gilslsand

The Station Hotel stands between Brampton and Haltwhistle straddling the Northumberland border and close to Hadrian's Wall.

The Station Hotel (formerly known as The Rose Hill Hotel), was built in the early 19^th century, and catered for passengers traveling along the Newcastle to Carlisle railway, one of the earliest wagon ways in the country. The hotel was possibly built because of the surge in visitors to the area who travelled to Gilsland spa (bathing in the health giving waters became very popular during the early to mid 19^th century).

Passenger services ceased in 1890 due to the line being unable to comply with new requirements. The line continued to be used for the transportation of coal until 1912, when improvements were made at Brampton station. Excavations were carried out during the construction of the railway (being situated near roman settlements along Hadrian's wall).

Directly behind the hotel a ditch was discovered, which housed an early roman sculpture. In the hotel’s early days it was used as a stationmasters house, whilst a new building was constructed across the road. The first station master was Thomas Edmonson, who was an influential business man, he later went on to invent a ticket machine which is still in use today.

Little is known of any previous ‘spiritual activity’, but in recent times the present landlord Brian McCubbin, customers and members of his family have witnessed the appearance of an apparition, dressed in period clothing who walks along the bar, then fades away. Descriptions of the ‘ghost’ dressed in white shirt and black suit suggests that it could be a member of the early Victorian railway personnel, or the original occupant of the house Thomas Edmonson.

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

This is our first investigation without Dean Maynard as team leader and with the team’s new name, Ghost. Dean has left the team he set up and founded, to pursue other goals and dreams in which we all wish him good luck with, but of course it was not the end of the world and the remainder of the team decided to stay together as a ghost-hunting unit and move onwards. We arrived at our destination on the night in question at about 10.30pm and went for a soft drink in the other local pub opposite, to give the revellers time to finish their drinks and vacate the bar. (Which unfortunately proved a bit of a waste of time as the pub we were to investigate did not really empty out until 02.00am), which left us about four or five hours to investigate. Eventually when we got started we split into twos. Myself and Lee, checked out room one upstairs (The cold room), and Drew and Fiona stayed in the Bar. (Unfortunately, Paul Dixon was unable to make the investigation). We ventured upstairs and went into room one and the first thing we noticed was how cold the room was. By all accounts that room is always that cold and no matter what they do to try and heat it up, it remains cold! Anyway, we sat there for a while and just listened and observed. I asked lee if he was drawn to anywhere in the room (as Drew had said he gets certain feelings about certain places), and he told me he kept on focusing and looking at the door. Which is odd to say the least, as that’s where my eyes were being drawn, why? We don’t know. I was trigger-happy with my digital camera while in this room and that in itself proved fruitful to say the least as I took a great photograph of what we believe is ghostly mist. (Please bare in mind, as outlined before, it was really cold in that room and the chances of the mist being merely cold breath are 50/50 I suppose, however when we purposely tried to reproduce this effect with our breaths we could not!). After a while we headed back downstairs just in time for the first séance of the evening with Drew and Fiona, Lynn (the pub owner), her son and one or two guests in attendance. Apart from showing everyone the mist photo, we kept the results to ourselves from the cold room, as Drew and Fiona would be investigating that room later. The séance began and Drew and myself sat out to monitor the proceedings. At 02.46am the séance was started and was lead by Fiona. After asking any presences to make themselves known to us we started to report noises and movement coming from around the circle area. Light anomalies were caught on camera and a temperature drop was recorded in the middle of the circle.

After a while it seemed to calm down a bit and then I was asked to then lead the séance to see if a male voice would make the ghosts respond any better. We sat back down all joined fingers on the table and I asked everyone present to focus on the breathing and uncross legs while keeping feet flat on the floor. I then asked any spirits in the room if they would make themselves known to us, I asked again but this time addressed the ghost as Thomas Edmondson as this is who we believe the ghost is to be.

In the past few years or so, a ghost matching a description of a Station master Drew had found and researched called Thomas Edmondson, once lived in the pub and has been seen in the bar area, emerging from the wall and walking along the bar until he gets to a certain point and then disappears. This is why we think the ghost is of Thomas. He has been seen countless times by the pub owner Brian, his wife has sensed him, and his son and some of the pub regulars claim to have seen him too. Every time the ghost is seen (which is quite often) it is reported that it appears from out the same wall, and takes his walk along the bar area disappearing at the exact same point every time, which leads us to the conclusion that this ghost is nothing more than a residual, stone tape, or place memory apparition.

“Thomas” I asked. “If you are here with us and can here my voice and understand what I am saying please give us a sign”. I then asked if there were any more ghosts other than Thomas listening in, they too could make their presences known. “Give us a knock or a rap, tap on something or touch someone, please let us know you are with us tonight”. It was at this point, to my front right and behind two of the sitters, I saw (or I thought I saw) a black shape with a human form. It was standing right in the spot where the ghost of the stationmaster is said to come through the wall. I looked away frightened, and when I turned back around to see it, it was gone. This actually happened twice during the séance. Knocks and bumps were also heard too throughout the proceedings and we all thought we heard the shuffling of ghostly feet. The other amazing thing was as this séance was drawing to a close, the table tilted right off its feet and no one said they had done it. I asked them repeatedly and they were adamant they did not push or tilt the table and nor move it back again. Then my arms and especially my thighs went bitter cold and I did not feel right, then all of a sudden the table actually vibrated as though it was in an earth tremor and then it stopped. It vibrated once more before the close of the séance and it felt weird. (Another sitter also said his arms and thighs went bitter cold, he too felt the table vibrate twice). A good result. We had a break for a while and when we asked the landlords son to put on the lights a bulb popped with a bang and the fan started to turn, even though we were told the fan was not switched on. Upon checking the crucifix trigger object, we found it had been moved about 5mm. (What had we started?). Please note three individuals who attended the séance when asked what they thought, told me they were sitting in sceptic’s corner. And after a bit of a chat one young lady in particular said the whole ghost thing and the séance was literally (to quote her) “a whole load of bollocks”. She and her colleagues were not convinced. After a break we moved from the area of the first séance and sat in the other side of the bar for séance two. The idea being the area, in which the stationmaster is said to walk, could be monitored properly while the séance was in progress. I ran the séance while Drew and Fiona monitored the area over yonder. I started the séance and almost straight away Lynn (The proprietor’s wife) suffered immense hot and cold flushes while at the same time wanted to cry one minute and felt OK the next.

This occurred all throughout the proceedings. I asked her if she was all right time and time again throughout the séance and each time she told me to continue. I think for Lynn, it is something she had never experienced before and it had a profound effect on her. This is where the séance took a turn. While I was asking Thomas to perhaps show himself, knocks and bumps, footsteps and shuffling were all heard in the area being monitored by Drew and Fiona. Lots of orbs were caught on digital camera and the more I asked for Thomas (being prompted by Drew) the more phenomena were reported. Drew then recorded a massive temperature drop with the Laser thermometer gun, in the space of a minute and a half, the temperature dropped a staggering 14 degrees centigrade. It seemed to be really going off, meanwhile in the circle Lynn was shivering cold and almost weeping and Two of the sitters claimed to be able to see the ghost of this stationmaster, (although Drew and Fiona could not). It was pitch black and I think everyone was excited yet quite scared. I kept the circle formed by putting together the two hands of the sitters either side me and asked one of the sitters to continue with the séance while I ventured across to where all the action was. Fiona had been taken some photos with my digital camera during my time leading the séance and caught some good light anomalies and more strangely some red mist. She took a series of photographs and only one came out with the red mist. I had to ask her if she could have had a finger poised over the flash of the camera causing a possible red tint across the frame, as the light would have bounced of her finger giving this sort of effect but she was adamant that she took the photos the same way as the rest, so why did only one come up with this anomaly? Is it not also too much of a coincidence that this photo was taken at the precise time of all the other reported activity? Going back to the sighting of the ghost by two sitters during the séance. The young lady who earlier was quoted in saying “its all a load of bollocks” was one of these sitters who claimed to see the apparition during the séance, it turned out after the séance ended, she was shaken up badly, threw up violently in the toilets and then she could not have left the premises any quicker. A total sceptic had been converted, which in turn made the others from sceptic's corner think again, as they left immediately after the séance too.

So after a very slow start to the night with the long drawn out wait for the pub to empty, it turned out to be quite an interesting night indeed. Lots of good activity was recorded and documented. Although only two areas in the whole building were investigated (room One and the bar), the results we got we quite astonishing to say the least. A second investigation, I believe, is in the pipeline and next time the bar will be vacated for us at a better hour in order for us to complete a thorough investigation of the pub. I think closure and understanding of the haunting of this establishment for the people who live there is a must, as we know they were frightened by the whole thing. But after explaining a few differences between ghosts and spirits, and residual stone tape, place memory ghosts (which is what we believe this to be) the residents of the pub seemed happier with the idea of what they have. Or at least they now know the ghost or apparition they have is a harmless playback, or psychic recording of nothing more than nice old gentleman who once resided in the station house.

Mist and Orb photographed during Lee and Darren’s vigil in room no.1,Lee said he felt a presence near the door. Attempts were made to recreate the mist with breath, but without success.

The first séance, temperature drops were recorded and EMF fluctuations occurred. The table in the background shook momentarily.

This trigger object placed on the bar, moved slightly from the line drawn around it during the first séance. No person was near it at the time.

Light anomalies both left and right of Fiona in the bar area, during a break after the first séance.