Private Location in Nottinghamshire
   
 Chris and Eleanor (PICOUK) were invited by Notts Paranormal Investigators to join them on an investigation of a former monastic site in Nottinghamshire, the investigation was split over two visits

Visit one - Saturday 15th July 2006

Having no knowledge of where we were going we met our hosts and arrived at the location around 10pm, the weather was warm and dry with a light breeze. We were informed of the location and what it was called but the information is being withheld at the request of the owners of the site to prevent them being overrun with other paranormal investigators.

After a brief introduction to the team we were working with we took a brief tour of the location and chose an area to work during this visit. During our tour we were accompanied by Richard in what is now a group of modern outbuildings with areas still in their original condition and others constructed using original stone. On entering one particular room Eleanor was immediately attracted to a doorway in the wall where there would have been a second floor, this room was chosen as a base to start the evening’s investigation. We returned to the main buildings and the group was split into two teams one group were remaining in that area and the other going with us to the outbuildings.
 

We decided to start nice and simple with some glass divination using a ‘yes no’ board and contact was made with a young gentleman called Jonathan who had died in this building by his own hand. Jonathan was a member of a prominent family who lived in a local manor house, he had fallen in love with a kitchen maid and she was expecting his child. When his parents found out they forced her to marry another servant and leave the area, Jonathan was devastated and decided if he could not live with the love of his life he did not want to live without her and hanged himself from a beam to the side of the doorway in the wall that had attracted Eleanor when she first entered the room. As his faith was Catholic Jonathan believes that he is doomed if he crosses over and feels trapped in the room where he committed his final deadly sin.

Several members of the group became aware of a draft that seemed to be circling the table and Jonathan withdrew his energy. After a few minutes contact was made with another male spirit who identified himself as a member of the monastic order who had been based at this site and his title was father. This gentleman was not very talkative and would only move the glass for yes choosing to leave it in the middle of the board if the answer was no, or he refused to answer our question in the form we had asked it. He would not give us much information about himself or his order only tell us there were several other spirits of the same order remaining on the site. As he was a man of god we asked him if he would take confession from Jonathan in the hope that this would free him from his self imposed earthly bonds. The session was closed and the group took a well earned break.

 

Next we decided to try a new experiment, automatic writing with a difference, but first we wanted to pick the two most sensitive people in the group. We got everyone to stand in a circle with their left hand palm up and their right palm down then move their hands so they were covering or under one of the hands of the people either side of them but keeping the hands about 2 inches apart. We asked the group to totally clear their minds and let us know what sensations they were feeling from their neighbours if any, two people were chosen and we sent them to the far side of the room so we could discuss the next part of the experiment. The remainder of the group decided on a question to ask and this time we decided to ask ‘Who are you?’ The group were going to stand in a circle holding hands around two chairs placed side by side but facing opposite directions and the two people sat on the chairs with a dry white board and pen. The board was held face down in one hand and the pen in the other touching the board. The rest of the group who were standing in the circle cleared their mind and concentrated on the question we had decided on. The two sitters were then given chance to pick up on any energy and allow the pen to move freely on the board, after a few minutes the pens appeared to move quite freely. After around 15 minutes when the pens looked as if they had stopped moving Chris and Eleanor looked at each other and nodded, one of the people in the middle of the group then jumped almost as if she had woken up and the circle was closed.

Both boards had some quite complicated markings on them, at this time several members of the other group joined us and some of the others expressed a desire to try the middle of the circle. A third chair was added to the centre of the circle and three people sat with the boards once again face down, the remainder of us in a circle around them concentrating on the question ‘Where are you from?’ Once again some interesting results were achieved.

We took a break and the whole group joined together in a communication circle, some members of the team were outside the circle filming the proceedings and taking photographs. The circle was opened and almost immediately some of the participants started to experience things with most of the people in the circle having some form of experience. At times when members of the circle said they could see something the people by the camera could see light anomalies. The circle was closed when it was suspected that one of the group who had earlier been chosen as one of the more sensitive people seemed to be in a little distress.
 

Some of the team members left and the remainder of the team decided to close the night with an Ouija session. The session was slow to start and the messages received as listed below were a little garbled: -

PUETJX
RA (taken as Rachael)
1698
ZUZ
MAZ
1010
EM

We are still not sure who we were talking to and would certainly love the opportunity to talk to the spirit again.

 

Visit two - Saturday 29th July 2006

This time we were investing the main area of the location and although the weather was dry when we started it changed while we were there and there was heavy rain.
 

We started in the chapel with some table tilting; we got mixed results finding out that there were the spirits of 12 fathers a prior and several lay brothers remaining on the site, but no tangible answers to help us solve the puzzle of activity. As the weather was still dry we decided to try and find a more active location and showed the group how to use dowsing rods then asked them to try and find a hot spot in the cloisters so weather permitting we could try some form of communication there. A hot spot was identified by several members of the group which is marked on the plan above but as the weather was turning we had to take shelter for the next activity. Some of the dowsers identified what we think is a grave in the area which was visible in the moonlight but when a torch was shone on the ground it disappeared.
 
We moved to a covered area of the cloisters and set up for a glass divination session using a ‘yes no’ board. Almost immediately we made contact with a spirit associated with the monastic use of the site, it was not long before we knew it was the same spirit we had contacted on our first visit to this location however this time he was a little more talkative. We ascertained is name was Father John, he was between 40 and 50 when he died and worked with his hands, at one time he had carved a crucifix out of wood for the church. John and been based in cell four and informed us he was the first member of the order to die on this site and was buried in the area, this being the case we suspect he is there as the guardian of the grave yard.

With the weather still being inclement we took a short break and relocated back to the area we were in during our first visit.

We started by sitting quietly in the dark for a vigil to see what if anything we could pick up, several members of the group said they could see a male with large calloused hands wearing dark trousers, a white open necked shirt and a red neckerchief, one of the group got the name Stephen or Simon associated with him. Eleanor confirmed the male was either Simon Stevens or Stephen Simons and he had been a regular at the local pub, as the group had met at the pub he had followed them to the location out of curiosity. By this time the rest of the group had joined us so we decided to have a communication circle. During the session contact was made with Stephen, and a lady in Georgian dress wearing lavender perfume with her hair up in a bun, she was a teacher who taught the three R’s and lived with her family above a bakers shop. It was about half and hour after we started that one of the participants said that their arm was being raised into the air, this is something that has happened during these sessions before at another location and as we had been their earlier that day discussing the investigation we were attending that night the spirits had followed us to this site. It was not long before several other pairs of hands were raised into the air with one female having to stand on her tiptoes as both her hands were raised and the people either side of her were tall. As the activity quietened the circle was closed and we took a break, several of the team took the opportunity to leave and those of us that remained held an Ouija session. All of the messages received were for a team member and rather personal so we will not report on them here.

We ended the night after the Ouija and cleared up our equipment, we would like to thank Notts Paranormal Investigators for inviting us to this interesting location.