GHOSTBUSTIN’
My haunting adventure with the spook seekers
SOMETHING strange in your neighbourhood…who ya gonna call? The Daily Star Sunday of course.
Just in time for the spooky Halloween season, we sent our girl out with a bunch of actual ghost hunters to see if we could catch a glimpse of a ghoul. Honorary Ghostbuster
spent the night at one of Britain’s “most haunted” buildings. Here’s her hair-raising report of what she witnessed:
FROM the moment we stepped inside Gresley Old Hall in Derbyshire, I was urged to keep an open mind.
I was there to meet the Haunted Finders team, who travel the UK searching out ways to contact the dead and document it online.
They invited the Daily Star Sunday to see a building that is steeped in history – and apparently haunted.
Gresley Old Hall was built in the 16th century on the site of the old Gresley Priory, which dates back to the 1100s.
Paranormal investigators flock there to explore the derelict site where a maid apparently burned to death in one of the rooms.
Four of the upstairs rooms were set up with cameras linked to a television screen watched by team member Mandy Cranfield, 57.
Joining her were husband David, 60, and son Jon, 28, Tom Buckmaster, 26, plus husband and wife team Kevin, 50, and Carole Shipley, 60.
While we set up, Tom talked me through the thousands of pounds worth of gadgets they used to capture ghosts on tape.
One, called the EVP (Electronic Voice Phenomenon), uses a hyper-sensitive microphone to pick up sounds that cannot be heard by human ears.
Using it, the team have previously recorded hushed voices, footsteps and muttered swear words.
Another device is a radio scanner called the Spirit Box, which switches between different signals.
The idea is that it sweeps through white noise, which spirits are able to manipulate to make words.
We also looked at the K2 EMF (Electro Magnetic Field) device which detects electrical waves.
As well as the maid, we were trying to contact the hall’s architect Sir Christopher Alleyne, whose spirit is said to walk the building.
The team led me up the stairs into the derelict attic and into the back room.
It is thought the maid, called Mary, died in one of these rooms.
Last time the Haunted Finders were at the hall Mandy took an eerie picture of what appeared to be Mary coming up through the floorboards.
We asked her to give us a sign she was there but there was nothing. We then asked “yes” or “no” questions to try to coax her into talking to us.
We asked: “Are you here, Mary? Do you like us being here? If you know who we are, can you say one of our names?”
Then something spooky happened – a voice on the spirit box said something that sounded faintly like, “I am”.
Suddenly, I heard a whooshing sound to my right and team member David felt a chill running down his back.
It could have been a draught from the boarded-up windows but the team was convinced someone was trying to contact us.
We then tried to contact the spirits using a glass. Remembering my pledge to keep an open mind, I placed my finger lightly on it and waited. The team asked Mary to move the glass as a sign she was there.
Then they asked her to move it in a certain direction for yes or for no.
At one point, David said he felt the glass shake as if it were pulsing.
The team later showed me the images captured from other hunts.
One ghoulish figure appeared to peek out of a tree in woods known to be used by dWevoirldswionrshippers. The team had heraerdplcehaislderienn’s voices and felt figures hruernenaincgapatisotnthem and when they got fhoormtheisrepaiclitsuerde a creepy face had been watching them. Chilling stuff…