Southern Paranormal - Investigations

Bisham Abbey Investigation

24th Feb 2007

Attendees :Paul Wayman (Medium), Kerry Price (L&E), Julie Harwood (D&H), Mandy Bradley (L&E), Maureen Taylor (D&H), Alan Hall (L&E), Selina Dean (L&E), Jim Lewis (L&E), Ross Richardson (D&H), Kim Ives (guest), Elias Kupfermann (D&H) + guest, Maria Street (D&H), Diane Moore (D&H), Matt Hasler (L&E), Marion McCaffery (D&H), Sarah Couper .

Introduction

Dating from 1260 Bisham Abbey takes it name from the Abbey or priory which once stood next to this building. The current building is in fact a manor house built as a preceptory for the knights templar which has been added on in the following centuries. The original priory was destroyed during the reign of Henry VIII.

In 1310 Queen Elizabeth of Scots (wife of Robert the Bruce) was captured and confined here for 2 years, the young Elizabeth I was also detained here and a well bearing her name still exists in the grounds.

Now used as part of the National Sports Centre this building has many historical facts and famous names attached to it and of course its own ghost stories.

Ghosts

The ghost of Elizabeth Hoby is said to haunt the building and grounds. She allegedly killed her son for being lazy at his work and her spirit is said to be seen in negative washing her hands in a basin of water which goes with her.

During building work in the Victorian era some blotted copy books were found behind the fireplace, fuelling the story. However to this day nothing has been proved. There is also a legend that on midsummer night, at midnight, a blue mist passes over the Thames from Bisham to the meadows south west of Great Marlow in the direction of Glydernscroft.

Besides its holy well, it has a secret passage. Hidden treasure has been found there and spectral lights have been seen hovering over it.

There is an underground passage to the south of the abbey. Police frogmen, who investigated it in 1957 confirmed that it had an outlet on the river. A bag of Spanish fifteenth century gold doubloons was discovered by workmen beneath floorboards, during renovations being carried out in 1840.

According to legend the last bishop of Bisham a John Cordery cursed the inhabitants of Bisham whilst being dragged from the abbey during the dissolution of the monasteries. He cursed the inhabitants by saying ‘they should have no heirs ’.This seemed to ring true for a few generations!

Teams

Team 1:
Kerry Price (Team Leader)
Julie Harwood
Maria Street
Matt Hasler

Team 2:
Mandy Bradley (Team Leader)
Paul Wayman (medium)
Marion McCaffery
Sarah Couper

Team 3:
Alan Hall (Team Leader)
Elias Kupfermann +guest
Maureen Taylor
Diane Moore

Vigil Areas

Area 1
Ground floor:
Great Hall
Margaret Dickenson Lounge
Sonning Room
Warwick Room

Area 2
1st floor:
Elizabethan Room
Henry VIII Room

Area3
2nd floor
Vansittart Room

Area 4
Garden

Rota

8.30pm- Arrive, meet and greet
8.45pm- Set up, baseline tests and tour of building
9.30pm- Short Break
9.45pm- Vigil 1
10.45pm- Break
11.00pm- Vigil 2
12.00am- Break
12.15am- Séance
01.15am- Break
01.30am- Vigil 3
02.30am- Break
02.45am- Vigil 4
03.45am- Pack up and leave

Team 1
Vigil 1- garden
Vigil 2- ground floor
Vigil 3- 1st floor
Vigil 4- 2nd floor

Team 2
Vigil 1- ground floor
Vigil 2- 1st floor
Vigil 3- 2nd floor
Vigil 4- Garden

Team 3
Vigil 1- 1st floor
Vigil 2- 2nd floor
Vigil 3- Garden
Vigil 4- ground floor

Team 4:
Vigil 1- 2nd floor
Vigil 2- garden
Vigil 3- ground floor
Vigil 4- 1st floor

Experiments
Séance
Ouija
Glass divination
Table tipping

Equipment

Team 1:
Camcorder- Kerry’s
EMF- Kerry’s
Temp gun- Kerry’s
Digital Camera- Kerry’s

Team 2:
Camcorder- Julie’s
EMF- Julie’s
Temp Gun- Julie’s
Digital Camera- Mandy

Team 3:
Camcorder- Alan’s
EMF- Julie’s
Temp Gun- Julie’s
Digital camera TBC

Team 4:
Camcorder- Jim’s
EMF- Jim’s
Temp gun- Jim’s

Baseline Tests

Sonning Room
No EMF
23c Small hallway to outside
24.4c right wall
20.7c left wall
17.3c middle
Creaky floorboards

Warwick Room
No EMF
Temp 23 all over
Picture taken of Selina with strange light next to her
Temp drops to 17c

Banqueting Hall
No EMF
Temp 20.3c
Staircase off small hallway 16.5c

Henry VIII Room
No EMF
Temp left wall 23c Right wall 21c

Room Opposite Henry VIII Room
No EMF
Temp 16.8c by window
21c rest of room

Staircase to Vansitart Room
No EMF
Temp 18.5c

Vansitart Room
No EMF
Temp 20c

Vigil Notes

Paul Wayman courteously agreed to conduct a séance with the group. This took place after the second vigil.
The notes are below.

Séance 01:10am- 01;35am
Banqueting Hall

01:10am- Paul opens séance
01:14am- Alan says that spirit has moved from behind him over to the fireplace.
- Paul smells unpleasant smell.
01:15am- Paul says that the smell is getting stronger.
- Orb between Kerry and Mandy on camcorder.
- Orb on camcorder, centre of screen moving towards Jim.
01:16am- Paul feels presence of spirit.
- Elias’ hands are cold.
01:17am- Kerry and Mandy can hear talking. Mandy says that the talking is very erratic and sounds like a disagreement.
01:19am- Maria hears chanting and Paul agrees.
01:20am- Maria feels like someone is pushing her head down.
01:21am- Jim picks up on a man with a foreign name.
- Elias says Vansittart but Jim disagrees.
01:22am- Jim picks up on spirit around opposite side of table near the door and he feels very cold.
01:24am- Paul asks group to refocus and door creaks.
01:26am- Sarah feels like someone is touching her hand.
- Door creaks, swings open then stops.
- Paul starts to talk and the door creaks again.
01:27am- Paul calls out.
- Paul senses irritation.
- Door creaks and continues to creak.
- Paul asks for spirit to touch someone gently.
- Alan feels cold.
01:28am- Paul hears a noise.
- Sarah hears a tap.
- Door creaks again.
- Orb on camcorder from the middle of the creaking door to the right.
- All hear a tap by door to right of creaking one.
01:29am- Elias feels a breeze across his arms.
- Paul feels sick.
- Kerry replays that she felt sick in this room earlier.
01:30am- Elias hears a creak.
- Orb on camcorder from the centre of the table moving upwards.
- Paul feels a build up of energy that feels like static electricity.
01:31am- Elias feels something brush across his arm.
- Door starts to creak again.
01:32am- Door creaks open and continues to creak.
- When door stops creaking, Alan faints.
01:33am- Alan comes around.
- Kerry asks him what happened and he said that he couldn’t breathe.
- SÉANCE ENDS

Team 1 Vigil 1: Garden

21:54pm- Door leading from cloisters to small hallway off Banqueting Roomrattles, no-one is there.

10:10pm- Julie gets impression of woman by the river screaming out the name Amber.

10:15pm- Kerry picks up on Saxon settlement and believes the water to have been wider here than it is now.

Kerry picks up on hangings and burials in a line.
Kerry, Maria and Matt drawn to the tree by the water. Maybe a hanging place.
Maria, Julie and Kerry feel queasy
Matt and Kerry have headache and pick up on a cold spot where there are foundations under the grass.

10:20pm- Breeze only seems to appear in same spot, no breeze detected in

movement of trees etc.

Kerry feels as though she has been hit on the head.

10:25pm- Kerry calls out for more, big gust of wind in response.

Matt’s legs ache.
Kerry hears walking behind her and senses something below her in a line. Maria confirms that there is a tunnel underneath where Kerry is standing.

10:30pm- All go to tree by the water, Matt finds a tree stump at ground level

next to the existing tree. Maybe this could have been a hanging tree?

Maria and Kerry hear a high pitched growl.
Group sense that people were brought here by boat to be hung so criminals were not brought over scared ground.
Matt hears the creak of a rope.
Kerry finds old Jetty by water overgrown by grass.
Kerry feels that there was a murder on the river.
Maria does not like looking into the branches of the tree by the river.
Kerry feels that there is a male following us around.
Kerry picks up on a young girl by the water and a boat, Julie recounts the name and feeling that she had earlier.
Matt thinks the girl is between 6 and 8.
Kerry sees a mill downstream, to the left of the abbey.
Team spread out around the area of the tree and call out to Amber.
Julie has the little finger on her left hand tugged; Kerry calls out and has same feeling.
Matt stands under tree and screams and jumps as he sees a hand fall down in front of his face as though someone I hanging upside down.
Maria has pressure on her head as though someone is squeezing it.
Team walk to another area and all feel like they should go to the area to the right of the tree where the garden is partitioned off with shrubs.
Very cold in this area.
Matt feels someone holding his hand.
Maria feels very light headed and is having to hold her head up.
Kerry feels a cut to her cheek that feels as though she has been pulled out of the water with a fishing hook, the skin is flapping around.
Kerry calls out, Julie, Maria and Kerry hear a ‘Yeesssss’ and think it is Matt. Play back video sound not detected and wasn’t Matt.
Looks as though someone is walking through the next field by the water, no-one is there.

Vigil 2: Banqueting Hall

11:24pm- On entering the hall Kerry hears rustling

11:25pm- Loud click heard from small corridor followed by a louder click

11:26pm- Matt and Maria go and stand in the little corridor and feel cold.

Maria does not like the door area that leads to the cloisters and Matt does not like the doorway leading to the corridor.

11:30pm- Matt does not like the staircase leading off the corridor as he picks up on a man standing there.

11:35pm- Maria calls out and gets cold blast across her legs and back

Matt gets a pain below his jaw.
Maria, Julie and Kerry hear a growl

11:37pm- All hear heavy breathing behind them

11:38pm- All team look to the ceiling at the same time

Julie feels that someone died when the roof was built

11:40pm- Kerry hears a growl or heavy sigh

11:41pm- Matt feels sleepy

11:42pm- Maria and Matt think that the door to the stairs has been moved

11:45pm- Maria and Matt stand in doorway to locked room, Maria feels sick.

Neither Matt or Maria like this area and Matt feels drawn once again to the door that leads off the banqueting room to the small corridor. He feels as though someone is following him.

11:46pm- Maria hears the locked door creak

- Chair creaks next to Julie.

11:50pm- Glass divination starts

Kerry calls out, creak heard behind her.
Kerry feels cold under her hand
Maria has cold hand.
Tap heard in corner
Matt feels as though his finger is being pushed off the glass.
Kerry has pain in back and jaw.
Kerry is getting angry and feels as though someone is standing between her and Maria
Maria’s arms feel very heavy.
Maria and Matt have stabbing pain in neck
Matt feels as though a man was stabbed in the neck here by a woman in a white cloak. Believes that the man abused her so she stabbed him and dragged him out of the small hallway that leads to the cloisters outside.
Kerry has constricting pain in chest and Matt has pain in ribs.
Julie feels something touch the back of her leg
Matt thinks that the wife killed the husband and sees the fireplace with a roaring fire in the grate.
Kerry feels that the wife had more power than the husband and the man didn’t like it and tried to kill her but she got there first.
Kerry and Maria feels cold blast
Are you scared of women? Loud tap heard from doorway
Sound of door handle moving heard by Matt and Kerry
Maria aches down her left hand side

12:15am- Maria sees a shadow in the small corridor

12:17am- Kerry sees a small blue light underneath large window

12:19am- All hear door creak

Room seems to brighten and then dim again

12:20am- Kerry approaches small corridor and hears noises on the floor as

though someone is behind her.

Vigil 3: Vansittart Room

02:16am- Kerry attempts to open the fire door to get into the room, she thinks it is locked as she can’t get in. Matt tries the door and it opens fine!

- After settling down all hear a noise which is the door opening slightly.

- After the noise stops Kerry attempts to set up the camcorder nearer the door however the door starts to come open as Kerry calls out for spirit not to do anything.

- Ouija starts and Julie calls out.

- Orb caught on camcorder bottom middle to top of screen.

02:17am- Julie and Kerry can hear whispering in the room but can’t make out the words.

02:18am- Faint orb around middle of door moving up.

- Orb nearer camcorder travelling towards group.

02:20am- Orb on camcorder.

- Q: Is there a female sprit here?

- A: Slight movement of planchette.

02:21am- All hear a constant tapping (could be strip lights cooling down).

- Kerry’s left leg is freezing cold.

02:22am- Q: Is there a woman present?

- A: No response.

- Kerry’s right arm is tingling.

- Planchette starts to move slowly and then moves to no.

- Q: Could you move the planchette stronger/quicker?

- A: Yes

- Matt’s arm starts to tingle.

02:25am- Q: Is there a gentleman present?

- A: No movement

- Q: Is there a woman present?

- A: No

02:26am- Q: Could you give us your 1^st initial?

- A: H

- Q: Does your name begin with H?

- A: Planchette points to word ouija.

02:27am- Q: Please try again.

- A: 2 thuds heard behind Ria.

- Q: Please communicate through the board.

- A: ST

- Q: Does your name begin with ST?

- Orb on camcorder

02:28am- A: Yes AT

- Matt thinks that spirits name begins with T.

- Q: Did you live here?

- A: Yes T

- Q: Did you live here?

- A: No

- Q: Did you commit a crime here?

- A: No

- Q: Are we still talking to the same spirit?

- A: Yes

02:30am- Door starts to creak.

- Q: Are you making the door move?

- A: 2 Thuds heard.

- Q: Is there someone else here with you?

- A: Yes

- Q: How many sprits are here now?

- A: 3

- Q: Do any of the spirits mean us harm?

- A: No

- Q: Are you all related to each other?

- A: No

- Q: Did you all know each other?

- A: Planchette twists

- Q: Question repeated

- A: Planchette twists again.

- Q: Were you here because of your religion?

- A: No

- Q: Were you because of war?

- A: No response

- Q: Were you captured and held here?

- A: No response

- Q: Is there a spirit of a girl in this room?

- A: No

- Q: Are all the spirits here adults?

- A: Yes

- Q: How many are men?

- A: 1

- Q: How many are women?

- A: 2

- Q: What is your name?

- A: IT IS THOMAS

- Q: What is your family name?

- A: CHC

- Q: Please try again?

- A: CHADING

- Q: Is Chading your surname?

- A: Yes

- Q: What year were you born?

- A: 1673

- Q: You were born in 1673?

- A: Yes

- Q: What year did you die?

- A: 1696

- Q: Did you work here?

- A: No

- Q: Did you die of disease?

- A: No

- Q: Did someone take your life?

- A: No

- Q: Did you die in an accident?

- A: Planchette moves towards no, stops dead, turns then points to yes.

- Q: Do you believe it was an accident?

- A: No

- Q: Did you know the person that caused your death?

- A: Yes

- Q: Did you die outside?

- A: Yes

- Q: Did you die in the water?

- A: No

- Q: Was your body found near the water?

- A: No response

- Q: Did you die through a miscarriage of justice?

- A: No

- Q: Were you the spirit who Ria saw falling from the window?

- A: No response

02:44am- A loud shout is heard which sounds like Paul shouting no.

- Planchette starts to move and spells out Nicholas.

- Q: Is Nicholas the man who was responsible for your death?

- A: Yes

- Q: What was his surname?

- A: FIRQ

- Q: Did you know his surname?

- A: F/G

- Q: Is it G?

- A: G

- Q: Please give us the next letter

- A: GAH

- Q: Were you friends with Nicholas?

- A: E

- Q: Are you still here?

- A: Yes

- Q: Are you afraid of Nicholas?

- A: No G

- Q: Is he one of the spirits in the room?

- A: No

- Q: Is Nicholas sorry for what he did?

- A: No G

- Q: Are you here in visitation?

- A: No

- Q: Are you happy here?

- A: No

- Q: We’re sorry Thomas

- A: Yes

- Q: Is there a reason you can’t move on?

- A: Yes

- Q: Are there other people you know here?

- A: No

- Q: Is someone keeping you here?

- A: Yes

- Q: Are you being kept here in thought?

- A: Yes

- Q: Is Nicholas here?

- A: No

- Q: Is Nicholas stopping you from crossing over?

- A: No

- Q: Is it a woman that is keeping you here?

- A: Yes

- Q: Is it someone you love?

- A: Yes

- Q: Were you meant to marry her?

- A: Yes

- Q: Please give the name of the woman

- A: ENJSULP

- Q: Please spell her first name

- A: REBECCA

- Q: Did Rebecca live in this house?

- A: Yes

- Q: Is it Rebecca that keeps you here?

- A: Yes

- Q: How old was Rebecca?

- A: 53

- Q: Was she older than you?

- A: Yes 1654

- Q: Is that when Rebecca was born?

- A: Yes

- Q: Was your love requited?

- A: No

- Q: Was Rebecca your lover?

- A: Yes

- Q: Was Nicholas Rebecca’s husband?

- A: Yes

- Q: Did Nicholas make your death look like an accident?

- A: Yes

- Q: Did Rebecca know that it wasn’t an accident?

- A: Yes then moves to G

- Q: Is there a reason that you are not telling us Rebecca’s surname?

- A: Yes

- Q: Are you trying to protect her?

- A: Yes

- Q: Did Nicholas treat her badly?

- A: Yes

- Q: Did you genuinely love her?

- A: Yes

- Q: Did Rebecca kill her husband?

- A: Yes

- Q: Have you been trying to tell Matt?

- A: Yes

- Q: Did you want us to know what happened?

- A: Yes

- Q: Did Nicholas get drunk and abuse Rebecca?

- A: Yes

- Q: Did she take his body out through the small corridor?

- A: Yes

- Q: Is Nicholas buried in the grounds?

- A: Yes

- Q: Did she bury him near the water?

- A: Yes

- Q: Was it your hand in front of Matt’s face by the water?

- A: Yes SORRY

- Q: Did Nicholas hang your body from the tree?

- A: Yes

- Q: Was a little girl watching?

- A: Yes

- Q: Was her name Amber?

- A: Yes

- Q: Was she a family member?

- A: Yes

- Q: Was Amber your daughter?

- A: Yes

- Q: Was Rebecca her mother?

- A: Yes

- Q: Did Rebecca lie about who the father was?

- A: Yes

- Q: Was Amber put into the water to torture you?

- A: Yes

- Q: Is it Amber that keeps you here?

- A: Yes

- Q: Were you put in the tree before she died?

- A: Yes

- Q: Did you watch her die?

- A: Yes

- Q: How old was Amber?

- A: 6

- Q: Do you think that you can move on?

- A: Yes

- Q: Were you allowed to bury her?

- A: Yes

- Q: Was it Nicholas that killed her?

- A: Yes

- Q: Who did Amber call Daddy?

- A: THOMAS

- Q: Amber is outside in the garden, can you go and find her there?

- A: Yes THANK YOU

- After ouija is finished the room becomes lighter.

Team 2
Vigil 1: Ground Floor

Notes were not disclosed for this vigil, however events are covered in the reports. Paul Wayman used a high sensitive Dictaphone during this vigil however nothing was found.

Vigil 2:1^st Floor

11:34pm- Mandy feels someone tap on her back.

- Paul hears a voice

11:41pm- Paul feels a spirit present

11:42pm- Paul sets up an automatic writing planchette on top of a spirit board and starts to call out.

- Planchette points to C

- Q: Please spell your name

- Paul feels the board is ‘getting heavy’.

- Planchette points to E

- Planchette points to T

- Q: If you are trying to spell out your name please point to yes.

- A: YES

- Q: Are you female?

- All feel the spirit is hesitant to answer.

- Q: Please point to yes if you are female. (Mandy calls out)

- Door behind Paul opens.

- Temp is 5c lower to the left (away from the door) than it is by the door.

- Paul feels very cold.

11:48pm- Mandy calls out for the spirit to only use the board to communicate.

- Noise heard by all. Paul thought it was someone’s stomach. Noise

comes from behind Paul (near door). Noise faintly caught on camcorder.

- Paul rejoins group after looking outside door to check that no-one is there.

11:50pm- Group restart spirit board experiment.

- Q: Please spell out your name.

- A: C

- Q: Please continue to spell out your name.

- A: ATHERINE

- Q: If that is your name, please confirm.

- A: YES

11:52pm- Sarah asks without finger on planchette.

- Q: Please can your spell out the name of the person you are waiting for?

- A: EDWARD

- Q: Is Edward who Paul was picking up on earlier?

- A: No response.

- Q: Was Edward your lover? (Marion asks)

- A: No response.

11:53pm- Q: Is Edward a relation to you? (Sarah asks)

- A: No response.

- Q: Is Edward family? (Sarah asks)

- A: CATHE

- Q: Is Edward your brother? (Sarah asks)

- A: No response

- Paul asks is that information was given by spirit to her, Sarah replies

Yes.

11:55pm- Mandy asks Sarah to ask.

- Q: Is Edward your brother?

- A: YES

- Q: Spell your last name?

- A: H

- Sarah is given the words ‘manners cost nothing’.

- Q: Would you mind giving us the 2^nd letter of your surname please?

(Sarah asks)

- A: YES HOB

- Q: Could you please give us the 4^th letter of your surname?

- A: B

- Q: Could you please confirm that your name is Catherine Hobb.

- A: No response.

- Q: Is there anyone else with you?

- A: YES

- Q: Is there a boy with you? (Paul asks)

- A: YES

- Q: Paul picked up on the name of William, is this him?

- A: YES

- Q: Is his surname Hobb?

- A: YES

12:02am- Q: Was William your child? (Sarah asks)

- A: NO

- Q: Is William your brother?

- A: YES

- Sarah feels sick.

- Q: Is William Hobb your brother?

- A: SOR (planchette moves slowly)

- Q: Please repeat

- Mandy asks Paul is he thinks Williams is Catherine’s son? and Paul

replies that he thinks that Catherine is his aunt.

- Q: Is William related to you? (Sarah asks)

- Paul feels sick.

- Marion can smell sick.

- Paul starts to feel shivery.

- A: YES

- Q: How is William related to you? (Sarah asks)

- Paul senses reluctance and feels that she doesn’t want to answer.

- A: NO

- Q: How old are you?

- A: 21

12:09am- Q: Please confirm

- Sarah is given the words ‘a lady doesn’t tell’.

- A: 25

- The group quietly discuss what should be done next. Mandy says

‘should we ask when she died?’. Paul says that the group should try

to ascertain if she knows that she has passed…’.

- A: DEAD

12:10am- Q: What year did you die?

- A: 1586

12:11am- Q: Were you 25 when you died?

- Paul senses her by the window.

- A: YES

12:12am- Q: Do you wish to stop communicating with us?

- A: GOODBYE

- Q: Before you go, will you communicate with us in another way?

- A: YES

- A knock is heard by all

12:15am- Q: Could you make a noise for us?

- Mandy, Marion and Sarah feel a breeze.

- Q: Could you do that again for us please?

12:16am- Paul feels that the spirit has left.

Vigil 2: 2^nd Floor

02:10am- Orb on camcorder

- TEMP 68.8f

- Paul feels a spirit present.

02:11am- Paul has feelings in his chest and head and that it is a male spirit.

- Marion is given that he I in his 50’s.

02:12am- Paul says that the spirit is agitated and has feelings of receiving bad news. Paul says that he is not present but he feels his energy.

- Orb in front of camcorder and camcorder becomes unfocused for 6 seconds.

- Paul says that the feelings in his head and chest are the feelings of shock.

- Paul is given the gentleman’s name but is reluctant to say it as he has seen his name on a painting in this room.

02:13am- Another spirits name has come forward to Paul which is Henry.

- Camcorder goes out of focus again for 2 seconds.

- Marion takes over filming.

02:15am- Paul gets feeling of being betrayed.

- Paul feels the spirit is unaware of group’s presence and is not interested in communicating.

02:16am- Orb on camcorder.

02:17am- Orb on camcorder.

- Another orb on camcorder.

- Paul has been pacing around the room since the group entered and has now stopped as the feeling of agitation has ceased.

- Paul still feels the spirits energy but the feelings have changed to confusion.

- Orb on camcorder from Paul’s direction towards window.

- Mandy asks if the spirit has become aware of our presence?

- Paul replies that the spirit is too wrapped up in his own thoughts.

02:18am- Noise heard which sounds like floorboards being stood on.

02:19am- A tap is heard by the window.

- Paul is given ‘why me?’ and feels betrayed and let down.

02:20am- Mandy sees the right hand curtain moving.

- Orb on camcorder to right of curtain.

02:21am- Paul feels someone to his left (he is now sitting down on a chair facing the group).

- Marion sees a flash to Paul’s right hand side (could be reflection of Paul’s watch?)

02:22am- Paul feels someone touching his left arm and believes that it is a different entity and feels the spirit is very sad.

- Sarah is given ‘was not me’.

02:23am- Paul says that the spirit is a teenage girl and was witness to what went

on. The girl is very thin.

02:24am- Paul calls out.

- All hear a knock near window to Paul’s left.

- Q: Could you do that again please?

- A: Paul hears tap to his left.

02:25am- Q: Could you touch someone else in this room?

- A: No response.

02:26am- Paul senses the spirit is very shy and has moved further back in the room.

- Vigil ends.

Team 3:
Vigil 1: 1^st floor

10:00pm- No EMF, Temp 26C.

All sat on stairs as doors are locked, Alan goes to investigate!

- Temp 27c, all stood in 1^st floor corridor conducting séance

10:10pm- Temp 30c

Temp 33c, Alan hears someone walking around upstairs
Maureen’s knees feel funny

10:15am- Vending machines, Matthew thought that someone was following him.

Elizabethan Room

Temp platform 28c, middle of room 28c, by window 18c, in bay

Window 18.5c

10:20pm- Alan feels like his feet are being pulled and is given the name Phyllis

who is in her 70’s, Elias says that the name could be Philip.

10:25pm- Group move to stairwell, Temp 18.5c

Di has cold breeze on right hand, Maureen feels cold breeze on right hand side.

10:30pm- Table tilting Henry VIII room

Maureen, Elias, Matthew and Alan feel sick
Elias and Matthew feel cold breezes that smell of farmyard.

10:45pm- On walking back Matthew feels as though there is someone by the vending machines again.

Vigil 2: 2^nd Floor

11:30pm- No EMF, Temp 20.5c

Alan calls out, orbs caught on digital camera.

11:35pm- No EMF, Temp 25.5c

Alan calls out, noise heard by fireplace

11:40pm- Elias calls out and hears a thud by the window

Alan hears a giggle and is given the name Emily
Temp 20c, Elias feels cold.

11:45pm- Temp 20c

All hear the chair move next to Matthew
Something is heard dropping to the floor, heard by all.

11:50pm- All move out to corridor on 2^nd floor

Elias sees someone on the stairs
Temp 16.5c
Alan hears Emily laughing again
Pendulum swings and huge rise in temperature noted from 16.5c-19c

12:05am- Temp 20c

Alan is given the name of Charles who is possibly Emily’s father.

Very oppressive feeling.

Temp 29c
Alan calls out, a thud is heard and then a shadow passes by Alan who

Feels very sad and sick.

Vigil 3: Garden

02:15am- Alan’s uses dowsing rods following information given...

Male presence

17^th member of family who lived here, member of the Hoby family lord of the manor of Bisham 1630 who is buried in the church.

Related to Elizabeth Cook and knows what happened in the house, something to do with a child a book and a fireplace

A horrible thing happened involving Elizabeth Cook who later became a relative. A child was murdered, was she the murderer?

A child pushed out of a window or was strangled. Elizabeth Cook strangled the child and a fireplace is connected to the murder.

Group move to under tower, Temp 7.5c
Di is shivery
Male spirit given, 13^th soldier is of royal blood and something gold is in association with him. He has not always been in this country , was in the crusades and is a knight templar and is associated with William Montacute. There was an Abbey here which was run by the white friars and is a member of the Montacute family. He was a story writer who was a relative of Montecute.
Spirit is buried in Oxfordshire some of family buried at Bisham. Family member’s names given as Maud and Alice.

Great Hall:

Ouija board started, no response.
Group move to Margaret Dickinson room no movement detected there so group call it a night.

Team 4:
Vigil 1:

9.45pm- 2^nd floor No EMF TEMP 10.5c

Door in 2^nd floor room Jim and Selina feel goosebumps
Funny smell
Thud heard and then room goes cold.
Selina’s ears keep popping
Crying heard by all
Bright flash of light seen by all
Flash seen at top of curtain
Name Emily Haughton given
Pressure feeling around Kim's head
Shadow is seen by the curtain
Selina is given the name Cathy in connection with Lockerby
Kim and John have sick feeling in their stomachs
Shuffling heard on floor
Flashes of light seen by Kim
Floating orbs seen around John

Garden

11:35pm- Selina uses dowsing rods, no response

John uses dowsing rods, picks up on male spirit
Q: Is there a male presence here? A:Yes
Q: Did you die here? A:Yes
Q: Were you stabbed in the chest? A:Yes
Q: Were you stabbed in the alcove? A:Yes
Q: Did you see your attacker? A: Yes
Q: Did a woman have you killed? A:Yes

Cloisters

Kim gets cold shivers
Jim uses dowsing rods
Q: Are you female? A:Yes
Q: Do you want to harm me? A:Yes
Temperature drops and Jim gets a pain in the head.
Kim dislikes generator room

Banqueting Room

1:40am- Temp 26.4c ,no EMF

Smell of flowers
Hall feels freezing cold
Floating orb between Jim and Selina
Shushing noise heard by all
Church bells heard by Jim and Kim

Elizabethan Room

3:30am- Tap heard and then continuous tapping

Cold spot felt by door

Reports

Kerry Price

I had always wanted to investigate this site. I had seen many pictures and reports of the place and knew that if we got the team in to investigate we couldn’t help but pick up past events and residents but also the spirits associated with the place. So with a great team lined up and with the presence of the ever expert Paul Wayman I was raring for us to start.

While all of the investigators had a tour of the building from Elias who once was employed as a guide at this site Paul, Julie and I stayed in the Warwick room which we had set up as our hub for the investigation.

During this time Julie and I went to the great hall. I had a sense that the room had been used as an assizes or court room at some point and that the layout was different. There was also a cold spot in the centre of the room which seemed to be significant to an event that took place here.

Julie and I tried the doors that led off this room to see what we had access to. After trying the door handle to one room which on later inspection was an office we found it locked. I let go of the handle and started talking to Julie, after a couple of seconds the door handle rattled. I was quite shocked but tried the handle again and said hello. I expected that I had interrupted someone working and put my ear up to the door as I did I heard a spitting noise. We bid a hasty retreat but not before finding out if there was another door to this room. Not only was this the only door but on inspection from the outside window there was no-one inside and the room was in darkness.

We also both didn’t like the area where the toilets were and thought that we would definitely be going in 2’s to the toilet. As we approached the Warwick room we stopped in the area where there is a glass cabinet and discussed a few matters. There came a very loud tap on the glass of the cabinet between where Julie and I was standing, we both looked at the cabinet, then each other and bid the second hasty retreat of the night and we hadn’t even started the vigils yet!

After getting the equipment ready, the investigators that had been on the tour came back and so I asked Mandy to come with Julie and I to the great hall without telling her what had happened. We asked her to stand in the recess that the door was in and try the handle and say hello. Something inside me knew that we would be legging it again and I wasn’t proved wrong. There were faint noises inside and then the same spitting noise.

Off we ran again!

The thing that struck me most about the whole room was the feeling of dread in the small corridor leading to the garden. I didn’t like it at all, I felt vulnerable and scared. The small, narrow staircase did nothing to dispel my fears and I was dreading going back to that area in a later vigil.

With a cigarette to steady our nerves we set of on our first vigil, the grounds.

I had been drawn to the grounds and instinctively knew that the nearer we got to the Thames, the better the activity would be.

The first thing to happen was rather odd. We had made our way around from the front entrance around the side of the building to the area outside the door of the corridor that I didn’t like. I was just switching on my camcorder when there was a rattling noise from the door. The door had glass panels in so we looked through into the darkness expecting the team who were conducting the vigil in the great hall to be there, no one was there.

After calling out for a while, one of the team came out of the hall and up to the door. We asked them if they had just been in that area and they hadn’t.

We next went to the cloisters, we all took turns in sitting inside, Julie and Matt felt an odd sensation as though people were in there with them.

We made our way towards the Thames, just far enough away not to be disturbed by the guests or the traffic. I had a real sense of the Saxons having settled here and that there were burials in the grounds in lines. I also felt that there was something underground in a line. Maria confirmed that there was a tunnel under the ground.

There was an isolated breeze in this area, like a cold spot which only seemed to stretch a few feet.

When I walked down near the Thames I had the feeling of a boat out on the water associated with a murder. I also had the sense of hangings in a tree by the water and a jetty. I also picked up that there had been a mill by the water to the left of the abbey. On closer inspection Matt and I saw that there was a flattened tree stump by the water that the grass had grown over and the ruins of a jetty.

Julie picked up on a girl called Amber and could see in her minds eye a woman by the water shouting her name. Both Matt and Julie also felt a child’s hand in theirs which was cold. I also had the sensation of a body being dragged out of the water which had been caught on a fishing hook and was stuck in the face of the corpse, ripping the skin on the right cheek.

This was Matt’s first investigation with the group and if I was him I would have terminated my membership. He was standing looking out at the water near the shore and the area of the stump when he screamed. He was quite shaken as he said that he was looking out at the water and a hand fell in front of his face as though someone were hanging upside down in the tree.

We were all also drawn to the fenced off area to the right of the water. Julie said that this was the area which she saw the woman screaming Ambers name. We could all sense movement. I cannot find any proof of hangings on the site, however it is difficult to find hanging places as people were usually hung at the scene of the crime.

There is also a ghost story that says that Elizabeth Hoby is seen on a boat on the Thames near the abbey. Was this the boat connected to a murder that I had picked up on?

While researching the history of the site after the investigation, which I always do I looked at some old maps of the area. There was indeed a mill on the Thames in the place that I had seen it.

Our next vigil was in the hall. This was another odd vigil.

I wanted Matt and Maria to go into the corridor area and the recess where the dreaded door was. They had no idea of what had happened and I wanted their opinion as to how they felt.

Neither Matt nor Maria liked either of the areas and Maria felt that the door to the outside held the most dread. She had a sense of a body being taken through the door. Matt could see a man standing on the stairs.

Ouija in the hall proved unsuccessful so we called out. We didn’t pick up much however in the way of orbs or but we heard a growl in this area and all felt that a story was unravelling.

Matt felt that a woman had murdered her husband by stabbing him in the neck and had been taken out the corridor, I felt that she was much more powerful than him. On calling out ‘are you scared of women’ a growl was heard by all and Matt and I also heard the door knob rattling. Matt also had a weird sensory image of the painting above the staircase to the Vansittart room growing as though the woman were heavily pregnant. I thought this was very interesting as the portrait was indeed of Elizabeth Hoby associated with the murder of her son.

During the break I was outside with Mandy we walked along the side of the building so I could show her where I wanted her to cover in her garden vigil.

As we were walking Mandy fell over with some force, scattering her possessions and badly grazing her knee. She said that she felt as though someone had pushed her and I must admit she did go over with some force. When Alan later asked the spirit that he had contacted in the garden if it was him that pushed Mandy, he had the reply ‘yes, I enjoyed it’.

Our next vigil was one of the weirdest I have ever experienced and I have never experienced such clear answers from a ouija board. As we moved up the staircase I checked on the trigger objects which had been set up on a table in the stair well. The trigger object had moved. I had hoped that it would as it is a lead plague cross which is believed to have belonged to a priest. After what happened later, could not vouch that it hadn’t been moved by the night porter.

As I walked up the stairs, I was struck by the painting opposite the Vansittart room. This painting gave me such a weird feeling of hatred. The man looked like all the popular portrayals of the Dickens character Scrooge. I thought that whoever had this painting commissioned should have sued the painter. It was very well executed but the man in it looked like the meanest, cruellest man one would ever wish to meet. Was it commissioned by the sitter? If so, it must have been as a warning (like something one would hang in the servants quarters to remind them who’s boss).Or was it commissioned by someone who hated this man and wanted it portrayed for all to see? Either way I didn’t like it. As we got to the Vansittart room I couldn’t get the door open. It is a heavy fire door but wouldn’t budge. Matt came over and opened it with ease. I don’t know if this had any relevance to peoples past experiences but seemed to have a bearing on what happened to us.

This was the first time that I had been in this room and I didn’t like it. I felt that there were already people in there and it seemed very dark when the lights were turned off, more than it should have been. On a couple of occasions during this vigil, the door came open. This really unnerved me as I knew how heavy the door was and there couldn’t be a logical explanation for it. We also heard other noises but the most exciting thing was the ouija which was very fluid.

This is much better covered in the team notes but we were given a lot of information. The strangest thing I found about it was that although he was willing to give us answers very quickly and lucidly the contact seemed to hesitate around giving the name of his lover, her husbands name and Thomas’ surname. It just seemed as though the spirit was hesitating and almost trying to cover up some facts.

This was a very exciting vigil for me and ran over far longer than we thought. The room became lighter at the end of this vigil and felt a lot calmer than it had on entering. I cannot find any proof that there was a murder at Bisham connected to Thomas if it was meant to be covered up they did a good job of it. Through the ouija we thought that Thomas was trying to protect his mistress and although the names of Rebecca and Nicholas and Thomas’ surname of Chading were all spelt out the answers were very hesitant. When asked the ouija did say that He was trying to protect her so I had to delve a little deeper and concentrate on Thomas as we all thought that he was being truthful on this.

It is known that Elizabeth I spent some time at Bisham between 1555 and 1558 and placed in the care of Sir Philip and Thomas Hoby.

Elizabeth while under the charge of Catherine Parr (the surviving widow of Henry VIII) lived with her and her second husband Sir Thomas Seymour, (brother of Jane Seymour) at Sudeley Castle. However there is a legend that Sir Thomas and the then princess Elizabeth had an affair and had a child together. The child was then killed. The legend is associated with many places, one of them being Bisham Abbey. It is thought that at Bisham the child or in fact children were thrown into the well. I had a hard time tracing the name Amber and could find no reference. It is however interesting to note that in the Tudor period Amber was a very fashionable and expensive jewel. If the legend is in fact true, did they name there child Amber? There are tales of spirit lights from the well fuelling the story of bodies being put there.

Another interesting piece of information is of a brass in the church.

It is a memorial to a man called Thomas Creckett who died in 1517. The bronze once contained memorials to his wife and daughter but they are missing.

All teams picked up on names that have direct or indirect links to the site.

For instance Alan picked up on Phyllis who was in her 70’s. She was indeed the last descendent of the owners of Bisham and died in her 70’s. Edward and Catherine were picked up by Paul and they were members of one Hoby family as indeed was William the alleged ill fated child of Elizabeth Hoby and Catherine was indeed one of his aunts. The name Henry is also linked to this site. Bisham was owned by the Earls of Montecute . The 2nd Earl of Montecute who came to the title in 1379 was also known as the King of the Isles of Man and white. Could this be the connection to royalty and the Montecute family that Alan picked up on in the garden? There is an Alice d.1440 buried in the church who was the daughter of Thomas Montecute. There is also a Maud wife of John Montecute who died in 1400 both of whom are buried at Bisham church. As for the gold that was also associated with the information that Alan was given. The Montecute’s originally had a priory which no longer exists which contained religious relics that pilgrimages were made to. Could these objects be the gold associated with this spirit?

Also in relation to this vigil, the Hoby’s were indeed lords of the manor in 1630’s and are buried in Bisham church.

I cannot find any information relating to an Emily or Emily Haughton although both Alan and Selina were given the name.

It is also interesting that teams 1 and 4 were given information regarding a man being stabbed and a woman being responsible for his death. This was picked up on in the corridor area by team 1 and the alcove through the door at the end of the corridor by team 4. Kim from team 4 and Kerry from team 1 both did not like the generator room.

A child being strangled and thrown from the window is linked to yet another legend concerning the murder of Elizabeth Hoby’s son, William.

I thought this was a great site to investigate for activity however I would never take the team back as we had to put up with constant disturbance from the guests and the night porter. The site was noisy and we had far more limited access than we were led to believe.

This is a shame as I believe the site has much more to offer in the way of activity however the constant disturbance would only make this difficult.

Julie Harwood

When you arrive at Bisham Abbey it is hard not to be taken in by the breathtaking surroundings and the magnificent building. It is always somewhere I have wanted to investigate so I was really looking forward to this visit but was also trying to keep my expectations low so I was not disappointed.

After taking our kit to the Warwick (team) room I decided to have a little wander on my own as the place did not make me feel uneasy in any way. As I wandered back down the slope towards the banqueting Hall and main entrance out of the corner of my eye I saw a black shape stood by the entrance to the Sonning Room. I turned expecting to see Kerry or Mandy, who were doing baseline tests and was surprised that there was no one there at all. I keep a very open mind with this as I did only witness it with the dreaded “corner of the eye”.

The first really unnerving thing was when Kerry and I went into the Banqueting hall to set up the trigger objects. Everyone else was on the tour of the building and we had just watched them go outside. Both of us expressed a dislike for the areas leading off this hall especially the alcove to a locked office. Kerry stood in the alcove and while she was in there the door handle to the office moved. This made us a little uneasy but we carried on and then Kerry heard what she described clearly as the sound of someone spitting but it came from inside the office. We finished setting up and went to get Mandy. All 3 of us stood in the small alcove and we all heard the hissing/spitting noise very clearly when we spoke out. This did make us all jump and we decided to return to the team room to get ready for our first vigil.

I was in team 1 with Kerry, Maria and Matt and our first vigil was outside. It was a dark night but we were all quite happy to be going outside into the grounds as although it was threatening rain it was very mild and with hardly any wind. We headed round to the cloisters first and on our way we all heard someone try to come out of the side door leading to the Banqueting hall. The door knob moved but we could not see who it was so I rushed over to look through the glass presuming it was someone in the other team trying to get out. There was no one in the corridor and I could just see Sarah in the distance and so beckoned her over to see if it was any of her team. She said no one was near the corridor or the door as they had all been in the banqueting hall. A little surprised we moved round and took turns sitting on the bench in one of the cloisters. Matt was getting very strange feelings when he sat in there and so I sat in there next and it did feel odd but not in a spooky way. It was a large bench and it did feel like there were other people in there with me.

We then headed across the grounds of the old abbey towards the bank of the river. It was such a quiet night and all you could hear was the very distant sound of traffic. Lots was picked up on in this area, so much so that it is best for people to read our team notes than for me to try and remember it all, however a couple of things stick in my mind. Matt, Maria and Kerry were all drawn to the largest tree on the bank. Kerry felt it could have been a place where people were hung or strung up however all 3 of them felt that this was not the original tree that was in this place and that it was the location of the tree rather than the actual tree they could see itself. I must admit I did not feel drawn to this tree like the others however had a very strong image of a woman in my head, screaming towards the river. She was screaming the name Amber and was wearing a very long flowing white dress and had curly long hair.

We decided to head nearer the tree and as we approached Matt looked down to see what he had trodden on and amazingly enough there was an old large tree stump, worn down to almost ground level, about 2 or 3 feet away from the tree/area they had all been drawn to. This was a great feeling for all the team as they had all said it did not feel like it was the original tree they were drawn to. We decided to all stand a good ten feet apart, round the tree and call out for Amber. For some reason we all believed Amber may have been a little girl and Matt even said he believed she was 6, 7 or 8. We called out and suddenly my little finger on my left hand felt like it was being pulled. This was an amazing feeling but I wanted someone else to feel it so asked Kerry to call out. She then also felt the same thing (and the feeling had gone from my finger). The ducks on the river were going mad at this point and making a lot of noise, yet they had been quiet until now. Maria at this point was feeling very light headed and a bit like she was drunk and just as we were talking about this Matt let out a little yelp and ran away from the tree towards Maria. While we were talking he said he had seen a black hand fall down in front of his face like someone was hanging upside down in a tree. This spooked the group, especially poor Matt who looked quite shaken but soon all fell quiet again including the ducks! Kerry was intrigued by the river and could sense small boats out on in bringing people to the bank. We talked about this for a while and decided to head to the far side of the grounds where we had all been looking. When over there we called out and Maria, Kerry and I all hear a very very loud sigh. It came from among us and was definitely a man. We presumed it was Matt but he did not recall sighing so we quickly rewound the camcorder and listened back to the footage. You could clearly hear all 4 of us but it did not pick up the sigh. Had it have been Matt it would have picked it up on camcorder as Matt (as we all were) was very close to Kerry who had the camcorder.

We were all feeling very sickly and are stomachs were hurting so we decided to head back to the building. Just before we headed back Kerry has a sharp pain in her face like a fishing hook had grabbed her. I will let Kerry describe that in her personal report, as I am sure I will not do the feeling justice.

After a short break our second vigil was on the ground floor. Having heard how the previous team had been disturbed (by non paranormal interruptions) on their ground floor vigil we did not hold out much hope but headed to the banqueting hall none the less. We all sat round the table directly in front of the fireplace. Both Maria and Matt were staring down the corridor that I and Kerry did not like so we asked them to go down there but did not tell them anything that we had experienced earlier. Maria instantly expressed a dislike for the outside door and felt just as Kerry did that people were dragged out here. Matt however did not like the door that lead from the corridor to the banqueting hall and at times seemed to back away from it. Both also stood in the alcove by the locked office and expressed a real dislike for this too.

Matt and Kerry were on fire (not literally) in this vigil and were picking up lots of details of a couple that planned to kill each other but the wife got to the man first and stabbed him. Both Maria and Matt had sore and stiff necks and Matt felt that this was because she the woman had stabbed her husband in the neck while he was drunk. We kept hearing noises from the corners of the room however without really studying them we can not be sure that they are not the things like the coffee machine etc. One strange thing was a loud bang we all heard from the corridor. We were just saying that it may have been the outside team when we all saw Jim (from the team that was outside) come to the window of the door and peer through. Maybe his team had also heard the bang and presumed it was us and was looking through the door to check, just like we had done when we were outside. All through this vigil Kerry reported feeling very sick and having a pain in her stomach area like she was pregnant. When we left the vigil Kerry had to literally run to the loo where she was sick.

After this vigil we had another short break and then all headed back to the banqueting hall for a group séance. I have to say, of all the séances that I have done this has to be the most interesting and I just remember wishing that more members of my Dorset & Hampshire team were there to witness it. We all squeezed round the table and Paul opened the séance. He could feel a presence but did not elaborate on it so that it gave us a chance to feel and pick up on things. Several people had odd feelings but it was when Marion suddenly leapt from her chair in obvious discomfort that things seemed to get more active. She had felt a feeling like an electric shock jolt through her body. When Marion felt ready to rejoin the team, Sarah called out and a loud tap was heard behind Paul, Jim and Alan who were sat with their back to the corridor and who had expressed earlier the feeling of someone standing behind and between them. Paul called out for the presence to do something else or to move something. It was then the door to the corridor started to open. At first we felt it may have been a draft but this was a very heavy door and had not moved at all while we had been in there as a group or when the previous teams had been in there on vigils. It unsurprisingly spooked the group but re resettled ourselves and Paul called out again for more movement. This time the door started to close. It was then than Alan said he could feel someone leaning on his shoulder. We decided to all rotate 180 degrees so now Paul and Alan were more facing the door rather than sitting with there backs to it and Jim stood to film. The door was now moving virtually on command and yet when we did not ask and sat for a while the door never moved a millimetre. I have to say when it did move it was very eerie as it gave the good old fashioned creak of an old wooden door! Kerry was sat next to Alan who had now gone very quiet and suddenly Kerry called Alan. We could not see very well as it was dark but Alan had slumped on to Kerry and she was desperately trying to pull him up. He then slumped forward onto the table. It was then than Marion quite rightly pointed out that he was sat in the same chair she had been sat in and affected. We decided that as much as we wanted to experience more enough was enough and a couple of the men in the team helped Alan out for some air. It was then that I believe Alan was sick, just like Kerry had been when she had left the Hall in our previous vigil.

Also during the séance I, Kerry and a few other members of the team could hear the distant sound of men talking. We could not make out what they were saying but just a murmuring. Paul suggested it may have been chanting but because it was so distant I really could not tell, all I knew was that I could definitely hear it and knew it was not our group as we were all round the table. Obviously what we can not discount was that it was coming from the other people in the top part of the building.

Nerves a little on edge but eager to experience more Paul showed the team the best way to open up safely to activity but how to also close you from it. It was then that I realised I had left my drink in the banqueting hall and feeling as bit on edge asked Matt to come with me to get it. He showed me a different way out of the Warwick room which led to the bottom of the main staircase and then into the banqueting hall. As we walked past the bottom of the stairs we both looked up towards the Elizabethan room (located half way up the staircase) and the door to the room started opening (from the closed position) very slowly. We stood in amazement and it took us both a couple of seconds to take in what we were seeing. Being the only two in the area and knowing everyone else was where we had left them in the team room, we bolted back to the Warwick room to get Paul and a couple of the others. Paul, Jim, Selina and Ross joined us and watched as the door started to close slowly. I Paul and Selina went up into the room which was pitch black but no one was there and there was no draft that we could feel anywhere. Again this is a heavy door and so we could not explain why it had been moving on its own as we tried to make it do it again by leaving it open and seeing if it would close or open more and it didn’t. The door itself was on a tight spring. If you opened it and let go it sprung closed very very quickly certainly not slowly like we had all seen it do. Similarly when you tried to push it open from closed it had to be pushed very hard against the spring. There is no way a small draft undetectable by the human body could do that. To date that is the most impressive thing I have witnessed with my own eyes at an investigation.

It was then time for our 3rd vigil on the first floor so there was no doubt where we wanted to go.

We headed to the Elizabethan room with the Ouija board and set our camcorder to record the door while we were setting up. We called out and asked the door to be moved and it did start to open again. We then asked that if the spirit was with us it communicated through another means and we heard 2 thumps directly behind where Maria was sat. We then asked for the door again and it started to close. It is now I would like to note that the door stayed open holding against the spring the whole time until we asked for it to close. It’s something we did not twig onto while in the vigil but these doors are obviously designed to spring closed (good fire doors) not stay open like we had just witnessed. We then asked that any spirit with us communicate through the board and not any other means. From this point on the door did not move once! We were getting clear answers from the board and seemed to be communicating with a spirit called Thomas who was 25 when he died in the 1600’s but never lived in the house. He indicated that he was killed by a man called Nicholas but we could not get him to confirm a surname. He expressed that he did not want to. We asked if Thomas was the man Matt had seen hanging from the tree and it indicated yes. Matt started to feel very emotional at this point and we said it had shocked him and that’s why he had run from the area. The planchette to our amazement then spelt out “sorry”. We continued to ask questions and he confirmed that he was being kept in the building and grounds by the love of a female. We asked if Thomas had a wife and it said no but when we asked if he had had a lover it spelt out the name Rebecca. When we asked for more details we were given that Rebecca was Nicholas’ wife and she had had a daughter called Amber aged 6 who was not her husbands’ child but was in fact Thomas’ daughter. It was now that we started to realise that all we had been picking up on through the night seemed to be linked. Amber was killed in the river by Nicholas in front of Rebecca and Thomas when he had found out about their affair and then shortly after Nicholas killed Thomas and hung him from the tree as a reminder to Rebecca of what she had done. Amber was dragged from the lake by a fisherman who had hooked a line into her while innocently out fishing and this was enough to drive Rebecca to kill Nicholas one night when he was drunk when she realised he planned to kill her next. Like séances, I have done hundred of Ouija board experiments. Some have worked and some have not but of all of them this was the most emotional and moving. Maria as a mother to girls found it very hard and Matt, who we believe was contacted by Thomas as he was a male and close to Thomas’ age was very emotional. Thomas indicated to us that he wanted to move on but felt he could not until he found his daughter and both of their stories were told. The planchette was so articulate in the way it spelled out things to us and we told Thomas that he should now find Amber in the garden and move on. He seemed happy to do this and his last parting words to us via the board were thank you, which even made Kerry and I well up. The atmosphere of the room was much lighter now and the door was still resting in its closed position, as it should. All four of us felt completely drained, so much so we were unable to do our fourth vigil. We sat and chatted while others completed the night and it was then we realised that we had all picked up on various parts of this story. I had picked up on Rebecca screaming at the lake, Maria had picked up on a drunk Nicholas and his dead body being dragged out the corridor door, Kerry had picked up on Amber’s body being dredged from the lake and Matt had picked up on Thomas. Matt and Kerry had also picked up on the time when Rebecca killed Nicholas by stabbing him in the neck. Amazingly none of us at the time had linked any of the feelings we had had and had no idea they may have been connected to one very sad tale.

To say that the Bisham Abbey investigation was a moving night for me would be an understatement and I apologise for the length of my report however I did not want to miss anything out. All that is left now is to try and find some confirmation from records of the story we picked up on and I really hope that we manage to find some. Many thanks to the London & Essex team for inviting us to this investigation. It was definitely one not to be missed!

Maureen Taylor

When I looked for directions as to how to get to Bisham I also had a look at a picture of the front of the building – and being an archaeologist I was immediately interested.. I love old buildings…..and this one looked really interesting.

Our base for the night was the Warwick Room, and while we were in there, before vigils started I took a few photos. Most show nothing out of the ordinary, but one has a possible orb near the top of the panelling. Okay, it’s probably dust – but why is it that it’s so often just one particle that reflects when there must be millions around, even in the cleanest of rooms……… out of about 30 photos I took only four have light anomalies showing up on them. All of them are in rooms where at least one, often more, of the team sensed something….

Vigil 1 – the first floor

We headed off up the nearest staircase – we hadn’t realised that there were at least three – only to find that it took us straight up to the second floor. It wasn’t until we looked out of a window that we realised we had gone beyond where we wanted to go - - but the stairs didn’t have any access to the first floor – hence our confusion.

We then tried the second set of stairs we found – this led to several corridors with locked rooms along them, so this obviously wasn’t where we were meant to be either, however, both Alan and I felt some unease in this area, though not in precisely the same places. We selected a couple of areas to spend a few minutes in before we looked for the area we were meant to be in. The end of one corridor (next to a door marked private, which was up a few stairs from the corridor) felt very oppressive to all of us, and was extremely warm, and we felt sure that it was getting hotter all the time were there – I think our final temperature reading was about 260. We then moved to a second corridor area, at the top of another set of stairs, and stayed here for about five minutes or so. Alan was filming at this point, I was standing beside the fire door leading through to the top of the stairs – and he said he had picked up several orbs on the camcorder, all apparently coming from the outside wall to my right, and shooting across in front of me towards the stairs. Alan decided he would go and film at the top of the stairs – after about two minutes he came dashing back through the fire door saying that he had heard footsteps coming up the stairs towards him – and he just had to turn tail and run….. it was time to leave this area and go and look for the rooms we were supposed to be in……we finally found them, at the top of our third staircase…..third time lucky?....

Unfortunately I can’t remember the name of this room (but I can describe part of it, so that may help). This room was situated over the small tower that had been added on the cloisters side of the building – so had a deep bay window. In here both Alan and I were somewhat uneasy, he got the name Phyllis, while I sensed that there was a woman with us. Elias asked if we were both certain it was a woman, both of us were, however, Elias told us that there was a Philip associated with the house in the past, and he thought perhaps that was who we were sensing. What both Alan and I were getting was a woman in about her late sixties. She didn’t seem too happy about our being there, but from what I recall we didn’t actually manage to get very much information out of her; she just didn’t want to talk to us, what I was getting was a feeling that she was telling us that this was her space and she didn’t want us in it.

Vigil 2 – second floor

We knew where we were going this time – we had already found it by accident when trying to locate the first floor for vigil ! – so no time was wasted this on getting started on this vigil.

In the room in which we spent the first half of the vigil we came across a little girl of about eight years old called Emily. At first I was sitting towards the back of the room and could sense her dancing to and fro across the room behind me, at this point we hadn’t got as far as talking to her. We decided to gather round one of the tables, planning to try using the glass, but the table surface wasn’t suitable, so we abandoned that idea and I got out my amber and silver pendulum to see if she would respond to it – she did, I felt that as it was something pretty she might like it and respond to it – she did, and I got some very vigorous movement from it. During this we got her name and age, but little more, she seemed reluctant to talk to us. Alan then came up with the name Charles, and said he was Emily’s father, which is why she was reluctant to talk to us – was she frightened of him though?, I wasn’t certain. She came over to my side of the table and I could feel her leaning against my right shoulder. Without saying anything out loud I told her about my granddaughter, also called Emily and just a year older than her – and I got the feeling that that was why she stayed close to me. Her father was standing near Alan on the other side of the table, they were in the middle of quite a battle of wills – Alan was determined to get him to communicate, but he wasn’t going to, not directly anyway.

We asked Emily if she would like to go into the other room with us, we’d hoped that her father would remain behind, but it wasn’t to be. He came along too, and was standing, if I remember rightly, beside the fireplace. We got very little more out of him, but Alan challenged him about things he had done, but he still wasn’t going to say very much to us. He wanted us to leave. I got the feeling that there was a murder connected with him in some way, and that it concerned Emily as well – though I didn’t get any further than that.

Later on in the night one of the other groups said they had come across Emily as well, though Elias told us that there is no Emily on the family tree anywhere that he knew of or could find reference to, but maybe they had been visitors to the building at some time in the past – I don’t have enough information to be able to tell.

The group séance

Having had a fifteen minute break, the whole group headed for the great hall to hold a group séance. As many of us as could squeeze in gathered around a table in the far corner of the hall – Alan and Jim were sitting with their backs to the doors in the corners, I was sitting opposite them. They kept saying that they were feeling quite intense cold as they sat there, and on checking for draughts from the doors it was found that there were none. Marion, who was sitting next to me said that she was getting what felt like electric shocks through her hands, and she came up with the name Elizabeth, but for a few minutes that was all, then she suddenly pushed her chair back from the table, saying that the sensation was getting more intense, and then almost shouted out ‘Hoby, it’s Elizabeth Hoby’ – or words to that effect. When things settled down again we continued, but first decided that we would all change places, so we all headed for points roughly opposite where we started out. This meant that Alan and I were still sitting opposite one another. Once everyone was settled down again we continued, I was sitting a few seats away from the smaller of the two corner doors, the one in the back wall of the hall, it suddenly creaked loudly and started to move, it startled all of us, from that point on it continued to creak and move during our questioning. At the beginning of the séance Paul said that he was getting a smell, but wouldn’t say what it was, he wanted to wait and see if anyone else could smell it and identify it – someone did, I’m not sure who, but at about the same time several of us could smell rose petals.

At about this time I my left hand was starting, involuntarily, to curl up, and I was getting cramping sensations in it, it was as if someone was squeezing it and wanted to hurt me. Not long after this, Alan, who seemed to be picking up on more than most of us, suddenly keeled over, if we hadn’t been squeezed in so tightly around the table he would probably have fallen off his chair and been hurt. As far as I recall this was the point where we called a halt to the séance, things were getting a little intense, and many weren’t feeling very comfortable.

Vigil 3 – the gardens

During the break before this vigil started we had a minor panic and there was a call for a first aid box – it seems that Mandy had had a fall outside in the gardens and cut and grazed her knee and was bleeding. I dashed off to my car to get my first aid box.

She said that she had a feeling that she had been pushed by someone, but couldn’t be absolutely certain.

We headed out towards the old cloisters where we sheltered from the wind and rain for a while. As we sat there Alan, using his dowsing rods, picked up on a man, unfortunately this is the bit that I don’t remember too well. I believe he was connected with the family who built the Abbey – however, it’s all in the notes from the night and should therefore appear in the team report. We moved on round the corner of the building, onto the site of the old priory church. Here we picked up on what turned out to be a Crusader from the 12th century. We had some confusion over dates during this vigil – but eventually determined that he had to be connected with the old priory rather than the present structure. When Alan asked him about Mandy’s fall he said that yes, it was him that had pushed her over, that he had enjoyed doing so, and that he didn’t want any of us there – when asked if he wanted us to leave he said yes, he did. We stayed a little longer, but were running out of time by now, but weren’t getting much more information from him anyway.

I’m sure we had an encounter with a third spirit, but I can’t recall who or what it was – but maybe I’m wrong, I can’t be sure, the night was such a busy one that it’s hard to remember it all.

Vigil 4 – the ground floor

We were running rather late by this time and only had about 40 minutes for this vigil. We wanted to spend some time in the great hall again, to see if we could connect with the spirits we had encountered during the séance, but it wasn’t to be, all was quiet in there this time. It wasn’t until I got home and had a look at the photos I had taken that I spotted what looked like four orbs on the photo I took of the hall just before this vigil. It appears to have four orbs on it – one on the wood panelling to the left of the table where we all sat for the séance, and three that appeared to be sitting at the very table. I have since spoken to Beth through a friend who is a medium (he likes to refer to Beth as my guardian spirit), she tells me that, yes, they are all real orbs and none are just reflections of dust particles or the reflection of my camera flash – so it could be quite significant that those orbs are around the very table where we held our group séance…a séance in reverse perhaps – were those very spirits we were trying to contact gathering together to plot our downfall, to try and scare us into leaving early – I wonder...

We moved on to the Sonning Room, where we sat ourselves on soft seats around one of the coffee tables. Here we tried the Ouija board, but with little success. Nothing happened here until we were getting ready to leave the room, when suddenly I felt something, several things in fact, hitting my left knee. It turned out that my necklace had broken and the beads were dropping off the wire one by one. At almost the same moment several of us spotted a battery on the table – the cover of Mandy’s MP3 player had come off and the battery had dropped out. Was it significant that both things had happened at the same time? – who knows. On thinking back over the incident, this was as we were packing up ready to head homewards, so there wasn’t much time to discuss it with the others, it occurred to me that, though the beads were dropping onto my left knee, the necklace had broken and the end of the wire was inside my T-shirt, so the beads ought to have been sliding onto my lap and dropping onto the floor – so how was it that they felt as if they were dropping from a height onto my knee, and dropping to the floor from there.

I was getting the feeling that the spirits of the place were doing their best to try and frighten us into leaving – it doesn’t work though, we’re not that easily frightened.

(I have now restrung the necklace, fortunately it was a fairly simple one so didn’t take me long, though I did lose several of the pearls and crystals from it, but I had enough left to replace those missing.

Though Bisham Abbey is a beautiful building, I had the feeling, throughout the night, that the spirits of the place weren’t very welcoming, that they didn’t really want us there – apart from little Emily, who seemed to want to chat to us, but was prevented from doing so by her father. I found the whole night fascinating and would love to be able to go back there again some day for another investigation, there was so much that we got glimpses of, but that just didn’t come through for us, I feel that there is much more to be learned from its spirits.

Sarah Couper

Vigil 1

Great Hall (GH) – This was the fist place we decided to set up vigil, we set up the EVP on the sideboard but, unfortunately we left after a few minutes as we had people walking in and out constantly. So we decided to move to the Margaret Dickson Room (MDL).

MDL – The air in here was very dry and warm – a theme that was to run through out the investigation due to the heating being on and set very high. Quite a few sensations were felt in this room.

Paul – Heavy headed, squeezing of the throat, female and male presence, touched on head and a sensation of something being put over his head.

Marion – Tingly, pressure on windpipe, sore throat.

Mandy – pressure round throat, hairs standing on end, pressure on chest. Felt a hanging may have happened here.

Sarah – hot and had a headache and pressure on left side near the kidneys and the sensation of left arm being held, sense of a person of one side and a person in front.

All of this was felt in one particular area of the room (far right corner).

Paul started to call out. On the call outs different things happened – a click was heard, a light went across the room, and a rap was heard behind us. At one point both Mandy and Paul felt cold at the same time.

Paul picked up on the letter D and Gray

We tried the ouija board here – following are the questions and answers:

Is this a female energy? J
Is this a male energy? J
Do you wish to communicate with us? No

We decided that we had best move to another room and decided to retry the GH. As we walked in to the GH both Sarah and Paul saw a light anomaly go across the wall frieze on the far wall. We chose to sit in the far right corner of the GH. Paul could feel a presence between him and Mandy. Mandy felt edgy. Marion had a sensation of warmth round her legs and then coolness. Paul’s shoulders began to ache and his face felt numb on the left side (temp reads 20.1 c on left and 20.4 c on right).

We tried the ouija board in this room – we asked if a spirit wished to communicate with us? But we could go no response. Again we had too much ‘earthly’ disturbance going on so abandoned the exercise.

Mandy asked if we would all take turns in the doorway that leads from the GH to the office.

Paul felt a sensation of being pushed and female voice whispering either Liz or Lies.

Marion felt a sensation of being pulled back towards the door, and could not stand stationary.

Sarah felt a cool draft on left hand – however this was the direction of the door handle and keyhole.

Vigil 2 took place in the Henry the VIII room (H8) and the Elizabethan room (ER)

H8– Temp was around 72/73 F. Again the room felt very warm. We sat round the table in the room and decided to just say how we felt.

Paul – Impression of wartime, war planning, military, air force, change of pressure

Marion - the names Princess Mary and Princess Elizabeth.

We tried calling out in this room but the atmosphere felt very flat and we felt no response so we decided to move on.

ER – We took some pictures in this room and drew the curtains. Paul walked round the room. Sarah was drawn to the bay window, and felt a sensation of someone waiting for something/someone; unconsciously I began walking up and down in front of the window just as Paul said he had a sense of pacing. Both Paul and Sarah sensed a female presence – Sarah described as wearing a long gown, silk, in a pale grey, wearing a wig. Paul agreed but felt gown was maybe powder blue and hair was fair. Sarah felt the female presence was anxious and waiting for someone, and that she wasn’t getting what she wanted. Paul sensed a male child’s presence and the name William and a sailing connection.

We decided to try the ouija board in the bay window. We asked:

Please can you move the marker? (marker moved) Moved to C then A
Are you spelling your name? T
Is your name Catherine? T

(The door on the opposite side of the room opened, Mandy checked and nobody was there).

Can you move the marker if you are female? Marker moved.
Paul asked Sarah to ask the questions for the ouija board.
Can you move the marker to yes if you are female? Moves to Yes
Do you wish to communicate with us (Paul removed his finger from marker) YES
What is the first letter of your name? C
Marker immediately move to A
And then continues to spell out Catherine
Asked for confirmation of the name Catherine – YES
Who are you waiting for? Spells out Edward
Is this a family relation? Spells out CATH
Is Edward your brother? NO
Is Edward your Father? YES
What is your surname? Spells out HOBB
Asked for confirmation of the name Catherine Hobb? YES
We asked if someone else was with her? Yes
Is it a boy? Yes
Is his name William? Yes
Is his surname Hobb? Yes
Is he your child? No
Is he your brother? Marker moves slightly but goes no where
Is he related to you? Yes
We couldn’t get anything more on the subject of William.
How old are you? 21 (hesitant)
Asked are you really 21? Went to 25

We were deciding whether we should ask if she knew she had passed over, when the marked spelt out DEAD and on asking gave the year of 1586. The energy seemed to dissipate slightly so we asked if she wished to stop communicating? YES. We thanked and left the room.

Vigil 3 Vanistart Room (VR)

VR- The air in this room was very dry. Mandy and Marion took turns with the camcorder. Paul walked round the room then sat in one of the chairs. Mandy and Sarah had trouble with their torches in this room. Sarah moved from chair, felt more comfortable on the floor in this room.

Marion felt a sensation of a man in his 50’s

Mandy caught light/orb anomalies on camera and focus on camera keep going in and out.

Sarah felt as if hair was being touched and a sense of it was not me

Mandy and Marion kept seeing flashes near Paul’s hand

Paul had the sense of someone holding his hand, sitting next to him.Agitated male presence pacing sense of getting bad news, presence not aware of us. A sense of a younger presence either teenage girl or slim boy, saying why me? Possibly a witness to something that happened. Sense of cowering, afraid, shy, slim weak and fair hair.

Paul called out – knock – called out again – sensation of movement to left and Paul heard faint tap. Mandy calls out – tap – calls out again – orb. Sarah Calls out – tap and sense of movement.

Further calls out give nothing so we decide to end the vigil.

Vigil 4 was to be in the garden. We did a walk round but did not feel anything or comfortable. Paul also needed to leave.

Matt Hasler

This was my first investigation as a SPUK member and believe me I couldn’t have dreamed of a more exciting start to my association with this group. We started with a quick tour with the main focus being the main hall. Next we took baseline tests from all the rooms that we were allowed to have access to. During this we also found out that it was quite easy to lose track of where you were in the building. We then headed back to our base room to split into our teams and get started.

Vigil 1
This was outside in the grounds and believe me this is where my needing the toilet started! I don’t want to go into detail but in summary a hand (watch me run!!!), a tree in the wrong place, a little girl, a strange breeze only in one place (noticed by Maria and Julie) and finally Kerry complaining of having a flappy face.

Vigil 2
This was in the Main Hall. Again I don’t want to go into detail so… a drunk, a woman, a scary door way (all of us agreed), neck pains (Me), the feel of liquid on hands (Maria) and someone standing behind Kerry and Julie not wanting them there!

Vigil 3
This turned out to be our last of the night! The events in this room did all of us in and the group felt that after what had happened no other group was allowed to enter that room! To sum this room up again not telling too much a board, questions and answers that link everything together! This room actually had me in tears if you don’t believe me ask anyone of the ladies that were in there!

Overall, for me, this was a fantastic event and as I said at the start I couldn’t have asked for a better start to hopefully a long association with Southern Paranormal. I recommend this venue.

Maria Street

Wow! Where do I start for this one? What a night! It was quite funny really because on the drive up I actually said that I really hoped that this would be a good one as opposed to some of the quiet nights we have experienced recently. It’s always great to visit some of these fantastic places but it is a bonus to get some great evidence as well and this night was not going to disappoint. We arrived (me, Julie and Di) at 8.30 and first impressions were one of awe and having to take a step back to admire the beauty of the building. We went inside and got on with the job in hand. Elias led us on a tour and gave us a little of its history, whilst being very careful not to mention any names. I joined Julie and Matt afterwards in the lobby for a short break and it was whilst we were talking that I noticed the heavy glass outer door swing open and then swing shut. Julie quickly went to the door and looked out but there was nobody there, and to be honest if there had have been somebody they would have had to have walked past us, and nobody did. Couple this with the fact that Julie could swear that she had just seen a figure in another part of the building and you had the makings of a very promising investigation.

I was in team one with Kerry, Julie and Matt. We started our vigils in the grounds. The night was very cloudy with little or no moon, but was surprisingly warm for February. We didn’t even bother with our coats, just fleece jackets. We started by sitting in the cloisters where both Julie and Kerry heard an outer door rattling. On closer investigation, there was nobody there. Not much more happened here so we ventured further into the grounds close to the lake where we were all drawn to a large tree. Kerry and Matt both felt as if this tree was not the original and that there had in fact been a hanging tree here previously, where boats would bring in the victims. This was soon verified, when on closer inspection, Matt actually tripped over an old tree stump. A quick swoop of the torch also highlighted a disused jetty which was now overgrown with grass. Julie had a feeling of a woman calling out for Amber and she was in some distress. Kerry suggested that we all spread out a bit and this proved interesting. Julie immediately got the sensation of somebody tugging at her fleece and Kerry felt somebody hold her hand. I started to feel light headed and slightly nauseous, but it was poor Matt who ran from where he had been standing and was visibly shocked. It took a little while before he could tell us that a hand had dangled in front of his face. We decided to regroup and stand together for a while. A few more strange occurrences happened. For instance, we all heard what sounded like a little girl cry out and there were some noticeable cold spots. It has to be said that there was no wind that night and although we were by the water, the cold spots were felt elsewhere in the grounds. It was also whilst we were outside that I caught a fantastic orb on my camera. As mentioned earlier, there was no moon so this could be discounted immediately. I also took another photograph in the same spot, but this showed nothing but darkness. We came inside for a break and a warm up and started on our next vigil which was in the banqueting hall. As we were allowed access to more than one room, I did wonder why we stayed here for the whole vigil, even though it was active. It transpired that the security guard had locked other rooms that we had paid for, which was very disappointing. Immediately I entered the banqueting hall I felt drawn towards a corridor leading off from it and felt compelled to go there. Matt joined me and we stayed there for a little while just soaking up the atmosphere. I felt drawn to the outer door and Matt felt drawn to the inner door. When I went towards the outer door, I realised that this was the one that led to the cloisters, the same door that Kerry and Julie had heard rattling earlier. We were very close to another team in the corridor and didn’t want to disturb them, so we came back into the banqueting hall. Matt and Kerry started to sense things and thought that the lady of the house had murdered her abusing husband and had dragged him out through that particular corridor and out of the outer door. We tried some glass divination but with little success, the only communication coming from taps and bangs. I took a photo of the rafters, which I felt drawn to for some reason, and captured my second orb of the night. This place was seriously creepy. We broke off once more then gathered once more in the banqueting hall for a group séance, which was led by our guest medium, Paul Wayman. Before we had even started, the inner door which Matt hated so much, started to creak open and shut. As I have mentioned, there was no wind this night, and this was backed up by the rain falling steadily outside. It was not veering off to the left or right, but was coming down like stair rods. Before long, Paul and James could start to feel cold spots and these soon affected Alan also. There was a lot of tapping coming from the corridor and Paul could see faint lights dancing around the centre of the table. This went on for a while then it was agreed that we should all shift our position by 180 degrees. As I was sitting opposite Paul that meant that I was soon sat in his seat. Marion was feeling a little affected by it all and decided to sit out. The séance went on with more of the same but was brought to an abrupt end when it was noticed that Alan was slumped over in his seat, being unable to breathe.

Our next vigil brought with it some compelling evidence which actually started in the break. Julie and Matt were on their way to the dining room when they noticed a door on the upper floor opening and closing by itself. This even happened after the door had been firmly shut by Julie. As our next vigil was to be on the 1st floor you can guess where we ended up! We settled around a table facing the door and decided to set up a Ouija board experiment. It was a bit hesitant at first, although the door continued to open and close and taps and thuds were heard. At one point we also heard a male voice shout “stop”! Later enquiries could bring no explanation for this. Very soon the door settled down and the planchette began to move, and once it started there was no stopping it. It transpired that we were conversing with a spirit named Thomas Chading who was all but 25 years of age when he passed. His story was a very sad one. He was in love with the lady of the house who I won’t name as he was very hesitant to implicate her in any way. She bore his child, a daughter, and for six years passed her off as her husbands. It was then that her husband, Nicholas, found out, and arranged to have the child thrown into the lake where she subsequently drowned. Worse still, he made Thomas watch whilst his evil plan was carried out. A couple of days later he was responsible for the murder of Thomas, although this was passed off as an accident. Thomas’ dearest wish was to be reunited with his daughter. We explained that she was still in the grounds, and with a Sorry to Matt (it was his hands that had dangled in front of his face earlier) and a Thank you to all, he was gone. There was not a dry eye around that table and we all felt that we had done all we could for this evening and for this particular team the night was over. It had been building all evening and we had been given snippets throughout. It was only on the last vigil that it all came together in a way that we could never have imagined. I, for one, have never experienced a Ouija divination that was so articulate and with such definite movement, even moving with just Julie’s finger on it. The evening was my first working with the London and Essex members and I am looking forward to working with them again next week at our next investigation.

Selina Dean

Alan and I arrived at the location around 8pm & we were both very excited about the night’s investigation. We made our way to the Warwick Room to meet the other team members & start the investigations.

I set off in my team with Jim, Ross & Kim. We started on the second floor where we picked up on a little girl called Emily & a man called Peter. After calling out we heard a few taps, saw some flashing lights & most interesting, after asking ’Emily’ to move the curtains for us we then heard the floorboards creaking as though someone was walking over to the window.

Our second vigil was in the Garden. Unfortunately due to the heavy rain we were unable to cover the grounds but we did have some interesting results with the divining rods in the alcove. We seemed to pick up on ‘Peter’ again & deducted that he had killed ‘Emily’ & for this crime he had been stabbed by ‘Elizabeth’.

After the garden all teams gathered in the banqueting hall for a séance. This too proved very interesting.

Following the séance my team did our next vigil on the ground floor. Unfortunately it proved slightly unsuccessful as did our final vigil on the first floor.

Overall it was a very interesting investigation & I would like to return there again at a later date.

Ross Richardson

I was looking forward to this investigation as it has a lot of history. As I drove up the drive with my guest Kim you could see what an amazing abbey it looked with the building all lit up with spot lights. We meet up with the D & H team & the L & E team in the Warwick room. Me & Kim went & had a look around the place before we started our vigil. There was something about a picture in the great hall which Kim kept starring at of a lady. It wasn't until we had a tour of the building that the lady in the picture Lady Elizabeth Hoby who has been told haunts the abbey. Next we had a little break then we went on a short tour of the building with Elias our historian. We finished the tour then meet up with our vigil team which was Jim our team leader & Selina. We went up to the 2nd floor to the Vansittart room. We took turn in calling out for spirits but nothing was heard, then Jim, Selina, Kim saw a flashing white light appear across the ceiling & curtain also we all heard a sound of a cry. It sounded like a child; we picked up a name which was Emily. We asked her to make a sound or touch one of us but nothing really happened. There was a small room outside another door which I think was a corridor, Selina said she felt quite sick and the area was cold, Jim felt this swell but I could not pick up the sickness. Jim asked if anyone wanted to do a lone vigil in this area. Kim bravely decided to do this for a little while but nothing really was heard or seen. After the 2nd floor we all went into the garden & the weather had changed & it was raining. We went into an area to keep out of the rain which was called the cloisters with a very old wooden bench. Jim decided we could use the divining rods, I saw Jim use these at Marwell & it was very impressive but did not work for me, anyway Jim called out using the rods and it moved, we asked questions & it was responding. We picked up on a man called Peter, so me Selina & Kim all had a go & it was amazing the rods was moving with response from us most of the time. Peter had been murdered near this area from a stabbing to the chest. After a while we went inside & done a séance in the Great hall with everyone & Paul Wayman the medium, We all sat down around the table waiting for something to happen as we put our energy out to the middle of the table, then it got cold my hands was shaking then all a sudden the door next to the table started to creak & then open slightly, few of us were a bit scared then Alan collapsed & his head went down on table, he said he could not breath properly so we took him outside for some fresh air to see if he was o.k. seemed ok after a little while. Everyone decided to have a break then we carry on with there vigils. Next was our vigil on the ground floor so we decided to go back in the great hall, nothing much happened in there apart from some cold spots and me coughing as started to lose my voice after I had called out. We then done the corridor and stairs leading to 1st floor but no sounds or smells were brought up. This was our last vigil now which was the Elizabethan room, We was told not to do a Ouija board in there as another team picked up a lot of sadness there and after that the door kept opening & closing. Our team went up into the room & done our calling out but was disappointed as nothing much happened in there. I picked up loads of orbs in one picture which was impressive. it was now coming to an end for our investigation in this great building. I would like to thank Kerry, Mandy & the owners of Bisham abbey to let us all investigate this impressive building.

Southern Paranormal - Investigations

Bisham Abbey Investigation

Introduction

Ghosts

Teams

Vigil Areas

Rota

Equipment

Baseline Tests

Vigil Notes

Team 1 Vigil 1: Garden

Vigil 2: Banqueting Hall

Vigil 3: Vansittart Room

Team 2 Vigil 1: Ground Floor

Vigil 2:1st Floor

Vigil 2: 2nd Floor

Team 3: Vigil 1: 1st floor

Elizabethan Room

Vigil 2: 2nd Floor

Vigil 3: Garden

Great Hall:

Team 4:Vigil 1:

Garden

Cloisters

Banqueting Room

Elizabethan Room

Reports

Kerry Price

Julie Harwood

Maureen Taylor

Sarah Couper

Matt Hasler

Maria Street

Selina Dean

Ross Richardson

Team 2
Vigil 1: Ground Floor

Vigil 2:1^st Floor

Vigil 2: 2^nd Floor

Team 3:
Vigil 1: 1^st floor

Vigil 2: 2^nd Floor

Team 4:
Vigil 1: