One Epic Ghost Hunt: Bodelwyddan Castle, Wales – Saturday 10th April 2010

Wow!  This was one epic and exciting ghost hunt!  Bodelwyddan Castle is beautifully kept and a fantastic museum and antique centre.  And they have a second-hand bookshop in the grounds!  I could feel the Spirit energy building as I drove to the venue, and it felt excited, as though the ghosts were ready to play...

On the walk round I felt dizzy in the hallway by the main staircase.  I knew that it was an active area but couldn’t connect with any of the energies to identify them.  The Library was a very masculine room, both in décor and the general atmosphere.  The Dining Room felt more welcoming and a bit more feminine-influenced.  In the bedroom I sensed a female spirit who was a very pretty and delicate lady and she was immensely proud of this room.  She wanted us to admire it because it was modern and stylish.

In the Library we spoke to Alfred, his brother Thomas, and a man who called himself Jeffries.  This was all done using the planchette.   Jeffries said he had murdered Thomas out of jealousy and he wasn’t remorseful.  In fact he seemed quite proud of his crime.  Jeffries was very strong and he moved the planchette across the table so it had two wheels hanging over the edge.  Then he moved it around the edge of the table but he lost it on the corner and it fell to the floor. I had never experienced this kind of movement before and was very impressed.

In the Dining Room we set up the glass and spoke to Margaret, who was Alfred’s wife.  She seemed very gentle and pleasant and told us she had three children, Alex, Jonathon and Alison.  We were about to ask her some more questions when Alfred came in and took over the glass, advising us that he had sent his family away and we should speak to him!  He was very protective and I got the impression he was well loved and respected by his wife and children, and vice-versa.

After that we spoke to George, who came across as a portly, jovial 18th Century gentleman who enjoyed his brandy and the ladies!  His son Henry also came onto the glass but wouldn’t speak to the women in our group.  He only answered questions from a man. Apparently George had a mistress and an illegitimate daughter and it destroyed the family.  As a result of this Henry blamed the mistress and subsequently mistrusted women.

We then spoke to Bernadette, the illegitimate daughter.  She said we could call her Bernie, and explained that she and her mother were banished from the castle after the truth of George’s affair came out.  Bernie’s mother resented her for spoiling everything and she had an unhappy childhood as a result.  We felt really sorry for Bernie!  But then she said that she had been happily married and had children of her own.  We even sympathized with Henry after he told us the story and he gradually began answering questions from one of the women in our group.  After a while we felt the strong presences of all these Spirits surrounding us and it made us feel quite uncomfortable so we ended the vigil and went for a break.

In the rear hallway we sat on the floor to try some EVP and Pete (Medium) became overwhelmed by a drunkard gamekeeper called James.  This man affected a couple of women in our group by making them feel dizzy and one even smelt alcohol fumes.  Pete then said that James was having lewd thoughts about us!  He had been a hard worker and a hard drinker during his life but he seemed harmless enough.  At the end of the hallway was a sofa and I could see a man sat on it watching our group.  He wasn’t the gamekeeper; I think he was a gentleman, but I could get nothing from him.  He was simply observing but didn’t want to interact.  I also saw a lady in the hallway stood near our table.  She was curious about us but wouldn’t come any closer because she was afraid of James and what he might do.  She was tall and slender, with brown hair worn in an up-do, and she was wearing a pale blue dress.

We moved into the main hallway and found the other group with a tipping-table.  Paul (Medium) had contacted five young children and 14 year-old Patricia.  We started singing Ring O Roses and the table actually moved in time to the nursery rhyme!  It was amazing!  Then someone suggested we try a different song and the children joined in with Row Your Boat!  I was so impressed and excited because I've never seen this before and it was such a fantastic experience.

Later on we were doing EVP in the bedroom and we heard the sound of one of the toys being played in the Toy Room upstairs.  Two people went to investigate and couldn't explain how it had happened.  We all hovered on the landing for a bit but it was quiet and when we moved away we heard it again, it was eerie!

In the cellar we had been told there was a man who had been affecting people in the other group earlier that night.  He is apparently a very mischievous Spirit who had tormented many people over the years to the point where the Bodelwyddan staff refer to him as ‘Cellar Man’ and are used to his presence!  So we went in search of him.  He moved the glass a little bit and said his name was Matthew but we didn’t believe him.  Eventually we got bored and left him.

Finally we spoke to Mary using the glass in the Library.  Apparently she was George’s sister and they were cousins with Alfred and Thomas.  Mary was married to Timothy and her children were Anne, Emily, Laura and Giles.  She seemed very happy and was strong and talkative.  In fact it was dawn outside when we finished speaking to her!  Mary told us that George’s wife was Margaret and his mistress was called Lillian.  Mary and George also had a sister called Caroline.  Mary also told us that the man in the cellar was called Harold.

Bodelwyddan Castle is certainly a home with a rich history and a large family.  I think we could compile a whole biography from these spirits if we were to return with a list of questions…

Ghost Hunter Diaries: The Watermillock, Bolton, Friday 13th November 2009

This was one amazing night!  Let me begin by setting the scene…  After a few wrong turns I finally arrived at the Toby Carvery Pub known as The Watermillock.  The large building is imposing to look at and has gargoyles above the front door in true Victorian Gothic style.  Yet there was something warm about it; the colour of the brick, the large windows with a glimpse into the warm, cosy interior and even a black cat sat in an upstairs window watching people coming and going.  So I stepped inside…

Our first vigil was on the first floor and we began using a planchette on the tiled floor of the landing area.  The planchette is a divination tool.  Quite simply it is a wooden board on wheels, with a hole in the middle through which we push a pen or pencil.  We then place the apparatus onto a large piece of paper, each person will rest a fingertip on the edge of the board, and we will ask for a spirit person to come forward and speak with us.  The spirit will then use our collective energy to push the board around the paper to either write a message or even just draw a picture or symbol.  Sometimes they will simply move the board to answer ‘yes’ or ‘no’ to questions.

During our walk round I had seen a small boy walk across this area and peer into the room where we were sat and I was hoping he would come and speak to us.  He didn't but we soon had a response from a man who identified himself as Herbert, grandfather to John who was in our investigation group.  Herbert had been a soldier injured in WW2 and was brought to the Red Cross hospital in this building in the mid 1940s.  He was very strong and seemed only to want to reassure John that he was still with him, but he was very private and wouldn't answer any personal questions.  He did say there were other spirits in the house but none of them were able to speak to us at the time.

The second vigil was a whole new experience for me as a ghost hunter and I will never forget it!  We moved into the cellar and into a disused room that Lorraine (the medium) had felt very uncomfortable in during our walk-round earlier in the evening.  At the time I hadn't felt anything unusual, which in itself confused me because I generally feel very anxious in cellars and enclosed spaces.  But as I walked down the stairs from the ground floor I had a sudden strong feeling that someone would try and push me down even though there was nobody behind me.  Then when I turned the lights off for us to begin our vigil I had a strong urge to run back upstairs to safety, I did not want to enter this room!

We moved in and sat down around the table but each of us huddled into our chair and was very nervous of the unknown energies.  I even had to ensure I sat on a high backed chair rather than a stool because it felt safer.  We used a glass in this room because it seemed appropriate.  By ‘using the glass’ I mean it as a method of divination to communicate with spirits.  We ask questions and the glass is moved around the table to indicate either ‘yes’ or ‘no’ in answer.  The energy is raised by each person in the seance circle placing a fingertip very lightly on the edge of the upturned glass, so that the spirit person can ‘push’ it.  We very quickly got a response in here.

Through questioning we met 17-year-old Gertrude, who was very strong when moving the glass.  She seemed to attach to Maggie in our group because she felt safe with her.  Gertrude told us that she was alone in the cellar and that she had been brought to the hospital in 1943 having been fatally injured by a trusted male friend.  He had apparently proposed marriage to her and when she rejected him he became angry and hurt her.  Then he took her to the hospital where she died on 10th December.  At this point the glass was moving very forcefully around the table as Gertrude demonstrated her loneliness and isolation, and Maggie started crying almost to the point of hysterics as she became involved with the spirit.  We then asked Gertrude if she needed our help and she said yes, The glass was almost flying in circles around the table.

I went upstairs and asked Lorraine if she could come and help us and she knew instantly that it was a young girl that we were communicating with.  She came into the cellar with me and proceeded to help Gertrude move into the Light (a mysterious other realm that I am not familiar with), where she was reunited with her long lost brother.  The emotions and the energy I felt during this particular seance was so intense I was left exhausted, as were the other members of our group, but we felt so much better once we knew Gertrude was in a safe place.

Lorraine suggested we move into the next large room in the cellar, which is used as a staff room.  The atmosphere in here was much lighter and there was no sense of oppression.  We then attempted table tipping with almost instantaneous results!  It was a square table, which had a small brass goblet on top.  The table tipped almost vertical and the cup never moved until I commented on it to ask if it was stuck in place.  Then the table was lowered, paused and tipped again and this time the cup fell off.  Lorraine laughed and told us it was a young boy who was playing with us and we did feel very jolly and happy.

Finally we came to our third vigil, by which time we had had quite enough strong energy and were ready to relax a little.  We sat in the large ground floor restaurant area towards the rear of the building, and it felt very homely and strangely comforting.  A few of us commented that we could quite happily curl up on the floor and fall asleep knowing that we were safe and protected.  I had a vision of the room filled with warm candlelight and people laughing and chattering together while a huge fire roared in the grate.  Lorraine felt that this part of the house would have been separate to the hospital and that the family life was very happy and comfortable.  While I was sat at a table on my own I became aware of my Yorkshire Terrier dog, Toby, who had passed away 18 months ago.  He padded towards me as he used to during life, and I felt him jump up and put his front paws on my knee while he asked for a fuss.  At the same time I felt a strong cold draft across my knee even though the room and the rest of my body was warm.  I was greatly comforted with this and was aware of Toby lying by my foot relaxing.

I was very surprised to learn that ours was the only group who experienced any strong activity during our investigations.  The whole house seems alive to me and I cannot wait to return and see who else we can speak to!  It is wonderful to know that we leave a little of ourselves behind when we pass over, because to communicate with Spirit is to have history come alive and to know that there is always something more, something beyond our physical Earth realm, just waiting to be explored when the time is right.  And this is exactly what I felt in The Watermillock; history from its past inhabitants, families, patients, doctors and any number of other people with stories to tell and memories to share.

Inspired by the Ghosts I Meet #amwriting #paranormal

Did you know I am a ghost hunter? Yes, really, like the guys you see on Most Haunted, or Ghost Adventures, or TAPS. I actually do ghost investigations, séances and all the rest of it.  Well, I did up until I started having children. Now I am on what you might call extended maternity leave, but I am itching to return to my hunts.

Anyway, in honour of Halloween, and because I am reminiscing about my ghost hunting adventures, I have decided to share reports of some of my early investigations. You can see them over on my personal blog, Spooky Mrs Green (yes, that is where the spooky connection comes from!) I collectively call them the Ghost Hunter Diaries, and I might consider publishing a book at some point in the future. For now I will focus on my fiction work.

The ghosts and spirits I encountered, and the places I visited during the past eight years, have all helped with inspiration for my writing. Their characters, personalities and stories all appear in various forms and snippets. I have spent the night in haunted castles, houses, pubs, theatres and even in the famous Edinburgh Vaults. Ah yes, such happy memories! And, for an added bonus, I will share a couple of reports of other ghost hunts over here, to show you where my inspiration comes from.

Happy ghost story hunting my friends!

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