Preston Manor - Team Reports
Team reports
Team 1 (Alpha Bravo)
Group Leader: Amy Banks
Macquoid Room
Our first vigil for the night was the Maquiod Room. We started with a little demonstration of some of the equipment and then moved on to our 'settling in' process. Both myself and Bryan tried a few call-outs but aside from a few people experiencing personal temperature changes, there was no real clear phenomena.
I decided to split the groups into male and female and led the ladies into the adjoining Morning Room, while the men stayed in the Maquiod Room. We had two team members experience pins-and-needles, myself and one other started feeling very hot. One of the ladies reported seeing shadows near the fireplace. A darkening of one corner was also reported. Nothing was reported happening to the guys in the Maquoid Room.
We switched locations, and although there was no definite paranormal activity for the ladies now in the Maquoid Room, one of the men reported on also seeing shadows moving in the Morning Room the group felt they heard the door moving.
For the last few minutes we conducted automatic writing. On Bryan's suggestion we placed our fingernails on the planchette rather than our fingertips. We had some quite strong movement - mostly in a circular direction that had us all having to move around the table. We also had what the group felt to be either a letter 'A' without the crossbar or a 'V'.
Blue Room
In the Blue Room, after our settling in, we tried call outs with the audio lighting with no response. We tried an EVP experiment - results pending. No other paranormal activity was observed in this location. We then moved to the North East Room and tried the same. Some very faint tapping was heard, but could not necessarily be put down to anything paranormal. I fetched an audio light from the Blue Room and we tried placing our fingers on it during call outs. We received a few faint flashes from the red light, but couldn't establish any clear communication.
North East Room
In the North East Room, I split the team into three groups of two for dowsing experiments. One group was in the main bedroom, one in the left Maid's Room, one in the right Maid's Room. All teams felt they'd had success with the dowsing rods, with some very strong reactions in both of the Maid's Rooms. Specifically in these three bedrooms there was a spirit of a young boy, also a spirit called Charles.
Scullery
The team experimented with group crystal dowsing in this location. Once most of the team had established a yes / no answer for the crystals, I started call outs. I asked for any spirits to affect every pendulum in the room and asked the team to call out their responses. Although not every person was successful with their pendulums, we did start to see some uniform answers throughout . The pendulums indicated there were several spirits present and picked out various letters for their initials.
For those that weren't so successful in the Butler's Pantry, I moved them into the Boot Hall to recreate the same experiment. During the remainder of their vigil, one member felt they had contacted a spirit of a girl, aged 15, called Lisa.
For the others back in the Butler's Pantry, we tried some energy building exercises and some photography experiments, although nothing paranormal was noted on the photographs.
Cleves Room
The team tried glass moving in this location and had some fairly good results. The glass indicated that we'd contacted the spirit of a young girl, aged 5, who had died in Preston Manor in 1814. She seemed to be unsure as to whether her death was an accident or deliberate but seemed fairly certain that there was a man involved.
I'd like to say a big thank you to my team for the evening - you guys were great! It was really good to work with a team that was so willing to take part in all of our experiments. Although the night didn't hold anything overwhelmingly paranormal, your energy and enthusiasm was inspirational!
Team 2 (MikeLima)
Team 2 (Mike Lima)
Group Leader: Matt Laker
Blue Room
Nothing detected on Audio Lights
EVP- pending review of footage
Some audibles- quiet moans in hallway
Interference with one of the team’s camcorders- this had been turned off prior.
Table tipping- vibrations in table, nothing that indicated definite activity.
Alarm went off in cabinet- there was a light touch on the cabinet, although the Historian with the group (Trevor) pointed out that this only goes off during vigils, and needs a very firm knock to the cabinet to set it off- not one as light as what happened. The alarm cancelled itself before the key could be found to silence it. Due to the knock on the table, this cannot be ruled out as the trigger for the alarm, but is worth considering as possible activity.
N/E Room
In N/E room, Bryan Boyle led a call out, and did some mediumship
Connected with a female spirit of a ‘Lady’, as given to Bryan. Described an old lady with 2 walking sticks, who was in her late 90’s when she died. Mentioned a rope around her neck, which he believed was symbolic of her being severely depressed and contemplating suicide. She mentioned a death of someone close to her, and picked up on a gentleman with a Monocle. He was described as being eccentric, and being in that area.
Trevor verified this information as being correct- the Woman was indeed the ‘lady of the house and she had been depressed following the death of her nephew, of who there is a picture in the room. The man with a Monocle was most likely John Thomas Stanford, or ‘Mad Jack’. He has often been sensed in the corridor and staircase by the servant’s quarters, and has been described as a practical joker.
Servant’s quarters/ staircase
Group split in two, group one aiming to ask the spirits to effect the group in the other room. I was with the group to be affected, Bryan was in the group asking for things to happen. During the vigil, the lights in the room started to flicker very softly, and one of the group felt pushed backwards a couple of times.
My legs went weak, and I felt drained. Not long after this, the light in the hallway came on, and we left the room to see who had turned the lights on, thinking someone had come to get us- I had heard a footstep in the hallway, so we opened the door expecting to see Trevor there.
The hallway was empty, and then the rest came out of the other room to see what had happened. We went back into the rooms, having turned the light out again, I turned round to speak to the group in the room with me, and as I did so, the light came on again! This was in direct response to a callout in the other room. On discussion with Trevor, this area is where Mad Jack is thought to walk, and play jokes and tricks on people.
Scullery
Bryan led the group in Human Dowsing. In response to questions, Sister Agnes, and a man named Andrew came through, pushing a member of the group in response to questions. There were a few taps on a metal drum in the room, but nothing that can’t be explained by other means. We went into another part of the scullery and did some call-outs using pendulums. Nothing really came up from this.
Cleves Room
Glass moving session. Connected with a spirit claiming to be a footman in the house during the first world war. Claimed to have a name with a D initial. Asked about several names from the past of the house- asked if he knew Mr Elphick. YES. Did he like Mr Elphick? No- moved very strongly to a no. Asked if he died of natural causes- Yes. Claimed to have been in service there for all his life. He never married and lived alone, to the west of the property.
Asked if he was the only spirit in the room- No. Indicated 4 spirits in the room. I asked him to stand where I was and use my energy to show himself. I felt that a spirit was there. Asked if he was standing where I was- No. Asked if there was someone standing there, Yes. Asked if it was a friendly spirit- Yes. Asked the spirit stood where I was to use my energy to show itself. On three, I asked them to show themselves using my energy.
Photographs were taken. Asked D whether he and the other spirit interacted- No. Asked whether he liked the children when they came to the location and dressed as Victorians. Yes. Asked him if he could tap one of us, and asked who. Glass moved to one of the group, who subsequently was tapped on the shoulder.
Macquoid Room
Started with Automatic writing planchet. Asked if someone was there to move it. Definite movement in planchet. Asked for the first initial of their name- A. Asked if they could draw a circle on the paper. They did. Asked if it was Sister Agnes- could she move the planchet towards me to indicate yes. It did. Asked if she wanted to communicate with anyone in particular- Yes. Asked for the planchet to go to the centre.
It did. Asked her to show who she wanted to speak to- it came straight to me. Asked questions relating to the story of Sister Agnes- such as was she buried here- Yes. Which direction was her burial place- pointed towards the shutters. Asked if she had been reburied in St Peter's Church. Yes. Asked if she protects the children-Yes. Was she buried in the daytime- No. Was she buried at night- Yes. In secret- Yes. Asked if she could show herself- Yes. Asked if she wanted to- Yes. Asked if she would be happy to try a different experiment- Yes. Trevor verified the information given- She was buried under the veranda where she had indicated, and was buried in secret in the churchyard of St Peter's Church.
Trevor also mentioned that there has been reported the presence of children in Preston Manor and she is thought to protect them. Went to the plasma ball in the room, and got two people to put their fingers on it, and asked if she could touch the ball. No change in energy stream.
Set it to sound sensitive mode, and as ked her to make a sound. No change in the plasma ball. I asked her to draw energy from the ball. I saw a movement out of the corner of my eye, of something moving between the group and the shutters. I went to stand by the shutters at the south side of the room, where she said she was buried. I invited her to use my energy and stand where I was. Immediately I got a pain in my head, and felt dizzy, and weak. I asked her to step away on the count of three.
A couple of people in the group reported seeing a light behind me. I counted to three, and my headache disappeared. No reports of having seen anything at this time. Sat around the plasma ball and carried on trying to build energy in the room. I became aware of an aroma in the room, which I mentioned was there, but did not name. The lady on my left immediately said 'Oh! Lavender!!!'. Two other members of the group also said that they could smell lavender.
At this point it is worth noting that at no point did anyone mention to anyone in the group that there is often the smell of lavender- another smell was mentioned- this rules out suggestion, as those members who said that they smelled something would have mentioned the other aroma. This was again verified by Trevor as being thought to be present when Lady Ellen Stanford is present. Split the group into male and female, and led the females to the morning room.
Asked the females to try and get something to come and affect the males in the Macquoid room. Mal es asked something to affect the females- asked them to pull their hair, touch their left shoulder or tap them on the back of the head. No phenomena reported.
Team 3 (papa golf)
Team 3 (Papa Golf)
Group Leader: Paul Godfree
North East Room
We split the team up amongst the three bedrooms that covered this location. We had interaction taking place in each room using the dowsing rods. We also had orb activity. The lights seemed to flicker on and off. The information received through the rods indicated that children had been present in the smaller rooms. The larger NE bedroom we detected the death of a lady in the bed. Coldness was felt as well as goose bumps to the neck. A feeling of being watched was prevalent.
The Scullery
Again we split the group into smaller groups spread out among the 3 x rooms that encompassed this area. We used pendulums in this area as well as camcorders and emf meters. We had the spirits indicating that they where present in the area
It was very cold in one particular corner of the kitchen a 2 degree difference from the rest of the kitchen. Most of the communication took place here.
Cleves room
In this location a shadowy presence was continually glimpsed at in the corner. We had a lot of glass moving activity take place. Many spirits seem to want to come through. The most prevalent one kept spelling there surname as V.But indicated that she was a woman .And not allowed really in this room. Some spirits came through which where more closely related to the group on a personal basis. We also attempted table tipping .The table did vibrate and start to shake a good few times.
The Macquoid room
We had a lot of activity using the planchet. It repeatedly kept writing D-V-1700.Further investigation managed to indicate that the d = David And the V = possibly Van Oss. He indicated that he had done work for the house and in a argument over a affection for someone had been struck on the head and killed in front of the fireplace. Further questions put forward that his bones are still hidden behind the original fireplace. The person that took his life is also a spirit in the house. The plantchet whilst disclosing this information aggressively tipped over twice. Making the group jump back. We also heard knocks in this room and a trembling through the table.
Blue room/ South East room / Dinning room
We here met up with Brian. We did not manage to light any sound activated lights at all .Brian indicated the room was flat. This also happened in the south east room. We then went down to the dinning room and stood around the table linked hands. One of the group was repeatedly pushed off balance forwards and then backwards. A presence was felt in this room.
The back narrow staircase that leads from the basement to the N E rooms
I to encountered a strange occurrence .When I thought Tim was at the northeast room .I shouted up the narrow servant’s staircase to him 3 x questions about the laying of cables for the CCTV. And I got a very loud yes reply to each question. Nothing funny in this you think. But Tim was not upstairs, he walked into the room behind me .And had not been upstairs at all. Who was the voice!
Team 4 (Tango Bravo)
Team 4 (Tango Bravo)
Group Leader: Tim Brown
Scullery (Basement)
In this location there were three large, separate rooms that span the entire bottom floor (basement) of the Manor. We had chosen to use this location for our pendulum experiments.
The team started by practising with the pendulums seeing the pendulum response for a yes answer and a no answer. What I found particularly fascinating was the way that all the pendulums behaved in the location. In a very short amount of time all of the pendulums were swinging in identical movements for each team member. This is, in my experience, highly unusual. Mostly, pendulum movement is as individual as the person who is using them. Also what was a little odd, was the amount of movement that was being generated. The team consisted mostly of first time users and for this I was surprised at the strength of the movements.
Once the team were comfortable with using the pendulums, we decided to do an experiment. The team were all spaced out in small groups around the various rooms, so that they couldn't hear the other groups placed around them. I asked the team to simply hold their pendulums and say nothing - only to shout yes or no when or if the pendulum they were holding began to move. With the first section of the team I asked them to ask simple questions and wait to hear the answers being shouted in from the different rooms.
The responses to questions were almost instantaneous. As soon as a question was asked, we could hear the teams shout out the answers they were receiving which were 100% consistent through out the location.
On the second part of our vigil we all got together in almost total darkness with only the light of a small LED above a door which was part of a movement detector. We asked if any spirit person with us could make a sound and immediately we had audible responses although quite faint. Within a few minutes of this one member of the team said they could see something walk through a laser beam that had been shone through a doorway.
After this, I could see a figure standing very close to me, out of the corner of my eye. At first I assumed it was another member of the team who had stood there, not realizing how close they were. I kept very still as I didn't want to make them jump. But when the figure moved backwards, a team member turned on a torch, and it was clear to me that the closest team member was at least two meters away from me. The Security guide we had for the night, Sue, mentioned that it was a common sighting in this area. There have been frequent reports of a large figure that stands very close to people, staring at them.
Cleves Room
This is the room that the famous Victorian séance took place with medium (Ada Goodrich-Freer) and the Stanford family. We had chosen to do glass moving in this location and, about an hour before we entered the room, I visited this with four guys from the PIGS team to ensure we had a table and a glass set up. Also, we took with us a plasma ball for one of our other experiments.
When my team walked in there for the vigil several things had changed: the table was gone, the plasma ball was not working and all the chairs had been moved! Thankfully Sue helped me quickly locate another table and we set to work. The team were fantastic, all keen to have a go and take part. We asked for movement of the glass which started slowly but soon became more definite and energetic. We then started to ask basic questions about who we were contacting and started to receive some strong answers.
We discovered that we were in fact not talking to an adult, but to a young female spirit aged about six years old. She was unsure of the year of her death but was seemed to enjoy talking to us. The spirit seemed quite upbeat and displayed a good sense of humour and fun through the conversation that took place.
The Macquoid Room
We divided the team into male and female and the ladies sat in the morning room while the guys attempted auto writing. Although the planchette seemed to be moving well, the results seemed to be nothing more than a scribble. I then retrieved the ladies from the morning room, and was told that they had heard some soft taps or bangs during the vigil.
We swapped over locations (ladies in the Maquoid Room and guys in the Morning Room), and I stayed with the men. Although we tried several different experiments, it was an inactive part of our investigation for us. We even tried a short game of "tell me the first date/ letter/ name that comes into your mind" to see if we could be consistent about our thoughts, we weren't! We did however, all get the same letter (J) and so we asked for the spirits around us to go draw the letter 'J' on the paper that the ladies were using for auto writing.
When we returned we discovered that the ladies also had been achieving movement with the planchette. They had managed to achieve a whole page of mostly illegible, well lets face it scribble, BUT there was clearly a letter 'J' on the paper
Blue Room
This room we were accompanied by medium Bryan Boyle. Despite the room being set up with audio lighting, unfortunately no unknown sounds were detected during the begining of our vigil. We decided to then place a finger in on of the units and ask spirit to illuminate one of the lights in response to our questions. We had the strongest response from Bryan asking questions and the answers indicated that we were again speaking to a spirit of a child.
North East Room
In this location the team experimented with the dowsing rods, and whilst two of the team seemed to be able to get the rods to communicate the rest of the team were unsuccessful. I then noticed a large mirror in the room, so i asked for two volunteers to conduct a scrying experiment. Once they had received instruction on what to do, I took the remaining part of the team into a different room so that we could call out and ask for specific phenomena to be shown in the mirror. After some time, I went back to check on the guys who were scrying, to see if they'd had any success.
They told me they had been seeing small movements out of the corner of their eyes, and a white light had shot across the room. Two more volunteers were put into place by the mirror and the team in the other room asked out for a very gentle touch on the left shoulder of them both. When we returned, we were informed that something was definitely around behind them.
The team then chose to split up into two separate rooms and conduct their own vigils. Both teams then experienced the lights in the room flashing and flickering in response to questions. We couldn't explain this at the time as there seems to be no way to control the lights from outside the room, and nobody was anywhere near the switches inside the room.
Thank you
I would like to say a MASSIVE THANK YOU to my team, you were great fun and i found your enthusiasm and interest through the night simply brilliant!
Also a massive THANK YOU to Sue from Preston Manor. She was fantastic! Very knowledgable, great fun, and took part in all that the team did - Thank you Sue!
