to a nervous person getting used to stranger. Results from any further return visits will test this theory dependant on the results achieved.
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2nd August 2008

 
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