History

The P.I.G.S. (“Paranormal Investigation Group Sussex”) was formed in 2006 after a conversation between friends Johan, Paul and Tim, who discovered that they had a common interest in the paranormal. All three of them had been police officers at one time or another, between them having served over 30 years in the force – hence the name P.I.G.S! (we thought it was funny at the time).

2006 – 2008

The P.I.G.S. mainly held private investigations and operated as a group of friends who simply wanted to explore haunted locations. Lauren and Amy joined, Karen Ford (medium) and Mike joined and left along with Johan (an original founder). The group published the-pigs.co.uk (version 1, 2 & 3)

2008 – 2009

The P.I.G.S. started to conduct public investigations on a small scale, with the first truly public event being the Iron Duke in Hove. Although several similar investigations had been conducted before, the Iron Duke was the first that anybody could attend. We published a remade version of the website the-pigs.co.uk (version 4) and Johan left. Matt, Tori, Lib and Louis joined, Louis left soon after.

2009 – 2011

The P.I.G.S. started to concentrate on public events and had spent much time working with the Anthony Nolan charity on the UK mainland and on the Channel Islands of Jersey and Guernsey. These events were on a huge scale by comparison to what had be conducted before. We published a relaunch of the website the-pigs.co.uk (versions 5) along with a rebrand and new bright artwork.

2011 – 2012

The P.I.G.S. started to conduct their own large events, starting off at Field Place in Worthing (2011). These put everything we had learned though our work with the Anthony Nolan Charity in the Channel Islands under the roof of a pure P.I.G.S. event. Jo and Kevin joined and P.I.G.S. started working with local medium and spirit artist Debbie Dean.

2012 – 2014

The P.I.G.S. (“Paranormal Investigation Group Sussex”) changed its name to the P.I.G.S. (“Paranormal Intelligence Gathering Service” as our reach extended beyond Sussex). Tim the original founder of the P.I.G.S. decided to work for the P.I.G.S. on a full time basis, planning events and conducting very detailed analysis of the collected data. The Ghost Store was opened online, selling a small selection of equipment as a section to the P.I.G.S. website. Tim S, Audrey, Paul, Chris, Lucy and Dan joined. Paul (an original founder) and Dan left.

2015 – 2016
The launch of the UK Ghost Store (ukghoststore.com) took place after the success of the original Ghost Store attached to the P.I.G.S. site. A separate site was launched for ghost equipment in the UK. Debbie left so P.I.G.S. started working with Michael Kingscote. Ben, Sally and Lindsay joined.

2017 –

The all new rebrand and website the-pigs.co.uk was launched on April 14th. We conducted our first Michelham Priory, Tonbridge Castle and Anne of cleaves house events. Jo Walker, Michelle Hatch, Zoe Hughes, Sophie Jackson, Lewis Smith, Mel Richardson, Lucy Harvey-Symonds, Lauren Richardson, Marc Richardson all joined the team. We signed up to events at The White Rock theatre and St Mary in the castle in Hastings bt the end of 2017 we had had our best year yet smashing all previous records now to do it all again in 2018.

2018 – 2019

We have completed our first event at the White Rock theatre Hastings, The Stag theatre Sevenoaks, The German Underground Hospital Guernsey. We welcomed Vicky, Dan, Laura, Jo, Angela, Tracey, Michelle, CJ, Sanchia, Mandy, Kerry, Rob and Cate to the team. Kerry and CJ later left We began plans to develop our ghost hunts even further with several trials, new techniques and even richer guest engagement. We don’t know what the future holds but we do know we are going to have fun finding out!

2020 – 2021 (The Covid years)
We started our year saying goodbye to Zoe, Karen, Jo, Tim S, Lucy T, and Lewis. We had a fairly ambitious plan which was due for launch right as the covid lockdown took hold, All events planed between March 2020 and August had to be rescheduled. We started our events at the Stag theatre in August 2020 however with a completely changed strategy, incoming facemasks – hand sanitiser gel – teams of 6 and a team rotation plan which meant no one team ever come into contact with another.

From August on this all became the new normal however this forced us to be different show our guests that we would do anything to keep them safe and still ensure they had a great time. This point in time taught us a great deal about logistics if nothing else. From October we found ourselves facing another lockdown, having already postponed many of our nights we put in place a guarantee to our guests to ensure no bookings were at risk and any requested refunds would be administered immediately as once again we were forced to reschedule a huge amount of events some of which were already rescheduled from the first part of the year.

In the summer of 2021 we emerged from the 2nd lockdown. It was a very different environment in which we found ourselves, some locations didn’t make it though. Locations that had simply changed their operations. Sadly we found it no longer possible to visit; The Old Brighton cells, St Mary in the castle, Manor Farm, Anne of Cleves, Michelham Priory, The Eastbourne Hippodrome. Also Bursledon Brickworks, Wymering Manor were added to this list although they were still functioning we found their cooperation unworkable.

2022 – 2023
On reflection our organisation (PIGS) spent most of this year still recovering from a covid hangover. We emerged from the lockdowns expecting to pick up where we left it in 2019 however that was not to be. Our guests were amazing and still had a huge apatite to come with us. These times were a challenge for everybody with the incoming financial crisis of late 2022 and most 2023. We scaled back our ambitions and planed only 20 – 25 events. Our guest experience has always been at the heart of our operations and would be key to our organisations survival and recovery we searched for ways to add value instead of reducing cost. This did mean a change in some personnel but we came though this now with the best team. As we complete 2023 we have already planed the biggest year yet in all of our history for 2024 with new location, new very capable team leaders, new ways to investigate and we adopted the phrase #LookingForGhosts We welcomed Kirsty, Kelly, Kristie and Kate to the team. 

2024 –
This is going to be a big and very exciting year with the addition of locations such as Kelvedon Hatch, Fort Slough, The Eastbourne Hippodrome, The Anne of Cleves house and Michelham Priory (welcome back) and the mission for new locations continues. We have some great teams what will reach their full potential this year. We will continue our strategy of gathering evidence of ghosts using traditional and up to date technology.
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