Bev Barton and Angela Atkinson are the owners of a stationery store in Leyland, England. They have claimed that their business is being haunted by the ghost of an old lady. The stationery shop, is plagued by spooky goings-on according to the owners.
In the latest incident, which happened last weekend, the couple had given their keys to some workmen who were repairing the back of the shop.
However, the workman were so spooked by loud noises from the front of the store that when they handed the keys back on the Sunday they admitted to being 'frightened'.
Bev said: "It is quiet on a Sunday yet the builders said there was a lot of banging coming from the front of the shop. They kept checking, but there was no-one there and they had locked the front door behind them.
"Angela and myself really want to find out what the story of this building is because there have been a lot of unexplainable things happening.
"We had the building extended four years ago and we think all the upheaval must have disturbed something.
"I have been sat in the back office with a customer and seen this lady walk from under the stairs towards the till in the front of the shop.
"I was thinking 'how has that woman got in here?' because we have a chime on the door and when I went to speak to her she wasn't there."
"It's not poltergeist activity, but it is a bit scary because she's so vivid.
"You can smell her violet perfume and she's as plain as day. She's 60 odd, maybe 70 years old, small and wearing an old dress with light grey hair. There are always things happening in the corner of your eye, but there are times when we see her right there in the shop."
According to Bev, the business used to be a Sue Ryder charity shop and they had boxes of books mysteriously moved.
The G.P.S team will be visiting the shop to carry out a full investigation in September 2008. The Leyland Guardian that published this initial report online have also agreed to follow up this report and publish the details of our forthcoming invstigation in the newspaper and on the website.
We arrived at the location early enough to view the premises in natural daylight. The team and I, were shown around the store by Bev Barton - Co-owner of the print and stationery store. At first glance the shop looked like any other normal business in the small village of Leyland in Lancashire.
The team and I did not feel uncomfortable and begun looking around interested in Bev's personal experiences and any possible explanations. We set up several of the digital cameras on tripods and two video cameras around the building at places that were described to us as being most active.
We were told about several experiences that both Bev and Angela had over the years. We also heard an account of the office above them and the strange goings on that had taken place recently
We decided that both areas warranted investigation and set up a video camera on the upstairs landing to record into the upstairs office through the window of the locked door.
The results of this video are still being analysed. We also set up several digital voice recorders on the landing and banister to try and record any strange sounds and footsteps that were reported by the shops owners.
Bev Barton was present with the team for the whole night and accompanied by her daughter-in-law Natalie Moss and best friend Val Lawson. Natalie was talking to myself and the team as we set up some of the camera equipment, when she suddenly stopped and appeared very frightened. I immediately asked if she was okay, and she replied that two hands had just placed themselves on her lower abdomen area.
Natalie was very scared by this experience and began to panic. I helped calm her down and asked her in more detail what had just happened. The hairs on her arms and neck were standing up and she appeared to be quite unnerved by the event. For some reason a thought popped into my head and and I felt compelled to ask her if she was pregnant. Natalie told me that she had very recently had a miscarrage, I immediately felt that this was significant and was maybe related to the incident.
Once we were set up, and ready to begin, we conducted an EVP experiment in the front area of the shop and used the K2 meter to aid any visual response to our questions.
Investigator Rob Powell situated himself under the stairs (an area identified by Bev as being paranormally active). Rob was holding the K2 device and we had a locked off video camera recording him and the surrounding area throughout this experiment.
During this EVP experiment Bev Barton, her friend Val, Natalie and two members of the team noted that they could smell a strong scent of what they described as 'sick' and this was corroborated by myself. The smell was powerful and made two of the group quite uncomfortable.
The results of the first EVP yielded little response, but amazingly we had a huge indication of activity using the K2 Meter. Rob Powell asked two questions in turn, the first was, "If you don't mind us being here can you make the lights flash?" We got no response. He then asked "If you want us to go can you make the lights flash?" The K2 meter lit up like a Christmas tree.
After this we wanted to take a short break to gather our thoughts. As we were discussing the events that had passed, Phil felt his hair being stoked firmly, at the exact same time Natalie was standing in the doorway of the back room looking into the shop. She explained that she could see a black shadow above Phil just prior to him yelling as he felt his head being touched.
Within a few seconds of this happening, a torch fell to the floor from some heavy boxes located in the front of the shop behind where Phil had been standing. Initially we all thought that he had accidentally knocked it to the floor, but we soon realised that to move it would have required a solid knock or kick, which the wired IR cameras located across the shop did not show. We can not conclusively prove that Phil did not knock the torch to the floor, so we must not make the assumption that this was paranormal.
Here is the short video of this event as it happened.
After around 30 minutes we decided to leave the K2 meter propped up in the under stairs cupboard on its own and watched from behind the cameras.
Several minutes into this EVP experiment, the K2 Meter started to respond again. I was really pleased with this outcome, not only as this was proof that nobody had tampered or faked the previous responses, but it seemed that we now had a direct link of communication with whatever was present at the shop. Again this was captured on video.
Here is a brief clip showing a response to one of several questions. Watch closely as the light flashes very quickly in response to the question asked again by Investigator Rob Powell.
'Are you unhappy that we are here?'
The EVP's and K2 Meter had proved that we were dealing with a spiritual energy, and some of the responses led the team to believe that we may have been dealing with at least one male, and one female spirit.
During the first half the evening, activity in the shop was increasing. Phil, Gail and Laura located themselves at the front of the shop with cameras mounted on tripods and reported hearing several strange noises from the offices located upstairs. The sounds included heavy footsteps, tapping, knocking, and thuds.
Case Notes –
Recently a member of the company renting the office space upstairs had reported coming in after the weekend to find all the electrical equipment unplugged and switched off at the mains. books have apparently moved off shelves, and a person who works up there said to Bev that she feels uncomfortable walking past the shop door.
Phil, and Rob decided to check out the disturbances, and Natalie Moss chose to join them as she felt that somehow she was attracting some of this activity.
The trio ventured upstairs and located themselves on the landing outside both locked offices. They carried out an EVP and listened intently for any response coming from the rooms next to them.
Natalie felt very cold on one side and was convinced that they were not alone up there. The temperature recorded a sharp drop of 3-4 degrees centigrade at this point, and caused the 20 year old girl to hurry back down to the rest of us in tears.
She was convinced that the spirit was following her and felt very uneasy. Rob, and Phil continued to listen and record any sounds from the upstairs landing area. This EVP session again yielded little recorded results.
Case Notes –
Next door upstairs – male dentist hung himself and smell still lingers there.
Three doors down a new dentist has been built a few years prior and a young girl died there recently.
The cellar under the shop had for some reason been filled in, all others in the row of houses are using the cellars.
The main junction box is near the front door area, the back shop has electrical equipment but it’s turned off. Only the phone to the right side of the main shop remained on during the evening.
The Aldi Supermarket across the road used to be a church, apparently the oldest in the village.
The final experiment of the evening was carried out downstairs in the shop. We set up the K2 Meter under the stairs as before and mounted the digital cameras and video cmareas on tripods to record the results. Digital voice recorders were placed around the room at this point to record any EVP's.
I asked a series of questions that prompted no reponse on our K2 Meter. It was then we all decided to use some sort of religious provocation to attempt to gain a response.
I felt that we were being ignored by the spirit, who clearly did not want us there, and I became a little frustrated. It was then that I raised my voice and ordered the spirit to communicate with us. I told it to use my energy, hit, punch, or scratch me to prove it was really there. At that moment the K2 meter responded in dramatic fashion.
Here is the amazing video showing the K2 Meter responding to my demands!
Directly after this video was recorded, I felt really sick. It was like I had been zapped of all my energy and shocked by electricity. I collapsed to my knees and couldn't stop shaking. It was the first time that something like this had ever happened to me.
It took me around twenty minutes to recover, but it did make me wonder if I pushed the spirit a little too far.
The results of this investigation were amazing. The communication using the K2 Meter, is to me some of the best evidence yet.
Latest Updates:
On Monday morning after the investigation had taken place, one of the female office workers upstairs came down to speak to Bev Barton and Angela. She had no knowledge of the events over the weekend, and was not aware of the activity that had taken place.
The woman exclaimed that the office upstairs smelt very strongly of 'SICK'. Bev was astonished as there is no way the woman could have known this detail of our investigation. Bev then explained to her what had happened on the Saturday evening and this shocked them both.
We have also since found out that an old lady had recently passed away in the shop next door. It used to be a home, and is now a key cutters. 'Could this old lady be the spirit that Bev and Angela have seen?' We will continue to research this story and possibly solve this case in the near future.
On Monday 3rd November 2008, Bev Barton contacted us to say that she had experienced yet another incident in the shop. That morning she was alone with a customer processing a card payment, when an A3 size paper box lid was thrown from under the stairs area towards her and the customer. She said, 'It literally jumped over the objects in front of where it had been laying and landed a foot away from us. I was terrified.'
Here are a series of photographs taken by Bev Barton to show what happened.
This investigation was reported in the local paper and I have added the scanned reports below.
Overall I must thank the whole team for their brilliant team work and professional behaviour, and Bev, Natalie, and Val for their great hospitality and patience. We have made some lifelong friends here and if anything else happens at the village shop, G.P.S have vowed to return to get more answers.
Leyland Stationery Zone Location
Investigators:
Barri Ghai (Lead Investigator)
Rob Powell (Investigator)
Phil Measey (Investigator)
Gail Ward (Former Researcher & Trainee Investigator)
Laura Chalmers (Former Investigator & Case Manager)
Simon Buckle (Former Investigator & Technical Manager)
Bev Barton (Co-owner of the Leyland Stationery Zone)
Natalie Moss (Bav Barton's Daughter-In-Law)
Val Lawson (Close Friend)
Report by: Barri Ghai - Co-Founder & Lead Investigator
