Reports From Previous Investigations
An 18th Century Mill,Near Peterborough,Cambs
The group split into two smaller groups. These groups consisted of the following members.
Group 1:- Tracy, Nigel, Danny, Helena, Mark, Sharon, Robert, Jayne.
Group 2:- Gary, Helen, Carol, Dennis, Tracey, Sarah.
Katie, our medium, visited the two groups alternately throughout the evening.
Mill
Group 2 started the evening with a walk round the mill with Katie. Katie picked up on the name Collins/Collinson/Collingham; a hanging on the first floor of the mill (he couldn’t have the woman he loved as she was already married); an accidental drowning in the mill stream; Richard; a worker in his late 30s who died as a result of a nasty accident; an angry small lady called Mary who stomps round the mill, who felt left behind by her family; someone fell or jumped out of a window and an elderly lady who liked to rock in a chair, to watch the comings and goings.
Katie then left this group to join the other group in their location. Gary suggested we start our vigil in the mill stone room on the ground floor. We had been in the room for approximately 10 minutes when a member of the group said she had noticed out of the corner of her eye, a light darting in and out behind a door frame leading to the bakery. This happened on three occasions.
A cat which had been following the group round the mill, then made a determined and concerted effort to leave the building, clawing at the door.
Shortly afterwards, whilst she was standing in front of the doorway where she had seen the light, the same member felt a gentle pressure applied to the top half of her body almost as if someone was pushing her. She moved away from this area and the sensation was gone.
A small stone or grain suddenly rolled down the stairs leading to the first floor next to Tracey.
Gary suggested the group used the dowsing rods to try and communicate with any spirits present in the room.
A spirit confirmed it was willing to communicate with us, when the rods crossed to indicate this. A series of questions were asked. The spirit confirmed it was male, happy for us to be there and most interestingly, his name was Richard.
When asked to indicate where the spirit was the dowsing rods swung round directly and forcefully to point behind Gary, nearly hitting him in the face.
Group 1 also made contact with Richard through Katie in their second vigil of the evening. Katie stated that she believed he had had homosexual tendencies. They also heard the sound of grain being poured, yet there was no-one apart from themselves in the mill at the time and no grain in the chute when it was examined.
Mill House
Group 1 began the evening here. There were three floors to explore. Only the ground floor is open to the public and is mostly exhibition space. The second floor is mostly used for storage. The top floor had two large relatively empty rooms, where the security guard sometimes likes to sleep.
Katie joined the group. Not much was picked up here by either the medium or members of the group. Katie felt that horses had been buried nearby.
Group 2 however felt that shadows were appearing in the doorways on the top floor whilst they were there. Photos show orbs on the first floor in a room with a fireplace. On the top floor, pin points of light appeared on a wall behind members of the group.
On the ground floor, Katie had felt dizzy in the kitchen. In a separate instance another member of the group had also felt dizzy and light-headed.
Research Findings
To date we know that there has been a mill of some description on this site since the Domesday Book and perhaps even from Romano-British times.
The mill house dates from the early 18th century and the current mill is dated 1755.
Little knowledge of the history of the mill and the people who lived and worked there was found in publications and more detailed research will have to be carried out in archived material.
We do know that in 1729, R. Curtis was the miller. Further investigation proved his name was in fact Richard although we do not know any more about him as yet.
As the mill formed part of the Bedford Estate, substantial records exist from this era, but are in a reserved collection. The group plan to access these records in due course.
The mill at one time fell into disuse. There was a local family of which one was a tenant farmer of the land surrounding the mill. One of their ancestors went to the mill to investigate and to see if he could start the mill working to no avail. However, he had inadvertently left the restraining chain off and a great storm that same night caused the water level to rise and the rusting machinery was suddenly freed.
After that the mill was used to grind corn for stock feed until another mill nearby came back into operation.
No other names picked up by Katie, have been encountered during our research so far.
A 16th Centuary Inn, near Peterborough, Cambs
Room 21
Generally this room seemed quite quiet and not at all scary to walk into.
There may have been paranormal phenomena picked up in this location. A cat was heard by a group of 4 people, at the same time, whilst using an ouija board.
Katie and the group picked up on the name Jenny which at this time is still being researched.
Also a Scottish tartan and a baby were also picked up by the same group.
Nothing else was recorded for this room.
Room 33
Katie was soon picking up on the name Jenny, possibly the same Jenny that she picked up on in room 21.
The group had a lot of “paranormal” events which we think a Ruth was involved with.
A marble rolled off the table twice, which was recorded on our sound equipment. At the time that happened, nobody was within 2 feet of the coffee table, Gary tried to repeat the exercise, could not re-enact it. Ruth also liked to communicate through our dowsing rods, and confirmed that it was her that rolled the marble off the table for us. We believe that Ruth used to be a nurse when the building was a hospital, and later in the evening Katie did pick up on ladies in a navy blue uniform. Could this be the uniform of a nurse?
Katie also picked up on the vision of a priest giving people their last rites.
Another name that Katie picked up on was that of Edward, also Katie said that this man was a very angry man. We do know that an Edward used to own this establishment in the 1800’s. His own daughter sued him for the ownership of the inn, making him very angry.
Could this be the same man?
The name Ashley, kept coming to Katie’s mind, but as yet research has found no link to that name in this investigation.
Other names that were picked up on the evening in this room were Anne and Phillip; no links traced to date.
It is worth noting that Katie also picked up on the possible illness of TB, again another link for the blue uniform of a nurse.
Katie also had visions of an army type group marching near to the area where we were. As well as hundreds of people running away from the building down the high street.
There was also a strong vision to Katie of cattle here. We have been told after the event that there used to be a cattle market in what is now the car park at the back.
It is worth noting that in this room we had several temperature drops from 22.4 C too at one point 18.9, and at that point there was 9 people in the room, all producing their own body heat.
Once we played back the sound that was recorded after the event, we have picked up on a distinct sigh at a reasonable volume, which was not audible on the night. Was this paranormal behaviour?
Some more names Katie picked up on were Matthew, Rebecca and George. We are still researching if these could be linked to the venue at all.
Katie also picked up a strong relation with the name Daniel. After some research, it was discovered Daniel Dafoe had written about the village in his "Tour through England and Wales" in 1727.
Could this be the same Daniel?
Also Katie mentioned copper or cooper. Again after some research, it was discovered that a previous owner of the inn had had the christian name Cooper.
Katie also mentioned serious fires at this venue.
The following was taken from the village web page.
The village suffered from very serious fires in 1729, 1798 and 1895, while the Manor House, which stands north-west of the church, was the scene of a fire in 1907.
The name Catherine was mentioned too.
The Bistro
Nothing was really felt in this room by the group, however Katie, did pick up on a shooting in the stomach of somebody. It is known that where the bistro is now, used to be stables and these also use to be directly underneath the inn as it is today.
The Restaurant
Nothing was “sensed” by any of the group at the time, however we left a locked off sound recorder in the room
The Restaurant Bar
Five members of the investigation team all heard an internal phone ringing at approx 3.30 a.m.
The only other person in the building at the time, that was able to ring that line, was the night porter. However at that exact time, he was sat with us asking how the evening went. There was no way he could have rung that number. He also told us that this happens most Sunday evenings. Nobody is ever on the other end of the phone. Also, this line has been tested by BT and nothing was found to be faulty.
Evidence
We have various photos that have (orb) type shapes on them. We also have a video footage that looks like there is an orb floating in and out of the area where we are all sitting. These pictures are freely available to anyone who would like a copy.
A 17th Centuary Toll House, Near Peterborough, Cambs
The night was started by Gary and Katie, giving a brief explanation of what could and could not be expected.
Katie gave a brief intro on how she works with her clairvoyance skills and Gary explained about the types of experiments that were available to use throughout the evening.
At around 9.30pm we split into two groups, Gary led one group and Tracy the other. We then headed off into different areas of the building.
Bar area
This room was generally found to be quiet all night, although, Tracy's team did have some names and dates come from Katie. No actual phenomena were recorded, although pictures which were taken in this room do show, orb like shapes which are still being investigated.
Main Hall
Katie picked up that at one point this room or the ground that it is built on, could have been a hospital of some type. Also the fact that lots of people were choking in this building.
Also Katie picked up on sacks of grain. A very strong connection was picked up with the name Daniel / Danny. Also in this room, there was an officer telling people to hurry and get out. Research has not picked anything up relating to these events.
There is also a set of stairs that leads up to the main hall from the bottom floor. An accidental fall over the bannister of these stairs was also picked up by Katie.
Staff Office
In this room, Katie picked up on a woman, that was of authority, possibly known by the name of Ethel, also Katie picked up that the lady in mention, would not liked to have been crossed by anyone.
Top Floor Corridor
This was possibly the most interesting area in this venue’s investigation, as found by both groups independently. Firstly, Gary's group visited this location. The name John was picked up by a sensitive in the group. John was a sailor, it was felt. At the same spot where the name John was picked up, Gary was stood moments beforehand. Within seconds, the hairs on his arms had stood up and he had goose bumps, although the rest of his body was warm and normal. Within seconds, this went back to normal. This didn't just happen once, it happened twice within a matter of minutes.
It was interesting to note, that at the same location without prior knowledge of what group 1 witnessed, group 2, also picked up on the name John, this time the information came from Katie. Katie told her group that he was playing hide and seek with her, and she also had goose bumps. Could Gary and Katie have experienced the same phenomena?
Group 1 also picked up that John liked his knots, and that he was likely to be quite a modern sailor, as he didn't have a pony tail.
Katie also picked up on timber and sawing, without prior knowledge of what this building had been used for. Tracy explained that research had showed that this building had been the first building to have a circular saw installed inside it, within Peterborough.
A link with Bedford was also picked up. Research shows, that the Montagues of Bedford once owned this property.
Bottom Floor Store
Whilst Tracy's group were on the top floor, Gary took his group downstairs to the store room. Approx after 5 minutes, the group experienced the sounds of tables and chairs being dragged across the floor above them. A member of the group promptly investigated this noise by running upstairs to make sure nobody was on that level. They found nothing and no-one, however the noises carried on. This was also caught on a sound recording, and this has been looked into in detail and independently verified.
The conclusion would have to be: Paranormal Behaviour.
Other General Information
A strong link with animals was picked up on from Katie, especially lions and monkeys. Street shows by performers were known to be held in the vicinity of the venue.
Also the trade of black pepper instead of payment was picked up. It was felt that at the time this would have been a very expensive commodity.
It must be noted that research is still ongoing. All names and dates picked up on the night will be investigated to the best of the group’s ability and resources.
