Southern Paranormal - Investigations
Bisham Abbey Investigation
Saturday 23rd January 2010
Attending Investigators - Julie Harwood, Elias Kupfermann, Simon Steadman, Rachel Steadman, Mark Wright, Mark Pettet, Sarah Pettet, Maureen Taylor, Ross Richardson, Rob Butler and Amanda Horley.
Teams
Team 1
Julie
Simon S
Elias
Maureen
Team 2
Rachel
Mark W
Rob
Amanda
Team 3
Sarah
Mark P
Ross
Vigil Areas
Made available to us on the night are – (individual rooms will be highlighted to investigators on the night)
1. Ground Floor
2. 1st Floor
Itinerary
08.30pm Investigators to arrive at location
09.15pm Tour of location and available area’s for us to investigate
09.35pm Start Tech Set Up
10.30pm Prepare to start vigils
10.45pm Vigil 1
11.45pm break
12.00am Vigil 2
1.00am break
1.30am Vigil 3 – Group Vigil (all teams together)
2.15am Vigil 4
3.15am Pack up
4.00am Depart
Personal Reports
Mark Pettet
This was my first visit to Bisham Abbey, my first impression was it was smaller than anticipated but once inside it opened up to be a fabulous location and I was hoping for an interesting night. As one of the technical team I had the task of putting our CCTV cameras in the Warwick room, which happened to be our kit room, the Sonning room and the Dickenson room.
Team three Sarah, Ross and Mark
Vigil 1
Sonning room, Dickenson room and staircase.
After we got settled and had taken the EMF readings and temperature readings and a few photos. Ross had the camcorder and was sitting in the corner on the settee, I was sat in one of the chairs in the middle of the room opposite Sarah who was sitting on a sofa between the two arches. We started to call out in turn and after a little while Sarah said she could feel pain on her right side on our arm and down her leg and then she said that her face was going numb the right-hand side. Ross had a sharp pain in his right shin which he yelped about. Sarah called out to see if I could be affected by something. I did not feel anything for a little while but when I started writing down my notes I found it very hard to actually write and my notes came out as a bit of a squiggle.
We moved on to our next room which was the Warwick room (kit room). A sort of somewhat quiet room until we heard some noises from above us, so we asked the team who was upstairs if they had moved about but that they hadn't. Also what happened in this room was that the radio decided to shut down so I tried another one and that also shut down even though they were fully charged that day. Sarah went to the corner of the room to the door that leads to the Elizabeth corridor because I could hear some movement out there and as she just about got to it we heard a loud door slam. There was nobody there so we asked team one, who were above us, if they slammed the door shut but they hadn’t although they also heard it but as for team two, they heard nothing. After these goings-on we didn't experience anything else on this vigil.
Vigil 2
Vansittart room adjacent corridor and stairs
I had a bit of a giggle of this room as the only way I could remember it was by calling it fannies tart room. We all sat down one end of the room looking towards the door, and started to take pictures. Unfortunately this room was very quiet so we decided to go out into the corridor but it was also very quiet here so we decided to go to the Elizabeth stairs and sit at the top hoping the door would slam behind us but alas it didn't so we tried an experiment by letting the door close on its own which only made a gentle thud and then tried (with assistance from me) with a gentle push. It slammed much harder and the team that was in the Warwick room said yes that was the sound they had heard when the door banged earlier.
Vigil 3
The great Hall (Group Vigil)
On this vigil it was decided that the group should hold a séance. From my personal view I did not experience any sensation of any kind, though for other members of the group things were different. Sarah had a feeling that someone/something had walked between her and Simon. At this stage Simon had gone into a trancelike state and as he was sitting opposite me I could see he was just staring straight in front of him. He was tapping his fingers together so Rachel used the camera to flash at him to try and break from his trance which did not work on the first go, but he did say' it's not good enough' for some apparent reason. After this Simon went out for a break so a few of the group decided to change seats to see if somebody else would get affected if they were sat in different seats, I was one of the group to move but I felt nothing.
We decided to have a short break and when we returned we tried some more calling out but we all got a fit of the giggles and then we noticed the K2 EMF had started flashing. It then stopped and we asked more questions but the lights didn't flash again. It was getting late and I think most people wanted to call it a night which we did.
As one of the technical team, after looking back on the night’s film footage it was interesting to see some remarkable light anomalies but unfortunately that's as far as it went.
Sarah Pettet
I was very happy to be coming back to Bisham Abbey again. It is an impressive place, which promised much the last time we were there. Whilst in the kit room (Warwick) sorting out my team’s vigils I heard a whining noise and turned to see who made it only to find that I was on my own!
Team 3 Mark P, Ross and myself
Vigil one
Dickenson Room, Sonning Room, Warwick Room and Elizabeth staircase.
Dickenson and Sonning Room – no EMF. Temp readings 21.5 deg C.
We took photos and settled in to the room. I was sat on the sofa between the arches. We called out. I began to feel head-achy straight away, and then started getting a pain in my right arm and leg. My arm felt like I would be unable to move it on its own and would need to move it with my other hand. My face began to feel numb on the right side especially round my mouth and cheek. We called out and asked if someone else could be affected. Ross was sat across the room and he felt a sharp pain in his right leg and tingling in the right hand. I got a pain in my arm again. We asked for Mark to be affected. He did not feel anything straight away, but as he was taking notes he felt like he couldn’t write (he is right handed), and then got a pain in his right leg. I felt this was something to do with war wounds from the last century – 1st or 2nd world war. As I seemed to be the most affected, I swapped seats with Ross. He immediately began to feel numbness in his cheek and a headache. We got Mark and Ross to swap, but he didn’t feel affected in the same way. We tried to determine if this was male or female by asking them to affect me if they were female or Mark or Ross if male. Ross felt affected. Unfortunately, time was getting on so we moved on to the next room.
The Warwick room – EMF none, Temp 19-20 deg C.
We can hear footsteps in the room above. We radio through to the team on that floor, team 1, asking if they are walking around but they say no. The radios begin to act up. Mark hears footsteps coming from the Elizabeth corridor. I am about to open the door to the corridor when we hear the door upstairs slam shut. I look out in the corridor there is no one there. We radio through to team 1 above and they did not slam the door but heard it go too. They try replicating it but can’t. We hear footsteps upstairs again. Then a barrier beam goes off further down the hall upstairs, this turns out to have been triggered by the team 1. Our radio goes dead. We hear drips coming from the middle of the room, but we find that there are radiators here and think it may be that. Vigil comes to an end, as team 2 comes back.
Vigil 2
Vansittart room, lobby and corridor
Vansittart Room – EMF readings NONE, Temp 18-22 degrees C.
We took photos and settled in the room. We call out but get no reactions, we stay here for a while but the most we feel is that the room is quiet and peaceful. We move to the Corridor and we call out here but the only reaction is a change in temperature, however this could be due to the outside temperature dropping. We check with the other teams and make sure its ok to move out to the Elizabeth Corridor. We call out here and no reaction. We take photos. We check with team 2 and experiment how well you hear people walking across the Vansittart room from the Warwick room. They confirm yes. We test the door slam and manage to replicate it but pushing hard from the lobby side as it is about to shut, team 2 hear it clearly, but we still were unable to explain how it slammed on its own the first time.
Vigil 3
Great hall – group vigil
We hold a séance here in the hope of raising some activity. However, the team all seem to be unable to stop laughing. Every time we try to get serious, we keep laughing. Then the table pushes slightly and the mood changes very quickly to a more sombre one. I get a tingling sensation, like something has walked through me, on my left between myself and Simon. I turn to Simon and say I felt someone walk through but he just stares at me weirdly – he does not look like himself. He starts tapping his fingers together and I put my hand on top of his to stop it, he shakes me off quite aggressively and he glares at me. I tell Simon to tell ‘him’ to step back. He does nothing. Rachel makes the camera flash go off in his face but all he says is ‘its not good enough’. I say again more loudly step back, Simon looks at me and I can see the change in him as whatever it was removes itself. We try moving round the table into different seats. I move to the other side of the table and immediately feel the tingling sensation right behind my back. We take a break and decide that we will regroup again for vigil 4.
Vigil 4
Great Hall – group vigil
Immediately we start off laughing again, and find that we start getting reactions on the K2. It would seem that the spirit affecting the K2 and apparently our group joviality seemed to be shy to communicate but liked us laughing. Again very suddenly the mood changed. But despite our attempts at forming a communication we were not getting anything. We decided to call it a night.
Conclusion – It was a very interesting investigation certainly more happened on this investigation than last time, and although many things happened it would still be hard to conclude whether the Abbey is haunted or not. But I look forward to going back to investigate again to see if we get the same or more phenomena, especially as we missed out on investigating one area this time.
Amanda Horley
This is a very imposing location, although the fact that the outside stonework has been cleaned and is incredibly white makes it almost look like a modern re-creation of the older building that it certainly is. We split into three teams and I was in a team with Rachel, Mark W and Rob.
Our first vigil was upstairs, and we started in the Elizabethan room. This was a large room with a raised area at one end. Other than some knocking in the radiator pipes, this was a quiet room for me. I got the impression that it used to be used for dancing, but picked nothing else up. One interesting fact was that the motion sensor above the far door kept activating, although I could see all the other team members clearly, and none of them were moving at all. After a time we moved into the Henry VIII room across the corridor. This felt like a very masculine room to me. We did have a time when the EMF metre was going off for no apparent reason, but generally this was also quiet for me.
Our second vigil was on the ground floor and started in the Dickinson and Sonning rooms. There was a slight but distinct smell of stale sweat in the Dickinson room, but it was full of leather sofas, and although it didn’t appear to be coming from them, it could have been something to do with them. We moved into the Warwick room and again this was quiet for me, although I did photograph one interesting light anomaly which was red. There was a lot of dust around, but although I tried to recreate the photo I was unable to.
The third vigil was a group vigil in the main hall. We all settled around one of the large tables which were set out with table mats and cutlery. I was sat next to Simon and quickly became aware that there was a metallic tapping/knocking noise coming from under the table between us. I know I was keeping perfectly still and am as certain as I can be that Simon was as well. Also, he had trainers on with no metal on them. The knocking did not appear to be in response to any specific questions, and seemed to be random. We were also aware of noises on the stairs behind where I was sitting. There was a lot of bizarre laughter, with the group finding it almost impossible to settle quietly. However, this did stop, and when it did so, stopped very suddenly, and the atmosphere became very sober. Sarah, who was sitting the other side of Simon became very cold, and shortly afterwards, Simon went into a trance-like state, with his hands (which were on the table) shaking. Rachel took a picture of him at close range, but he didn’t even blink. He said something (which I cannot remember) and then seemed to return to normal. We took a break at this point, and I noticed that all the tablemats, knives and forks were slightly off the edge of the tables. I went round and deliberately moved them so that they were “properly” placed and fully on the tables.
After the break we decided that instead of our separate vigils we would continue the group vigil in the main hall. Again we had some bizarre laughter within the group, and on a couple of occasions the KII metre went wild, however besides this it was relatively quiet. When we finished I noticed that on a couple of the tables, there were tablemats and cutlery still hanging over the edge of the tables. I am as sure as I can be that I straightened all of the tables in the room before we went on the break, so cannot explain this.
Unfortunately we were now out of time, and unable to complete the individual vigils. However, it was a very interesting investigation for me, as I sensed very little (almost nothing) over the night, yet there seemed to be a lot going on with unexplainable knocks, and the room sensors, EMF and KII metres going off. Definitely somewhere I would like to go back to.
Mark Wright
Vigil 1
On our First vigil of the night we concentrated on 2 of the rooms on the 1st floor and the stairs.
The first room felt very comfortable, no strange feelings or any sense that anything out of the ordinary would happen. The 3 of us spread out to cover the entire room. During our vigil in the room we heard a few knocks, nothing directly related to us asking questions however.
The second room, the Henry VIII room had a bit of a stranger feel about it. I found this room to feel quite threatening. Again we spread out and started to call out. We did get quite a few responses in the form of knocking during this session. One other thing we noticed was quite a strange problem with the walkie talkies. Whilst we could hear team 3 with no problem we could not hear team 1 at all. They could not hear us either but team 3 could hear team 1 despite being further away from them?
During this time in the room, Team 1 heard a huge bang come from our area. T his was caught on video. We did not hear a thing despite the noise coming from the room next to us.
Vigil 2.
This vigil saw us covering the downstairs area. We started in the 3 adjoining rooms at the back of the abbey. We sat quietly in 3 different settees and started calling out. Within minutes the EMF meter which was next to me on the chair started to flash in response to our questions, it even stopped flashing for exactly 10 seconds when we asked it to. A strange almost rotting smell was also around us but we could not figure where it was coming from.
Next we moved into the kit room. Above us were team 1 who we could hear walking around. We radioed them to make sure it was them walking but they said they were all perfectly still and quiet. Not long after I noticed a white flash on a picture above the fireplace. A second later the Fire exit light not far from the picture went out and did not come back on all night.
Vigil 3.
Our final vigil was a group vigil in the great hall. We tried glass divination with little result, we also tried table tipping. Whilst we were doing this there was defiantly some vibration in the table (this was a huge heavy table & very stable, not easy to move) and we also noticed a strange metallic tapping noise seeming to resonate from the underside of the table. We also all heard what seemed to be footsteps on wood coming from the stairs, yet the stairs and all of the surrounding areas are carpeted?
During a break in this vigil we noticed a very interesting picture had been taken which appeared to show a dark figure standing at the bottom of the great hall, we tried to replicate this and were successful proving that this wasn’t anything paranormal but one of our team who happened to be walking in the shot as it was taken.
There was a very noticeable oppressive feeling in one particular seat and 3 of the team who sat there all felt it. It’s hard to describe, but when I sat there it felt like something hated me and I could feel this hatred, a very strange feeling.
Overall this was a great investigation in a lovely, if a little strangely laid out building and I look forward to hopefully returning there in the future.
Rob Butler
Team: Rachael Steadman Amanda Horley Mark Wright and Robert Butler.
Time 10:00pm-3:30am
Vigil one: Elizabethan and King Henry VIII rooms.
This room seemed really quite comfortable as we entered and began our vigil. We all sat in various places around the room all checks were normal. I began calling out and there were slight taps in the room although we couldn’t distinguish whether it was the radiators or heating of some sort. We did have a locked off camera in the room that sadly wasn’t switched on. Overall the time itself spent in this room was very quiet and calm nothing really to report. We then moved onto the Henry VIII room at 10:30pm and again this was a smallish room and seemed very calm again. All readings were normal and I felt very at ease in here. Again we began calling out asking if there was anyone here in the room with us and it was silent no noises heard or feelings of any sort. At eleven we stopped for vigil break.
Vigil two: Dickinson and Kit room.
The Dickinson room had a mysterious feel about it. I felt like in this room we were not alone. Again as we were calling out we could hear tapping noises coming from within the room. The room felt colder and I felt slightly uneasy for a time. No names or feelings came to me but I could definitely sense a presence of sorts but I’m not sure whether it was male or female. We tried to do some table work and although there was slight presence felt by both Amanda and me nothing much transpired from this. We then went into the kit room which was a large room with various paintings in there hung on the wall. We took various photos and Amanda had a strange light anomaly appear on the picture and when she took another photo of the same area directly after the first one it had gone.
My photos didn’t show anything other than what appeared to be dust molecules. All temperature readings were normal and EMF readings were normal as well. We did hear noises above us but it was the other team moving about in the upper section of the abbey. Again this room felt very calm and no feelings were felt by me in here. We stopped at 12:30 am for vigil break.
Vigil three: Group vigil in the main hall area.
This vigil was very interesting for me. As we began our vigil together I had this sense of complete laughter and being silly. I couldn’t help but keep laughing and it seemed to affect all the other members of the various teams in the group vigil. It was very strange for one minute we were laughing and then all of a sudden it just stopped and we became very serious once more. No one could explain this feeling. We then began to call out and we did feel the table moving slightly and tapping from one side of the table by Amanda, Sarah and Simon. We could again hear tapping noises all around us and there were temperature fluctuations monitored by various members of the team. When we were calling out the EMF meter started to fluctuate slightly, then quite a lot as we were asking questions. We did try and discount the various possibilities but could not come to any conclusion. As we started to call again something appeared to happen to Simon. We tried to attract his attention but he seemed very distant from us and was incoherent and unresponsive to us. All he was doing was tapping his fingers together and staring. We tried calling to him but no response. Eventually Rachael looked across and took a photo of him close to his face to try and get a response but he never blinked at all. Eventually he just appeared to snap out of it and didn’t even know anything had happened. He decided to leave the vigil and get some fresh air and he looked very shaken and disturbed by what had happened. We ended vigil three for a break.
Vigil four 2:00am – 3:00am group vigil again Main Hall
As we had such good success in the last vigil we decided to carry on and do another group vigil in the main hall.
I personally don’t think it was as successful as the first one however, the table again moved slightly and a series of knockings were again heard and temperature fluctuations did occur again but nothing like before. I think as the night went on we did sense more and pick up on things more but towards the end of the investigation I was feeling rather tired and exhausted but overall it was a very interesting investigation and would love the opportunity to go back again with the team and research some more. It was such a remarkable building and the history surrounding it was interesting.
Maureen Taylor
The team for this investigation consisted of myself, Julie, Simon and Elias
Vigil 1 - Vansittart Room
As is usual at the start of any vigil we spent a few minutes wandering around the room, getting a feel for the place and taking some photos. A number of orbs were captured on video but I suspect that most of these were a result of our stirring up dust from the carpet as we wandered around the room.
The ambient temperature was recorded at 19.5 degrees and this didn’t change during our time in this room.
At 11.13 we noticed that the infrared camera was turning off and on again at intervals. At first it seemed fairly random, but even so I decided to count how long it stayed off and how long on and found it to be a fairly consistent 24 seconds on and 16 seconds off. Once I’d mentioned this we began to suspect that there was a rational explanation for this, so as there were two cameras in the room Simon swapped them over, and this eliminated the problem – it seemed to have been a fault with the camera. The one strange thing, which Simon pointed out to us, was that each time the original camera turned back on again the picture from that camera (showing on the laptop) had a distinct red glow to it which faded over several seconds.
11.30 There was a noise that sounded like the double doors on the corridor just outside the room moving – a noise as if the doors were brushing past one another as they swung to and fro after someone had passed through them. Simon went out and tried both sets of doors and established that this was almost certainly the sound we had heard – but there had certainly been nobody out there at any time during our vigil in this room. A while after this Julie commented that she felt there was a connection with the 18th century, but that was all the detail she was getting.
11-40 We were suddenly getting lots of static on the walkie-talkie which none of the other groups seemed to be getting.
Vigil 2 – Elizabethan and Henry VIII Rooms
Elizabethan Room – We tried glass divination in here but with no results. Elias came up with the word ‘foreign’ but like Julie in our previous vigil he couldn’t get more than that. Various knocks and bumps were heard but I feel that many of them could be explained away as general creaks and bumps from the building, from the heating system and from external sources. The one thing that all of us did hear, but oddly enough all heard at different times, was a whistling noise, the source of which we were unable to trace.
Henry VIII Room – This room was much more active for us than the previous one. I suggested that we try the dowsing rods in here. Julie wasn’t sure as she said they’d never worked for her, so I suggested that she try them with the rest of us doing the questioning. That way she ought not to be able to influence any answers we might get. I too find that the rods don’t often work for me, but my rods in the hands of another person, with me questioning, often do get results, and so it was to prove this time – Julie finally experienced dowsing rods actually working. The information we got from them was as follows – female, friend of the Vansittart family, date around 1660. Simon then came up with the word ‘antechamber’ and we established, through the rods, that this room was at that time used as a dressing room. A few minutes later Simon, independently of the rods, came up with – female, friend of Vansittarts, being attended by two maids, date 1763. The date was about 100 years later than we’d got, but there is often confusion between, for example, saying 17th century and 1700s, and if we’d had time to continue our questioning we may well have worked out which of these dates was correct. However, considering that in our previous vigil Julie had come up with an 18th century connection, then the 1763 date is probably more likely. Elias came up with ‘blonde’ , and Julie with the name Olga and that the woman was Dutch.
Vigil 3 – group vigil in the Great Hall
For me this was a fairly quiet vigil with little information coming through. I think this may have been because this was at the time of night when I often get rather sleepy for an hour or so. We heard various tapping noises that seemed to be coming from under the table and that we were unable to find an explanation for, and a few movements from the table that we couldn’t explain. With such a large group though, there is always the possibility that someone might have inadvertently pushed a little too hard on the table and caused it to move but not realise they had done so. There came a moment when most of us realised that Simon had gone unusually quiet, and Rachel, across the table from him noticed that he seemed to be staring into space and seemed unaware of what was going on around him. He then suddenly said very clearly – if I can remember his words correctly – ‘it’s just not good enough’. We then realised that he really wasn’t with us at this point and made attempts to get him to talk to us, but with no reaction, he just continued to stare somewhere beyond us – and even when Rachel leaned across the table and took a photo of him, with flash, he didn’t react at all, not even a blink. We then redoubled our efforts to bring him out of it, and did eventually do so, but Simon recalled nothing of the last five minutes or so and had no recollection at all of saying anything. At this point we decided to take a break.
We abandoned vigil 4 and went back to the Great Hall to carry on where we’d left off, but unfortunately, from what I remember anyway, got little further information.
In conclusion – an interesting night, but nowhere near as active as on our previous visit however, I think that our attitudes have changed a little since that time and we now have a group that listens more rather than trying to confront the spirits. Last time we had one or two in the group who would try to goad the spirits into coming forward, and as a result we had quite a lot of negative stuff going on and were given the distinct impression that we weren’t particularly welcome. This time though, with a smaller group, most of whom by this time were more experienced, and most of whom actively discourage any sort of calling out in a way that would get us any adverse reaction from any spirits who might be present, the atmosphere was entirely different. To me it felt much more calm, and more accepting of our presence there, with the result that rather than having spirits come through that were irritated by the attitude of some of the group, we came up with some who were much more willing to talk to us.
By abandoning the fourth planned vigil there were a couple of areas that I missed that I really wanted to investigate this time, but it wasn’t to be, but there are plans to try and go back again at about the same time next year, so I shall make sure that I get to do those areas next time.