Stone Chapel - Faversham

Aim: To investigate the possibility and hopefully record evidence of paranormal activity.

Background:
Stone Chapel is a ruined church dedicated to our Lady of Elwarton, which is of Roman and Saxon origins. It lies in a copse 100 yards north of the A2 about 1/2 mile west of Ospringe. It is open at all times. Though it fell into decay more than 400 years ago, Stone Chapel is one of the most unique church buildings in England, the only one known to incorporate the remains of a pagan shrine or mausoleum, the roman work can clearly be seen.

The remains of the ruined church lie close to where a stream once ran and have not been used since the 16th century. The date at which it was abandoned is unknown, but the records from 1511 show that it was in a state of disrepair at that time. All that remain are the exterior walls to about a meter high, higher at the east end.

There have been several excavations at the site that have recorded that buttresses were added to the north wall of the nave during the 13th century because wooden beams had rotted; this suggests that the building was based on an earlier structure already old by that time. Saxon and Roman remains found indicate a long period of use at the site, spanning more than a thousand years.

The walls are mainly of flint, bonded with a mortar rich with broken seashells. The construction of the centre section is quite different; the walls here rest on a foundation of flint and consist of layers of tufa blocks, each. This construction is typically Roman, and the discovery of Roman coins dating from the 3rd and early 4th centuries AD confirms this section as Roman in origin. The nature of the foundations found during excavations suggest that this was once a mausoleum.

The site is now somewhat remote from habitation, in Roman times however, the area was quite heavily populated. There was probably a Roman camp nearby and a substantial size cemetery has been found a few hundred yards to the east of the church. Stone Chapel remains a unique record of the adaptation of a pagan Roman building for Christian use, and is preserved for that reason by The Faversham Society

The site has been investigated before by Ghost Connections, to read our previous report please use this link Stone Chapel. Two of those attending this investigation were present on the one done last year, and all those present this time had prior access to that report.

Apparatus:
Cameras
Nikon Coolpix 3100 digital camera
Fuji Finepix 4900 digital camera
Kodak Easyshare cx7310 digital camera
Olympus Camedia C160 digital camera
Fuji Finepix S550 digital camera
Camcorders
Sony DCR- HC30E
Sony DCR-HC19
Samsung VP-D351 Mini DV camera with night vision

EVP
Sharp PA- VR10E

EMF
Gauss EMF Meter

Other
IR Emitter Sony HVL-IRM (x2)
Tripods
Torches
Tapes (MiniDV)

Co-Investigators:
Ghost Connections - Kim, Ian, Dave, Paddy and Sarah.

Method:
This was to be quite simple, as we had already been to one venue this night, Lesnes Abbey. We were to arrive quite late, the early hours of the morning in fact. We were simply going to walk the site, taking pictures and camcorder footage, calling for spirit activity, possibly to even conduct a spiritual experiment in the manner of a séance to see if any activity could be provoked and recorded.

The Investigation:
We arrived at Stone Chapel about 1.00am on the morning of the 14th. The weather was not to good for an outdoor investigation and had done much to dampen our spirits (excuse the pun) earlier that evening. We were wet and cold and didn't envisage staying here for long before we set off home.

We decided against video footage as we did not want to damage the equipment in the rain, so we approached taking still photographs and walked the ruins for a bit examining these till we decided to shelter under the trees in the nearby copse. We tried calling for spirit but nothing occurred, that is until we moved on the spiritual experiment! We stood together under the trees and asked spirit to come forward. No names will be mentioned, but one of the group became distressed with what they began to experiencing, the rest of the group gave support to this individual, who continued to have images in their mind of a disturbing nature involving a man and a young girl. This became so extreme for the person concerned that they felt they had to break away from what we were doing and leave the group to recover. At precisely the second before they did this Ian turned abruptly to look behind him and froze for a few seconds? When questioned by the others he admitted that for a split second he thought that he had seen the outline of a figure, possibly a man in a hooded cloak, lean out from behind a nearby tree trunk, take a glance at the group and return behind the tree. Needless to say this area was investigated but no one could be seen.

Once the group had pulled it's nerves together and reassembled it was decided it was time to leave, tiredness and the weather had got the better of us, so we left the site approximately 2.30am.

No activity was recorded on either camcorder or still photography, there were no unexplained noises, although Ian’s experience was interesting. However, there was a lot of information forthcoming of a clairvoyant/psychic kind during the spiritual experiment we undertook, this may have been clairvoyant in nature but this cannot be validated.

As Ghost Connections conducts scientifically based investigations we do not publish any psychic or clairvoyant observations. Although this information is held on a separate database. Should you wish to see this information please email us at enquiries@ghostconnections.com. This information cannot be treated as evidence but it at least gives food for thought.