Bakewell Old House – Paranormal investigation.

Bakewell Old House Ghosts. As part of our commitment to ensuring we only provide the best ghost hunt locations for our guests, we tried out a new location. It’s hard work but somebody has to do it!

Written by team member Caroline Cross of Haunted Houses Events Ltd

Bakewell Old House Ghosts

HAUNTED Houses Events Ltd were very fortunate to be granted permission to conduct a paranormal investigation in The Old House, Bakewell on Saturday October 26^th 2019 between the hours of 8:00 pm and Midnight.

There were 14 team members present who conducted investigations in groups and alone using various pieces of equipment, and sometimes none at all. The Old House is a large venue, and time unfortunately did not allow for every room to be investigated.

Background

HAUNTED Houses Events Ltd is run by Christopher Chell. Chris started the company in 2014 as a hobby alongside his main job. The number of events started off slow with only a few a year, then a few a month to where it is now with 20-30 events running each month all across the UK.

Haunted Houses Events Ltd has a team of over 40 paranormal enthusiasts and mediums who assist with the running and hosting of the companies many ghost hunts – which is ever increasing.

Paranormal investigating isn’t the belief that every knock, whistle or bang, or shadow you see is paranormal. Its approaching these situations with an open mind and only assuming they are of paranormal origin once any other factors have been debunked (eg. people moving in other rooms and mobile phone/electrical signal interference)

Bakewell Old House Dining Room

A lot of activity was found in dining room throughout the night. The group started as a whole, taking it in turns to call out to any spirits and ask them to make contact. During this group vigil, whistling was heard coming from the far-right corner next to the display cabinet (looking from the doorway) whenever any spirits were asked to make any sort of noise. Initially this was thought to be from the fireworks that were going off outside, but as the vigil continued and the fireworks stopped, the whistling continued.

Several members of the team also reported seeing a shadow in the doorway, disappearing as quickly as it appeared, but returning several times. Nothing about it could be distinguished other than it was the size of a small child, or possibly an animal such as a dog. Watching out of curiosity but disappearing when it was noticed. Later in the evening, a light sensor was placed in the doorway which would light up if anything that walked past it. This did light up several times during investigations with no members of the team nearby.

Some of the team used a device called an SLS camera (structured light sensor) attached to a tablet to allow viewing of the area. The camera sends out tiny tracking dots so it can ‘map’ an area. These dots also pick up objects that are not viable to the naked eye and displays them in ‘stick figure’ form on the screen. The SLS camera picked up 3 stick figures in this room, unmoving.

The Investigation continues …

Another member of the team conducted a lone vigil later in the night and heard knocks which coincided with responses to questions that they were asking any spirits that were present.

The Victorian investigation style of table tipping, where you call out to any spirits present and ask them to tip/move the table, produced some results, with the table rocking very slowly before stopping several times. There was a brief moment when the table started to twist around, but this also came to an abrupt stop.

Glass divination was used in this room as shadows had been spotted and whistles heard at the start of the investigation. This works in a very similar way to an Ouija board. You ask any spirits present to move the upturned glass and/or the marble that is contained within.

Glass divination – a popular Victorian activity

All participants place a finger on the bottom of the glass, very lightly to help channel their energy, and ask any spirits to make their presence known by first moving the glass and/or marble to let them know that they are there. Once a spirit has moved the glass and/or marble, it is then asked of the spirit to move the glass towards a person that they will use for a yes answer. And then, towards the person for a no answer. Using this method, yes or no questions may be asked and an idea of who/what is communicating can be got.

The glass divination proved very active. In an investigation elsewhere in the building, the name phoebe was bouncing around in the mind of one of the more sensitive members of the team. This was used to ask the spirit if their name was Phoebe, to which they responded yes. From the questions that were asked, it was found that the spirit was that of a 15 year-old girl called Phoebe who used to live in the house. She died of a disease before her siblings and was looking for her mother. She had a cat and a dog present with her but no one else, and the dog was a Clumber Spaniel.

Her father was called John and he killed her mother, or so it was said?

Who was John?

Whenever questions were asked in relation to John, ‘Phoebe’ would become still and unresponsive. At the same time as the glass divination, speaker boxes were used. These pick up any white noise around the area and turn them into the closest matching word. This is how the name John came to be suggested.

‘Peaky Blinders’ room (the one with all the beautiful outfits)

A small group of around 6 team members conducted a vigil in this room using the K2    meters which respond to any fluctuations or spikes in the electromagnetic field (EMF) surrounding it which can be a sign of a spiritual activity. Light up cat toy balls were also used. These respond only when touched and start to flash, allowing any spirits nearby to interact with these and make their presence known.

The group were sat down for this vigil as the building is very old and the floorboards are uneven and creaky so it was deemed from the start that sitting down would minimise the chances of any devices being falsely set of by the groups own movement.

Wet dogs??

A member of the group commented that they could smell ‘wet dog’ so this was used to influence the line of questions called out to the spirits. Once it was requested that the dog come and play with the ball, it lit up. This happened several times with the K2 meters also reacting at the same time.

It was during this investigation that the name Phoebe was coming through to to the more sensitive member of the group, and influenced the questions which were then asked in the dining room as no response was received in this room using the name.

Also in this room, whilst the vigil was being conducted, the team members using the SLS camera saw two stick figures, one large and one small behind one of the team members. Perhaps they were the ones setting the devices off.

Bakewell Old House Classroom/toy room

TEAM members used a device called an Ovilus, which is a device that translates any environmental readings into words. It is thought that spirits can alter our environment and electromagnetic frequencies, therefore an intelligent spirit would be able to manipulate these factors in order to give an appropriate response through the device.

Using the Ovilus, team members asked several questions. Not all received responses, but the ones that were received were relevant to the questions asked. Some of the most interesting things that came through were the word headteacher, the name Sarah Maddocks, and the year 1920. Researching this later, their is records of a teacher called Sarah Maddocks working in the school in the 1920’s!

K2 meters and REM pods were also used at the same time. REM pods are devices with an aerial that you can place anywhere in a room. When something moves very close to the aerial, or touches it, a buzzing noise sounds until whatever/whoever moves away from it. Both these devices had several hits during the vigil.

The rest of the house

NOT every room at Bakewell Old House was dedicated time for investigations due to time constraints, but when moving around and to different areas, there were some interesting findings in the other areas of the house.

The SLS camera detected a figure standing on the main staircase by the main entrance and then followed it move into the adjoining area. There were a lot of K2 hits throughout the house although there was not an opportunity to investigate these further.

Overall it was a very active night and a very rewarding investigation. There is clearly a lot of history to this house and a lot of stories that want to be told. Haunted Houses Events Ltd hope to return and investigate some more, but this time taking you with us.