Haunted Britain:
Each month, comedian Barry Dodds and his sidekick Rebecca Kirk spend a night in a different haunted location
Old Victorian School, Nottingham
Kirk’s Paranormal Investigation Report:
9.55pm: ‘Were you a good student?’ I ask Dodds, as we pull into the old playground – now a carpark – and get our first glimpse of the eerie red-bricked old school.
‘I was the class clown,’ Dodds replies, unsurprisingly. ‘How about you?’
‘I used to smoke in the toilets,’ I admit.
With stories about this cane-loving headmaster’s ghost fresh in our heads, we look at each other dryly.
‘He's going to hate us,’ Dodds laughs nervously.
10pm: Our guide for the night – Hazel from Haunted Happenings – taps on our car window and frightens the life out of us. She's agreed to take us around the building because, although she runs ghost tours nationally and internationally, she's familiar with this old school, having once worked here as a physiotherapist.
Insidescoop
10.15pm: We follow Hazel into the old school. The ceilings have been lowered but the building's darkened, silent interior still smacks of its past.
10.30pm: The atmosphere in the dingy corridor connecting the dozen or so rooms is so oppressive it’s almost chewable, and it looks like I’m not the only one sensing something...
‘I feel like we're being watched,’ Dodds says.
‘I don't get spooked much,’ Hazel admits, ‘but I get a spinetingling feeling here.’
11pm: While Hazel and I are setting up the locked-off cameras in the day care room, Dodds comes darting in from a trip to the bathroom down the hall.
‘I heard two blokes talking!’ he pants, petrified. ‘Low level talking from the corridor, I swear!’
Midnight: We are sitting quietly in an office. Hazel tells us of the time she was
catching up on paperwork there alone one night. ‘I heard a cough from the corridor. I looked up and heard it a second time, then the handle of my open door depressed and the door slammed shut!’
Phantom foot steps
12.15am: I poke my head out of the offending office door and immediately hear distant footsteps down the far end of the corridor, near the canteen. I am so frightened that when Hazel suggests we turn off all the lights and take our night vision equipment out into the corridor, I have to force myself out. 12.30pm: With only our night vision screens for
A grumpy old headmaster is one of the resident spooks
light in the corridor, Hazel asks for a whistle and Dodds and I cannot believe our ears when we hear a whistle back!
12.40am: Dodds dares to wander off alone, hears a throat clearing from an empty former classroom and quickly comes back!
Hissingnoise
1.25am: After checking out several old classrooms, we head into the bathroom where Dodds had heard the two men talking earlier in the night. As we stand in the dark silence, an automatic air freshener suddenly hisses out a stream of fragrance and Dodds and I both jump out of our skin. Our laughter provides much-needed light relief.
2am: While Dodds and I pack up with our nerves on edge, we agree that Hazel is one strong lady to spend so much time there! Scared: Dodds' face!