BACK

Investigation Date: 7th July 2006

Investigators present: Drew Bartley, Darren Ritson, Fiona Vipond, Lee Stephenson and Suze McKay

Another G.H.O.S.T team investigation and this time we were investigating an old church hall, which is situated in Durham city centre. It is still used as a church hall and community centre today and it dates back to 1902, which makes it 106 years old. It stands on the opposite side of the road from the church of which this building has the same name (which must remain anonymous due to the nature of this particular building and at the request of the key holders). The building in question includes a large hall, a central corridor, two smaller joined congregation rooms and the Parish administrative centre, which was established a few years ago. It is here, at this undisclosed location that tea and coffee are served after the Parish Communion on Sunday mornings, and it is often used for other public occasions organised by the church and local community. Our visit here was with the sole purpose of a diagnostic examination as no reports what so ever (as far as we are aware) have came in regarding any ghostly phenomena that may have occurred here.

  On the night in question we arrived in Durham City Centre for the investigation. The building is quite new in comparison to some of the other venue sites we have investigated in the past but nevertheless it is still just over 100 years old. A lot can happen in 100 years so we remained hopeful. When we arrived we set up our base room, which was in the main hall and proceeded to carry out the initial reading of the premises and rooms with The North East Ghost In-Spectres and GHOST team psychic Suzanne McKay.

  The reading began in the main hall and it was here she told us about the spirit man who she felt walks the premises. She told us he was nothing to be afraid of as he was a nice benevolent soul and was just interested in what we were doing. We moved into the central corridor that runs through the building and she subsequently said that this man had followed us through. At this precise time a moving light anomaly was caught on infrared night vision video camera. She picked nothing else up at this point so we moved into the two back rooms. In the back rooms it was brought to our attention by Suzanne that a relative of a former priest or vicar lived in this particular area, as it was once a vicarage. It was after the vicarage was used when the relative occupied this living space. The names Alexander came forward and later she sensed a young woman called Murphy. “Mmm! An Irish connection” I said. Onwards into the back store room where Suzanne said was once used as a kennels, or somewhere the dogs were kept. Nothing more came to her at that point so we ventured upstairs into the office and we continued with the reading. In here she told us of a spirit man who was an authoritve and strict man and said he was a different energy to that of the man downstairs. The rest of the energy picked up was residual.

  Now we had a basic idea of what was what it was time to carry out our preliminary baseline tests throughout the building. A sweep with the EMF meter in all locations showed no anomalous readings and the average temperature of the building was between 22-24 degrees. We placed a number of trigger objects down including a crucifix, the flour tray with a ball in and some batteries, and placed down two sets of beam barriers and motion sensors. (One on the staircase and one in the central corridor). We were ready to begin the investigations.

  We split in to two groups with Suzanne McKay and myself in group one and Lee Stephenson, Drew Bartley, and Fiona Vipond in group two. Whilst group two investigated the back rooms group one stayed in the main hall. Not a great deal happened with group two in all honesty except for one or two light anomalies being caught on camera at 1.18am and 1.25am and a cold draught felt at 1.30am. However in our vigil a strong smell of fish was smelt by both Suzanne and myself, and the ruffling of paper was heard emanating from out of the darkness. Inspection found no rational cause for this smell or auditory phenomena. A dictation machine that was left recording in this location while we called out for phenomena subsequently left us with no results. But it was at 1.33am when the first visual phenomena came. Whilst I was standing at the table writing my notes, Suzanne saw what she describes as a six foot black shadow move across the back wall. This gave her something of a fright and thought it may have been me casting a shadow. Tests proved it was not. Feelings of pains and stiffness down Suzanne’s left side led her to think someone in the not to distant past may have suffered a heart attack or a stroke in this particular area. Between then and the end of this vigil nothing much else was reported so we re-grouped and had a break.

  After the break group one headed off into the back rooms where group two had previously been, and group two headed upstairs to the Parish administrative centre. During this location Suzanne decided to try some rod dowsing but the results were not too good. The rods did indeed indicate a presence however the information given by the “source” proved rather disappointing. I wondered off into the adjoining storeroom and left Suzanne sitting on the floor. It was not long before we were treat to some fantastic phenomena, which I caught on my dictation machine and my video camera. You can clearly hear the sound of what we think was a coin hitting a wall, bouncing off the wooden floor and then rolling for a few seconds before hitting the back wall skirting board. It made some considerable noise and needless to say it surprised both Suzanne and myself. We spent the rest of this vigil trying to work out what had happened. We could not. What we do know is that we caught auditoria paranormal phenomena.

  Group twos vigil proved rather interesting with light anomalies being recorded on video camera and a cold tingling feeling was reported by Drew Bartley on his arm. Not much else happened during this vigil, or so they thought until the EVP machine was played back during the break. What we heard astounded us all beyond belief and it would even send shivers down the spine of the most sceptical people. Recorded on the EVP machine was a series of unexplained voices, which we can all verify, are not ours!  The first voice I believe to be an Irish lady and she is heard saying “CAN YOU HELP ME?” oddly enough immediately after this voice you can hear Drew Bartley in the background claiming to have caught an orb on his video camera and it was then he went cold. This woman’s voice was not heard at the time! Coincidence? I think not.

  The second of these amazing EVP recordings was about 10 minutes after the first when Fiona Vipond was calling out for phenomena. In-between Fiona talking you can clearly hear the sound of a woman in a gentle and loving voice saying “NIGHTIE NIGHT THEN, THE NIGHT IS OVER”. I think this voice is the same as the first one as this too sounds Irish. The last EVP to be recorded in this vigil appeared about 5 minutes after the second voice and 15 minutes after the first one. It simply said “PICK ME UP”. These sound recordings were recorded by Lee Stephenson’s EVP machine and what these voices are and where they come from is still a mystery but many people believe we have recorded the voices of ghosts, or earth bound spirits that are indeed calling out for help as if trapped between the two words. Perhaps we have, but the one thing that was certain on the night was when we heard them for the first time, our blood ran cold! It was a fantastic result.  After the extra long break we had due to listening to these voices and recordings it was group one’s turn to spend some time in the room where the recordings had just been made. In all honesty I was quite apprehensive as was Suzanne but nevertheless we ventured up with a positive attitude in the hope we too would get some results. We crept up the stairs ever so slowly half expecting to see the woman in the room when we turned the corner to go onto the room but alas, this did not happen.

  We settled down in the office and proceeded with the investigation. Just on the off chance I decided to leave my audio dictation machine running while in here and in retrospect I am glad I did as yet another anomalous voice recording was made. I will talk about this recording soon but first I must point out that the trigger objects that I had previously placed into my flour tray (as mentioned at the beginning of this chapter) had been moved. To be more precise one of the batteries had been pushed over. It must be stressed that we had just looked at the trigger objects when we entered the room and they were just as we had left them. The possibility of the battery just falling over was likely, but highly improbable as they were pushed deep into the flour. It seemed it had been moved while we were in the room.

  I turn my attention now to the audio dictation anomalous voice recording. It was not until the day after the investigation when I played my tapes back when I heard what I had recorded.

Suzanne and myself were in the office upstairs and we were calling out to the lady who had recently asked, “can you help me?” unbeknown to us at the time another voice was recorded and this time it was that of a man. The disturbing thing about this recording is that he says nothing but my name, Darren! To hear such an EVP of what we presume is a ghost or spirit is one thing, but to hear one call your name is something else. Now we know there was only the two of us in the room and the other group was investigating another part of the building so the chances of it being one of the other male investigators are impossible. This recording and the other EVPs left us all dumbfounded.

  It was now 5am and it was time to call it a night. The only thing that remains to be said is that a second investigation at these premises must be held to find out what exactly is going on. With most paranormal investigations and hauntings you are always left with more questions than answers and this case study is no different. Who is the lady that is asking for help? Can the historical records show there was indeed an Irish woman who lived or died here, and who is the spirit who called my name?  All these questions are being addressed as we speak and by the time I come to write another book, we may just have some answers.