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
Phil Measey (Lead Investigator & Events Manager)
Matt Watkins (Investigator & Technical Manager)
Sheena Prew (Investigator)
Donna Hardisty (Client)
Tabby Boon (Clients Friend)
Private Investigation - (Oxfordshire, England) January 30th 2010
Base Readings
Temperature: 19 C
EMF Readings: 1mG - 2mG
Case History
The first houses occupied on Blackbird Leys were apparently numbers 23-33 Sandy Lane, in August 1958. The first residents were Edward Wall at number 23, Andrew Murphy at number 25, Albert Green at number 27, Albert Collier at number 29, John Green at number 31, and Ron Chandler at number 33. Railway sleepers had to be laid across a small stream that ran directly in front of these houses to allow the new residents to move in. There is a stream still running underground from the scout hut in Sandy Lane through to the allotments off Kestrel Crescent.
The first houses were built in Sandy Lane and then Kent Close, by Laings the builders. The ones on the opposite side of the road were a different design. Development spread out to Tucker Road, Sawpit Road, Blay Close and Wesley Close. Balfour Road was developed, which allowed for gradual infilling of Ladenham, Wingate and Moorbank. At this time all the houses had open fires – central heating was unheard of. Development continued in an anti-clockwise direction, finishing with Druce Way area.
The client has experienced strange things happening in her house.
"...My friend who lives in the home was going down stairs to the kitchen to make a drink, when he saw the black outline of a figure coming up the stairs towards him, he moved so his back was against the wall and as it past him it breathed on the side of his neck..."
The client is only the second tenant that has occupied the house. An elderly man apparently died there before she moved in. She thinks that the shadow that was seen on the stairs by her lodger was her late mother. The lodger who saw it described the outline and was then shown a picture by the client of her mother 'Lorraine'. He explained that the shadow figure did indeed resemble her (he had never met or seen a picture of her before that incident).
Alleged paranormal activity in the house has been reported by the client for at least the last six years. Examples have included perfume smells, objects have been seen and heard falling off shelves and ledges. The T.V. turns over on its own, bangs have been heard on the metal framed bed. Unexplained footsteps have also been heard coming from the landing and stairs.
The client has also had the feeling of something pressing down on her legs while laying in bed. A friend stayed at the client's home one night and felt like her hair had been pulled by unseen forces.
Activity has been reported on a daily basis. Last Friday night a groaning and a male voice saying 'calm down' was heard and on Saturday afternoon objects were witnessed coming off shelves.
Case Note:
The afternoon before we arrived at location I was contacted by the client who explained that she had found the name of the gentleman who had lived and died in the property – She did not tell me the name, but wrote it down on a piece of paper and sealed it in an envelope.
The Investigation
Phil, Matt and I arrived at the location at about 8pm where we were greeted by the client and her friend. Before the equipment was set up Matt and Phil were given a tour around the house by the client. As Phil walked up the stairs, something touched the back of his neck.
Once the DVR cameras and equipment were set up, we held our first vigil in the living room.
The next vigil was in the client's bedroom. While we were conducting the vigil, we asked for any spirits that may have been present to either speak to us or to make a sound to let us know that they were there. After several minutes we all heard a distinct knocking, but it did not appear to be coming from the room we were sitting in.
At the end of this vigil, I remembered that when I had been to the clients home a couple of weeks previously, she was showing me her mum's jewellery and explained that it was not in the places that it should have been. She then took all of the jewellery out of the boxes they were in and placed it into a bag. However, when I looked on top of her wardrobe during the investigation I noticed that one of the jewellery boxes was there. Upon opening this box it contained the necklace that we had previously moved into a bag located elsewhere. We decided to use the box as a trigger object and placed it on a bed.
During the night we realised that the box had closed. Upon further examination and studying the recorded DVR footage, the team notice that the box was closed quite precisely. We tried to debunk this by opening the box to various degrees to see if we could replicate it, but the speed with which the box shut naturally was different to when it closed on the captured footage.
The bed had not been knocked at all, and if this had been the case there would have been pencil marks on the paper that was also set up as a trigger on the bed.
We carried out a vigil at the top of the stairs, as this area has been reported as being quite active. Whilst we were doing the vigil we asked questions and recorded this with a digital voice recorder. As we attempted to communicate with the spirit we all clearly heard a man's voice say 'No', and then a few seconds later he said it again.
EVP File Coming Soon
The voice came from within the middle of our team, but it was clearly not made by any of us.
A vigil was then carried out in the client's daughter’s bedroom. We were all sat on the floor when a small stone was inexplicably dropped onto the wooden floor bouncing a couple of times. We tried dropping the stone to replicate the sound that it had made, and concluded that to match it the stone had to have been dropped from about waist height.
As we were nearing the end of the investigation, the client asked whether anyone was psychically picking up on any names. Phil strangely said that he been thinking of the name Alfred J Timms. It was at this point that the client handed Matt the sealed envelope. Matt opened and read out the name that she had written on the paper, It read Alfred William Timms.
The client had only found out this name earlier that day. Alfred’s wife was called Joyce which may explain the J initial Phil mentioned. Was this a strange coincidence or did Phil actually receive this name psychically.
We decided to carry out our final vigil of the night in the living room area and chose to experiment with Franks Box which produced some interesting results. Although these results seemed interesting, it is still likely that the words generated from the radio were only perceived as being interesting through powers of suggestion.
More to follow shortly
General Location
Investigation Team:
Phil Measey (Lead Investigator & Events Manager)
Matt Watkins (Investigator & Technical Manager)
Sheena Prew (Investigator)
Donna Hardisty (Client)
Tabby Boon (Clients Friend)
Investigation report by: Sheena Prew
"...He saw the black outline of a figure coming up the stairs towards him..."
"...After several minutes we all heard a distinct knocking..."
"...The team notice that the box was closed quite precisely..."
A very strange light anomaly was captured on the stairs.
Objects have been seen and heard falling off shelves and ledges..
