Southern Paranormal - Investigations
Colbury Memorial Hall Investigation
Saturday 12th June 2010
Attending Investigators – Julie Harwood, Maria Street, Amanda Horley, Maureen Taylor, Marie Holder, Mark Boulton, Gill O’Farrell, Robin Turton, Gilly Utting, David Baxter & Zoe Anderson.
Introduction
Colbury Memorial Hall lies on the A35 just outside the small village of Ashurst. Ashurst and Colbury parish lies in the National Park area of the New Forest in Hampshire. The parish was once part of the Totton and Eling parish area until 1985 when it became effective in its own right. The A35 is a primary route linking Southampton and Bournemouth and is a busy commuter route.
The memorial hall was built by Marriane Vaudrey in 1928 and is a memorial to her son Claude and other local men who gave their lives in the First World War.
History of the area & the Mills family
Southampton’s ancient Bargate immortalises the heraldic shields of some of the area's greatest families. Among the colourful badges of Tylneys, Flemings, Pawletts and co., is the shield of the Mill family.
Three plump bears on a white background divided by black squares make up the Mill coat of arms on the Bargate's western buttress. Solid and reliable as the bears which were their symbol, the assorted Sir John Mills and Sir Charles Mills never chose to make an impact on the national stage.
They minded their own business in town and country life around Hampshire, and they have been influential local landowners for 500 years.
Today the Mills are better known as the Barker-Mill family - still running estates on the outskirts of Southampton, and well-supplied in recent years with famous artists and philanthropists.
The family decided that the year 2000 was a good point to look back at Mill history.
They commissioned a book, The Barker Mill Story - a Hampshire Family since the 16th century from author Tessa Lecomber.
The first John Mill left his mark as a merchant in Southampton's thriving and cosmopolitan trading centre, circa 1504.
By 1613 his family were well enough established to afford an impressive memorial in Nursling Church, Southampton.
Sir Richard Mill and his wife Mary, plump and colourful in painted alabaster, lie propped up on their elbows, serenely surveying their one-time domain.
In the English Civil War 30 years later, the family was divided by the sword. Sir John Mill fought for the king, his father-in-law was for parliament.
But in 1670, Baronet Sir John Mill played fast and loose with royal favour. Made a New Forest bailiff by Charles II, he later appeared in court for illegally cutting down a coppice at Bartley, near Lyndhurst.
In the 18th century the family made up for the turmoil of the previous 100 years.
They inherited Mottisfont Abbey near Romsey, where trees they planted still grow today. Later Nursling and Millbrook became Mill land.
1836 saw the first Barker-Mill the Rev Sir John B-M was a jolly Pickwickian figure, famous for his loud check trousers and cherry-coloured ties.
His foxhunt, founded in 1836, stopped in 1839 because excessive numbers of foxes were being killed! His pack was re-launched a few years later and eventually became the Hursley Hunt.
Victorian matriarch Mrs Marianne Vaudrey Barker-Mill was the opposite of Pickwickian. In a bid to curtail drinking and gambling she revoked the lease for several local pubs, and a racecourse on her land at Stockbridge.
But she was a good businesswoman. To pull Barker-Mill estate finances into shape, she sold land at Millbrook which grew into Southampton's massive docks.
Other dynamic Barker-Mill women followed. Brenda Barker-Mill set up a chauffeur service for tourists after the Great War, taking travellers as far as Edinburgh in a second-hand Rolls Royce.
Brenda's son Peter was an artist, but creating vast sculptures and illustrating books with woodcuts didn't distract him from his local responsibilities.
He gave land and cash for a new village hall in Nursling in 1969, and later donated a site for Foxhills school near Ashurst.
Barker-Mill land also helped solve Southampton's post-war housing shortage, providing space for the huge Lordshill estate and more than 3,000 houses at Millbrook.
Since the 1970s Peter's children Amanda and Adam have guided estate matters.
Adam is a painter and film-maker - working with punk band Sex Pistols, David Hockney, and celebrity prisoner Jimmy Boyle.
Amanda has dedicated herself to family and estate. She launched Britain's first Butterfly Farm in the New Forest in 1981, and developed Longdown Dairy Farm as a tourist attraction in 1985.
More recently - to honour her ancestors and their tradition of local philanthropy - Amanda gave a grant of £150,000 through the Peter Barker-Mill Charity Trust to refurbish Colbury Memorial Hall.
The original building was given to the community by Amanda's great-grandmother Marriane Vaudrey, in memory of her son - Amanda's grandfather -who died in the Great War.
Info taken from http://www.dailyecho.co.uk/archive
Vigil Teams
Team 1
Julie
Maria
Robin
David
Maureen
Mark P
Team 2
Sarah
Amanda
Marie
Mark
Gill
Zoe
Gilly
Itinerary
9.45pm Meet outside the Hall
10.00pm Prepare equipment & familiarise ourselves with the location
10.30pm Vigil 1
11.30pm break
11.45pm Vigil 2
12.45am break
1.00am Vigil 3
2.00am Pack up
2.15am Depart
Personal Reports
Maria Street
This was a first for us, and because of previous experiences in a Community Hall, I was feeling quite positive about this investigation. As soon as I arrived I was itching to get inside. Even from the outside this place had such a feel about it. After a walk round with Julie I felt even more positive that we would have a good night.
I was in a team with Julie, Maureen, Mark P., Robin and David. We started in the main hall and as we were getting settled I saw Robin walk in front of me from right to left. It only took a split second to register that he was actually sat to my right and hadn’t moved out of his chair. David had also seen the same thing so we called out and could hear taps coming from the stage area. Our initial photographs had shown light anomalies in this area although most of these I’m sure show dust. Further investigation will bring anything unusual to light.
I got the name of David in my head and although David was actually sat next to me I wrote it down in case it meant something else. More taps could be heard on the stage but this area didn’t make me feel uneasy. The far end of the room did however so David and I moved down there. I felt a lot more apprehensive here than anywhere else in the hall. I couldn’t explain why though.
We moved on to The Ashurst Room and tried a glass divination. David held the EMF meter and the rest of us sat round the table. The glass did move but very slightly and felt more as if it was twisting. I felt the need to walk around and as I was moving round the table Julie felt there was somebody walking behind me and the EMF meter spiked just after she said this. I got the name of King in this room also.
After a break we made our way to the Colbury Room where we all sat round in a circle. I had a feeling of a child moving stealthily around us in a playful way and the EMF did go off intermittently as if somebody was passing it periodically. I also had the feeling of flowers in this room, the month of May came up and I had the name of Violet.
Our next vigil was in the Reception Area which we were also using for our kit room for the night. David held the EMF by the foyer door and it spiked quite impressively but only to the question: “Are you male?” I stood in the foyer for a little while but felt quite uneasy so I didn’t stay there for very long.
We joined forces for our next vigil to try a Frank’s Box experiment in the Ashurst Room. We recited our names and asked questions. Typical ones being “Did you live here?” “Did you work here?” “Are you male?” I couldn’t really hear anything discernible in reply although a few people felt somebody was messing with us and asked if we were safe from them. A few names appeared to be mentioned, mine being one of them. David was once again holding the EMF meter by the door and it seemed to be continually spiking.
We moved on to the Colbury Room and I got the song “Row, row, Row Your Boat” in my head and the names of William and Sarah. Robin mentioned he had also got the name of William in this room.
For our last vigil we all congregated in the hall. I mentioned it felt ok in there but would probably be more uneasy with just a few of us so Julie suggested three of us stay in there whilst the others went into the Ashurst Room. I stayed in the hall with Mark P. and Zoë. Mark spotted something at exactly the same spot that I had seen the figure earlier. Zoë felt she could see a pair of boots next to her on the stage but things were fine for me although I did get the name of Alan in my head.
This was definitely one of the more interesting investigations I have participated in and would love a return visit at some point.
Amanda Horley
This fairly unimposing building, although not modern was obviously not going to give away any clues to its age. This gave an extra edge to the investigation, as it was not possible to come up with “obvious” answers relating to what we picked up.
After a brief walk round, we split into our two teams and our team started vigil 1 in the Colbury room. Our EMF meters were behaving very strangely in here. Whilst they can be affected by nearby electrical devices, two of our meters seemed to be reacting whilst away from the walls. They were not going off constantly and we could not offer any explanation for the reaction. In fact, one of the meters seemed to be responding when questions were asked. We often use very simple language when describing our equipment whilst asking questions, as you would not expect a Tudor servant to understand modern technology, however in this instance I felt the need to describe a lot more accurately how the EMF meter worked as I felt that whoever was in the room would be able to understand. Both Gill and Marie also picked up on a man in the room.
After a time we moved into the kitchen. Several of us felt that there was a boy in there, and we again had the phenomena of the EMF meter going off erratically. I got a picture of the children from the film of Swallows and Amazons in my mind, in particular the eldest boy. I felt that this boy would have been from a similar time period (the 40s?) and someone else came up with the name John. Unfortunately I couldn’t remember the name of the boy from the book, but have checked it since I got home, and it is also John.
Our next vigil started in the Main Hall and sitting on the edge of the stage I felt that there was somebody stood by the partition to the team room. I checked where the other team members were, but none were standing there. I moved over there and felt quite irritated by my other team members. This ceased when I moved away. After a time we went into the Ashurst room which felt quite light-hearted although I didn’t experience anything in here myself.
We then had a group vigil in the Ashurst room in which we set up the Franks Box. For me, this was inconclusive, although we were again aware that from time to time the EMF meter was going off without explanation.
Several members of the group had to leave at this time, but those of us remaining tried re-visiting several areas that we had been to previously. This time I didn’t pick up on anything in the Hall or Colbury room, but was interested to see that the EMF meter did not react in the Colbury room as it had earlier in the investigation. We also returned to the Ashurst room, and David, Robin and I spent some time in the ladies loos. Both areas were quiet for me.
In summary, this was an interesting building to investigate because it gave so little away. I have only rarely seen EMF meters reacting the way they did at this investigation, and although I cannot explain it, I find it interesting that it did not re-occur when we returned to the Colbury room.
Sarah Couper
I was in a team with Amanda, Gilly, Zoë, Gill, Mark B. and Marie.
Vigil 1
Colbury Room – There was a sense of something fast moving going between Mark B, Gill and Marie. The photos show light anomalies. It feels like a male presence. We set the EMF meter up on a chair and this was reacting as well; we asked several questions and got mixed responses.
Kitchen –We felt the presence of a child, around 6 or 7, the EMF meter responded again in here. We asked questions and established the spirit child was possibly called John. Amanda felt the child perhaps belonged in the 1940s.
Vigil 2
Main Hall – We called out in here. Personally I got no sense of anything or responses. Amanda felt a presence in the room which was fed up with me calling out. Marie also sensed a presence, but we could establish nothing more, so moved to another room
Ashurst Room – strangely, we felt the atmosphere was happy but at the same time horrible. We had all become quite jovial in here. I had very itchy hands and arms in here. We tried table-tipping and the table felt like it was vibrating but also it felt like we were being steered away from doing this. I felt like I wanted to play the piano (possibly a Beethoven tune). The EMF meter was responsive again on here, and from these responses we appeared to establish that the presence did not seem to like me much. The presence seemed very musical, seemed to want to have a laugh and joke but at the same time be mean. We all said how it felt like we had been drinking. Amanda felt light headed for a while and then I did; this stopped when I took my arms off of the table. I was also sharply prodded in the back. We had varying responses from the EMF to our questions, except when we asked if it wanted us to leave.
Vigil 3
Frank’s box experiment Ashurst Room.
We again had the sense that we were being toyed with as we got varying responses. I really sensed that I was not liked, and Julie has similar responses to me. I felt a bit headachy this time, as if my energy was going in and out. I was told to “Sod off” as a response at one point, and when I was called out of the room and said goodbye I got a firm sense that I was not wanted in there.
Vigil 4
We all sat in the main hall – I felt nothing in here again. We decided to split up with Julie and I went to the Ashurst room again. We felt unwanted but whatever was in there was trying to ignore us as much as it could. When we ignored it, it would then make the EMF go off. When it responded to questions the answers were variable again.
Summary – Colbury Memorial Hall certainly seemed an active place; though I got nothing particularly clear apart from the child in the kitchen. An interesting investigation where several people appeared to pick things up throughout.
Marie Holder
I arrived at the location at 9.35 and met up with some of the team. The building at first glance looked like a school.
Vigil 1 Colbury Room
We all sat down in different parts of the room and one of the team took EMF readings which for some strange reason were centred on one particular chair. We placed the EMF meter on the chair and throughout the investigation the lights flickered especially in response to questions. During this vigil I picked up on the name Peter.
Kitchen
There was definitely more of an atmosphere when I walked into this room. It felt almost ‘impish’ and made me feel like a naughty school child! It was colder than in the other room and I picked up on a practical joker. Once again the EMF meter was set up and responded when we asked questions. During the investigation I felt a sudden coldness around my back and Sarah picked up on the name John who she believed was a child. The name I came up with began with the same letter, ‘Jack’.
Vigil 2 Main Hall
I sat at the far end of the hall and picked up on the name Gordon straight away. I felt a tingling sensation on my right arm. Amanda stood on the left hand side as you are looking at the stage and said she felt a certain way so she asked someone else to stand there, which I did, and I, unfortunately, felt nothing.
There was a very jovial atmosphere in this room. We tried table-tipping but got no responses and my shoulders started to ache. Again, we got lots of responses to questions when we used the EMF meter. All the ladies sitting round the table started to get very giggly, including myself, and feeling intoxicated. We also got the impression that whoever we had contacted in this area liked music as we all got different tunes in our head and the lights on the EMF would flicker when we hummed them.
Gillian O’Farrell
I was in a team with Marie, Amanda, Maureen, Gilly, Mark B. and a new member Zoë.
On arrival at the Hall I quickly had a sense of a woman around the front of the building in the areas around the front entrance so thought this might be an interesting night.
Vigil 1
Our first vigil took place in the Colbury Room. It was hard to get a focus in this room. The group ended up focusing on an EMF meter that directed the vigil. I had a sense of something to my left on a few occasions along with the sense that this room was a recent addition and did not really “belong “ to the rest of the building. It was quite hard to concentrate well enough to pick up on much else.
Next we moved into the kitchen. A number of us picked up on a young boy around seven years of age. He had short black hair and was wearing short trousers and a greyish shirt. I felt he was outside. He was very shy and wanted us to give him a penny for some sweets. I thought he was from about a hundred years ago and not associated directly with the building. Again, the group focussed on the EMF meter, which flashed frequently and randomly. It also appeared to be registering when a car went passed which was probably in response to a taxi radio frequency.
Vigil 2
For the next vigil we moved into the Main Hall. I immediately sensed the woman that I felt as soon as I saw the building. She was a young woman in 1950s style of clothes; a wide skirt with netting underneath and a pony –tail. She used to come to the hall to dance. She had so many happy memories of it that she liked to visit it again from time to time.
We moved onto the Ashurst room that created a completely different atmosphere. We all felt comedic as if we wanted to tell jokes, have a laugh and be silly. I wanted to play the piano, as did Sarah. It felt like an accomplished pianist playing classical music but with a hint of Les Dawson!
We attempted table-tipping. There was a strange sensation as if the table was vibrating but this energy failed to develop into any definitive movement. The time in this room felt very entertaining and not at all threatening to our group.
Vigil 3
For the third vigil the entire group moved into the Ashurst room to use the Frank’s Box. We experimented with this for some time and seemed to get some responses but it was hard to establish definite answers as we were getting lots of random words that had no relevance to our questioning. This was the end of our time at the Hall although some group members stayed for a further vigil.
Summary
Colbury Memorial Hall was an interesting place, which presented different atmosphere in each area. The problem was had was the group was dominated by an EMF meter which was constantly registering. The problem was that this was a very sensitive and cheap piece of equipment. It had not been “baseline” tested so some group members fell into the trap of believing that every time the meter flashed this was indicative of spirit energy and was spirit directly replying to our questions. If only investigations were that straightforward! The meter was responding to cars going passed, mobile phone signals and so forth. The fascination with this meter got in the way of the use of our senses to watch, listen and feel for any other activity.
Mark Boulton
The memorial hall erected sometime after the ‘Great War’ looks as though it has been added to over the years. It is a pleasant enough building but without any real feel to it.
I was in the group with Sarah, Marie, Amanda, Maureen, Gilly, Gill and a new member Zoë. I believe it was Zoë who had bought along an EMF ‘Smog Detector’ meter.
Our first vigil was held in the Colbury Room; this was a fairly large room with very little in it except a few chairs. It also contained an induction loop unit for the hard of hearing (that was powered up). We sat in more or less a circle with the Smog meter off to one side balanced on a chair. It became apparent that this meter was detecting emf quite frequently and quickly became the focus of the vigil. The indications obtained from the meter looked pretty random, not only flashing in response to questions but also generally all throughout. After a while we moved to the kitchen, with again plenty of flashing from the meter either in response to, or otherwise to questions.
During the first break I took the details of the ‘Electro Smog meter’ for information. This meter is designed to allow people to monitor environmental EMF’s and as such has a very large frequency range (300M to 3Ghz).
Our second vigil was held in the main hall, this was the most interesting room with an impressive small stage at one end complete with curtains. Again there was plenty of calling out with very little in the way of response. We then moved to the Ashurst Room, even though this was quite a plain room with no features, it proved to be the most entertaining vigil of the night. There did seem to be a more ‘loose’ or ‘free’ feel to this room, and soon, the people sat around the table (attempting glass divination or table tipping) started giggling and Gill even started to play an imaginary piano!
The last vigil was to be the whole group together and chosen to be in the Ashurst Room again. Once settled we set up and used the Frank’s Box, however the words heard made no particular sense to the questions asked. This pretty much concluded our investigation of the memorial hall.
Conclusion.
I think that the group should be more in control of any extra items or bits of kit being bought by guests or new members, as without knowledge of their operation and specifications we could end up being distracted from the investigations in hand. The use of the Electro Smog detector certainly raised some comments in our group. There is a fine line in using a piece of equipment that is very sensitive at picking up background EMF’s and an item that shows no response at all.
Because the Electro Smog detector measures EMF’s in the radio, emergency services, CB and cellular phone equipment frequencies, I feel that it is not particularly suited to our investigations as compared with the more standard KII meter (50 – 100KHz).
Maureen Taylor
Vigil 1 – Main Hall
I have the name Malcolm in my head and the date 1904, sense a military man of some sort, and I feel that he is quite young. Maria sees a dark shadow across the sliding doors; it’s possible that it’s something to do with lights and shadows caused by passing cars, but we’re not at all certain. I sense someone standing near me, is this Malcolm again? Someone else comes up with the name Edward.
Julie is none too happy about the end of the hall away from the stage, so we decide to split into two groups with one sitting at each end of the hall, and if there is time, to swap over after a few minutes (but we ran out of time to do so). Those of us sitting near the stage, with our backs to it were perfectly happy there, in spite of the large, dark, empty space of the stage behind us, while those at the far end of the hall were not, they seemed to be sensing something connected with the area around the emergency exit, but we were unable to identify what or who it might have been.
Time was running out so we moved to the Ashurst Room and sat ourselves round a table to try some glass divination. I could sense someone walking around the room, but could only identify it as male, nothing more. We had some slight movement from the glass at times, but it was as if whoever was there was for some reason reluctant to come forward and give us more definite responses. Steve felt what he thought was a hand on his shoulder and one in the small of his back as we sat at the table – again, was this the presence that I was sensing that was reluctant to come forward and chat to us? I can’t recall who was on the camcorder, but for a while he was filming from the doorway of the room, and when asked how he felt about the room he said that he was ‘scared witless’, but would carry on and see how things went. I had a vague impression, though I didn’t say so at the time as far as I recall, of people behind him waiting to come into the room.
Vigil 2 – Colbury Room and the area outside the kitchen.
I still have the name Malcolm in my head and the date 1904. Also the words ‘parade ground’, I think this is connected with Malcolm somehow rather than with the building, but I could be quite wrong. Someone picked up on the presence of a little girl in the Colbury Room, and we got the names May and Violet, so maybe there was two little girls not just the one, also a connection with a maypole. Other words that came from various members of the group included – VE Day and Dunkirk. Was this simply because we knew that we were in Colbury Memorial Hall which I believe was built not long after WWI as a memorial to those who died, and subsequently to those who died in WWII, or were we picking up on something relevant?
We moved to the reception area outside the kitchen – I still have the image of a soldier in my head, was this either Malcolm or Edward again? I have the impression of a young man, probably less than 20 years of age, and when I ask, though not out loud, which war he was in I get the answer World War One. This doesn’t quite tie in with the date of 1904 that has been in my head all night, but perhaps this was his date of birth – but that would mean he would have been only ten years old at the start of that war, far too young to join up, but perhaps he tried to join up towards the end of it and was one of those who lied about his age. Lots of thoughts about him are running through my head. Perhaps he was never actually a soldier, being too young at the time, and maybe what I was getting was the feeling of his desire at the time to have been part of it all.
Colbury Memorial Hall is a building with which I am quite familiar. The first time I visited it was over 40 years ago when I was a Guide helping on a Brownie Pack Holiday. In recent years it’s the place where I attend several beading and craft groups and I’m often there at least once a week. My difficulty, therefore, is that maybe I’m too familiar with the place to be objective about it, I can’t be at all sure; but whether that was the case or not, it was an interesting night and it would be great if we could go back there sometime. There are parts of it that we didn’t have time to investigate and rooms that I’d like to go back to again. In all a very interesting night.