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Tonight's the night...

J

johnnyboy1968

Gone But Not Forgotten
(ACCOUNT RETIRED)
Joined
Aug 15, 2001
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270
Well folks, I'm expecting an investigation team from the Hampshire Ghost Club here at the youth hostel tonight, to see if we can get any evidence of any of the reputed hauntings in this place.

Having spent the last two nights on my own in this ancient, creaking manor house, I was getting a bit spooked. A building of this age makes a lot of strange noises, and the squirrels are back, scratching in the walls and above the ceilings. When you're fully aware that there's nobody else in the building, you become a lot more aware of every thud and click!

It'd be nice to get some evidence of the ghostly nuns, or the thing in the panelled room, but I suspect that Reckless Roddy and his horse won't be putting in an appearance!

I'll let you know if we get anything interesting...
 
Can you describe the reputed hauntings, Johnnyboy, or have you not been told what they are, in case prior knowledge influences your experiences?

Carole
 
The reputed hauntings are as follows:

A procession of nuns crossing the hallway, presumably en route to the chapel (now the self-catering kitchen). These have been both seen and heard chanting. The house was the home of an anglo-catholic order in the 1800s, when it was the property of the vicar of the church over the road. The nuns were over here, and he had the young men in the vicarage, so to speak. There were a number of scandals attached to this, so he didn't last long as vicar. My assistant, who's just left, claimed that one morning when she was the only person in the house, she heard music and singing coming from downstairs.

A solitary nun has been seen lurking on a staircase, her hands dripping with blood. This is just outside the panelled room (see below).

Reckless Roddy, the naughty knight of Porchester Castle. He was seen off by the Lord of the Manor after having designs on the Lady. His horse is heard galloping up the lane whenever a new bride spends her first night in the house. Apparently, the first hostel warden in 1960 heard a horse outside early into his tenure.

The panelled room has a malign presence, which creates an oppressive atmoshere. People have been pushed and punched, and an earlier warden often felt that the room was closing in on him. I can vouch for the strange atmosphere in the room, but I've never seen or been thumped myself.

There are one or two other things. One of my cleaners claimed she caught a fleeting glimpse of a figure which vanished in one of the staff rooms, and staff sleeping in the attic room above the panelled room have reported strange disturbing dreams, sleep paralysis and a general feeling of being watched whilst up there. With that lot I hope that they get something! (and no, I'm not convinced by photos of orbs either!)
 
They're here...

All set to go, video cameras and tape recorders all in place. 'Sall right for them though, they don't have to sleep here tonight...

I'll let you know if anything weird or scary happens in the morning. If you don't hear from me, well...

(I've got The Stone Tape, so I know all about what happens to those who meddle in things etc etc.)
 
mr chopper said:
bet they find ORBS
Click to expand...
It's interesting to me that this 'orbs' business, which has only come to the forefront recently, links to the haunted house I investigated in the Camborne area. The children in the house (then aged under six) reported seeing 'bubbles' coming out of the walls, which none of the adults involved had ever seen.

I recorded this data before I myself had ever heard of Orbs.
 
Must admit that the orbs I've seen on photos on websites just look to me like a trick of the light. What exactly are they supposed to be?

Carole
 
I agree most photographic orbs are probably camera artifacts, but in the case I'm referring to, nobody took any photos!

There was only the verbal evidence of the kids reporting what they saw (and which the adults didn't).
 
Well, a fairly uneventful night, with one or two little blips. As Mr Chopper suggests, a couple of "orbs" showed up on a digital camera. Both were on shots of me too! Still not convinced they're anything other than lens flares / dust particles or whatever, but one of them had a pleasing symmetry (caught right in the middle of two hands pointing out a cold spot in an otherwise warm room).

In the same room as the cold spot, one of the group felt that something was trying to make contact with her, and another says he heard a faint voice just before I found the cold spot. One or two magnetic anomolies were detected, and several more cold spots, but as far as I can tell, the nuns and Reckless Roddy weren't playing ball.

There were audio and video tapes recording in various rooms around the house, so I'll be getting an update from the group after they've had a look at them.

Strangely, I had the deepest, most comfortable night's sleep I've ever had here last night, so maybe the ghosts were worn out by being investigated ;).

My duty room is in the haunted part of the house; the same room where the cleaner saw something, and I've always felt uneasy sleeping in there, even before I knew about that.

I'll post any other results as soon as I get them.
 
Update

Just had a call from the bloke who led the investigation. As predicted, loads of orb photos, but apparently, one photo taken of me shows the head and shoulders of a male figure lurking faintly in the background.

One of the tapes from the panelled room seems to have some faint voices on; a man and woman arguing, but apparently words are difficult to make out because of background noise.

I'm looking forward to receiving a copy of the report, along with the photos, so that I can judge for myself. I'm sitting here on my tod at the moment, and its still bloody creepy!
 
Got emailed a copy of the photo yesterday, and to be honest I'm not terribly convinced that the "figure" is anything other than a lens reflection or some sort of digital camera artefact.

I've found a few more "faces" in the photo. Dave the Ghost Club guy pointed out another on to my left; a sort of alien / skellybones type thing, upside down. There's also an evil looking white-fanged beastie on top of the reception area, but that's the giant toy Taz that someone left here years ago

Shame, really, as I was expecting something like the melty-faced monk of Newby church. It'll be interesting to see if we can make anything of the voices on the tape though.

Can't post the pic tonight, as I'm at work, but I'll see what I can do tomorrow, and I'd be interested to know if anyone else thinks they can see anything...
 
Any chance of the piccies.? Especially the upside down alien and Taz!
 
I'll post it some time tomorrow! It's on the work computer at the moment, so I'll have to email it to my home first. I'm making sure I'm there in broad daylight after my ghostly experience there last Sunday!
 
Glad to see you're still alive 'n kickin', Johnnyboy. Keep us posted!
:)
 
That bit about the squirrels scratching* - a bit HPL, if you ask me.

"It was the squirrels that did it, the squirrels in the walls".




*By which I mean, making scratching noises.
 
Right, here's the pic, such as it is. As I said, I think it takes a vivid imagination to see anything other than digital camera artefacts. I've not mucked about with it at all, other than the obvious attempt to remain anonymous at UnCon! Having said that, there's definitely some sort of ghostie in the entrance / reception area, going by my experiences last Sunday!

Click Here
 
Yep, just see the images there - wouldn't have noticed them if you hadn't pointed them out for me. Pity no hooded monk ot anything:D
 
Though I did see a strange entity with a brown paper bag on it's head?:confused:
 
Hmmm! All I could see was pixelation effects. Maybe the original foto is clearer?

I have a wooden pseudo-beam on the ceiling of my living room - if I lie on my back and look at the wood stain varnish on it I can see a slightly compressed, somewhat devilish face. Perhaps I'll snap it, and send it in to FT simulacra.
 
rynner said:
Hmmm! All I could see was pixelation effects.
Click to expand...

Yup, I think that's all it is. I haven't seen a printout of the original picture yet. They've sent me a copy of the report, with loads of "orbs", but I won't stick any up because (a) IMHO they're just lens flares, and (b) they're only low-detail photocopies.

So it looks like the ghosties were keeping a low photographic profile that night. I might go round taking snaps of likely spots myself, with a good old fashioned film camera. Does anyone know if these orb things only show up as an effect on digital cameras?

Still, there's something living in the place, and it scared the hell out of me last weekend. Nothing happened tonight though, and I still said 'bye to them when I left!
 
IMHO your right in wanting to use normal film - wouldn't trust a digital pic. They are still not high enough resolution (unless you have £1000+ to spend) and too easily manipulated. At least with normal film you have negatives as some form of proof that you have not tampered with the film.
 
I use Photoshop extensively as part of my job and although there is considerable image degradation due to the size and compression of the source file, as a rule, the squares of data that make up the image don't contain anymore information than that which is available in the originial document and simply ham up that area and the data it holds, in the left-hand area highlighted the squares present do look as though they contain a few extra and substantially different shades of grey with easily identifiable edges compared to those on the wall itself, these could be areas of light or the contrast of shadows but there doesn't appear to be a light source present capable of producing them if this was the case.

I may be way off but its just a thought.


All the best.

Randall.
 
I have to say, it looked like a picture of a room. It seems to me that if you found some random pictures and searched them for ghosts like the one seen there, you could probably find them. Film cameras, perhaps including ones sensitive to different light spectra, might be the way forward...
 
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