Haunted Realms Paranormal Investigations

25th September 2005

Team Members and roles for the night :

Lisa Bond note taker, Steve Bond, Chris Storey and John Fowler on Camera, Rachel Keene Medium and Norma Dinnie-Weall medium in training.

Guests; Rose (guest medium) and her husband, landlady Anne and her friends.

On arrival at the pub, I was immediately aware of a tunnel running beneath my feet in the car park – as I looked back through the open gates of the old coaching inn I could see a shop across the street – I knew the tunnel led there and that the shop was not the original building on that land, that the tunnel had led to a building before that one’s time and that it had been some kind of town hall. I was looking forward to getting into the cellar to see if I was right about the tunnel being located where I felt it was.

As I walked into the pub, the well worn door step made me shudder a little, as I placed my own foot on it I felt there had been some unscrupulous boots treading that step, going back to the 19th century.

We were greeted by our host Anne, and made very welcome as we waited for closing time to come.

We sat in the quieter restaurant area and already could feel spirit walking through to the back door, so much activity in this area, much more so than the bar area. I made a mental note to make sure we did a séance in this part of the pub later on.

When closing time came, we started with the cellar. We had to go outside and descend some steps to access the cellar which was also below the part of the pub we had all agreed was most active. We noted on the way through the cellar that a very recently smashed bottle of alcopop or orange was next to the wall just before the corridor between cellar rooms. The glass of the bottle looked as if it had been trodden on too.

I felt that the tunnel actually ran under the pub to two buildings close by, with  possibly a church being the second tunnel destination as well as the old town hall type building mentioned earlier. This tunnel was used as an escape route and as a short cut too for people ambushing others in the inn.

At the tunnel entrance in the cellar I placed my hand on the wall above the closed off entry. I picked up on a lot of residual activity that used to happen around the tunnel area and felt that many people were literally dragged down this tunnel in a state of fear and terror in earlier centuries. I saw very clearly one man dressed in very simple 16th century clothes literally trying to hang onto the tunnel entrance and crying out “no!” as he was pulled back into it by two men who were forcing him to go against his will.

We picked up a lot of activity on camera in the cellar as well which can be seen on our video evidence page.  

A spirit named  Edith came to me in the very middle of the cellar room – she claimed to have been a relative of an inn keeper at some time, his niece. She was not treated well. She showed me she had been thrown outside for displeasing them at some point in winter and she was drenched through and shivering with cold sitting by the back door. I didn’t mention out loud that she was cold, but at this point both Steve, Lisa and Norma reported that they felt very cold…very shortly after this feeling Steve caught some orb footage on camera.Edith was not grounded there she was visiting to show me her story.

Rose looked like she was about to go into trance, but came back out with no information obtained.

Again more coldness was reported by various members of the group and more orb footage was captured.

The spirit that affected me most in the cellar was that of Sarah, a young lady who felt to me no older than 25 years old. Her energy was very strong and very sad and angry too.  Sarah had been assaulted down here, she was strangled, but not killed here. She presented herself in a very dishevelled state, she appeared in a dark corner of the cellar and her hair was hanging in her face, her posture very rigid and shoulders slumped, head down, hands by her sides, clenched into fists. She connected with me and rushed to me, showing me how she was raped and strangled at the same time but not killed by the strangulation. I immediately felt as she did and became quite overwhelmed with it.

Rose, our guest medium picked up on her pregnancy as a result, which I also felt was true. Rose was feeling the same symptoms as I did as Sarah rushed into my auric field.

I asked Sarah if she wanted to be moved on to a better place, and she indicated that yes, she did want to go. Rose felt that Sarah would like to tell her story and in view of this I asked Sarah to come with us and I would help her to move on later in the evening if she so wished to tell us her story during the séance conditions.

At this point I felt ill and needed to get out of the cellar, as there was a male presence in the corridor between cellar rooms that was angry with Sarah for talking to us, possibly the man who had done this to her. Spirit can influence our auric field to induce feelings of sickness or nausea within us or show us symptoms of their physical life and with this happening to me (and not wishing to pass out!) I quickly got out into the fresh air and sat on a step to regain my composure. Once outside and sat down I soon picked up on a small boy called Jack from the stables across from where I was sitting, he was a chirpy little boy and seemed quite happy to be there outside with us in visitation for a moment.

After a few moments he left and we made our way back into the pub itself.

Once inside we made our way to the pool room where I picked up lots of residual energy information about the earlier mentioned unscrupulous men who would frequent the inn during the stagecoach era but no orb activity was caught on camera or camcorder at this point in the evening here. However lots of orbs appeared on digital stills here later in the evening though when we revisited this part of the pub.

I detected what felt like a priest hole or concealed entrance in the far corner next to the fireplace ..with hindsight we realised this was right above the tunnel in the cellar. I felt that the energy wasn’t pleasant in this area. I saw that this room was used as some sort of meeting room or “den” by a few highwaymen and robbers who met here to plan their deeds and to share their ill-gotten gains. They would look out from the window here to see if they could spot wealthy people alighting from stage coaches  to select as “victims” for their robberies. They seemed to like picking on women who travelled alone.

The name Daniel Rawlings and Elizabeth Rawlings, also known as Eliza, were also given to me in this area. I was shown that Daniel was landlord and Eliza was his wife  during these times. I was also shown that Daniel did take a cut in the robber’s booty in return for turning a blind eye. The fact that they were both indeed landlord and wife during the 1800s was later confirmed by the current landlady Anne according to her records on previous proprietors.

To the Middle bar area

Orb activity was picked up on camera while Kate the manager and Anne were relaying that dirty child-like handprints keep appearing in the carpet, despite constant cleaning and scrubbing they come back time and again. Stills photos were also taken in this area. Rose believed these orbs and the handprints belonged to Jack. I agreed that they belonged to Jack, the little stable boy I sensed earlier outside. Rose stated that she felt he was appearing to her at around the age of 3 or so, whereas I saw him more  around the age of around 9/10 earlier. Spirit can return and present as any age in their earthly life so this is not unheard of.

Restaurant area

We decided to hold the séance here as it was clearly the most active part of the pub. Orb activity was captured on camera even before the séance began.

I began  the séance and put protection around all present, and as I did so Steve reported that he picked up orb activity behind Norma and our host, Anne. When we began calling out, Anne reported that she felt someone called Mary and that her hands were on her shoulders. She became emotional, with deep breathing while relaying what she felt. She stated that Mary had a son called Joseph and that Joseph’s life was lost when he ran back into the stables which were on fire, afraid that he was going to be beaten by the landlord of that time and blamed for the fire if he didn’t attempt to put out the flames quickly. A few of us present could smell smoke from the direction of the back door which was behind Anne.

The names Peter Gordon Findley was mentioned by Rose, and later Peter James Gordon. It was thought that he was possibly the smithy to the stables as he was shown wearing a leather apron. He used to steal food, beer and wine from the cellar for himself and to sell on. (The cellar  would have been very easily accessible in an unguarded moment from the stables) Could he have had aliases given his tendency to steal? He would certainly have lived at the pub for a time so perhaps he was a wanted man for similar misdemeanours and changed his name enough to avoid detection each time he moved on? We will never know…

Rose also picked up the names Phillip Miller or possibly a miller named Phillip, and I sensed a William Gordon, who I believe had a Naval connection as he had a tattoo of an anchor.

I was shown snapshots of time in his life, that William Gordon used to violent towards family and staff when he was landlord, until in revenge Mary hit him in the back of the head with a lump of wood. Anne said she sensed this was  while he was beating Joseph the stable boy during the fire.

I felt that although this blow did not kill William, he was never the same man again. It was said that he was worse for drink when this happened and due to this Mary was able to make it look like an accident as though he had fallen down. I felt Mary had something permanently wrong with her leg, possibly as a result of a badly broken leg caused by William.

The name or place of Durham and 325 was mentioned.

I was shown that a market used to be held in the village square around 1750. Anne confirmed that there was a market held there at some stage.

I also picked up on a castle being in or near to the village in or around the middle ages. I saw a soldier wearing chain mail and a red and gold coloured tunic walking into the place as it was before this building stands, he would frequent the inn to gather or rather demand food and ale for his master whose name I felt was something along the lines of Lucy, as I heard the soldier state that he was “one of Lucy’s men”. I also felt a connection with France and the “Lucy” name.

The name Charles (Charlie) Green was given to me, he made his presence felt very strongly and with much remorse. He had a message for someone around the table although I felt he was more connected to the pub. He drew a parallel between a   similar situation in one lady’s life in the group to the one he had caused to his family during the time he lived here in the pub. He was sorry that the similarities and repercussions of his actions were mirrored in her own situation, but his message was to say that the cycle was broken now and he was pleased.

One of the guests felt that this could be an ancestor of her ex partner but I felt that he was more connected to the actual pub itself from around 1920-30’s and gave the message as a similar situation not an actual situation.

Charles Green was found on records as being a former landlord of the pub during the times he intimated during the séance.

Not much else was given after this and so after closing the circle it was decided that it wasn’t just the cameras that needed recharging and as the lights were switched on – 9 bulbs blew in that room.

I was asked about some photos on the wall at the bar and I gave messages for the family of a young man pictured and I correctly described his passing as I linked with him. He was well and happy in the world of spirit.

We called it a night soon after this due to circumstances beyond our control, but we had intended to go upstairs at Anne’s request to see a particular room.

I meditated on what we would have found upstairs on the journey home and felt that the inn had been named for Charles II, in his honour. This was the only bit of info I could get about the living quarters when I asked Spirit.                

Our Video footage from the night and photos can be seen at 

www.haunted-realms.net