GHOST STORIES -
The truly terrifying theatrical production will be transferring to the West End’s Duke of York Theatre on 25th June, after a sell out run at the Lyric Hammersmith
We arrived at the Moretons Pub and Restaurant at 10.30 p.m after our visit to the famous Rollright Stones in nearby Long Compton. Having previously been to this location earlier in the year, we already had prior knowledge of it's potential and layout.
I decided to choose the Pool room to be our technical headquarters for the evening as this area had a good wireless signal strength and it had adequate power and lighting.
Upon arrival, we put the equipment in the room and toured the building to see if anything had changed or any areas were inaccessible.
The manager of the Pub & Restaurant, David Hayto, had explained to me that after the wall and window had been replaced, the paranormal activity has decreased in both intensity and frequency, but there was still a feeling of being watched and some guests had reported feeling uneasy in various locations of the bar.
This return visit to the Moretons Pub & Restaurant was to be used as a training exercise and it also allowed us to hold our very first live web investigation streamed video.
We set up the four DVR cameras in the following rooms and took base readings of the location.
CAM 1 - Main Bedroom
CAM 2 - Attic Room 1
CAM 3 - The Bar
CAM 4 - The Lounge
Base Readings:
Bar
Attic
Small Bedroom
Celler
Lounge
Main Bedroom
EMF
2 mG
2 mG
2 mG
2 mG
2 mG
2 mG
Temp
17C
14 - 15C
16C
13 - 14C
16C
15C
After we had finished setting up the equipment for the investigation, we all reconvened in the pool room before I split the group into two teams. Whist I was briefing them, we all heard what sounded like someone running down the uncarpeted stairs above us. We looked around us to see if any of the team were missing, but we were all present. David Hayto went to make sure that no one had got into the pub and went to check upstairs. On his return a few minutes later he confirmed that we were the only ones in the building. The sound was very loud and clear and lasted only a few seconds but it distinctly sounded as if somebody was running or walking quickly down the stairs.
Following this audible phenomena, I divided the investigators and guests into two teams for the first half of the investigation.
Team 1 included; Phil Measey, Sheena Prew, David Hayto and Mattea a guest. Team 2 was then made up of Matt Watkins, Jess Moratscheck, Nikki Evans and John Bedford.
Team 2 was located in the main bedroom areas, and Team 1 visited the attic.
Rob Powell and I remained in tech headquarters to monitor the DVR cameras, and also run the live web feed. We co-ordinated the teams from there using our two way radios.
Here is a brief account from investigator Phil Measey who led Team 2 into the attic, where we had previously encountered two separate spirits on our first visit to the Moretons Pub and Restaurant in February this year.
"...We entered the attic at around 12.40 a.m. and it felt very cool. We recorded the air temperature as being just 9.8 degrees, which compared with the bar area of 21 degrees, meant that the temperature was significantly cooler up here..."
"...Myself, Sheena, David and his guest Mattea settled for the large attic room on the left of the upper floor plan for this first investigation..."
"...I set up the K2 meter in full view of one of the DVR cameras and sat to the left side of this room. Sheena was sat with her back to the far side of the room facing the doorway, David positioned himself on the left wall with the camcorder, and Mattea braved the dark doorway to the room alone..."
"...I began to ask questions, as I had an impression and strange feeling that a small child and older woman in her 30s were present. They seemed unwilling to come forward regardless of the questions posed to them..."
"...We failed to get any response for quite a while but the room seemed to get much colder. We recorded a drop in the temperature of around 2 degrees. I can logically assume that as the time passed, the temperature outside was still dropping, and this combined with our lack of mobility made us all feel very cold..."
"...After some time, we began to get a few responses to our questions in the form of a small tap or movement from outside the room. As this occurred, Sheena and I decided to move to the other small room to ask the same kind of questions such as, if there is anyone there would you like to talk to us? and please give us a sign you are here.."
"...Sheena stood to the right of the doorway and I stood to the left. We must have been in the room about 15 minutes asking the above questions, when Sheena had the feeling of being pushed gently against the wall, and I again had the feeling that a small child of maybe 5/6 years old and the woman were present again. We were about to leave when Sheena and I heard a child's foot steps running away from the door towards me. It seemed like the sound had run past us both and out of the small room, and we both looked at each other and corroborated what we had heard..."
"...There were no spikes recorded on the K2 meter during the hour long vigil, and David said he had not captured anything on the camcorder..."
Here is Sheena's account of their attic room experiences:
"...Phil and I went into the smaller attic room, and I was stood near the centre of the attic wall just along from the door. I suddenly felt very lightheaded in there, and it felt as though I was being pulled backwards towards the wall. After this experience, Phil and I remained in the room for a little while longer before turning to leave the room. As we did so, I heard a sound like a child footsteps running across the attic floor. Phil appeared to have also heard the sound and we both confirmed what had happened before rejoining David and Mattea..."
Team 1 was situated in the Main back bedroom, where G.P.S had previously experienced massive K2 meter readings, and audible phenomena during the 1st investigation at this location.
Matt Watkins led this team into the room armed with a K2 meter, Tri-feld meter, a video camera and laser thermometer.
The live web stream was also being broadcast from this room for the first part of the night.
The team asked several questions to try and gauge a reading on the K2 meter but failed to get a visual response. Matt asked for the temperature to drop to exactly 13 degrees. The temperature that they recorded in the room was initially a constant 15 degrees, but following their request the temperature did rapidly fall and stop at exactly 13 degrees.
This phenomenon is common in situations where spirits are said to be present. Controlling the air temperature is apparently a feat that spirits can easily undertake by absorbing the energy in the immediate environment and creating what is referred to as a cold spot.
Trainee Nikki Evans, experienced a force pushing against her back as she stood in the corner of the bedroom. She described the experience as being very oppressive and uncomfortable. The rest of the team did not report any similar occurrences during this vigil, and did not see what was apparently pushing Nikki against the wall.
This first part of the night's investigation ended at around 1.40 a.m. We all convened back at tech headquarters in the Pool Room. The webcam feeding the Live stream was also moved into the bar area where the signal was fairly strong. It was in the bar that we experienced the movement of a bar stool and captured what is described as orb phenomena during our last visit.
I briefed the teams on the next part of the investigation detail, and swapped the teams slightly to assist the trainees learning experience. Both teams gave me details of their experiences in the attic room and back bedroom. Equipment was checked and radio's tested again.
The next part of the investigation led the teams to different areas of the 600 year old building.
John Bedford, and Sheena Prew were stationed in the front bedroom which was situated adjacent to the lounge. During the last investigation at the Moretons Pub, John Bedford and Matt Watkins experienced some strange readings and witnessed a black shadow move through the room.
Here is John Bedford's account of this experiences:
"...Sheena and I sat in the small back bedroom, and were sat on the edge of the bed, with an EMF meter, digital thermometer, digital voice recorder, and a digital camera..."
"...We placed the EMF meter on the side for the whole 30 minutes, which turned out to be longer... 45 minutes.
When we started, we took readings using the Laser digital thermometer, which read around 16 degrees centigrade.
A few moments later, having no luck apart from a very small buzz coming from my EMF meter, we decided to ask questions with the EVP recorder on & the thermometer in use. The temperature measured about 15.0 degrees or so.
We asked if any spirit present to let us know they were there by dropping the temperature. To our amazement, the gauge on the thermometer began to drop, from around 15.0 degrees all the way to just 10 degrees, and interestingly enough only when we pleaded for it to do so or challenged the energy in the room.
Midway through the temperature fluctuations, we both saw a big, very bright flash appear at the bottom hand corner of the room. It occurred in the exact same place that Matt and I had that other strange experience during the last Moretons investigation. It was like a lightning flash in appearance and was something I or Sheena had never seen before.
Debunking:
1) It had not come from the window or outside, because that side of the room was very dark and we witnessed a few cars pass before and this was (definitely) not the same light and not near the window.
2) It had not come from the hallway, as the hallway light was on, i.e. You could see a crack of light around the door frame to answer this concern.
3) There was no noise or smell, so I doubt very much it could have been caused by faulty electrical wiring.
4) All cameras were off at the time and no other electrical gadget was in use.
5) Hallucination is out of the question, as we both witnessed it at the same time.
During the night, I ventured into the lounge alone and sat down to do an EVP recording. I did not feel much, but Phil Measey said (as he was watching the DVR monitor) that the video seemed to show light, and what appeared to be orbs flying around next to me.
This has since been watched back and debunked by the team as being nothing more than light from a passing car.
Rob Powell and I were based in the Pool room for most of the night, and monitored the cameras audio, and web feed. During the first part of the nights investigation all was quiet in the bar and pool area. It was only after the first vigil had taken place that we began to experience strange audible phenomena for ourselves.
At around 12.30 a.m. Rob and I were sat quietly monitoring the two teams upstairs from technical headquarters. Rob decided to test a piece of equipment called the Whisper 2000. This device is a portable sound amplifier and can pick up a whisper up to 50 meters away. Rob was sat in the hall between the main bar and pool room.
I was sitting on a stool watching and logging the cameras from our base, just a few feet from where Rob was sitting. It was very quiet and activity seemed at a low. After several minutes a loud metallic sound shook us both and sounded as if something had fallen to the stone tiles or been thrown to the floor just meters from us both. We were shaken and startled, but immediately looked for the source and found a AAA battery on the floor of the hallway. We attempted to recreate the sound we had heard and tried to roll the battery off a worktop or a nearby shelf. The sound was similar but not loud enough, so we dropped the battery from a height directly onto the floor and immediately realised that this was the cause of the noise we had both heard. Where did the battery come from?, and was it thrown at us by an invisible force to get our attention?
The battery was warm to the touch and it transpired that David Hayto did not use this size battery anyway in the bar or kitchen area. It appeared to be one of our kit batteries, but we were at a loss as to why it appeared in that location and how it got there.
Later in the night, I heard what sounded like someone walking through the bar area towards me in the dark. I was certain that the sound was being created by a member of the team, but after checking the room I could find no explanation.
There was a digital voice recorder in the bar area during this period, and having looked through the evidence, we seem to have captured an unknown voice on the recording. It appears to be a male voice speaking close to the recording device.
The final part of the investigation, took investigators Rob Powell, Matt Watkins and I into the basement. We also fed the live web stream from down here and locked the hatch above us to eliminate any interference from the rest of the team.
The basement was cool, damp, and musty and we all felt strangely uncomfortable being locked in down there.
We conducted some base tests and began asking for any spirits to come forward and make their presence known. We did not get a response, and so moved around the cellar rooms to attempt any communication, but the beer pumps and fans were still running creating a torrent of noise and interference.
We split up and stationed ourselves in the three areas of the cellar to attempt to draw out the energies and create some audible or physical activity.
It was then that Rob Powell and Matt Watkins heard what sounded like a young girls voice. This video shows that incident occuring, at around 4 to 5 seconds into the short clip.
To be continued:
Moretons location
Investigation Team:
Barri Ghai (Lead Investigator)
Rob Powell (Investigator)
Phil Measey (Investigator)
Matt Watkins (Investigator)
John Bedford ( Investigator)
Sheena Prew (Trainee) Jess Moratscheck (Trainee)
Nikki Evans (Former Trainee)
David Hayto (Moretons Manager)
Mattea (Guest)
Report by: Barri Ghai - Co-Founder & Lead Investigator
