Southern Paranormal - Investigations
Explosion Museum Investigation
Saturday 23rd October 2010
Attending Investigators - Julie Harwood, Mark Wright, Amanda Horley, Maureen Taylor, Mark Boulton, Gill O'Farrell, Steve Boston, Brian Witt, Robin Turton, Belinda Robinson, Emma Curtis, Zoe Anderson and Gilly Utting.
Guest of SP UK - Peter, John & Karl.
Introduction
Explosion! is an award winning museum of naval warfare created within 18th century buildings at the Royal Navy's former armaments depot of Priddys Hard, in Gosport, Hampshire.
The museum is housed in a group of listed buildings, which centre around the original powder magazine of 1777. These sit on the edge of a delightful camber basin on the western shore of Portsmouth Harbour, with views across to Portchester Castle, Whale Island and the Naval Base.
Priddys Hard in Gosport was first used to store gunpowder for Nelson's fleet in 1775 when the first gunpowder magazine - The Grand Magazine - was opened.
In 1759 the Board of Ordnance purchased 40 acres of agricultural land from Jane Priddy and others to construct an earth rampart as part of the defences of Portsmouth Harbour and the Dockyard. Since then Priddys Hard has supplied the Navy with explosives through the Crimean War and into the twentieth century when the site became a huge bustling Armaments Depot employing over 4000 people during the Second World War. During the 19th century further magazines and buildings were added including the installation of a narrow gauge railway system across the whole site and the construction of piers on the Harbour. The site was altered continuously during the early twentieth century and it was fully utilised during both world wars when thousands of women workers filled jobs vacated by men on active service. The site was last used for significant naval activity during the Falklands Conflict in 1982, and was vacated by RNAD Gosport in 1988 when it relocated to Frater further north on the Harbour. The depot closed in 1989.
The untimely deaths that have happened at Priddys Hard have been as a result of accidental explosions and in one case an "unnatural" gust of wind, rumoured to be the evil spirit of a convict labourer who died in the same spot. Sightings of many of the past unfortunate souls have been rumoured by former workers of the Royal Navy Armaments Depot over the years including more recently security guards that have looked after the listed buildings.
Explosion! was created for £3.5 million pounds which was funded by the Millennium Commission as part of the Renaissance of Portsmouth Harbour Millennium Scheme.
The Investigation
Vigil Area's
Coffee Shop - Team Base
Building 208/209
Area 309
Grand Magazine
C Magazine
All Museum galleries
Teams
Team 1
Julie
Amanda
Mark W
Mark B
Emma
Zoe
Lee
Peter (guest)
Team 2
Steve
Brian
Robin
Maureen
Gill
Belinda
Karl (guest)
Gilly
John (guest)
Itinerary
7.00pm Team arrive at location
7.15pm Equipment set up
8.15pm Pre Vigil break
8.30pm Vigil 1
9.30pm Break
9.45pm Vigil 2
10.45pm Break
11.15pm Vigil 3
12.15am Break
12.30am Vigil 4
1.30am Pack up
2.00am Depart
Personal Reports
Mark Wright
Our first investigation saw us in the Grand Magazine and the surrounding corridors. The seven of us spread across the corridor and tried calling out. At one point we heard distinct footsteps down the corridor which where so loud and obvious we assumed it was our host, until he came down from upstairs with the rest of the group. Apart from a light appearing on the ceiling, which we managed to debunk, nothing else happened, so we moved into the Main Hall and the team spread out.
It was pitch black in the Hall; the only thing you could see was a red light shining on the wall from one of the displays. During our time in here I saw several shadows move across this light. I am not convinced it was anything paranormal however, as I think it was my eyes struggling to adjust to the conditions in there. Whilst calling-out we heard several knocks but nothing definite.
Our next vigil saw us in building 319 and we had some good results with the EMF meter. We asked whoever was present to affect the meter after a count down, i.e. after 10 seconds make the EMF meter flash up to red. We counted down four times to ten, and give or take a second or two, we got a response in the time we asked for, with no sign of EMF activity during the countdown. We then picked a random number and asked for a response after we counted down. We asked for a response after 32 seconds and it responded after 35, we asked for a response after 17 seconds and it responded on the dot. At this point the EMF kept flashing after it reached 17 so we asked it to stop. As soon as we said, "stop" the flashing stopped.
We tried splitting up into different areas with one team asking for a response in the other area; unfortunately this didn't work.
Our next vigil saw us in building 309 which this is a derelict Officers' Mess with a lot of rooms to cover. We tried calling out in several rooms with no response. In one room we heard a loud scratching noise on the wall behind Julie, which all the group heard.
For the final vigil we went to C Magazine. I found this very oppressive and both Julie and I felt sick. Nothing really happened in here but I could not wait to get out, as it just felt wrong in there.
We moved onto building 306. After calling out in here nothing happened. One thing of interest though was I kept getting an image of a short man in overalls wandering around sweeping I also picked up on the fact he had very prominent facial features. At this time Julie was scanning through pictures on her camera and had mistakenly gone to pictures of her Grandparents house- not of her Grandparents -just their house. I described what I was picking up on to the group and Julie said that the person I was describing was her granddad.
Overall this was a very enjoyable investigation, we had some interesting activity, which we caught on video, and the Museum itself is fascinating.
Amanda Horley
This is a wonderful site to visit and I love the fact that it has so many different atmospheres in the various buildings that are on the site. However, I must confess that standing by the main gate, on my own, waiting for the late arrivals was a rather unnerving experience, and I was convinced that someone was watching me from Building 316.
Our first vigil was in the main museum, and our team started in the main museum. We split into two groups, and spread out down one of the corridors. My group gravitated to a large open room that always feels very feminine to me. We didn't pick up anything specific and after a time moved upstairs to a storage area. I felt that there would have been a large desk about two thirds of the way along used by a man in his 40's who had very bushy blonde sideburns. I couldn't pick up any more about him and as the others weren't getting much, we rejoined the rest and moved into the Grand Magazine. There were a lot of knocks and bangs whilst we were in there and it was difficult to pin down where they were coming from exactly. Certainly a lot seemed to come from the exhibits, which could have been settling, but others came from the centre of the room and were a lot less easy to explain. It felt as if the room had a lot of mist or smoke in it, and I got the name of Amy, but no other details.
Our second vigil was in Building 309 and was extremely interesting. We seemed to be getting responses from Zoë's EMF meter when we asked for the lights to change. We even tried asking for the light to remain green for a length of time and then go into the red. We tried this several times with small periods of time such as 10 seconds, and then expanded it to more than 30 seconds. The results were surprisingly accurate, and unless it was a very big coincidence, seemed to rule out the possibility of the changes being random. We were less successful however at getting the light changes in answer to questions we asked, which was frustrating.
The third vigil was in my favourite place, Building 208/209. This time around however, it seemed quiet in here, and upstairs was unsettling but I didn't pick anything specific up. When we moved downstairs, we tried several EVP experiments where we took it in turns to ask questions and then leave space for answers to be picked up by the voice recorders. It will be interesting to see what the results are for this. In the last room we went into, I stood next to Julie, and I clearly heard rustling against the loose plasterwork on the wall behind us. Several people heard this, but when we turned on a torch, Julie was too far away from the wall for it to have been her brushing against it. This remains as something I cannot find a logical explanation for.
Our final vigil was in C block and Building 316. C block has no windows, just a couple of air vents, so is incredibly dark. You literally cannot see your hand in front of your face when the lights are out. We again set up the voice recorder and although other members of the group were affected by something in here, with two feeling very unwell, it was a very quiet place for me. After a time we moved on to Building 316. Again this was a quiet place for me.
Repeat investigations rarely give the same results as previous ones, and this proved to be the case with Explosions. Activity seemed to be centred in different places this time around and the EMF activity in Building 309 was very unusual. I love the atmosphere on this site, and can't wait to back again. Big thanks have to go to Greg who made us very welcome and kept us supplied with hot drinks for the night.
Mark Boulton
I was looking forward to this investigation as my family has had links to the sea, and it is an interesting area, so if no ghosts could be found, at least the exhibits would be interesting.
Our first investigation took place in the main museum buildings. We split into two smaller groups at first. Our group first went into the 'Big Guns' room, apart from Amanda getting a 'feminine' feeling nothing happened here at all. We then we to an upstairs room above the 'Age of Fighting Sail' room, this was being used as a bit of a storeroom, again nothing of any note happened. We then joined up with the rest of our team and went into the 'Grand Magazine'; we spread out covering most of the areas. There were several attempts to call out with various bumps, noises and even voices heard, but nothing substantial.
Our second vigil was in a building numbered 309, this was split into two main areas. In the first area, we all stood around Zoë's Smog meter and spent quit a time watching it's LED's illuminate. On the surface we did seem to get responses to count-downs, i.e. we asked that in ten seconds it should go all the way up to the red LED and after about ten seconds this would happen etc. However this meter is designed to measure EMF smog and is very sensitive and covers a much wider frequency range than the KII meter (rested along side and hardly moved). We should not be surprised that this unit actually does what it says on the tin; this does not necessarily mean paranormal activity. However it must be said if you want a sensitive meter this is the one to use, but it will also be more sensitive to environmental EMF, Marine radio's, Taxi radio's, mobile phones etc. Even with all these LED fluctuations, we never actually gleamed any information. The second area was remarkably quiet.
Our third vigil was in a couple of buildings called 208 and 209. These were in a very poor state, with broken windows, no electrical power, dusty and strewn with rubbish. There seemed to be an air of excitement with these buildings, though I'm not too sure why. They seemed to have had many uses during their lifetime, from Officers Mess to Admin buildings. Here again there was little to report; various temperature changes, noises and EMF spikes but nothing substantial.
Our last vigil was held in a bunker type building called C Mag and Workshop 316. C Mag was interesting in as much that it was nearly totally dark. Whilst we had no activity to report, several of the team did report on feeling a bit sick. The workshop had lots of interesting missile, gun and bomb parts but no paranormal activity to report.
The place was very interesting as a museum and would be a good place to visit in the daytime, but I had extremely little to report on the paranormal front.
Steve Boston
Vigil 1: C-Mag & Workshop 316
The C-Mag is an above ground elongated brick storage room. It is accessed by one door at the front of the building. At some point in time there would have been windows running along the right hand side of the building but these have been boarded up. Baseline readings showed an ambient temperature of 10°C, the same for the walls, ceiling and floor. There was no EMF reading anywhere in the room that the K2 picked up on.
There was no activity of any kind in this room; members of the team picked up on a very peaceful feeling. An EVP session was conducted and audio is still under review with nothing detected thus far. I have also reviewed my photographs but no evidence is present in these either. There were no changes to the baseline temperature or K2 readings on leaving the building.
Workshop 316 - Start Time: 21.00 End Time 21.30
Workshop 316 is a large storage room housing a lot of weaponry, such as missiles and old cannon balls. There were also two workshops that had been constructed from PVC sheeting within the room. Baseline readings showed a floor temperature of 9 °C, walls and ceiling were 11°C. There were no EMF readings from anywhere in this room that were picked up on the K2 meter.
There was no prominent activity in this room, however Belinda with the aid of Maureen used the dowsing rods with wooden handles. This experiment quickly proved fruitful with the rods responding to questions and pointing toward both the front and rear doors of the building, indicating something wanted us to leave. The K2 was moved around the rods whilst the experiment was being conducted but it did not activate.
Both Brian and I experienced some slight pins and needles around the back of the neck when alone in the larger of the two polythene workshops but nothing distinct enough to count as anything paranormal. There were no changes to the baseline temperature or K2 readings on leaving the room. Nothing was picked up in any of my photos.
Vigil 2 : Offices 208 & 209
Start Time : 21.50 End Time : 22.45
These two buildings join to become one large set of disused offices. Judging from the internal appearance it seems they have been empty for some time as paint is peeling off the walls and ceilings. The building is spread out over a ground and first floor with all but one of the rooms accessible to the team. One small office was locked and secured as the roof was unsafe. The building had a general damp smell about it.
Due to the size of the building and the number of rooms it was impossible to get a base line temperature reading, however, due to the number of broken windows the temperature was similar to that of the external temperature which was approximately 8° C. Baseline readings were conducted on the K2 with no EMF detected anywhere in the building. I would imagine due to the state of disrepair and the damp that the electricity was turned off.
The group began by having a general walk around on both floors to get a feel for the place. Some glass divination was conducted in one of the larger rooms downstairs. This proved fruitless and no reaction was detected.
Due to the sheer number of rooms in the building we split the group and Carl, Brian and I went to the far end of the upstairs to conduct some EVP work. Audio for this is yet to be examined. Whilst in this room we conducted an EVP session and heard some papers rustle behind us. We found a number of old A4 sheets scattered in an old fire place, some were part burned., We checked the chimney flue and it appeared to be blocked so there should not have been any draught to disturb them. We also could find no draught coming from any of the windows that was strong enough to make the sound we heard. From this room we moved to the office at the other end of the building and conducted another EVP session. Whilst in this room we asked for some audible proof of any spirits. We heard a few small taps, however due to the age and state of the building and the fact that this room had two broken windows I cannot put this down to anything other than the natural sound of an old building at night.
Toward the end of the vigil we rejoined the other team members on the ground floor where the glass work had been conducted, I noted that Maureen and Belinda were standing by a wall that separated the main room off two smaller offices at the front of the building. They asked me if I could pick on any smells; on doing this I detected a faint floral smell that was out of place in the building. Other members of the team also picked up on the smell. Perfumes and aftershaves worn by team members were discounted and the origin of this scent remains a mystery. There were no K2 activations or temperature changes during this vigil.
Vigil 3: Workshop 309
Start Time: 23.15 End Time: 00.15
This is another large hanger style building larger than Workshop 306, which houses a lot of weaponry and forms part of the museum. The roof of the building was in a poor state of repair and a number of water leaks were present. The baseline temperature readings ranged from 6° C down to 2° C. This was due to the size of the room and the fact there were many water leaks that would naturally cause cold spots throughout the building.
The first half of the vigil was quiet. None of the group picked up on anything and we positioned ourselves around the hanger so as to have all areas covered. Around thirty minutes into the vigil Brian thought he saw a shadow move over by a training mock-up of an ammunition room from an anti-submarine vessel. To the best of our knowledge no-one from the group was walking about at the time and no shadows should have been cast.
Approximately five minutes later some members of the group heard what seemed like the sound of a metal floor plate move in the same area. On investigation we found that part of the metal floor of this training room made the same sound when stepped on. The sound had not been heard before and it did not happen again. It could have been caused by the metal naturally losing temperature and shrinking, however it was interesting that it was in the same area that the shadow was seen and within a few minutes of that sighting. As a result we all took pictures of the area. I have examined mine but nothing abnormal was found. I also placed a voice recorder in the training room, which has yet to be reviewed. There were no changes in temperature and no EMF was picked up.
Vigil 4: Grand Mag & Hallway Areas
Start Time: 00.30 End Time 01.30
The Grand Magazine is an impressive large brick room that is inside the main museum. The temperature inside was considerably warmer than the other vigils and readings showed it to be about 14° C. We also had the hallway leading to the Grand Magazine and two exhibit rooms either side. Due to the fact this was a building in regular use there were low trace readings of EMF near fire escape signs and heaters.
The group had no results in these areas, glasswork was conducted but proved fruitless. I left a voice recorder in the hallway on an exhibit and this is yet to be reviewed. There were no temperature changes or unusual EMF readings from the K2 meter.
Robin Turton
Vigil 1
C-Magazine
Temp - 52°F
EMF - None
C Magazine was an empty room divided into bays with a vaulted ceiling. We carried out an EVP session with no audible results. The room felt calm and very quiet.
Workshop 316
Temp - 54°F
EMF - None
This was a very interesting room full of inert rockets, missiles and torpedoes including a used life-saving ejection seat. We carried out an EVP session with no audible results. Maureen conducted a dowsing, which proved inconclusive.
Vigil 2
Building 208/Building 209
temp 54°F
EMF - None
This building seemed to have formerly been used for administration. We carried out a walk-around of the 1st floor with a video camera and nothing was found. The ladies of the group carried out a glass divination on the ground floor with no conclusive results.
The team split so Steve, Brian and guest Karl moved upstairs to carry out an EVP session. A male guest and I carried out a glass divination on the ground floor without result. Approaching the end of the vigil a number of team members smelt a flowery scent that seemed to waft around. This was very interesting as no one was wearing any strong smelling scents and the building was derelict.
The temperature of this large and draughty room was about 3° higher than it was earlier. This may have been because everybody was trying to experience the strange scent. Unfortunately time had run out so we had to leave the building.
Vigil 3
Workshop 309
Temp 49°F
EMF - None
This building housed a number of interesting exhibits including cannons, ships guns and a Polaris missile. The temperature here was a lot colder than anywhere else we had investigated and the roof was leaking, dripping water into number of large plastic buckets causing some unusual sounds. An EVP session was carried out and nothing wasdetected.
A member of the team believed he had seen a shadow move and heard a metallic bang. The area of the ship's mortar and control room was investigated but nothing was detected.
Vigil 4
Grand Magazine/Museum
Temp 68°F
EMF 1 spike 1.1mG
The Grand Magazine was a large room with a vaulted ceiling with exhibits and chairs in each corner to be used for an interactive display. An EVP session was carried out and Maureen conducted a glass divination and dowsing session. I carried out an EMF and temperature sweep of the room with a Mel meter which registered a spike of 1.1mG. There was no obvious reason for the spike and I was unable to repeat it. I carried out a second sweep with a K2 meter with detected nothing.
Brian Witt
Vigil 1: C-Mag
Our first vigil was in the C-Mag. This is a brick building with boarded-up windows and one entrance and exit. I heard what sounded like a bang on the wall. The bang was not repeated and might have been fireworks outside. The C-Mag was very dusty but very quiet.
Vigil 2: Workshop 317
This was a large warehouse with 2 small sectioned-off areas built with a wooden frame with plastic sheeting over. There were lots of weapons stacked in rows. I heard what sounded like someone moving the plastic sheeting but the rest of the group were on the other side. I checked to see if someone had gone inside but it was empty. I could not feel a breeze but given the size of the building it could quite easily have been a draught. When I was in the plastic-sheeted I got a strange feeling on the back of my neck. I asked Steve to see if he felt anything in there. He got a "pins and needles" sensation. It is possible that this may have been a build-up of static from the plastic.
Vigil 3: Building 208 and 209
This was another large building with two floors and many rooms. There was a cold breeze in many of the rooms due to broken windows or open air-vents. Some members did some glass divination. Steve, Carl (guest) and I went upstairs. We went to the far room and settled down. We called out for a while but had no response. We all heard a rustling in the fireplace and no reason cause could be found. It did not happen again. We then went to the opposite end of the building and called out again. We heard a tapping by the window but it was not in response to any questions. We returned downstairs and there were no other incidents.
Vigil 4: Workshop 309
This warehouse was split into two by a wall. There was a constant dripping noise from the leaking roof but no other noises. We called out but had no response. I was facing the exit and out of the corner of my eye I saw a shadow. I thought at first it was someone's torch casting the shadow, but after asking the group, no one had their torch on. We investigated and could not find a cause. When we had left the area some of us heard a loud bang. We investigated and found a metal plate on the floor. This made a similar sound but only when walked on. The sound was not repeated. Later on, I thought I saw a shadow above where I had seen the first one so took a picture straight away. The picture had a light anomaly but as with all the other buildings it was very dusty.
Vigil 5: G-Mag and Museum.
The G-Mag was a similar building to the C-Mag but less dusty. There were seats at either end so the group sat down and called out. No response was received. We did some glass divination but had no response from that either. Robin and I walked through the museum taking pictures. We didn't hear or see anything that could not be explained.
Maureen Taylor
Having had a very active night on our previous visit here I had hopes that this investigation might be as busy, but it wasn't to be.
Our first vigil was in C Magazine, and after a wander around and a few photos I found a place to sit at one side of the building in one of the middle bays. I had the feeling that someone was following me around in here, but could get nothing else from that one. On getting my dowsing rods out and asking questions we seemed to be getting the reply that whoever might have been among us wanted us to leave - because just about every time we asked a question the rods swivelled to point towards the door.
For me this was as active as it got. All the other vigils were very quiet. It is of course possible that I was too tired to appreciate what might have been going on - I'm usually moderately sensitive and can pick up on spirit activity around me, even if I can't actually see or hear it - but I'd been working in a museum in Colchester all day and had to a three hour drive straight from there to get to Explosions.
Maybe on another occasion I might pick up on more of what was going on, however, it was still great to be able to do another investigation at this fascinating venue.
Gillian O'Farrell
As we approached the site of the Explosion Museum I was anticipating and night full of interest and some activity. Given the amount of Naval history associated with the place it seemed certain that we would be in for a night of interest.
Vigil 1
Our first vigil area was kind of outside bunker area that had possibly previously been used for storage. The team stayed in this location for approximately half an hour wandering. I positioned myself in a corner at the very end of the room. In the quiet and darkness I concentrated on a corner of the room to which I was drawn. I had the sense was small girl who didn't want to be seen, at one point the team heard shuffling noise in this area and noise from the roof. I could see some small lights flickering in the area. There was no sense of any foreboding or fear within the room, just the clear sense that nothing was going to happen! Due to lack of activity the team moved on to another area for the remainder of this vigil.
We moved into area 618. This seemed to be some kind of hangar that was filled with various equipment, which seemed to be missiles of various kinds. I had the impression of the man around 40 years of age in a white lab coat. He was holding a duster in his hand and was intent on maintaining the equipment. He was not pleased that we had interrupted his routine. This energy soon dissipated. After another half-hour of wandering about the place without experiencing anything the time in this area finished.
Vigil 2
Our second vigil seemed to be more promising as this was conducted in two old houses which have been joined together, numbers 208 and 209. I felt there would be history both from the use of these houses as residences as well as from their use as offices. We attempted to use glass divination by using an old tray we found which we placed on top of a cardboard box. Despite many attempts using various group members we failed to get any movement from the glass.
We spent the whole hour on the downstairs part of the house. The only unusual experience of note was the peculiar and random smell of perfume. Several group members smelt this floral scent. It was almost as if somebody had sprayed this smell into your face as it seemed to suddenly appear then just as quickly disappear. It occurred in various areas of the room as if someone had been walking from the front to the back of the house. I smelt this perfume several times in different areas of the room and could not find a logical explanation for it. However, this was the only experience that occurred here.
Vigil 3
We spent this hour in area 309. I experience nothing here. It was a long painfully cold hour. Several of the team members wandered around hoping that they could see shadows.
Vigil 4
This vigil for took place in The Grand Magazine which I was hoping would bring us some activity. Again the group wandered around taking pictures without witnessing any activity or experiencing any phenomena of any description. At one point a glass divination session was attempted. Unfortunately the glass was placed on top of a radiator. Basic physics tells you that glass when heated expands therefore the air trapped underneath will be subjected to sort of vacuum effect. Unsurprisingly the glass moved a little bit at the beginning of the session obviously in response to the temperature change. After a minute or so there was no further movement from the glass once the temperature stabilised. Nothing was experienced for this hour.
The experience of the investigation at the Explosion Museum was a very disappointing one for me. I understood that there had been previous phenomena recorded at the Museum and because of this in association with the history of the building I was expecting an interesting evening. As it turned out for the whole four hours I experienced nothing that I could in anyway construe to be paranormal.