LLANTHONY SECUNDA MANOR CALDICOT WALES - 21st November 2014

The Manor is approximately 800 years old and although it was once owned by King Henry VIII he did not live here. The Manor is steeped in history and this is reflected in its appearance and decor with heavy oaked doors, tapestries, ancient stone walls, stone spiral staircases, open log fires and bread ovens. 

Earliest recorded history of the Manor has been traced back to between 1136 and 1205 and the reign of King Henry I. During the reigns of King Stephen & Queen Matilda the Augustinian monks of Llanthony Prima Priory in Monmouthshire sought refuge at Llanthony Secunda in Gloucestershire and the Manor house in Caldicot.

King Henry VIII owned Llanthony Secunda Manor in 1536 when he also acquired large amounts of land following dissolution of the monasteries. Clement Dace was appointed as Henry's bailiff and farmer, in 1540 and it is believed he lived in the Manor. In 1557 the Manor was sold to Richard Seyborne for the sum of £174.5s.6d. 

Richard's son, John, sold the property to Edward & Mary Kemeys between 1601 and 1603 and it remained in the Kemeys family until 1793 when it was purchased by Henry Wise Jnr a local ship builder. Henry's wife Sarah passed away in 1851 and he passed away five years later. The estate was left to Henry's niece Mary Bryan who in turn sold the estate to the Howard family. 

Edmund Howard was a widower and lived at the Manor with his three children Susan, Edmund and Bennett and Sara Richard was recorded as living at the farm as a servant girl aged 18. The Howard's sold to William Morgan in 1941 and after the Second World War it was purchased by The Heavens until sold to developers in 1970. The Manor was due for demolition in 1972 but was purchased by Mrs S.M. McLeod who lovingly restored and rescued the Manor from its impending fate.

Activity

It has been reported that recent renovations of the property have started a series of unexplained activity, ranging from:

o There have been unexplained pools of water appearing in the Great Hall. 

o Feelings of being watched and followed have been experienced

o Items have been moved without explanation.

Investigation

On our walk around, there were a few spirits who made contact, one by the name of Charles who seemed to stay with us all night. In the attic area both our groups independently said they saw a 'shadow man' move from one side of the attic to the other. Red, blue and green lights were also seen by both groups and we did have some amazing table tipping. However, during one session, I turned on my torch as someone said they felt unwell. Prior to this we had heard the table moving although we were all holding hands in the dark. As I turned the light on, the table was still rocking slowly from side to side - with none of the group anywhere near it.  As it came to a halt, I called out to the spirit, 'please Charles, could you rock the table again?' and lo and behold, the table once again rocked completely on it's own ! 

All in all it was a memorable night and as usual, our guests were fantastic.

If you'd like to join us here or on any other event, please log on to www.dusktilldawevents.co.uk to buy your ticket.

EVP's

What Exactly is EVP?

No one knows for sure exactly what EVP is,  but there are many theories. The simplest explanation is unknown sounds or voices- for which there is no logical explanation- appearing on electronic recordings.  Skeptics would say they are intercepted short wave radio transmissions or perhaps that the human brain needs to make sense of sounds and is interpreting naturally occurring sounds as human speech – a kind of audible pareidolia.

Other theories include;

The voices are the projections of the person recording;

The voices are a form of residual (or ghost) haunting and not really a spirit entity; when a traumatic event happens on a site,  the environment absorbs the energy associated with the event and merely replays the same events over and over (otherwise known as stone tape theory).

The sounds are extra terrestrial in nature.

The sounds are from spirits who are attempting to contact the physical world; some EVPs are claimed to be answers to questions posed by the recorder.

How do I capture an EVP?

Simply record in a place that is likely to produce EVPs, then listen to the recording in a quiet environment with headphones. Some EVPs will be clear enough to the naked ear without any specialist software; others will require amplification to be heard more clearly. Since human hearing ranges vary, it may be difficult for a group of listeners to agree upon a single conclusion for the content of an EVP. It takes a while to train your ear to listen for EVP type sounds.

Below is a collection of clear EVP's which have been recorded - what do you think?

My experience with Apports

What is an apport? Does it come from the French word, apporter, meaning to send? Ironically, some of the best definitions come from the sceptic websites. They are certainly the websites that come up first in google's list. And truthfully, I'd be sceptical too if it hadn't happened to me.

From Skeptic.com: "An apport is an object allegedly materialising during a séance. Believers see apports as signs or gifts from spirits. Sceptics see them as evidence of conjuring.

Good magicians and good mediums can produce objects seemingly out of nowhere and nothing. They can also make objects seem to disappear. When a medium does this it is referred to as a deport."

So can this really be true? Can an object teleport from one place to another? In the days of the Victorian Seance, objects from times gone by would apport into the room, such as Roman coins or other ancient objects. Flowers were also another common apport at this time In fact there was a famous medium called Elizabeth D’Esperance (which was the professional name of Elizabeth Hope) [1855-1919], who was famous for her fruit and flower apports. 

Are they real though? I can only tell you about the 2 experienced I had with them.

The first took place in 2005/6. I was living in Birmingham with my two sons and my nephew was also living with me at the time.  My nephew was engaged to a young girl and although they had once been very happy, they had been arguing and having some problems. He had asked me to give him a tarot reading. Before I tell you what happened, I will give you some background on the house and the story...

The house itself was built around 1930 - pretty unremarkable in terms of it's structure. A standard 4 bed detached in the suburbs of Birmingham.  It was, however, rife with spirit. My eldest son had seen an old wizened woman in the bedroom and both he and I had seen a small boy, aged about 3, in striped pyjamas, run around the gallery landing. Many orbs and lights were seen with the naked eye, even our local vicar had seen a man in the back garden who simply walked through a wall ! I never found any dramatic reason why it was so haunted - all I could come up with, was that maybe there was a strong ley-line below or alongside the house.

In the weeks previous to the Apport incident,  there had been a lot of paranormal activity - not surprising really as we had 3 boy aged 15 - 20 in the house - plenty of psychic/kinetic energy! My niece, who was 11 at the time, was also in my house a lot as she went to school just across the road and would come over for lunch and sometimes tea.  We had been shopping in Birmingham the weekend before the Apport, and I had bought her a 'toy' ring - a sort of snake made of tin, which wrapped around the finger. She had left it on the fire place in my living room, whilst she was washed her hands one day, and had forgotten about it. I remember seeing it and thinking 'I must tell Amy that's here, I bet she thinks she's lost it!'. Then I thought no more about it.

One afternoon my nephew came in and asked me if he could have a tarot reading - he said that he was having problems with his girlfriend.

We sat opposite each other, cross legged on my double bed. I asked him to shuffle the cards. He close his eyes in concentration and began to shuffle the deck. 

Suddenly, something fell from the ceiling and hit the cards he was shuffling with a 'clunk'. I couldn't believe my eyes when I looked and realised it was Amy's ring - but it was snapped in two ! the metal was red hot and I dropped it as quickly as I had picked it up! We looked at each other in astonishment - it had apported from the room directly BELOW the room we were in.

The broken ring was a sign - a week or so later my nephew and his fiance split, never to be re-united. It's as if spirit were saying 'it won't last'.

                                              A ring like the one 'Apported' in my house

The second time was during a ghost hunt at my current house, in Evesham. My guests were table tipping in the cellar and speaking to our ghost, Colin, a modern day spirit. Colin liked a drink and a fag, and as the table tipped, my friend Alan and I witnessed a cigarette end drop from the ceiling - we luckily had the incident on camera which is posted below....

So, my opinion on Apports? They were definitely faked during the Victorian period, and if I hadn't witnessed them myself, I probably wouldn't believe.... but I HAVE witnessed them. It certainly seems they are some kind of message from the spirit world. If you are a paranormal investigator or ghost hunter, I really hope you get to see one for real, one day....

www.spirithouse.webeden.co.uk

TABLE TIPPING/TURNING

Table tipping, is a form of physical mediumship – this simply means that the medium produces the energy for the spirit to use.  It is a physical phenomenon.  Again, with the assistance of a medium (me!), loved ones in spirit will communicate with their friends and family members through the table by tapping out messages or, of course, you can find out about the life of a spirit in a haunted location by asking yes and no questions.  Literally, through the energy of the sitters and Spirit, the table rises on one, two, or (if you are incredibly lucky) all legs to tip, tap and knock.

I have had spirits play a tune or copy the taps and knocks I have made and I have seen many other people do it too. Please have a look at the video below you will see what I mean...

Coalhouse Fort, Essex, 15th March 2014

Coal House Fort is a Victorian Coastal Defence Fort, which is next to the River Thames in East Tilbury, Essex.

The Fort was built in 1874 to defend the approaches to London from the threat of invasion from France and other Foreign Countries.

This particular Fort is said to be one of the finest examples of an armoured casemated Fort in the United Kingdom.

Since 1983 the Fort has been leased to the Coal House Fort Project, which is a voluntary organisation, who has worked hard to help the Fort keep much of its original Architectural form.

Coal House Fort has over 600 years of Military History so there is no surprise that this location has Paranormal Phenomena that is very, very active.

This location has mile upon mile of pitch black tunnels where no one can hear you scream when the lights go out!

Volunteers whilst at work on the Fort have witnessed Ghostly Apparitions and Strange mists before their very eyes.

Voices and the laughter of a child, along with heavy footsteps and the sound of something being dragged along the floor are just some of the strange phenomena experienced at this unique building.
The Most Haunted Programme visited here very recently and had a lot of activity throughout their stay overnight with extreme poltergeist activity.

We began the evening with a walk around the location - strange things began to happen. My phone went from 60% charge to completely flat  - but when we came out of the tunnels it was back up to 38% !  The brand new batteries on my digital recorder also drained immediately we put them in. Guests were feeling sick, smelling things, hearing things - seemed like it was going to be an active night !

On the guests walk around a group of ladies made contact with some children that Michael had picked up in the quadrangle and the K2 meter was responding with flashing lights to the ladies questions - not surprising as they worked with children in their everyday lives !

For the vigils, I took the Latrine to try out table tipping. All three groups were successful but the energy seemed to build as the night went on. I had the hood of my coat pulled back when I was with group 2, then in group 3, another lady with long hair, had it pulled backwards when standing in exactly the same position that I was in - she was unaware prior to the incident that this had happened to me. We picked up on the spirit of Harry, a man who had hung himself and also a spirit called Jeff (big thanks to the real live Jeff in the group who was such a good sport in group 3 !). 

The PX Machine said some interesting things, all military words and words relating to the Fort. 

All in all it was a very active night - thanks to our hosts at the Fort and of course to our amazing guests, who worked so hard to get such great results.

UK Haunted Episode at The Spirit House !

You may not know it, but Michael and I live in a Tudor house in Evesham - it's probably one of the oldest in the Town as it was build with stone from Evesham Abbey. When Henry VIII ordered the dissolution of the Abbeys in 1544, the townspeople of Evesham took wheel barrows and carts down the the Abbey and literally took the bricks and stone, to build or enhance their own houses. This Abbey stone can be clearly seen in our cellar. The picture below is of Michael on our cellar steps, and you can see the stone clearly.

Michael on the Cellar Steps 

Alex and Michael make up the UK Haunted Team, and they agreed to come and film in early 2014. I asked them because they seemed to be no-nonsense, straight as a die kind of guys who were not interested in faking or dramatics - they just wanted the truth, which is what I wanted too.  It was a very active night - the table tipped, the scrying session was spooky, people were touched (as was Michael from UK Haunted) and most amazingly, the Franks (or Spirit) Box was so, so clear and spoke about children being killed in the cellar - something which has been picked up on before. At the end of the evening Colin signed off by saying 'goodbye, Colin' which was just amazing !  The guys will be filming again soon as part of their USA TV show which is soon to hit the screen across the pond. Whilst we wait for that, please watch the You tube episode by following the link below, and don't forget to check out other venues they have been to, including the capture of what looks to me like a spirit at Clophill Church.

You can also follow the guys on Twitter @UKhaunted and follow us @sue_miketreanor

You can book a ghost hunt at The Spirit House through www.dusktilldawnevents.co.uk or by ringing  01386 442 443.

CLICK HERE TO WATCH THE FULL EPISODE  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eLsEw7-vk0Q&feature=share&list=UUztKAwNEowhhceD03XRhy4g

Poltergeists - an 'Agent' or a Spirit?

In the German tongue, poltergeist literally means "noisy ghost." In fact ,  a poltergeist experience is often noisy, although the usual physical disturbances are, by some,  no longer thought to be the work of  ghosts.  Some recent studies would  indicate that a living person (or poltergeist agent), who is typically involved in another stress-inducing situation, causes the poltergeist phenomena.

Most poltergeist agents are unaware that they are causing the physical disturbances, and even those with vague awareness usually have no conscious control over how and when the disturbances will occur.

In poltergeist cases, typical reported disturbances include strange noises and knockings, and objects moving about as if under their own power. Objects have been reported to fly about in bizarre trajectories, to crash to the floor and break, to break or shatter in place, and to disappear and reappear, sometimes in different locations. Beds are sometimes reported to shake and furniture to rearrange itself. In more rare cases, small, innocuous fires have started, water droplets or bursts have fallen from nowhere, stones have pelted homes, and vague apparition-like forms have been seen.

However, in my own studies and case histories, although many times there is a poltergeist agent, I think there is a small percentage of cases where a very active spirit is to blame for the disturbances. This spirit is able to somehow access enough energy (maybe from the people in its vicinity) to move things around, make noises and smells and sometimes, even make themselves heard !

What do you believe?