Old Beneficiary School

Overview

Over all of our events there seems to be consistency in the ghosts and the personality of the spirits within. A very stern Headmaster and a small boy have been experienced on every event so far.A few of our guests and a couple of the team reported that they felt ‘weird’ in this location, unbalanced, uncomfortable, agitated, there seemed to be an atmosphere to the place that some people were picking up on. Others were fine but its interesting that so many guests who were unconnected had this experience. During our investigation some of the best evidence came from lone or in pairs vigils with the video camera.

History

Groundlings Theatre is one of the UK’s most dynamic and impressive Georgian Theatre’s. Built in 1784, Groundlings is steeped in history and was formally known as The Old Benny, the first free school in the city. The downstairs was the classroom and the upstairs was used by the Beneficial Society for meetings, theatre and concerts. In 1939 the school was closed due to the Second World War, a Nazi sympathiser used the roof to direct bombers using a torch as they wanted to bomb the Portsmouth Dockyard. The school then became a youth training centre in 1962, before becoming the Groundlings Theatre in 2010.

In 1812, Elizabeth Dickens went into labour with Charles Dickens whilst attending a dance in the building. Henry Ayres, who became Premier of South Australia and who Ayres Rock is named after, was a pupil at the school. Groundlings still has a lot of the original features such as original floorboards and fire places..

Ghosts

Sometimes referred to as one of the most haunted buildings in the area.

There are accounts of up to nine ghosts who frequent what is nor the Groundlings Theatre. Built in 1784 as a school for boys but expanding to include girls in 1836 finally closing in 1939 there remains to this day much of the old school features including a punishment hook where children were tied to receive punishment !

Reports of unexplained smells, children laughing, a girl called Emily and a boy called George. Also poltergeist activity has been reported in this building.

Best of 2016-2018

The video below is some of the best hi-light from the video cameras we give the teams to use on the nights.
2016 footage shows us the encounter of a small boy in the wardrobe area and a strange knocking sound experiences in the same location by other guests.

2017 We see some fascinating footage of scrying where the spirits were asked to show their faces by overlaying one of our guests face in the mirror, you will notice what appears to be a blink which is not that of our guest

2018 While conducting a Seance it appears communication is coming from the movement of the table our guests are sitting around in on the sage area.