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Wymering Manor

Yithian

Yithian

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Something strange in the neighbourhood ... and it's up for sale: But would you buy Britain's 'most-haunted' manor house?
By Daily Mail Reporter
Last updated at 3:49 PM on 10th September 2010

If you are of a delicate disposition and easily spooked then it's unlikely this will be your dream home.

For Wymering Manor, a Grade II listed building and reputedly one of the UK's most haunted properties, is going under the hammer later this month for £375,000.

The manor, which needs major structural work and restoration, boasts being the oldest house in Portsmouth, Hampshire and was mentioned in the Domesday Book in 1086. In previous incarnations it has been a 17th century former vicarage, monastery and youth hostel.

Investigators of the paranormal claim to have sensed the presence of 20 spirits including those of children laughing and whispering.

Security guards refuse to work alone at night.

The house has proved a draw for numerous groups keen to examine the veracity of paranormal activity

The building has gained a reputation among ghost hunters for having high levels of paranormal activity, including sudden drops in temperature and strange apparitions, and has appeared on TV's Most Haunted.

It has also become a popular hit on YouTube with amateur documentary makers testing one another's wits against the ghouls.

The building's current owner, Portsmouth City Council, is selling it to cut costs.

Jeremy Lamb, chartered surveyor at Andrews & Robertson, said:

'This is a property of some renown for being haunted, so there is a fair chance a future owner may use it as a guest house because of the novelty factor attached to it.

'It's certainly a unique selling point and not often that we offer a haunted house.

'When I surveyed it, the security guards told me they feel there is something 'fairly spooky' going on in the house and, though they patrol it on a 24-hour basis because it attracts lots of people who are intrigued by its levels of paranormal activity, they refuse to work alone there at night.'
The building will go up for auction with a guide price of £375,000

Tony Nicholas, head of asset management at Portsmouth City Council, says the money from its sale will be reinvested into services for Portsmouth people.

In 2007 Wymering Manor was granted permission for use as a hotel. The successful bidder will need listed building consent in addition to planning permission for any alterations, extensions or demolition works to its interior or exterior.

It will be offered by Andrews & Robertson at auction at London's Grand Connaught Rooms on September 21.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article ... ction.html
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FOLLOW LINK FOR PHOTOS AND A VIDEO REPORT

Is anyone here local?
 
Wouldn't this be the perfect opportunity for a group of paranormal investigators to club together and buy the property?

If you could install equipment on a permanent basis, the house could become a kind of 'ghost uni', where interested individuals could learn to use various equipment and hone their ghost hunting skills, there's the tourist angle, if there's already permission for the building to be used as a hotel, there's your ghost weekends sorted. A winner all round!
 
Just down the road from me this is.
I agree it should become FT headquarters :D
 
It's got "let down" written all over it.

Wish I had the money though.... :(
 
theyithian said:
Something strange in the neighbourhood ... and it's up for sale: But would you buy Britain's 'most-haunted' manor house?
By Daily Mail Reporter
Last updated at 3:49 PM on 10th September 2010

If you are of a delicate disposition and easily spooked then it's unlikely this will be your dream home.

For Wymering Manor, a Grade II listed building and reputedly one of the UK's most haunted properties, is going under the hammer later this month for £375,000.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article ... ction.html
Click to expand...
Click to expand...
There have been earlier posts, dating back to 2002 (see above), on this building.

Restoration hopes despite decay of 'haunted' Wymering Manor

Inspections of what is reputed to be one of the country's most haunted houses have revealed the extent of decay is worse than feared.
The 400-year-old Wymering Manor in Portsmouth has suffered damage by death watch beetle on top of known existing structural problems.
Volunteers hoping to save the building say they are "very confident" it can still be restored for community use.
Portsmouth University students are being enlisted to work on the project.

The Grade II* listed building was handed to a trust in 2012 after owners Portsmouth City Council failed to sell it.
A recent survey unearthed evidence of death watch beetle damaging old oak beams in its frame.
Andy Mason, of Wymering Manor Trust, said: "It was worse than we were expecting and this has brought us down to earth a bit. It doesn't knock us back - we knew we had a lot of work to do here.
"Even in a relatively short time, I've noticed the house's condition is starting to slide further."

Nevertheless, the trust has started work to develop it as community facility - with ideas including creating a hub for social enterprises, arts performance areas or making it available for wedding receptions or corporate events.
A £50,000 Big Lottery grant is being spent on bringing the Victorian parts of the house back in to use with new glazing and removal of asbestos.

Mr Mason said: "We're starting to deliver solutions to the problems we've got here."
With parts of ceilings in a few rooms held up with scaffolding, the full restoration cost is estimated at £2.5m. The trust is currently investigating possible sources of funding.

Portsmouth University is giving architecture students the opportunity to work on the building as a unique case study.
Lecturer Karen Fielder said she was "very optimistic" the restoration project would come to fruition.
"It's ideal - students get the chance to experience a real life project, trying to find viable uses for historic buildings that are financially sustainable."
"The manor still has a lot of secrets - there is a lot to learn about the history and structure.
"It's such a treasure for Portsmouth, the city can't see it collapse."

---------------------------------

Wymering Manor

Built around 1581, with various add-ons since, it now surrounded by modern suburbs
Reputed to be haunted by more than 20 ghosts, including a choir of nuns and Sir Roderick of Portchester
Used as a vicarage, home to a Catholic religious order, a family house and most recently was a youth hostel
Unused and in a state of disrepair since 2006
Featured on the UK's Most Haunted TV show

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-hampshire-25454476
 
I've got bored so i have chosen a page and a thread at random and looked to see if there was an update. The house is still standing (just) and the Trust formed to protect it when the council failed to sell are still struggling to finance the renovation. Here is a recent article in the local press about the ghosts with some atmospheric photos of the insides. It's a really interesting building so I can see why it is so loved:

https://www.hampshirelive.news/news...wymering-manor-inside-hampshires-most-6581820
 
staticgirl said:
I've got bored so i have chosen a page and a thread at random and looked to see if there was an update. The house is still standing (just) and the Trust formed to protect it when the council failed to sell are still struggling to finance the renovation. Here is a recent article in the local press about the ghosts with some atmospheric photos of the insides. It's a really interesting building so I can see why it is so loved:

https://www.hampshirelive.news/news...wymering-manor-inside-hampshires-most-6581820
Click to expand...
It's not unusual in USA to buy haunted houses and closed down institutions and rent them out to ghost hunters for a night or two.
 
Next organised ghost evening in a week and a half, I'm seriously thinking about it... But £25 plus train fare is a bit of a hit. I shall ponder.
 
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The condition of the building just screams, “Money pit”, and it’s right in the middle of a Portsmouth housing estate. Neither of those factors is much of an incentive to buy.

maximus otter
 
I went there! For Halloween 200(3?) met Johnnyboy who was the manager of the YH (and formerly of this parish) someone else who used to be on here (James?) and was supposed to met (Nonnymouse). But I definitely remember lying down on one of the bunks and preparing to go to sleep when I felt "someone" sit on the same bunk just behind me, they then got up immediately. There was no-one else in the room.I didn't feel scared or confused just sleepy, so I went to sleep.
 
DrPaulLee said:
I did a ghost hunt there, about 16 years ago. Nothing happened of course, but a friend who was an expert in electronics, used it to test an infrasound detector he had developed for his laptop.
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Interesting, did he detect anything? I seem to recall claims that some standing stones emitted ultrasound at dawn, when the sun struck them. Iirc, it was hypothesised to be a piezo-electric effect.
 
We were looking for a spike at the proposed infrasound frequency which I think was 18 Hz but we saw nothing. As far as I remember, there were a few transient blips but nothing significant.
 
DrPaulLee said:
We were looking for a spike at the proposed infrasound frequency which I think was 18 Hz but we saw nothing. As far as I remember, there were a few transient blips but nothing significant.
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I realise I misread 'infra' as 'ultra', now feeling stupid (you think I'd be used to that). But still interesting, ultrasound is a strange beast. Quite hard to measure low levels of it in analogue circuitry, as there's a thing called 'pink noise' or 1/f noise which can be a devil to avoid in the analogue front end, I've done some of such for 0.5Hz to 2Hz signals.
 
Xanatic* said:
It sounds a bit like an expression. "He had a certain wymering manner about him."
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And the name of one of the ghosts - Sir Roderick of Portchester - sounds like one of those 'your author name is Sir/Lady name-of-your-first-pet +name-of-your-school' things.
 
Yes, the guy who developed the infrasound detector, and associated software was Richard Jacklin, who ran a small company creating similar gadgetry. He spent a lot of time trying to find something that would conduct sound efficently for his sensor to pick up (thought it worked well as a standalone with his laptop). He found that the best accoustic conductor was an Irish drum!
 
His small company was called "Spectral Electronics" which he did as a hobby, but when he was employed full time in the Farnborough, Hants. area, he gave it up. This was about 2004-ish.
 
DrPaulLee said:
Yes, the guy who developed the infrasound detector, and associated software was Richard Jacklin, who ran a small company creating similar gadgetry. He spent a lot of time trying to find something that would conduct sound efficently for his sensor to pick up (thought it worked well as a standalone with his laptop). He found that the best accoustic conductor was an Irish drum!
Click to expand...
Figures, low frequency sounds will be difficult to pick up with (say) a microphone or any kind of moving coil. A drum would do it nicely.
 
Our nearest country hall at Faulkbourne has just come on the market for a smidge under £3M, so I did a little bit of digging to see if it has any ghost stories attached.
https://www.rightmove.co.uk/properties/122239136#/?channel=RES_BUY

Unfortunately the only ghost story I can find associated with the place is that of a spectre cycling outside the estate wearing a “billy-cock” hat.
http://www.greatbritishghosttour.co.uk/Pages/England/Essex/Faulkbourne.html
I‘ve told the wife it hasn’t got a ghost I’m not putting in a bid.
 
The commercial events planner runs his own ghost hunting company, so there could be a conflict of interest there.
 
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