15 th January 2005:

Sue and I arrived in the West Sussex town of Midhurst around lunchtime, on what was turning out to be a sunny winter's afternoon, having checked with the Tourist Information Office before our journey to see whether the ruins of Cowdray House were still open to the public. Unfortunately, they weren't, and disappointingly the museum within the ruins was now also closed due to the building becoming dangerous for visitors., However, a footpath still enabled you to walk around the edge of the ruins.

Cowdray Park is famous for it's polo, but there's been a large estate here for hundreds of years, the house being built by Sir David Owen in the 1520s. It is apparently one of the most important Tudor courtiers' houses remaining in England, although much of it was destroyed by fire in the 1700s. It is however now on the English Buildings At Risk register.

Although we could find no written evidence of any hauntings or ghostly goings-on, the sombre ruins clearly needed investigating!

Unfortunately, after spending a while dowsing for any activity, the only thing of any interest we found was a negative energy line, running from the River Rother across the northern boundary of the ruins. Time was short so, after taking photos of the ruins, and having not found anything particularly interesting, we decided to move on to Midhurst Castle situated just a short distance from Cowdray House., nearer the town

This castle originally had a Norman keep and was encased in a strong curtain wall, which sadly is now no more, being reduced to foundation level. However, there are still the remains of a chapel, and a range of other buildings. Here Sue picked up on a lot of residual energy from when the castle was occupied, but with more of a feeling of merriment than a castle under siege. We also seemed to pick up negative and positive energy lines converging in the middle of the chapel.

Time was running out so after taking more photographs here we headed back to the town and car park. Although nothing much was picked up at these two sites, they are worthy of another visit, perhaps in the summer months.

Teresa Campbell