The oldest House in
Portsmouth is the claim on the brochure
Circa 1040 ad
It’s been a Monastery,
a Convent, a girl’s school, a private house but mostly a church property
More recently a Youth
Hostel, and is now owned privately
There are we
understand plans to make it into a Hotel.
It is recorded in the
Doomsday book as;
“5 teams, 4 villeins,
4 bondman with ½ teams, 4 slaves a fishery and woods with room for 5 hogs”
It is quite simply
reported to be the most haunted house in Portsmouth.
It has been
investigated and reported so many times, with “Mad Monks” and poltergeist
activity
A room that no matter
how often it’s cleaned smells of a toilet. Called the “Wee room”
It was inevitable that
ghostvigils would end up investigating this venue
I have been here before, with
another group I found nothing whatsoever, I wrote on the report simply
“Nothing to report from this location”.
Ok you get nights like that, it does not mean it is not Haunted, just
that I was out of luck
The house has had more face-lifts and changes than any place I have
visited
I could not identify much of its original features, but aspects of the
many ages over the last 1000 years
This time I was not expecting much, after my last visit I was convinced
this place was all hype
Well we will see as they say.
With two groups of Investigators, I will report only on the vigils I
witnessed
The evening started with a group séance, all 14 people linked hands in a
circle and called out for spirit
We introduced ourselves, and invited any spirit in this place to join us
now and on the individual Vigils that would take place tonight.
I have to report little happened, however there were a couple of people
that felt uneasy
Our first Vigil then, as is now usual for me I doused the area with my
dousing rods and found to my surprise a very heavy or strong natural energy
field. It was in the centre of the main hallway / living room and directly
underneath the gallery.
Dousing is explained elsewhere on this site, but basically Natural
energy when enclosed is believed to congregate in one location and it is this
energy that spirits use to help them communicate with us.
I mentioned this to our group and we were keen to do a vigil in this
area
We set up a table with six chairs around it, one member was sitting out
trying to soak up the atmosphere, also dousing with her crystal at the same
time as we carried out our vigil at the table
A glass was placed on the table, and we went through the protection
routines.
(Protection routines are described elsewhere on this site)
We have done glass work many times and had some amazing results, but
none more impressive than
This vigil.
With our fingertips on the edge of the glass, we called out for spirit
to come to the table.
Using all the energy available in this room to move the glass to show
presence.
It took a couple of minutes of coaxing before the first spirit joined us
We asked the spirit to move the glass in any direction to show presence,
eventually the glass moved
Up and to my left, we had almost given up and this nearly caught us off
guard.
We thanked the spirit and asked if the spirit would move the glass for a
yes answer
We established that he was male and by going through the alphabet letter
by letter we spelled out his name as “Thomas” He was a Clergyman and the
adjacent church was his parish in 1862
He returned to be with his lady “Elizabeth” who resided in this house.
These names are common of the period so I guess somewhat predictable.
But later on when the Historian conformed these names as correct for the
date we were impressed
One other thing that was quite amazing was that the lady with the
crystal, dousing at the same time
As the vigil was getting all the same answers, even though she could not
of known the answers we were getting at the table. Calling out the answers
sometimes before we got them.
The next spirit we contacted was that of a little boy we believe about 6
years old, we did not get his name, He could not spell, he knew of the other
spirits but was not of their time,
We asked him if he wanted to play a game, at this the glass circled in
frenzy, he was keen on this idea.
It was explained that the game involved the lady sat away from the table
would draw a shape or picture, and he had to copy the drawing using the glass,
we then had to identify the drawing
“Clearly we were trying to prove that a third party was involved and one
that was outside our environment and control. We have tried this before and in this building with good results”
The glass moved excitedly again, and so the picture was drawn, slowly
the glass started to move
He started to draw what appeared to be to things firstly a near box with
sloping sides and secondly a flag shape. It was in fact near perfectly matching
the drawing of a boat. and matched exactly what was on the paper.
We said well done and asked if he would like another go, unmistakably
yes was the answer
Another picture or drawing was done, remember the room was quite dark
and we could not even see the artist. Again the glass started to draw a
triangle and then another triangle on top of the first.
Then a circle, we did not understand. But then the piece of paper was
placed on the table
It was an exact match for the triangles, and the circle was the smiley
face that the artist drew because the boy got the first picture right,
This is apparently something used in modern teaching methods of young children and she drew this automatically because she did this for her own children.
The boy could only of seen a circle and not known the meaning.
At this the Glass stopped moving and we closed the table thanking all
the spirits for talking to us tonight.
After a break we went down to the cellar and lower rooms
The cellar has a lot of electrical equipment in it as you may expect in
a house this size
The hum was giving me a headache
This area is reported to be fearful; well I did not think so.
When you have been to several reportedly Haunted places, they have to be
very active now to impress
We did try dousing here with some results though not conclusive, also a
silent vigil, but the sound heard were in my opinion not unexpected for this
location
I did not have many expectations before I came here to this house
because of my last visit
And the cellar and the Music room struggled to live up to the few
expectations I had
Next for use was the Music room. We tried glass and silent vigil hear
but nothing was happening
And our time was running out, which was a shame as this was the only
room we experienced anything last time
**Report from our previous visit**
**The Music room (Room 4)**
At last a room, which felt like we had a reason to be there, not cold
but with cold breezes; I checked the windows and door, when closed offered no
obvious draft. The room does have five windows and a door (And it is not
double-glazed.)
Several of our group did not like using a glass; as they had not seen
credible results from it
They openly felt a glass had to be physically moved either deliberately
or subconsciously
My view is it’s ok being sceptic, but you must be open minded as well,
I cannot see the point not using all tools available in the search for
the truth.
It was reported by several people in the room that they felt cold
breezes on their arms and faces
None of the windows were double-glazed and were old in appearance.
They felt cold to the touch but did not appear to have a draft.
The door was a snug fit and offered no obvious gap at the base top or
sides.
It was an inside door leading from a corridor.
The laser thermometers showed little change or nothing obvious, only
minor fluctuations
As I too felt cold breezes on my arms as if someone was gently blowing
on them I can only assume that the others did genuinely feel the same thing.
I can offer no tangible evidence to support the feeling of cold breezes,
and cannot offer an explanation of where they came from.
Only that several people at different times and at different points in
the room reported this happening
I do wonder if once the Idea had been planted in our minds, did we then
look for this
But for my part I believe; I felt these breezes on my arm. And there was
no logical explanation for this.
We decided that we would try the glass and if we got contact, one person
would leave the room
With a pen and paper to draw a shape, we at the table would ask the
spirit to look at the drawing
and describe the shape to us by moving the glass in the pattern of the
drawing.
We sat around the table, with our fingertips on the glass and asked out
for any spirit present to move the glass. After a short while the glass moved
left to right and then back again.
We asked if it was male/female, adult or child etc
The responses were female and child and she was moving the glass as if
playing with us.
We asked if she could see the drawing in the other room, the glass moved
for yes
After a pause of no activity the glass moved again.
This time the glass moved in a small circular pattern / oval pattern
Was this the shape, we asked for her to draw the shape for us with the
glass?
It repeated the small circular pattern / oval pattern
When we called our artist back into the room to show us what she had
drawn
It was very close; it was like an extended circle with an oval end
It was meant to be a circle but she drew it slightly ovular.
We did not have access to the attic as this is now been renovated as a
flat for the owner.
So the upper floor may be a more accurate description.
We made a bee line for the wee (pee) room and decided to do a silent
vigil, yes I suppose we could smell something, but was that because we were
expecting to smell something?
Off the room is a closet, which appears to of, been set up as a
punishment room, a place to lock a
Naughty child up sort of place, it’s no more than a cupboard with a
secret seating area, at the rear suitable for child rather than an adult
We did not have a child handy so we sent a slim female investigator in
there (well it seemed only fair)
I think that some present would not have been keen on spending time in
there, but she said .it felt ok
One odd thing, as we looked through the door of the closest at the face
of our brave companion
Her facial features seem to change and at one point she looked like a monk
and the shape of her head did appear to change, it was elongated and the hair
seemed to be brushed back
As many in the group saw this, I am guessing that it was some kind of
optical illusion, although I can offer no evidence to prove this.
We did not really experience anything, else so we moved around the other
rooms, upstairs, no ghosts
Well none that would come out to play.
We tried table tipping, as there was one handy in one of the rooms
When this works it about as impressive as anything we do gets, and after
calling out for spirit the table did appear to be vibrating, but did not move
dramatically as we have seen before
I suggested that we move to the gallery as this was directly above the
very strong energy point found earlier.
This we did and with what can be only described as outstanding results.
The vigil started asking out for sprit to join us. The five ladies of
the group stood around the table
With their fingertips lightly touching the edge of the table.
Once again spirit seemed able to use the energy very easily and the
spirit
“Thomas” from earlier was back with us, he seemed to like talking to us
and also seemed to trust us.
At first the table vibrated like before only much more so.
Then one Investigator asked if the table could be tipped up towards her.
It did straightaway
Shock, horror, surprise and delight all the emotions at once (most had
not seen this before)
Again and again the table tipped in whatever direction it was asked to,
the spirit was having as much fun as we were, then the four-legged table went
on one leg the other three legs of the table being a foot
Off the ground and swivelling around, with the five investigators now
walking round in a circle trying to keep up with it, this was fantastic, but
the best was yet to come.
One of the Investigators asked if “Thomas” could lift the table off the
ground.
With the one leg on the floor and the others raised, the final leg
appeared to leave the floor, only about an inch, but defiantly off the floor.
And then all four legs went down again.
This was all covered by two video cameras and can be seen from links on
this site (seeing is believing)
At this the atmosphere changed, “Thomas” seemed to have gone and the
table stopped moving.
It was now 02:45 and time to leave this location
As we packed our bags, we were all buzzing with the events of the night,
and few could talk of anything else on the way home.
Two in the back seat looking at the playback of the Video, reliving the
excitement
Conclusion.
With the factual information and date re “Thomas” and “Elisabeth” and
1862 I was impressed
The boy and the drawing will stay in my mind, as this must surely be
valid evidence
And the table tipping was just
fantastic.
We will of course if possible be back
Pete Sugden www.ghostvigils.com