Local legend has it that inn was haunted and so a group of staff decided to raise money for the charity North West Ambulance Service by staging a sleep over.

Jenny Barnsley, who works behind the bar, explains what happened;

“We decided to have a sleepover and seance to find out for ourselves if the pub really is haunted as everyone says. First, we lit candles and asked if anyone was present and we immediately heard scratching and banging noises coming from upstairs.”

Barnsley goes on to explain the first sighting of a ghost;

“Chloé then saw a man in the doorway of the front bar and shortly afterwards, we took a picture as the room had gone cold. We were amazed to see what looked like separate images of a man and a girl in two different pictures.”

The photograph taken by the group has been released to press. Here it is.

If you’re curious about the inn itself, here’s a creative commons picture of the outside. You can also check out the Inn’s website.

In Pure Spirit

Do you think the charity sleep over actually encountered a ghost? Did they get spooked, encounter a common camera defect and now think it was a ghost? Or is this all part of a PR stunt?

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The photograph was taken by the mother of the boy in red. Sirus Walsh is five, lives in Redhill Surrey and lives in a house alongside several ghosts. The family is relaxed about the supernatural presence and denies the photograph, which was taken on a mobile phone, is doctored.

Sirus’s grandmother, Julie Smith, 52, told press;

My daughter was just taking pictures of her children larking about with her new phone, when she saw that the first photo of her two boys had a halo over both of them.

“She thought, “This isn’t right” and deleted it – and it was when she took the next picture that we noticed Sirus’s little playmate.

What was quite strange is she put it on to Facebook, and within an hour it must have had about 20 comments – but then it disappeared off the site.”

In the Metro, Ms Smith also explained a family friend has “the Gift” and can see lots of “people from the other side” in the house.

In Pure Spirit

What do you think? Does the family have the technical skills to mashup a ghostly image? Is the Facebook claim a little dodgy or do we think ghosts can hack the social network’s database now?

Picture credit: Newsteam.

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Lawman, who comes from a small steel down in the North East of England, gives the impression he’s up to the physical nature of the challenge. His official bio says;

Ian takes no prisoners with his hard-man looks and approach to the spirit world that comes very naturally, he can bridge the gap within the two planes of existence to prove that life goes on after death via detailed messages of past, present and future.

He’ll have to be tough. He’ll be buried in a coffin, six foot underground, covered with two tonnes of soil and be fed just four tablets a day. These tablets sound like heavy hitting stuff – providing him 2,000 calories. There’s been no mention of what Lawman will do for toilet breaks.

We’re told there will be a “web feed” which Ian will use to communicate with the outside world. Neither Fright Nights nor Lawman have made details of this feed available yet but the psychic’s official website makes mention of this Twitter account, worryingly, however, the user name is still to be registered. Anyone could sweep in and take it.

There is, however, a Facebook page for Ian Lawman: Buried Alive.

While Lawman endures this punishment of earth, Fright Nights and Dudley Castle will be holding a “Buried Alive Festival”. For a fee, visitors can get access to the castle’s most haunted areas, join the team’s regular mediums for ghost hunting and vigils, go on ghost walks with storytellers, speak to clairvoyants and psychics at the craft fayre and grab food from the cafe.

Why is Ian Lawman being buried at Dudley Castle?

It’s worth noting that this is all for charity and you can sponsor Ian Lawman in this challenge via his JustGiving page.

Lawman also gave an interview to EGL Magazine where they asked him the question “Why did you decide to be buried alive for seven days?”. This was his answer;

I want to take the paranormal to the next level. I wanted to get as close to death as I could without dying, so I thought if I was buried in a battlefield over a week I would get closer to spirit.

Is Dudley Castle haunted?

Fright Nights have run ghost hunting trips at Dudley Castle before. Their site talks about a grey lady and a black monk. They also say that they’ve encountered poltergeist activity.

Indeed, there are plenty of reports of ghosts and sightings at the castle. The black monk is reported most often near the Castle’s Chapel. Dudley Castle is quite near the ruins of St James Priory, which was used by the black robe wearing Benedictine monks.

Some suggest that the grey lady could be Mrs Dorothy Beaumont. Beaumont was the life of the Second in Command of the Royalist forces during the siege of May 1646 by Parliamentary forces. She died of natural causes, her body and funeral cortege were allowed to pass out of the Castle to the Church at the other end of the town by the besieging troops but her husband was not given the same permission. He had to stay inside Dudley Castle and missed the funeral.

Dudley Zoo has been involved in reporting some of the paranormal incidents. Chris Round, the zoo curator, has spoken about some of the encounters the keepers have had while doing their 8pm to 10pm round.

First you had to lean over the tiger enclosure and shine your torch around the pit, which seemed bottomless. It was dug from old limestone caves, and you remembered that in 1961 the skeleton of a woman of 40 was found in a nearby cave. The Police discovered very little about her, not who she was, nor why she died here. Nearby a miner was buried alive under a rockfall and the sound of a pickaxe on rock can sometimes be heard. Perhaps it is the same miner who appears in the bear dens next door then disappears through a wall.”

Dudley Castle ghost video

Richard Flex, from Most Haunted, features in a four part “Ghosts of Dudley Castle” video series on YouTube. Here’s the first one.

In Pure Spirit

What do you think about Ian Lawman’s charity stunt? Do you think he appreciates how tough this will be? Do you think he can complete it? If he starts to sense, or even see things, will that be due to sleep deprivation or because he’s closer to “spirit”?

So many possible questions here. Do share what you think and consider sponsoring him.

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There’s more. The family have managed to film what appears to be paranormal activity going on in their Coventry house. Their local newspaper has the exclusive but we’re allowed to share it here.

It seems that the visiting medium and the priest are willing to believe that something is wrong with the house. Whitefriars Housing, a social housing unit in Coventry, is also taking the family’s concerns very serious. Speaking to the Coventry Telegraph, the service manager for the area – David Round – said;

“We first met with Miss Manning in January and our staff have listened to her concerns in a sensitive manner.

“In February, after detailed discussions between Miss Manning and our staff, we agreed to arrange for a priest to attend the property, at her request.

“We have offered advice and support to Miss Manning on the options available to her for applying to move home and we are happy to continue to do this.”

I want to go back to the poor dog. Lisa found the injured dog at the bottom of their steps, took it to the vet but unfortunately the pet died later. The vet believes the dog’s injures show it had been shoved.

Someone shoved the dog down the stairs and it died. That’s horrible.

I wonder if it’s horrible enough to make up a story of a ghost and a haunting? Could you fake the video? Sure. We never see the bottom of the chair that moves. The chair moves in the same direction as the cupboard door opens as well. There will certainly be sceptics watching the video who will believe there’s someone to the right of the camera pulling an unseen string.

The end-terrace building looks relatively new. Too new for a ghost? The area the terrace is built in is interesting. It’s right beside Foleshill Park.

About 20 minutes walk from Lillely Close, on Foleshill Road there’s a pub called the Prince William Henry. There’s been reports of phantom music, a shadowy figure and unexplained laughter coming from the the basement there.

In Pure Spirit

What’s your view? Did one of people in the house push the dog down the stairs, create the ghost story and watch as the whole thing got out of hand? Or do you think the video shows something that can’t be so easily explained?

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The site of Mossley Mill has had large industrial buildings on it since the 1700s due to the textile industry. That presence grew in size due to the Grimshaw family who introduced flax spinning of cotton and ordered the 1834 construction of the mill dam and chimney. The mill was purchased by the Campbell family in 1859, then sold to the Hanson Trust in 1978, to Herdmans in 1993 and then to Newtonabbey Council in 1996. The council stepped in to prevent the destruction of the historic buildings and began a major conversation and restoration project.

The first part of that project finished in 2000 and was opened by Prince Charles. The second part of the project, which was valued at around £15m, included the production of a theatre.

The theatre has been home for performances of Henrik Ibsen‘s Ghosts play. This is certainly responsible some of the causal mentions of ghosts at Mossley Mill. The council has also used Mossley Mill as alternative parking during Halloween celebrations, providing a shuttle bus between the mill and Ballyearl.

NBPRG’s co-founder, Carl Wetton, who emailed the council seems to be being a sensible as he can about investigating the hill for the paranormal. He told local press;

We expect this to be a dry run for future coordination of professional research and will also establish base readings so that we may more ably gauge when future readings are anomalous.

Hauntings

The renovated Mill has housed the emotionally charged Anne Frank (+ you) exhibition. The exhibition included photographs of Anne Frank, famous for the powerful and compelling diary she penned while hiding for her life from the Nazis in World War II, chilling film footage and graphic recreations. Although the exhibit only used relics it was been suggested by some researchers than exhibits and the like which spark off large amounts of emotional energy from visitors can seed the energy required for paranormal occurrences to begin.

In one Facebook wall post a local, Lynne, describes being alone in one part Mossley Mill after the first phase of the renovation. The temperature dropped suddenly and she could hear a scratching sound coming from in front of her, towards the ground, but no matter how far she walked forward the scratching sound seemed ahead of her.

Another poster reports simply seeing strange lights one night over the Mill building, near the chimney.

The Times Steps Living History group has run ghost tours in the Mill in previous years.

In Pure Spirit

Do you have any first hand accounts of the paranormal in or near Mossley Mill? Is the lack of

Picture credit: MJordan.

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When there’s a $100 million hit movie there’s a sequel. The second film is “Journey 2: The Mysterious Island“. The cast is a little different. Josh Hutcherson stays on to play Sean Anderson but there’s no Brendan Fraser as Travor Anderson. The new cast includes Michael Caine, Luis Guzman, Kristin Davis and the action star will be Dwayne Johnson. Vanessa Hudgens has the role as the lead starlet.

Filming is going on North Carolina. It seems Vanessa Hudgen’s over night stays has involved some rather cheeky entertainment from a local ghost.

This is what she told local press;

I kept on hearing a creak in my hallway and I was, like, ‘I have to figure out what this sound is…’

“I walk over and I hear a creak to my right and I thought it was, like, rainfall or a leak, so I step over to the right… and I look down and I hear it to the left, so I step over to the left, look up, look down, step over to the right, look up, look down… It kept moving around.

“Finally, I was like, ‘You know what ghost, thanks for having me here. You do your thing; I’m gonna go.’ I was so terrified.”

Vanessa Hudgens and cast on set for Journey 2: The Mysterious Island

In Pure Spirit

Are you a Vanessa Hudgens fan? Looking forward to the movie?

What do you make of Vanessa’s spooky encounter? Something for the journalists, did she manage to spook herself or do you think actually had an encounter?

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The seller, melvin_s has 98.4% positive feedback on the auction site, put the two captured ghosts up with a reserve price of $1.00.

They sold for $2,830.00 NZD.

The spirits are said to have been trapped by an exorsist from a spiritualist church. One if a man called Les Graham who died in the haunted house in 1920.

The other spirit is said to have been summoned when Melvin and partner tried their hands at a Oujia Board. They suggest it is a little girl who likes to turn lights off – a spirit that will get more powerful over time.

Melvin told bidders that to revive either spirit, the water must be poured into a dish and left to evaporate in the house.

In Pure Spirit

Do you think $3,000 NZ dollars (about £1,400) is too much or too little to pay for these bottles which may contain ghosts?

Was Melvin clever in putting the two bottles up for auction – a ploy to make money or did he really just want rid of them?

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Gawthorpe Hall is believed, by some, to be one of the most haunted buildings in Lancaster.

The building is owned by the National Trust today but has been in the possession of the Shuttleworth family for much of history. It began life as a pele tower, build in the 14th century to ward off the Scots, and a Jacobean mansion was added in around the year 1600.  It was Sir Charles Barry who extended the hall significantly in 1850.

The initials “KS” appear often around the house which stand for Kay-Shuttleworth.

Some sources claim that Colonel Richard Shuttleworth played a vital part in the Pendle Witches case of 1612 and others believed to be witches in 1633. Others deny this.

Ghosts of Gawthrope Hall

There are many tales and accounts of hauntings at Gawthorpe Hall. Rachel K Shuttleworth is believed to be one of the entities in the hall – she was the last member of the family to actually live in Gawthorpe and was known as extremely skilled at embroider and lacemaking.

Other people speak of the murder of a young woman at the hall. This murder isn’t just associated with a possible ghost but of a sudden pain in the chest that can strike some visitors.

Some people have suggested that Richard Shuttleworth’s involvement with the Pendle witch trial has had an effect on the hall. Richard Shuttleworth was the son of  Hugh Shuttleworth  and Anne Grimsha and so owned West Close where accused witches Chattox and Anne Redfearn lived.

It is believed that it was Richard Shuttleworth’s servant who accused the women of witchcraft in the first place.

In Pure Spirit

Have you been to Gawthorpe Hall and seen its ghosts? What did you make of the historic building?

If you feel like visiting Gawthorpe Hall you can do so by booking via the National Trust*.

Disclaimer: Links marked with a star(*) are affilaite links.

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The castle is believed to be haunted and runs overnight paranormal tours. The tours make use of electromagnetic field (EMF) detectors, digital thermometers, dowsing rods, crystal pendulums and tourists are allowed to bring their own digital cameras.

Visitors have reported the barking and howling of a spirit dog, the cries of ghost children and the ghost of a wife who was terrorised by her husband during her life. People are said to greatly fear the place, can sense the ghost of someone who committed suicide the castle and of haunting resulting from murder.

Other visitors report sensing the presence of a nurse, perhaps the nursemaid of the ghostly children, present in the castle.

In 2008 the BBC published a recording of a ghostly voice taken by a paranormal assistant who works at the castle. Some people think it says; “Hold me close”

The BBC recording is here. Can you hear it?

Rachel told the BBC;

“From the noises I have heard and recorded, to the temperature drops and the strange scents, I am certan it is haunted! Sometimes it’s quiet, sometimes it’s active – the spirits come out when they choose!

We were holding one of our overnight vigils in Bodelwyddan Castle when I recorded the sound. We were waiting for a group to arrive and as my friend and I walked around the castle we began to feel uneasy as if something was waiting to happen. The public arrived at 9pm and, after the tour, we began our vigil. We entered the library and where busy talking when all eight of us heard a loud sigh which appeared to come from the door right next to us.

It was unexplainable. It couldn’t have been any of the group as we were all on the opposite side of the doorway. After we had calmed each other down, I decided to switch on the recording device on my phone in the hope I would record a voice like we had heard earlier. We stayed in the library but nothing else happend so I stopped recording.

However, I sent the recording to an EVP expert and he used his software to pick out a voice saying ‘Hold me close’ which we hadn’t heard at the time. We had a lot of unexplained responses that night as well as the sound of music and faint voices. It has to be one of the scariest nights in the castle for me.”

The castle acted a a ret and recuperation hospital for soldiers during the first world war and the grounds of the estate where used for trench training.

In 1829 Sir John Hay Williams wrote that, during a refurbishment project, human bones where founded near on the chimneys but were built back into the castle wall.

North West Spirit Seekers also have a video of the castle.

In Pure Spirit

Ghost Hunters International and Most Haunted have both visited the castle. Most Haunted returned to Bodelwyddan for Most Haunted Live in 2010.

Have you been to the castle? Have you encountered or seen any of the Bodelwyddan ghosts?

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The story of ghosts and haunting at Raynham Hall may be one of the most famous in Britain. The Brown Lady is said to be none other than Dorothy Walpole – the sister of the first British Prime Minister Robert Walpole. Robert Walpole (1676-1745), once knwn as Sir Robert Walpole, is widely credited with being the first “Prime Minister of Great Britain” as we know the role today.

The famous photograph taken at Raynham Hall shows a ghost descending the staircase in the hall.

The legend begins in 1713 when Lord Townshend, owner of Raynham Hall, married Dorothy Walpole. She was Townshend’s second wife and, as rumour had it, the ex-mistress of Lord Wharton. Wharton’s reputation was terrible. It was said no lady was safe in is presence.

Dorothy Walpole, the second Lady Townshend, was buried in 1726. It was rumoured that the funeral was a sham, a staged theatre and that Lady Townshend lived on as a hostage in Raynham Hall. Locals said that “Dolly” Townshend was doomed to roam the stairs and hallways of Raynham all by night ever after.

There are mixed reports on how Dorothy Walpole died. Some suggest she starved to death after being confined or confining herself to her room, others suggest she fell – or was pushed – down the grand staircase at Raynham Hall. The same staircase the picture was taken. Was it murder? Was it suicide? There have certainly been deaths at Raynham Hall.

The official papers say tat she died of smallpox.

It is said that King George IV ( at the time still Prince Regent) saw the Brown Lady at Raynham Hall. He is rumoured to have awoken the whole house with the news that “a little lady al dressed in brown, with dishevelled hair and a face of ashy paleness’ who stood at his bed. George IV left that hall immediately.

Later, in 1849, Lucia Stone tried to speak to a lady watching him after he had finished a chess match against Major Loftus (a relative of Charles Townshend) but encountered only a woman, dressed in brown, with no eyes in her skull before she vanished.

In 1936, after the RAF Base at West Raynham had opened, two photographers were active in Raynham Hall. Captain Provand and assistant Indre Shira were talking pictures of the hall for Country Life magazine. It was early evening when Shira notice a misty form on the stairs. Shira alerted the captain so the cap could be taken off the camera while Shira triggered the flash.

The photograph was so remarkable that Shira and the captain quickly got local chemist, Benjamin Jones, to examine the development. It was agreed at the time that the photograph was unlikely to have been tampered with although some people suggested Shira may have tampered with the lens.

Country Life is said still to hold the original photograph.

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