Who Ya Gonna Call? Ghost Hunters & Hunting

Swifty said:
We visited a few other small churches in the area that day, all with similar grave slabs and I would say that's a figure of a standing man and not a sword hilt only because that was the case in all the other churches. I could be wrong though.
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Now I'm worried about the anatomical ability of the artists all over again... if it's a standing man - what are the square things at the bottom? They're never feet!
 
catseye said:
Now I'm worried about the anatomical ability of the artists all over again... if it's a standing man - what are the square things at the bottom? They're never feet!
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In the case of the other ones in the other local churches, they were just an illustration of the ground the figures were supposed to be standing on. I tried to google image search some other examples to post here last night but wasn't sure what to call them or the names of any of the people portrayed.
 
Swifty said:
In the case of the other ones in the other local churches, they were just an illustration of the ground the figures were supposed to be standing on. I tried to google image search some other examples to post here last night but wasn't sure what to call them or the names of any of the people portrayed.
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That makes some sort of sense. Artistic detail was often a bit...sketchy. If it's the ground I can sort of understand the shape now.
 
Frideswide said:
Yup - brass has been removed.

Wheeled thingy is a hearse! And you can drape cloth over it.
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It looks a bit like one in the picture but it's a recreation of a wool weaving machine because Worstead was famous for that. The wheeled thing in the pic has got a loom inside it not visible in the pic with wool and a partially started demonstration weaved pattern on display. You can still buy new wool Worstead clothes online, I don't think they're from the actual village though?.
 
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In truth, the grave slabs with swords depicted on them (as faintly visible on the right-hand slab from a Scottish castle) are rather different to the Church ones; I'd just remembered them incorrectly.

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Steven said:
Ah, you're very likely right, mate - just remembered that other, similar slabs I've seen featured the impression of an entire sword and not just the hilt.
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You might still be right Steven because I can also see something beneath the figure that looks like a sword shape so you could be right that it's a handle and not a figure. This is going to bug me now until I can go back there and have a proper look.
 
The wear n' tear of centuries makes things hard to scrutinise. For example, I can't make out any facial details on the warriors in the image above, yet these details might actually be there or were there originally.
 
Wikipedia on Monumental brasses has pictures of the type of brass I think it is.

Thus has 3 figures but you can see how they relate to the "ground". If this was removed (valuable metal and/or collectors) then the scar left would be like the one in the picture. Extra fact - the weird shape to the middle figure's head is because he has his head resting on his helm - lying across the figure axis, opening to the left and decorative animal figure, probably made of stiffened leather, to the right.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Monumental_brass
 

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Swifty said:
It looks a bit like one in the picture but it's a recreation of a wool weaving machine because Worstead was famous for that. The wheeled thing in the pic has got a loom inside it not visible in the pic with wool and a partially started demonstration weaved pattern on display. You can still buy new wool Worstead clothes online, I don't think they're from the actual village though?.
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Bad bad Swifty! :rofl:

https://talkdeath.com/driving-the-dead-a-history-of-the-hearse/

#2 shows the drapery over the framework and #5 shows what may be the same example as above!

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Frideswide said:
Bad bad Swifty! :rofl:

https://talkdeath.com/driving-the-dead-a-history-of-the-hearse/

#2 shows the drapery over the framework and #5 shows what may be the same example as above!

View attachment 81320View attachment 81319
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What you're showing in your link is a hearse, yes. What's inside the church instead in my picture is a weaving loom with wool attached. A 'lump' of blue woven wool is visible in the picture if you zoom in. I walked over and looked at it. With the wool attached to it through pins. It also happened to have a cover over it but was definitely not a hearse unless they had wool weaving hearses back in the day. Which I doubt.
 
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I have just returned from a trip to Northumberland and a visit to Bamburgh Castle. But let’s not talk about that. Just a few miles away is Chillingham Castle which is the spookiest place I have ever seen in the UK.
As you enter, there’s an old green bus by the entrance emblazoned with ‘Chillingham Castle‘ in an old germanic font in gold with a bat as part of the livery. And indeed the Bat is the heraldic feature running through this old dilapidated historic building. It’s even on the napkins on the table settings.
We started our journey through the ticket office/gift shop which consisted mostly of witch dolls and cuddly bats and then it was straight through to a torture chamber with tableaus of excruciating punishment and nice display of tools.
The one thing I’ll say about the place was just about everything you’d expect from a castle’s grisly contents is on display. Helmets, huge swords, animal skulls and odd photographs and furniture. They have a room which has a mantlepiece where there’s a couple of polaroids of ghosts along with apologetic letters from people who have stolen things and returned them saying their lives had been plagued by bad luck since they took them. One person saying they were sorry they ever took a sprig of heather from the estate grounds.
At the end of the tour, there’s a grisly scene at the tearoom where lots of old ladies and their silent menfolk take tea off linoleum tablecloths dating back to the early sixties. Again, oppressive decor and huge dead animal parts decorate the room. The gentle chatter and clink of teacups compete against the pervading atmosphere of authentic gothic horror.

The grounds are silent. Like no life wishes to be near the place and the woods are silent, cloaking the whole area.

I rather liked it. If true gothic dilapidated castles are your thing, this has it all and they apparently do ghost tours as a means to keep the place going.
 
Swifty said:
A few of us are off to Felmingham Old Rectory in the village of Felmingham near North Walsham one night this week. It was a care home until 2019 when it was closed down for having a poor record and is currently abandoned.

https://www.edp24.co.uk/news/20659076.former-care-home-poor-record-become-flats/
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We've just returned from Felmingham Old Rectory tonight. It was a relief to find a back door that was open instead of having to climb through a window. We could hear banging from inside before we got in so were prepared for a homeless person when we got inside but the whole building was empty. We didn't hear any banging once we were inside.

afelm001.jpg


The first of editing notes for when the final video's assembled

afelm002.jpg


We called one room Pauline's room because we found a single shoe in there with the name Pauline Howe written on a sticker in the shoe. We set up the cat balls in the room and called her name out which didn't trigger the flashing lights in the cat balls.

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These stairs are infamous for producing the sounds of footsteps. A lord apparently once lived in the building before it was a care home and some of the later staff felt it was his ghost they were hearing and sometimes seeing. I'll try to find out the name of the lord for the video if he ever actually existed that is. I'm not normally a believer in orbs and myself and the fellow I was with tonight are able to write off most of that as dust or insects. The one below floated up the stairs and over the camera, we'd left it recording while we were in room 33. The rem pod didn't go off and neither did the cat balls but we did capture a long groan ending in a grunt that sounded male at around the same time as the floating object.

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When we entered room 33, it was the only room in the whole building that felt very cold. I checked and the windows were closed in this room. Apparently two couples at different times had died in this room and local staff wouldn't go into it so it was unused after their deaths.
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Again in room 33. We're unsure what the grey blur is in the top left hand of this picture. If, when I watch the footage back, I'm standing on the left hand side of my friend who took the video footage, I can't rule out that this isn't just my torch light. If I'm standing on the right hand side of him, the angle would be wrong for it to be light from my torch. Not exactly proof of life after death but interesting anyway.

afelm005.jpg

My friend got a bit spooked when we heard a dog barking outside as we got back downstairs, he thought it might be the police (it turned out to be just a neighbour's dog) so we skipped going down the cellar and left. There's also a large loft with bags that was accessible but we didn't trust the flooring in there although I wanted to see what was inside a suitcase my torch light picked up.

We're thinking about going back there later in the week for a 3am invest instead, hopefully that back door will still be open.
 
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brownmane said:
@Swifty, that looks like a large area to cover. How big an area is the rectory?
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The map's an old Akari Care map. That organisation doesn't operate there anymore because of the place being shut down for inadequate care reports although Akari Care are still functioning and have a large number of care homes still operational in the UK. We weren't allowed to be there but we didn't break in (a door was open), we didn't cause any damage or take anything so we would have probably just got a police warning if we'd been busted.

I couldn't tell you the square feet of the place sorry although the fire safety map is to scale like a blue print. There's a few acres of ground around the place as well (mostly overgrown now). It's three stories high, the cellar (zone 9) is tiny as is the top story (zone 8) which only consist of three rooms connected by a small corridor. The staircase up to there is concealed by a door. I expect the top story was probably a senior manager's office at a guess.

I'm no architecture expert but I'd again guess it would have been built in the early 1900's at the earliest after walking around both the outside and inside. I haven't been able to find anything else about the history of the place or any old pictures of it on Google image search so if anyone reading fancies helping out, it's:

Felmingham Old Rectory
Aylsham Road
North Walsham
NR28 0LD
 
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Swifty said:
I'm no architecture expert but I'd again guess it would have been built in the early 1900's at the earliest after walking around both the outside and inside. I haven't been able to find anything else about the history of the place or any old pictures of it on Google image search so if anyone reading fancies helping out, it's:

Felmingham Old Rectory
Aylsham Road
North Walsham
NR28 0LD
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lt was a vicarage in 1885:

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25”/mile:

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https://maps.nls.uk/geo/explore/#zoom=18.3&lat=52.81436&lon=1.33767&layers=168&b=ESRIWorld&o=100

“The living is a double one, a vicarage and a rectory, in the diocese of Norwich. Value of the vicarage, £169; of the rectory, £187. Patron of the v., the Bishop of Norwich; of the r., John Postle and others.”

https://www.visionofbritain.org.uk/place/3955 (1872)

maximus otter
 
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maximus otter said:
lt was a vicarage in 1885:

View attachment 83092

25”/mile:

View attachment 83093

https://maps.nls.uk/geo/explore/#zoom=18.3&lat=52.81436&lon=1.33767&layers=168&b=ESRIWorld&o=100

“The living is a double one, a vicarage and a rectory, in the diocese of Norwich. Value of the vicarage, £169; of the rectory, £187. Patron of the v., the Bishop of Norwich; of the r., John Postle and others.”

https://www.visionofbritain.org.uk/place/3955 (1872)

maximus otter
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Excellent work. Thank you Max.
 
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You know those frustrating moments in life when you spot something interesting, you realise it's only going to be fleeting so you say to the person with you something like "Hey!, look at that! quick!" ....... but they do anything but that: they look at you, they have a bit of a think then a bit of a stretch then finally turn their head in the direction you want them to and of course, whatever it is is all over by then then they look at you with a 'What?' expression so you have to bite your tongue before you say 'Which part of quick didn't you understand?' ...

That didn't happen tonight at Thorpe Saint Andrew's Lunatic Asylum's morgue. My friend did the "Look!" command and I turned in time to see what we both later agreed looked like a black laser point dot move across the inside wall behind the bed. He told me I'd only seen the last part of it because it had started a few feet to the left before I'd turned my head. We were filming so hopefully he's caught that on camera. Either by coincidence or something paranormal, he'd been filming a live stream at the time which instantly stopped working when we observed this large dot with our own eyes. He thinks it stopped worked instantly after we saw the moving dot so we'll have to watch the footage back.

Here's another couple filming in the same tiny two room morgue. The stickers you can briefly see on a wall are commonwealth flag stickers from 1962 and '63. We had to climb through the same window tonight they did. Sadly someone's vandalised the butler's pantry sink now so that in pieces on the floor.

 
Swifty said:
You know those frustrating moments in life when you spot something interesting, you realise it's only going to be fleeting so you say to the person with you something like "Hey!, look at that! quick!" ....... but they do anything but that: they look at you, they have a bit of a think then a bit of a stretch then finally turn their head in the direction you want them to and of course, whatever it is is all over by then then they look at you with a 'What?' expression so you have to bite your tongue before you say 'Which part of quick didn't you understand?' ...
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That's exactly what it's like when I'm trying to attract the dog's attention to something she can chase. There were four deer yesterday, about half a dozen yards in front of her, all breaking through the hedge and heading off across the field, and I was waving my arm and pointing like a mad thing and she was staring at me, my arm, the hedge and everything else as the deer happily bounded off.

(I often set her to chase deer. She has no hope of catching them but spends a happy few minutes legging it across fields barking wildly while they outdistance her by a mile and then stand in the next field to watch her coming back to me with her tongue lolling).
 
catseye said:
That's exactly what it's like when I'm trying to attract the dog's attention to something she can chase. There were four deer yesterday, about half a dozen yards in front of her, all breaking through the hedge and heading off across the field, and I was waving my arm and pointing like a mad thing and she was staring at me, my arm, the hedge and everything else as the deer happily bounded off.

(I often set her to chase deer. She has no hope of catching them but spends a happy few minutes legging it across fields barking wildly while they outdistance her by a mile and then stand in the next field to watch her coming back to me with her tongue lolling).
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HaHa. That reminds me of that "Jesus Christ, FENTON!" video
 
For obvious reasons, we don't post where we're about to go on investigations .. mainly because most of the time we're trespassing. We never force entry, vandalise anything or take tools with us.

I won't write a full report right now because I've just got back home and it's nearly 1am. Tonight we went to Hainford Hall in Norfolk, The hall was built in the early 1800's if anyone want's to look up the history of this place.

edit: https://www.edp24.co.uk/lifestyle/2...4-bed-mansion-auction-abandoned-70-years-ago/

Occam's Razor time: when you're inside a supposed haunted location and the front door to the place has the door handle suddenly and violently rattling followed by a God almighty loud bang on the same door? ... it's most likely someone pranking you. I've done a bit of research after getting back home and found the likeliest and non paranormal explanation at the bottom of this urban explorer forum page.

'The family that own the hall also own the house next door and the man who rents there will often call the owners if he sees anyone around. The owners then call upon a couple of local hainford lads to come and kick anyone out with threats to call the police. You’re lucky you got in. I did this one a couple of years back but security has been tighter since they’ve tried to auction it off.'

Pictures taken inside the hall in the daytime.

https://www.28dayslater.co.uk/threads/hainford-hall-hainford-norfolk-visited-september-2020.125018/

That didn't half get our adrenaline going though. We didn't know the motives of the pranking or if it was police or security instead so we left through the same hole in the basement we'd climbed in through wielding some loose stair banisters in case we had to protect ourselves. One of our group was proclaiming "It's the house." ... the only weird thing was about ten seconds after the commotion at the front door, we heard a loud bang from upstairs. Also, a cat ball and rem pod, both positioned about 20ft away from the front door both went off although another rem pod at the top of those stairs didn't. I'm going with locals trying to scare us off. It's an incredibly atmospheric looking place with absolutely no graffiti which is rare.
 
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