Southern Paranormal - Investigations

The Feathers Inn, Ware Investigation

Saturday 10th January 2009

Attending Investigators – Julie Harwood, Maria Street, Simon Steadman, Rachel Steadman, Paul Gentry, Jim Leaver, Mark Lines, Sandy Rutter, Mark Pettet, Sarah Couper, Amanda Horley, Marion McCaffery, Mark Boulton, Gill O’Farrell, Maureen Taylor & Marie Holder.

Time of Investigation 9.30pm – 3.15am

History of the Feathers Inn

The Feathers Inn, originally a 17th century coaching inn, is situated in the pretty Hertfordshire Village of Wadesmill. In the early 1600’s the inn was called The Princes Arms and has been owned by various blacksmiths and tanners.

In 1615 Ralph Osbertson purchased the inn and later, in 1670, allowed his son to change the name to The Feathers. It subsequently became one of the busiest coaching inns in the area, stabling over 100 horses.

In 1699 there is a note in the war parish burial register that refers to a "great fire at the Feathers". In 1753 a Joseph Meeres acquired the Inn. In a print at the British Museum it is shown as a plaster building with a gallows sign across the road with a small board on which is painted "I.M. 1758".

The building appears to be about half its present size, When Meeres leased The Feathers to a John Taylor in 1782, it was stipulated Taylor must not take "more than four butts of common brewery beer in any one year" also that he must buy all strong beer from Meeres at 1s.1d a gallon. Documents of this period mention five bedrooms, a step parlour, moon parlour, lion parlour and various other rooms.

Info courtesy of www.feathersinn.com

Thank you

Thank you to Ian and Geraldine at The Feathers Inn for allowing us to investigate your beautiful Inn and hotel. Also many thanks to the two Laura’s who accompanied us that night and all the other staff that showed an interest in what we were doing.

The Investigation

Teams

Team 1
Julie
Mark L
Rachel
Sandy

Team 2
Amanda
Maureen
Paul
Marion

Team 3
Maria
Mark P
Marie
Jim

Team 4
Simon
Sarah
Mark B
Gill

Itinerary

8.30pm All team meet in main bar area
9.30pm Meet hosts and have a look around
10.00pm Prepare to start vigils in hotel part of complex
10.15pm Vigil 1
11.15pm Vigil 2
12.15am Break
12.45pm Vigil 3 (includes experiment room – each team taking 15 minutes in room 31, using different kinds of divination tools and asking a set of control questions.
1.45am Break
2.00am Start Vigils in Inn
2.00am Vigil 4
2.45am Vigil 5
3.30am Finish

Experiment Results

Experiment Results
	Team 1	Team 2	Team 3	Team 4
Location	Room 16 The Feathers Inn
Date	10 January 2009
Time	12.15 to 12.30 am	12.30-12.45 am	12.45 – 1.00 am	1.00 – 1.15 am
Experiment	Dowsing Rods	Glass divination	Franks Box	EVP
Equipment used	2 sets of rods	Glass	Adapted radio with speakers	Digital and analogue recorders
Conditions	Warm, team felt fine and comfortable temp ave 18 deg cent	Temp 20 deg cent	Warm and calm temp 20 deg cent	Warm 18deg cent No EMF reading
Team notes	Cross for yes open for no			questions were read through twice with a break in between where we held a general conversation
Questions
Is there anyone here who would like to make contact?	Yes (1 set)	Glass moved	Yes	No reply recorded
Are you male or female?	Female - yes	Male	F	No reply recorded
Could you give us your name (initials)?	1^st letter L 2^nd U confirmed as Lucy		Ruth	No reply recorded
How old are you?	56	40 - 50	15	No reply recorded
Do you know what year it is?		Slight movement	F. Off	No reply recorded
Can you tell us the year?		Over 2000 or 1900 slight move for both		No reply recorded
Was this place important to you?	Yes	No movement	Yes	No reply recorded
Are you here all the time?	Yes	No movement		No reply recorded
Are you happy here?	Yes	No movement	Pleased	No reply recorded
What is the last thing you remember? (opt)			Battle between ourselves	No reply recorded
Did you die here? (date/year) (opt)	Yes but not in this room	No movement	Yes	No reply recorded
*Questions Cont’d*	Team 1	Team 2	Team 3	Team 4
Can you tell us what happened to you? (opt)			Drugs/drowned? Pain - drugs	No reply recorded
Is there anyone else here with you?	No	No movement	Stop	No reply recorded
Can you tell us their names? (opt)				No reply recorded
Is there anything you would like to say? (opt)	No	No movement	Go	No reply recorded
Would you like us to leave?	Yes – will talk to other teams	No movement	Very apt	No reply recorded
Answers to other questions asked by team
	Blonde hair took care of hair, married, 2 children. Will move something to scare next team? Yes remote control	None recorded	None recorded	No sounds other than team mbrs talking during conversation period and no further questions asked.
Results
Out of the 4 teams only 3 had responses of some description. 2 Of the teams appeared to be in communication with females though very different in age, and name. The other team with results appeared to be in communication with a male also different in age to the communicators of the other teams. In 50% of the experiments the place was important, the communicator was happy there and they died in the place (not necessarily in that room). Whilst there appeared to be communicators with the majority of the teams, none were the same and not all (non optional) questions were answered by the communicators. The EVP experiment, on this occasion, gave no results. Overall we would have to say, as the experiment produced no similar communicator information, that it was inconclusive this time. Future experiments of this type shouldn’t be discouraged, and maybe should include other types of divination/communicating devices.

Personal Reports

TEAM 1

Julie Harwood

The Feathers Inn was an investigation I had really been looking forward to. Not only was it the first investigation of 2009 but it was also a chance to work with some members from the London, Essex and Hertfordshire areas. We arrived at the venue and I was taken aback slightly at its size. I don’t know why but I imagined that it was a lot smaller and having not been the member to do the pre investigation visit, I was going in to this one blind.

After a welcoming warm drink and a catch up with all members we started out by investigated the hotel part of the complex first. My team consisted of Rachel, Mark L and Sandy. We started our night with vigils in rooms 30 & 31. We entered room 30 and were surprised how warm it was. It was a small single room and so we spaced out as much as we could and turned the lights off. Mark and I both commented that even though it was a small room in the dark it seemed a lot bigger which was an unusual phenomenon in itself. Usually I find small rooms tend to close in on you even more when you turn the lights off but this one seemed like it was getting bigger and bigger.

Mark got the feeling of horses and stables and wondered if they were originally stables to the main building. We ascertained that the walls were stud walls and that is when we noticed the light seemingly coming from under the walls. At this point we turned the lights on as it looked like the wall did not touch the floor and light was coming in from the next room. Obviously when we looked the wall did go to the floor and we could not explain where the light was coming from. When we turned the lights out again, the light on the floor returned. We could also hear a loud, intermittent whistling noise like the sound of a distant bus reversing however we did ascertain that this was the heaters in the rooms. We turned the radiator off at the wall but could still hear it however, there was one right outside the door in the corridor and this was making a much louder noise that we could still hear. In this room I got a very strong Royal connection and could imagine white horses in full royal regalia, like they were show or parade horses.

We then decided to move on to room 31. This room was freezing! Rachel and Sandy sat on the bed, Mark stood by the window and I sat to Mark’s left on the chair under the television on the wall. We called out and heard several noises from the television above me. It sounded like the set was settling down after it had just been turned off however we were the first group in the room and as far as we are aware no one was in there before us to have been using the TV. After another couple of noises from the TV above my head I decided to stand up and move slightly forward towards the bed. Mark was getting the initial of “R” but could not quite get a name. When we called out again we heard quite a loud shuffle noise from near to the door. At one point I could have sworn that Mark, on my right had squatted down but when I looked closer he was definitely stood up and had not moved. Mark got the name of Ralph or Rolf He could not get the surname but believes it was not a typical English name and could even be foreign. It was just after this that I bolted towards the door because as I looked round towards Mark and the window I could have sworn someone was stood almost shoulder to shoulder with me. All I saw was a dark mass and my first instinct was it was Mark but clearly he was still stood by the window. It really made me jump and it took a couple of deep breaths (and a couple of expletives – sorry team) to calm myself down a bit. By this time it was time to head back to select another two rooms to investigate.

Our next two rooms to investigate were 10 & 15. We called out in both of these rooms and got a couple of knocks which seemed to come from the window side of the room each time. Mark also picked up on a quiet male who seemed to have a mental disability of some sort. He believed he worked with the horses and was used as a general dogs-body. I imagined this was a very lonely life for a young man and Mark had the vision of pigs. We wondered if perhaps he related to animals better than he did with humans. We tried to call out to him and I got the name Thomas but we could not get any responses to our questions and Mark believed this is because he did not understand us. I did feel in both of these rooms and the corridor on this floor that we were being watched and even though I felt fine at the beginning of the vigils by the end I had a cracking headache and felt like something was pushing down on the top of my head.

After a short comfort break we started our experimental vigils. This was to be based in room 16. Each of the 4 teams would spend 15 minutes in this room, with a list of control questions however they would each use a different form of divination to try and contact any spirits. I thought this was a great choice of experiment devised by Sarah and was looking forward to it. Our team had been given the dowsing rods as a tool and were the team to take the first 15 minutes. We all settled down and Rachel and Mark both held a set of rods each. I read the questions out and shortly after Rachel’s set of rods started to move and so Mark stepped down and we focused our concentration on Rachel. We seemingly contacted a spirit of a woman in her 50’s called Lucy. She was married and had children. The rest of the results from our 15 minutes are in the summary of the experiment.

After this we went over to room 26 & 27 (furthest away from room 16) and Rachel and I joined Simon and Sarah in room 26 and Sandy & Mark joined Gill and Mark B in room 27. Sarah and Simon had been getting some good results in this room and so Rachel tried the rods and we seemed to be getting some answers to our questions. We seemed to have contacted a male in his 60’s called Jack. Sarah was also getting some strange lights on the camcorder though we could not be sure that this was not a reflection from the rods however, when Rachel turned her back to the camcorder Sarah still seemed to get the lights. When Sarah & Simon left to do their 15 minutes, Sandy and Mark rejoined us in room 26 and we tried to get some more details from Jack. He confirmed that he knew of Ralph/Rolf and after a while, Mark was able to deduce that Jack was Ralph’s son and the rods confirmed this was apparently the case.

Unfortunately it was time to leave the hotel and head over to the pub. We met up with Simon and Sarah and our hosts Laura, Jack (ironically!) and one other (I am so sorry I have forgotten your name!). We split the teams up differently this time and split the pub in two so a team could cover each end of it, with the bar as a control area in the middle. In our team with me were Maria, Maureen, Simon, Sarah, Mark B and our 3 hosts. We called out and a few strange noises were heard coming from the toilet area. A couple of people went to investigate but could find nothing out of the ordinary. We then decided to try a glass divination at one of the tables. Sarah, Maria, Maureen and Laura did seem to get slight movement from the glass but it seemed reluctant to move much though I believe at one point it did tip slightly. When they did call out on two occasions it felt like the table I was sitting at moved slightly or the floorboard underneath creaked. However, some of the team were stood up near the table and even though we could not recreate by moving around the table, we cannot rule out that it was not the group shifting their weight slightly on the floor that created this effect.

We then decided to swap sides with Rachel’s team and we went up to the breakfast room. This proved to be a little bit more interesting for me at least. Sarah could sense the presence of two people in this area, a grumpy man and a younger woman that was trying to calm him down. The candle was flickering a lot during the time we were there however we all agreed that because it was above the fireplace and at the end of the bar it was very likely caused by a draught coming up the bar area from the doors at the far end. We called out and heard the sound of a thump or a door closing right by our end of the bar. I went immediately to the area and can confirm that no door had moved and no member of any team was anywhere near in fact the other team would have had to come clearly into my line of vision to make a noise that close to us and our guests confirmed that there was definitely no one else in the area so the source of that noise is still unknown.

Shortly after, Simon and I could smell a strong rather unpleasant smell, which we could only describe as bad body odour. This seemed to be near us one minute and gone the next. Simon then smelt a flowery smell and likened it to something his team had smelt on one of their earlier vigils however unfortunately I could not smell this. On several occasions several of us heard men talking from the bar area and when we checked with Rachel via walkie-talkie we confirmed that it was not any of her team. Just as we were about to get up top leave Simon and I who were nearest the bar also heard a sound like someone drumming his or her fingers on the bar. Mark P who was in the other team and was walking towards us to meet us also confirmed he had heard the same sound. We could find no explanation for this.

It was a fascinating and enjoyable nights investigation at the Feathers Inn and hotel. Thank you so much to both Laura’s, Geraldine and everyone that made us feel so welcome and made our visit possible.

Rachel Steadman

The Feathers pub is a beautiful old building with a modern looking hotel behind; I was really looking forward to this investigation, as pubs are usually really good.

Vigil 1- Room 30
This was the smallest room we investigated. The first thing noticed in here by all of the team was how dark it was, and our vision did not seem to adjust. We all heard a high-pitched whining noise, which we discovered at the end of the vigil was a heater outside the room. I spent a short time alone in the bathroom but did not experience anything. Horses were mentioned. We did hear a few sounds but nothing conclusive. No light anomalies were caught either on stills or video.

Vigil 1- Room 31
This room was incredibly cold so first of all we checked the windows, which were all shut. We called out but did not notice any form of reply. Some creaks and taps were heard from around the television, and at one pointed Julie thought someone was standing next to her. At the end of the vigil there seemed to be a handprint indentation on the duvet at the bottom of the bed; no one could remember touching it or noticing it at the start.

Vigil 2- Room 10
When we entered this room all felt normal. When I switched the video camera on the battery dropped from 40 minutes to empty straight away but recorded for a total of 11 minutes before switching off, which is a little odd. While it was recording I caught a light anomaly by the door and one that went across the bed in front of Mark. To eliminate the possibility of dust, I made Mark move around on the bed, as he had just sat up when the light appeared but I saw nothing else. Mark felt there was a young man in the room, someone quite shy who possibly had a mental problem who connected better with animals to people, but no contact was made with him. At the end of the vigil we noticed the curtains seemed to have been moved, although none of the team were anywhere near them. Looking back through my photographs it does appear they were normal when we entered the room and bunched up when we left.

Vigil 2- Room 15
Unfortunately little happened in this room; we did hear a couple of knocks and taps from the window area but all seemed still and calm.

Vigil 3- Room 16
This vigil was slightly different. In here we had a list of set questions (the same as every other team) and tried dowsing rods to see what answers we could get. I used the dowsing rods and we got the name Lucy who was a lady around 55 years old and married with children. Mark felt she had beautiful blonde hair that she was very proud of; the dowsing rods gave a positive answer to this. It was only a short vigil, so once we had gone through the questions we moved on.

Vigil 3- Rooms 26 & 27
To start with Julie and I joined Simon and Sarah in room 26, while Mark and Sandy went into room 27. I continued to use the dowsing rods while Julie asked questions. We discovered a possible spirit by the name of Jack who was in his 60’s who worked as a groom. He also owned the building and was the son of Ralph (who Mark picked up on in rooms 30 and 31). He also confirmed it was him who had stood next to Julie in room 31. Simon and Sarah went back to their team and Mark and Sandy joined up again with Julie and me. Things went a little quiet after that.

Vigil 4- the Main Pub - Breakfast Room
We spread ourselves out and sat quietly, some team members took it in turns to call out with no response, after a while we moved to the other room, where again all was quiet.

Bar Area
We all sat quietly; Amanda sensed a presence in the corner but felt it moved as she approached. After a while, Marion, Jim, Amanda and I all heard noises coming from the toilets. Shortly after this we heard the same noises again, so the three of us went to investigate. We found nothing, but while we were in there we all heard the inner door to the bar open, then the outer door, Marion saw the inner door open! Jim ran outside to see if he could see anyone. He searched the garden and car park but found no one so this is still unexplained.

The Feathers Inn is a lovely place, and even though the hotel appears to be a much newer building it was as active as the pub just in a different way. Is it haunted? I would have to go back before deciding, but there are some definite strange things going on. Thank you to the staff that stayed over with us, hope to see you again.

Mark Lines

The Feathers Inn is pub/restaurant is situated in Wadesmill in Hertfordshire. The pub looks and feels like a traditional inn. The Team arrived on a cold and somewhat misty night, which added to the atmosphere in and around the immediate area.

As you entered the pub there was mixture of old and new within the fabric of the interior, and I felt that there was certainly some activity and definitely some history dating back quite a few centuries.

I was with Team 1 that consisted of Julie, Sandy and Rachel.

Vigil 1
Our first vigil was located on the far left of the hotel area rooms 30 & 31 I believe. This area of the hotel was the older part. The first room we entered was a single room. Quite an ordinary room really. We kept hearing a whirring noise for which we couldn’t find a source, but then we identified it to be the heating which sort of took over any sounds that may have occurred in the room. Considering it was a small room it seemed to open up in the dark, which is quite the opposite of what you would expect.

Nothing else happened in this room, so we moved onto the next. This room was totally different; a larger double room and it was absolutely freezing in here. I was not sure if the window was open but I’m sure it wasn’t. There was certainly an eerie feel to the room although it had all the “mod cons”. After a while calling out, I picked up on the fact that this hotel area was originally either stables for horses, or a working area for horses. I had picked up on obviously the horses, but also lots of visions of smoke and heat, which was later, confirmed by Sandy that this area was used for blacksmiths and tanners.

Vigil 2
After a short break we entered out next two rooms. We headed to the right of the hotel on the first floor. In this room a felt we were accompanied by a male entity. I picked up on the fact his initial of his first name was ‘R’ and it was either Ralph or Rolf, and he was either an owner or manager of the land. He certainly wasn’t a bad person at all; he seemed to be a family person and very proud of what he has achieved and of his family. We also saw a few light anomalies and when Sandy took a photo of where I was sitting there seemed to be a triangular or square array of lights, not just an orb.

In the next room I personally did not pick up on the male spirit that we had previously encountered, although Julie picked up on another male who used to work within the building possible with the horses. To me he seemed he was very shy and child like.

Vigil 3
In the next vigil we investigated the next set of rooms, this time we took the dowsing rods with us. I have always been sceptical of these, but I was proved wrong. Rachel had control of these. Julie began asking the set questions in front of her. After a while it seemed that we had picked up on a female spirit, and identified via the rods that her name was Lucy, who had worked here if I remember correctly. I immediately sensed she had blonde hair and was quite beautiful. We asked her to affect the next group that were due to investigate the room after us. We had asked her whether she could move the two remote controls on top of the TV in the room, to which she replied she would.

The next room, we split into other groups. In the first room nothing was sensed here, apart from the irritating noise from the radiator. We then moved to the next where we re-joined our original group. Rachel, again had the dowsing rods, and I immediately picked up on a male spirit. We found out that he was connected to the spirit I had picked up on earlier. By using the rods we had identified that this male was the son of the owner. Sandy had already confirmed that the first male spirit was ‘Ralph’ and that the hotel were stables etc. I don’t remember the spirit’s name, but he stated that he was the son. We also asked that he accompany us into the pub when we got there, and he replied that he would.

Vigil 4
In this next vigil we were all situated in the main pub. We split into two teams and investigated each end of the pub. Our group had the left hand side as you entered the main entrance. This particular area seemed the most eerie, and I was aware of two men in Tricorn hats sitting at one of the tables near the windows, they seemed to be deep in conversation as if they were planning something or other. I didn’t get any names nor did I hear anything. After a while I didn’t really pick up much else which was disappointing, considering the history and how active at had been over the years.

We then swapped places with the other group and ended up at the far right near the rear entrance. This had a totally different feel to the other end. It just seemed more modern. After calling out a few times nothing happened. But later, we all heard what seemed to be someone opening or closing one of the doors in the toilets. I also heard like the others, one of the rear exit doors opening or closing. I didn’t see either of these doors move but I certainly heard the sound. No real natural explanation was made for these doors, no sounds of footsteps or laughter made from a human source was heard. After a while nothing else happened, and we ended the vigil.

Summary
I thought this investigation went fairly well, but disappointed I didn’t pick up on more things. After reading the history after the event in which I always do, there was a lot more to be picked up. A lovely place and thanks for the staff for being helpful.

Al Rutter

I travelled up with Mark, Sarah and Marion, it was a fast run up because Mark drives like Nigel Mansell. We arrived at the pub about 20:45 went in and met the rest of the team. We joined them for a drink - J2O that's all! Then we all went over to the hotel part of the Feathers and got set up. I was in Team 1 with Julie, Rachel and Mark.

Vigil 1
We started in Room 30. We walked into the room it was really small. Julie called out and the window rattled. Then, everybody heard what could only be described as a lorry reversing but then we put it down to the radiator, which we switched off. Mark got the sense of horses and stables at the place and being the Historian I didn't let on. Rachel noticed a light on the skirting board. It didn't come from the door as the bed was in the way and it was a solid bed. We came out of that room and went to room 31.This room was bigger and we noticed it was freezing in there. Mark stood near the window, Julie sat underneath the television, and Rachel sat on the bed I stood near the toilet door entrance. Again Julie called out and we heard noises coming from the television. After getting a few more noises from the television Julie stood up and Mark was getting the letter R. Then Julie got startled a bit as she thought Mark was stood beside her but he never moved from the spot. Mark then came up with the name Ralph or Rolf. He couldn't get the last name as he thought it was not English.

Vigil 2
The first room was slightly bigger than the last two rooms. I sat at the bottom of the bed, Mark sat at the top of the bed and Julie sat near me on a chair. Rachel was sat on a chair near the shower. Mark came up with a man who used to work there many years ago but he was a bit backward and liked pigs. Julie came up with the name Thomas. That was the extent of the phenomena for both rooms.

Vigil 3
We did our 15 minutes experiment in Room 16. We had a set of questions and our tool was the dowsing rods. The rods crossed over for “yes” answers. Mark came up with the name Jack. We all said hello to Jack and introduced ourselves to him and we asked a few questions and the rods were crossing over. We asked if there was someone else there that we could talk to and Ralph came through. As with Jack we introduced ourselves to Ralph and we said hello to him. We asked Ralph a few questions and the rods crossed over and not knowing I asked the team if I could ask a question. I asked Ralph if he was Jack's dad and the rods crossed over for “yes”. Then we had to leave the room as the time for this vigil was over. We all went over to the Rooms 26 and 27 where Julia and Rachel joined Simon and Sarah and Mark L joined Gill and Mark B. Nothing much happened in these two rooms for me.

Vigil 4
We all went over to the pub area and split into two different groups. We called out and we heard a few taps but that was it for this side of the pub. Before we swapped over we saw guests of the hotel going through our stuff and Mark P and myself went over to get our stuff. We gathered our belongings and continued in the pub again. We heard a couple of things and little else then we packed up and went home. All in all it was a very good night.

TEAM 2

Amanda Horley

We started our investigations in the hotel building immediately behind the main pub and split into groups of four. We picked rooms at random, and my team spent the first vigil in rooms 17 and 18. We began in room 17 which had a fairly constant temperature of 19°C. After walking round I found that I felt quiet uncomfortable in the bathroom. If I tried to stand still I found that I kept swaying towards the mirror. This happened whichever way I was facing. This also happened in the part of the room by the wardrobe. I couldn’t get much information on whoever was there, but felt that they came from the 1800’s. When we asked out for something to happen the walkie-talkie went off. The other groups confirmed that it was not their doing. After a time we moved into room 18 next door. This felt much cooler but was in fact warmer. The temperature also fluctuated around the room from 22°C to 26°C. The bathroom was much cooler at 16-18°C. On asking out, the temperature in the bathroom dropped further to 15. I didn’t feel the same swaying sensation that I had felt in the previous room. There was a slight smell of silage in the room. I didn’t really pick up anything in this room other than a date of 1600’s in relation to someone that the others had sense. The only other thing I picked up on was the sensation that a rat had run across the floor from the bathroom to the bed.

After a break we moved to room 16. The bed felt far too short to me, although lying on it proved that it was a standard-length double bed. I also felt that the floor was too high and that the ceiling should have gone up into the rafters rather than being flat. I felt that there was a lady in this room who was sitting on, or next to, the bed and praying using rosary beads.

After the next break came a series of short vigils and we started in room 15 which was very quiet for me. We then had our session in room 16 with the set questions and answers. We were using a glass, and although there was slight movement, it was very difficult to detect, and we weren’t able to answer many of the questions. We then moved to room 31, which was very cold at 8°C and for me, very quiet. Finally we spent some time in room 27, which was considerably warmer at 23°C and again for me was very quiet.

After the next break we moved across to the pub, and split into two larger groups. Our group started in the breakfast room and far end of the bar. I felt very little in the breakfast room, and was drawn to the fireplace in the bar. I tried sitting on the floor by it, but that didn’t feel right; neither did sitting on the bricks to the side of it. Eventually I sat on a chair, but this still felt wrong. The right place, but too tall. I think it should have been more the height of a footstool. I felt that it would have been a young boy sitting there, but couldn’t get any further details on him.

We finished up by moving to the other end of the bar. There did seem to be noises coming from the toilets. A tapping that on one occasion sounded loud enough to be a cubicle door closing. We did investigate, but were unable to locate where the noises were coming from. The investigation was ended by the inner of two doors to the pub garden creaking open and then shutting again suddenly. It is likely that it was other guests from the hotel, but very un-nerving none the less.

Maureen Taylor

Though this is meant to be a report on just what I personally felt during the night, the four of us were coming up with either things that were very similar, or things that tied in so closely together that it’s just about impossible to leave them out and still have the report make some sort of sense; so wherever I have felt it necessary I have included things that the rest of the team have said/sensed.

Vigil 1 – Rooms 17 & 18
When we finally found the right rooms, and then the correct bunch of keys, we settled down in room 17 for our first vigil of the night. I sat on the chair at the dressing table, moving it so that I had my back to the window. A few minutes into the vigil, Paul was talking about a sense of pressure and tension in the area, and at the same time I had a distinct draught across my right leg from knee to ankle. Paul came over and opened the bathroom door, which was on my right side, the draught increased somewhat, and I had a sensation of someone/thing walking through me. Marion, sitting on the bed, confirmed that she too had the same sensation almost immediately after I did, suggesting that whoever it was had walked from the bathroom area, across the room and towards the wall at the other side. Paul said that he was quite sure that these two rooms, plus the two toilets adjacent to them had at one time been all one space.

I got the impression of a man, possibly a farm labourer, maybe in his late forties or early fifties, but maybe looking older than he really was. To me he appeared to be wearing brown trousers, a well-worn collarless white shirt with the sleeves rolled up, a greenish brown waistcoat, possibly made of some sort of tweed type fabric, kerchief in a fairly bright colour, possibly red patterned with white, round his neck, and some sort of flat cap.

Marion, Paul and I each came up with a date, and they were surprisingly close – Marion said 1839, I came up with the early 1850s and Paul 1847. We tried to get a name for him, both Marion and Paul got the name Jack, but I wasn’t getting a first name at all, instead having the name Haig in my head, which I felt was his surname. Though we came up with very different surnames for the man (Paul had Hargreaves), at least they both started with the same letter…For a few minutes I had been feeling a little short of breath, for no apparent reason, and Paul suddenly commented that he felt that Jack had died of some sort of breathing problems.

At 10.36, just seconds after we had called out, our walkie-talkie went off, startling all of us, it then transpired that every walkie-talkie in use by every team had done the same at precisely the same moment.

We checked the temperature around the room and in the bathroom and found it to be dropping, the bathroom being the coldest at about 15 degrees.

At about this time I was feeling a little uneasy, as if someone was behind me looking over my shoulder, I was getting the feeling that it was a tall, dark man, who wasn’t a particularly pleasant character, and that he was from some way back in time, possibly the early 1600s, Paul confirmed this, saying that he felt the man was someone in authority, perhaps an innkeeper, that he considered he ruled the roost and his word was law. I think it was Marion who came up with the name Sam, but immediately she said it I got the impression that he didn’t like it – told me his name was Samuel not Sam. One of the team, I’m not sure who now, came up with the surname Johnson. Unfortunately we ran out of time and had to move on to our next room.

Room 18
As already mentioned we felt that this room and the previous one had once been one room, we picked up on Jack again, but didn’t have time to chat to him.

Room 16
On entering this room we did the usual temperature checks, and were very surprised when Paul told us that the temperature near the window was 36 degrees – he then double checked and realised that he was getting a reading from the radiator – so it was merriment all round for a moment! Amanda and Marion sat one each side of the bed again, while I took the chair at the dressing table, as before. Amanda commented that she felt the bed was rather small, but on checking found it to be a standard size for a modern bed. I then pointed out that she might have been sensing a previous bed that had been in the room, or else a very tall person.

At the same moment Paul and I made comments about the previous bed – he felt that it was a four-poster, while I came up with a half tester (for those who don’t know what a half-tester is, it’s a bed that has two posts at the top and a canopy that reaches about halfway down the length of the bed). Sitting contemplating this for a few moments I was then getting the impression of a medieval type of bed – more a box-bed, with the sleeping area sunk below the sides of the ‘box’ to keep out draughts, and the four-poster bit above with heavy curtains that could be drawn right round it, not only to keep draughts out, but for privacy as well. I then realised that the present ceiling of the room wasn’t high enough to accommodate a four-poster of any sort, and on checking, discovered that the beam across the room was probably a fairly modern RSJ type. The earlier room had been open to the roof timbers, so much higher, therefore would have been much colder, and without any heating an enclosed bed would have been essential.

I was feeling rather uneasy in this room, but at first couldn’t account for it. Felt that there were several people around us, but again, at first I couldn’t separate them out from one another. As Paul sank down to sit on the floor at the end of the bed I had the impression of a little girl, maybe about seven years old, on her knees at the end of the bed, maybe saying her prayers, but not happy to be there. I also had the feeling that there was a woman in the room with us, and that she was connected with the half-tester bed, and a date of perhaps sometime in the 1770s or thereabouts.

There seemed to be a great deal going on in this room, activity covering several centuries.

Next Paul sensed 2 men in the room, and the death of one of them from a heart attack, this he said had happened within the last 2 or 3 years. He couldn’t be sure which of them it was, but came up with the name Henry, but again said this could have been either of the men. We tried for a surname; I got Saunders or Sanders, while Paul came up with Steptoe.

I sensed someone behind me, and tightness in my face, particularly my nose, and considering what happened next that’s not surprising… Paul said that a cat, white with black patches, had just walked into the room, one cat I can usually cope with, but more can cause me to sneeze, and my nose to run, and in quantity they make me itch all over, so without realising it I must have been sensing the presence of the cat as well.

Room 15
None of us got anything from this room other than a sense of calm, we stayed a short while, but nothing came to us, so we moved on.

Room 31
We had been told that this room was very cold, so we went prepared for it, and yes, it was rather chilly in there. We stayed a while, but once again we sensed nothing in this room. It didn’t even feel calm in the way that Room 15 had done, but rather devoid of anything.

Room 27
This was better – more activity. I felt sudden pain down the left side of my face and across my eyes, almost as if my head were being crushed. Paul said he felt there had been a fatal accident here, a young boy, about 16 or 17 years of age. Either something heavy, or a whole pile of smaller things had fallen on him. He was bleeding from the left side of his head. His body was not found for several days. A name and date came to us, Albert and 1897.Thus ended the first half of the night’s investigation and it was now time to move on to the main bar area.

For me there was little going on here, but others were picking up on things. I heard maybe a few noises, but nothing that couldn’t be attributed to something of the present day – fridges and other appliances in the kitchen, furniture and so on creaking as it cooled through the night hours, passing vehicles and so on. It may have been that I just happened to choose to sit in a spot that had been unaffected by the passing of the years and was perfectly calm, or maybe I was just hitting a low spot and feeling extraordinarily tired. I’m not usually one to doze off in a chair, especially a hard wooden chair, but that was certainly what I was doing in the bar, and a couple of times it was only the fact that I nearly fell off the chair as I dozed off that caused me to wake up again.

Towards the end of the vigils in the bar one of the group went across to the hotel to get something from their bag and came back reporting that hotel guests were rummaging among our belongings and it might be a good idea to go and retrieve them, so it was a mass exodus and once they came back nobody seemed to be able to settle down for the vigil again. I was too tired by this time to be sensing anything except the need for sleep, so was more than happy to be on my way home.

Paul Gentry

Room 17 temp: 17 to 21 c
Myself, Marion and Amanda picked up on a strange energy in this room, it lead from the shower room past the window to the adjacent room which is a communal toilet, I also picked up on a man who walks to and fro from the shower room in room 17 to the adjacent toilets, the name I had picked up was Jack H, Marion picked up on Hargreaves, a worker in this building; a farm hand of sorts and he had died of breathing problems dating back to 1800 to 1847.

Maureen and Amanda were asking questions of Jack without any response. I had asked Jack if he wouldn’t mind doing something for us and he responded by affecting the walkie-talkie we had and other team’s walkie- talkies went off as well.

I felt that if we had more time in this room we could have got a lot more out of Jack, we had got a lot of information from Jack in the sense that he told us where his girlfriend lived and that he had a son. Both names were Isabel and Stanley; he also told me that he worked as a farm hand and odd job man. Apart from the energy in this room, there was nothing else.

Room 18 temp: 17 to 21 c
Not a very nice energy, it smelt of horse dung in here and different to room 17. This was an overwhelming energy like there was an angry spirit present. What we all picked up on was a biggish man. Amanda picked up on Sam and the spirit did not like this and said to Marion and me: “No it’s Samuel Johnson and I’m the owner”. This man ruled this area from the late 1600s to early 1700s; not a very nice character but did us no harm. Again, we would have liked longer in rooms 16 and 17 as these were very interesting rooms.

Room 16 temp: 17 to 18 c
This room is very interesting and we picked up on four energies in this room. One was a little girl kneeling at the end of the bed, two men one of whom died of a heart attack and a lady in a red dress. I picked up from her that she was attacked and raped and then murdered in 1685. She was aged 24 and had been waiting for her lover to meet her there when 3 men entered the room and attacked her.

Amanda picked up on someone being shot in the temple and killed which might tie in with the other man. In this room, there is a lot of energy and time line energies and it’s getting all mixed up. I think that a proper Ouija board session could produce good results here. I personally found that I was getting very drained in this room and was being sapped of all my energy, getting very tired and it was a job to focus.

Room 15 temp: 18 c
A very nice room, none of the team picked up anything in this room at all.

Room 23 temp: 7 to 8 c
This room was very cold the heating was very cold, the energy in this room was energy of a stables and horses, it felt very cold here so the team and I left for room 27.

Room 27 temp: 17 to 18 c
Not much picked up in this room.

Main Pub Area - Breakfast Room
This area is left of the main entrance it feels like the oldest part of the building; Julie had split the whole team in two. What I had picked up from this building is the amount of renovation it has been through from a pub to a manor house back to a pub. The earliest time I picked from this building was 1450ish; I felt like a cavalier walked around this area and stood near the fire. Marie felt a young boy and a dog sitting in front of the fireplace that had been replaced from an old wooden-beamed fireplace and has been replaced with a Georgian fireplace. I also picked up on a fire that took place in this pub and destroyed the inside, the date of this, I did not get. I personally think that this side of the pub is a very active and would need investigating again with a smaller group and hopefully spending a lot more time.

Old Bar Area
This area is to the right of the main entrance. The group sat in this area and a few of us picked up on an old man sitting in the corner drinking his beer at a corner seat and a round table. I personally didn’t pick up much from this man, as he just wanted to be left alone so I did the right thing and respected his wishes. Amanda said that she didn’t pick up on the man anymore and we all heard noises from the toilets, doors opening and closing and what sounded like a toilet flushing. This was very strange and some of the group were a bit apprehensive to check so, Amanda, Marion and I went to investigate. A presence was felt but it felt like just an energy of a man.

We all sat back down in our seats and settled down until the noise from the toilets came again like a door closing. We were watching the main toilet door to see what would happen when the doors to the car park opened and slammed on their own. After a second or two I rushed out with Amanda and looked around and no-one was there. Sandy checked the car park with me and still no-one was seen. This was a very unusual experience and the first one of this kind I have witnessed; again, this pub needs extended research and investigation.

Overall thoughts
I personally think it’s a very active place with a lot of history to be discovered, I would like to see another investigation here as I know we could pick up a lot more and when it gets warmer we could also investigate the immediate area.

I would like to thank Julie and the whole team for a really exciting and interesting night and hopefully I will join you all again on another investigation soon, it was a pleasure to meet you all and work with you all. I would also like to thank Amanda, Maureen and Marion. It was very nice working with such experienced people.

Marion McCaffery

We all met up inside the actual Inn and had a warming drink before being shown where we were doing our vigils. I was in Team 2 with Amanda, Paul and Maureen.

First, we were in the hotel area of the Inn, which was a separate building at the back.

Room 17 Average Temp 19C
The Camcorder and tape machines were set up. It felt quite comfortable in this room and I kept getting the name Jack in my head. Paul picked up on an energy in the bathroom of a man aged between 40 and 50. H had a leather waistcoat, a white long-sleeved shirt, cap, dark boots and brown trousers who looked after the horses in the early 1800s. I offered up the name Jack, and Paul agreed with me. When he was asked to do something for us like touching someone, whistling, etc. I felt the top of my head being touched.

Room 18 Average Temp 20C
We set up the machinery.

I did not like this room very much as it felt oppressive. A lot of things were picked up by the group as far back as the 1600s, including a lady in a red dress who was murdered robbed and raped in the room. She was waiting for a coach to arrive with a man with whom she had a rendezvous. She was attacked from behind. There were three different deaths in this room, one as recently as the early 2000s. I felt quite nauseous and drained of energy in this room. I also got the name “Mary” in this room and the energy of a cat.

Room 15 Average Temp 18C
This room felt calm and peaceful. Nothing was noted in this room. We went back to Room 16 for 15 minutes to experiment with glass divination. Nothing was picked up.

Room 31 Average Temp 18C
There seemed to be a lot of residual energy in this room.

Room 27 Average Temp 22C
Pains were felt by two of the members of the group. Paul picked up on a boy called Albert who died around 1897 when something fell on him. I felt a touching on the top of my head.

At the end of the evening the group spilt into two groups and alternately held vigils in both ends of the Inn. I felt nothing at all although other people did. I am still a sceptical believer. Until I actually get something more tangible I will remain so.

TEAM 3

Maria Street

All I knew of the Feathers was that it was in Ware, Hertfordshire. I had no idea it was such a welcoming place with a lovely charm about it. I travelled up with Maureen and Amanda, and after a two and a half hour drive, we met in the warm and cosy bar area for a welcome cup of coffee. After chatting with Laura, the assistant manager, we made our way over to the hotel rooms, which were separate to the pub itself. We set up our team room in the Reception area and started our vigils. I was in Team 3 with Jim, Mark P and Marie. We started in Room 16 and my first thought was how comfortable it felt. The heating was on, which was very welcome as the night was extremely cold. Jim set up a trigger object experiment.

We settled down and Jim started to film on his camcorder. Almost immediately he spotted a light anomaly go across the screen, but could this have been dust caused by us just having walked into the room. It may be interesting to see what it shows on closer inspection. We sat quietly for a while but could not sense anything, so we called out. We had no response for a while but all of a sudden, I, along with Mark, noticed the room get darker and the temperature dropped. Unfortunately, nothing further happened until we had nearly finished in the room. Our walkie-talkie went off, but nobody had pressed it. We were all on Channel 5 so not a common wavelength. It happened again three minutes later, as did Simon’s in Team 4. It was interesting to note that he was in the room next door to us, which is where we were headed for our next vigil. Unfortunately, Room 15 proved to be as quiet as Room 16. We tried every tactic such as calling out, sitting quietly and talking amongst ourselves, but to no avail. We moved on to Room 17 and did the same again, but still very quiet although Marie spotted a red light by the bathroom door. Our next vigil was in Room 18, which proved to be just as quiet.

We went for our break, and then made our way to the Cambridge Suite and to Room 31. This had a different feeling straight away as there was no heating on in this room and it was very cold. The first thing we noticed was a light tap which seemed to come from the entrance to the room. We called out and were treated to a very loud bang coming from the TV. This happened a further two times. Our time soon ran out but we decided we would return to this room a little later on. Our next vigil was back to Room 17 where I spotted a red light on the wardrobe. I had forgotten that this was the room that Marie had also spotted a red light earlier. Despite our best efforts, nothing more happened here. We moved back to Room 16 to start a special experiment. This room had been chosen as a room to try a different experiment per group. We were using a Franks Box, which transmits a continuous radio signal in the hope of picking up spirit voices. We seemed to be in touch with a spirit of somebody who had died from drugs. Sadly, I am not very good at picking up these voices, or of discerning any alleged spirit voices from those of a radio broadcaster. I would like to do this again however as it was interesting and something a little different from the norm.

Once we had finished there, we moved back to Room 31. It was just as cold as before and we all settled down. The temperature surprisingly was 11c. It felt much colder. We called out and asked if ‘they’ would like us to leave. We asked for one tap for ‘yes’, one for ‘no’. The answer came back as one tap on the wall. We asked for something better and two very loud bangs came from the TV. We asked again ‘shall we leave’ and we heard one tap on the wall by the entrance. Our time was up anyway, so we left but would have loved to investigate this room further.

The next stage of our vigil was in the pub and here we split into two teams. Our team started at the far end and the first thing I felt was my chair move. There was nobody close enough to me to have moved it so I have no idea what caused it to move. It seemed to quieten down after this so we tried a glass divination. The glass did seem to be trying to move and it wobbled slightly a couple of times, but there was nothing more definite than this.

For the next stage of our vigil we moved to the dining area and all sat at different tables. At one point we all heard the door go. I walked over to the window to see if there was anybody outside and two members from the other team went through the door and outside to see if there was anybody there, but there wasn’t. As I was stood by the window I looked towards the kitchen and felt very uneasy. I felt that somebody was stood there just staring. I confirmed this with the three staff members there with us and they stated they did not like the kitchen area at all. I sat back down and we called out again. Julie and Simon both smelt the aroma of flowers and the smell of an old man. Sarah felt we had two spirits with us, a man and a lady, and the man was unhappy. Julie and Simon also heard a loud noise from the bar area and we went to investigate, but there was nothing there. This heralded the end of our evening and we packed up the cars and set off for our long journey home. I would like to thank our hosts for the evening, you were very welcoming. Thank you also to Paul for securing the investigation. This is a lovely place and well worth a visit.

Mark Pettet

Team: Myself, Maria, Marie, Jim.

1st Vigil Room 16. Hotel.
After settling down and turning the lights off there was no real atmosphere present to speak of. We started to call out but to avail; we then proceeded to talk amongst ourselves, which changed the feeling of the room. Both Maria and I had a shiver and were feeling cold, at that time it felt that the room had got a lot darker for a little while. Calling out didn’t seem to have any results after 15mins. I was drawn however to the bottom of the door and had a feeling of an animal presence possibly a largish dog, not menacing in any way more like guarding something.

1st Vigil part 2 Room 15.
This room was very quiet and can honestly say that I had no sense of any kind of feeling in this room.

2nd Vigils Rooms 17 & 18
These two rooms were very un-active apart from a light breeze across my face when lying on the bed in room 17, but I put that down to a large gap at the bottom of the door.

Experimental Vigils
This saw us move from room to room this is due to experiments going on in room 16 by each group, each having a different way of communicating i.e.: EVP, glass divination, divining rods and my team was using a Franks (ghost) box. We all had pre-written questions to call out and the idea was to see if teams get any of the same answers, though not knowing the answers to this I couldn’t say if we were successful, but a great idea it was to conduct this.

Main Pub Area.
Unfortunately for me the only experience for myself here was a scratching noise that came from the bar area which Julie heard as well. Due to the disturbance earlier in this vigil I feel that yes, I do think there is a presence not only in the pub but the hotel side as well.

Marie Holder

Team: Maria Street, Mark Pettet, Jim Leaver and Marie Holder.

After a very long drive, I arrived at the location around 7.45pm. I checked into my room and went down to the bar where I was met by the rest of the team. It appeared to be a very old building, and held a lot of promise. The hotel part of the building looked a lot newer than the pub and therefore I did not expect to experience much in these areas; only time would tell. We got into our teams and made our way to our first vigil.

Vigil 1- Room 16
Maria and Jim called out but got no response. My first impressions of this room were of it being extremely quiet. Mark thought the presence he felt might be an animal rather than human, which would explain the lack of response. I got a strange sensation of feeling cold, like a tingling, but did not feel cold physically, in fact I was sweating! Maria and Mark on the other hand said they felt cold.

Room 15
I did not experience anything unusual in this room.

Vigil 2 – Room 17
As I was sitting on the bed I saw a red light blink towards the bottom of the toilet door. I thought it might have been Jim checking the temperature but he wasn’t using his temperature gun at the time. Nothing else unusual happened on this vigil.

Room 18
I did not experience anything unusual in this room.

Vigil 3 – Room 31
It was extremely cold in this room, but there was no heating on and it was a very cold night. When calling out we all heard 3 loud taps on the television. Mark thought it might be the plastic expanding due to putting the heating on, but the room had not heated up that much while we were in there.

Room 17
I experienced nothing unusual in this room.

Vigil 4 – Room 16
We tried a franks box experiment in this room where you set up a radio scanner to constantly scan the AM or FM frequencies, you ask questions and occasionally you receive answers. We asked the questions which we set out by Sarah and we got a few answers back

Vigil 5 – Room 31
Again we heard two very audible taps on the television and one tap on the wall. We used the “one tap for yes and two taps for no”, we asked if they wanted us to leave and one tap was heard on the television. We asked again and one very loud tap was heard again on the television.

Vigil 6 – Bar Area 1 (near breakfast area)
I experienced nothing unusual in this area

Bar Area 2
After a very quiet start to this vigil, we all heard the door to the bar slam shut of its own accord, there was no wind and if there was it couldn’t have made the door slam, as it’s a very heavy door. Someone went out to investigate but could find no cause.

I experienced nothing else unusual in this area.

Conclusion
After a very quiet start to this investigation it seemed to get better as the night went on. My favourite area has to be room 31, as those noises were so very audible and seemed to be responding to our questions.

I would like to thank the owners for allowing us to investigate.

TEAM 4

Simon Steadman

Vigil 1
Room 10 and 15
Team - Sarah, Mark, Gill and myself
Room 15.
E.M.F - none.
TEMP - 18-19
E.V.P - none.

As soon as we entered the room we experienced a musty stale smell.
During the 30-minute vigil 6 light anomalies were caught on night vision digital video camera.
The only other odd occurrence experienced was the walkie-talkie that sounded the call alarm. On checking this, none of the other teams had pressed the button and all had heard the alarm noise.

Room 10.
E.M.F - none.
TEMP - 20
E.V.P - none.

We entered this room and we all experienced a very strong smell of flowers, we checked the room for pot pourri, air fresheners (plug in and free standing) we even checked the bathroom for toilet fresheners. We did notice that a window was open so we closed that. Approximately 5 minutes later the smell had dissipated. We then opened the window again to check for any external smells that it could have been but no explanation could be found for this strange smell. We did hear a few out of place noises coming from the bathroom and at the end of the vigil we discovered that the toilet bowl had filled to the brim. We know that this was OK before as we checked the loo for fresheners.

Vigil 2
Room 30 and 31
TEAM - Sarah, Mark, Gill and myself
Room 30.
E.M.F - none.
TEMP - 10-15
E.V.P - none.

The first thing about this room was how cold it was compared to all the others this was due to the broken heater. The only unusual thing to occur in this room was 2 whimper noises heard by the whole team. No explanation could be found for this.

Room 31.
E.M.F - none.
TEMP - 5-9
E.V.P - none.

This room was another very cold room due to no heating. When we called out for some kind of phenomena to occur we did hear taps and creaks coming from the TV these had no explanation and remain unsolved. During this vigil I did have a personal experience, as I couldn’t help but find things funny, I felt really at home and comfortable but this is the only room I had these feeling in.

Vigil 3
Room 26 and 27
TEAM - Sarah and myself

Room 26.
E.M.F - none.
TEMP - 28
E.V.P - none.

We both noticed an odd pattern on the wall that looked like grease or watermarks that were present all through the vigil. Sarah sat on the bed and I sat on the chair. On calling out we heard 3 distinct taps behind the chair I then moved to the bed and on calling out again we heard 3 more taps from the wall. No other evidence was captured.

Room 27
E.M.F - none.
TEMP - 19
E.V.P - none.

Julie and Rachel joined us on this vigil. One light anomaly was caught on the stills camera in this room and four light anomalies were caught on night vision digital video.

Rachel had some good results with the divining rod experiment and during calling out, a loud bang was heard from the bathroom. We discovered that an entity using the name of Jack” was present in the room.

Vigil 4
Room 16 and 18
TEAM - Sarah, Mark, Gill and myself (we were also joined by 3 hotel staff)

Room 18.
E.M.F - none.
TEMP - 22
E.V.P - none.

This 30-minute vigil really consisted of a small Q & A session for the guests to put them a little more at ease with what we do.

Room 16.
E.M.F - none.
TEMP - 19
E.V.P - none.

This vigil was a controlled experiment with a set series of questions that the different teams all had. The 3 guests that (very bravely) joined us were a little apprehensive and even though a couple of taps were heard and one light anomaly was caught they stayed through to the end.

Vigil 4
Pub and breakfast room
TEAM - Julie, Maria, Maureen, Mark, Sarah, 3 hotel staff guests and myself.
Pub area.
E.M.F - none.
TEMP - 20
E.V.P - none.

Two lock-off night vision digital video cameras.

We attempted a glass divination experiment and I thought I saw a figure sitting next to Julie at a table but this could have been just corner of the eye movement. There were quite a few noises heard from along the bar (which was separating the 2 vigil areas). On investigation nothing was out of place or moving, this vigil was interrupted by a disturbance in the hotel reception so after resolving this the group decided to swap ends in the pub.

Breakfast room area.
E.M.F - none.
TEMP - 20
E.V.P - none.

The team positioned themselves in pairs in this room and we proceeded to call out. We first got a strange sweat odour and a perfume smell that seemed to come and go throughout the vigil. This seemed to occur every time we asked for a response. There were also numerous bangs and noises again coming from the bar area. Julie and myself heard male voices and the sound of fingers being drummed on the bar. On investigation we again found nothing out of place.

During the whole investigation we did have some strange activity with the walkie-talkies as at quite a few intervals the call button alarm was heard by the whole group, these need some kind of human interaction before the alarm is heard but no team member activated the alarm.

The Feathers pub and hotel was an interesting location to investigate and even though the hotel building looks modern a lot of phenomena was caught and it really deserves more attention and another visit. My thanks go out to the staff who joined us for the night and braved the ‘horrors’ of the infamous room 16. Can’t wait to return.

Sarah Couper

The inn, on first appearance, looked like typical English country pub. Its atmosphere was warm and inviting when we went in. The inn has a hotel section separate to the main building – internally this reminded me of a barn conversion especially with the old beams running through the upstairs rooms. Overall my first impressions were good.

Team 4 Simon, Mark, Gill and myself

Vigil 1
Room 15

Upon entering I remarked that the room smelt kind of stale like cooking fat smells. We noted that the floors were extremely creaky in here. Temperature was 19.1c and no EMF readings were picked up. We noted that the small window in this room did not shut properly and this meant we could hear outside noises clearly. However, no breeze or draught was felt by the window. I took photos in this room and on further analyse have some light anomalies.

We settled down and after a while I noticed that although my top half was warm my knees down were very cold. We ruled out a draught and took a new temp reading by me which was 18.1c. Around the same time Gill had the sensation of there being someone being stood in front of her. Other than this despite calling out nothing really happened other than the walkie-talkie going off twice inexplicably.

Room 10

Upon entering we were all struck be a strong scent of flowers – we searched for air freshener but there were none in the room. En suite had no scent despite the door being open. The window had been open when we entered this room and we closed it – however we checked for flowers or window boxes first, of which there was none. Again I took some photos which upon analysis had a couple of anomalies. Temp reading was average 21c there were no EMF readings. Simon felt coldness on his side of the room.

Vigil 2
Room 30

It was cold upon entering this room – temp 15.3c. In this room I heard an “hmmmm” noise; initially Mark thought it might have been a tummy noise though none of our stomachs had made the noise. Gill and I both agreed that it came from the opposite end of room to Mark. We heard it once more, but despite call outs nothing else happened.

Room 31

It was extremely cold in this room. The window was loose but no obvious draughts could be felt or seen. No EMF readings were detected. In here when we called out we heard taps which -when we replicated – appeared to be being made on the TV screen. Otherwise this room was pretty quiet.

Vigil 3

We split into two pairs for this vigil in rooms 26 and 27, swapping after 15 minutes. I was paired with Simon.

Room 27

Average temp 28c – room was very warm. Took photos - One anomaly. This room had strange patterning of wet looking patches on the wall. Simon touched these and found that they did feel slightly damp. We called out in here and got some taps in response.

Room 26 – Rachel and Julie joined us in this vigil.

Took photos - a couple of anomalies. This room was cooler than the previous room. Rachel did a dowsing rod experiment in this room and appeared to be getting some positive replies to her questions. On the camcorder I picked up some strange light anomalies.

Room 18

Some members of staff joined us on this one, Simon and I spent a few minutes explaining what might happen and what we would do during the vigil. Temp was 22c and a member of staff confirmed that we were next door to the boiler. Sounds were coming up from people staying in room below. Nothing happened in this room though and we all agreed that it felt quite comfortable.

Room 16

We were again joined by staff. In this room every team was doing an experiment; ours was EVP. Simon and I used the recorders, a member of staff did the filming and Gill asked pre-scripted questions. After the questions we had a few minutes silence followed by a few minutes general conversation and the asked the pre-scripted questions again. For the second set of questions I stood outside of the en suite. In the middle of the questions myself and a member of staff clearly heard some raps to the side of us. I then began to feel really uneasy about where I was stood and my legs felt strange, the staff member filming at the time commented that they saw a light across in front of me. I moved away and Simon went into the en suite for the rest of the questions. We left the room after the experiment was finished.

Vigil 4
The public house

We split into larger teams for this and took either end of the pub to work in. We started in the bottom end of the bar. We took photos and called out. We distinctly heard voices and checked with the other group if it was them – it wasn’t. I had my digital recorder going at this point and during our discussion of the voices we heard you can distinctly hear on the playback another voice which said ‘you’re very thoughtful’. This was out of context with the conversation being held in the group. A member of staff heard a noise in the toilets behind us, so I went with them to investigate. However, we only found noisy drains in the gents. We then started a glass divination but got only small movements and vibrations from the glass.

The teams swapped ends and we moved up to the breakfast room. Here it was colder. We called out and were aware of some noises. I became aware of two spirits one irate male and one calmer female. Julie asked if I wanted call out but I said no and explained that the spirits were not really interested in us. Simon called out again challenging for something to happen. Julie and Simon then began to smell a foul body odour (which upon leaving most of us could smell) then followed by the flower scent that we encountered in room 10 – I had the feeling that the female spirit had been with us in room 10.

Across from where we were, were the hotel rooms I noticed that one of the curtains moved. The staff members confirmed that there were no people staying in those rooms. During the time in this area a number of things were heard or sensed by members of the team. And the other team were also experiencing some activity. During the majority of the vigils I recorded using a camcorder – I captured a number of anomalies in most locations

All in all this was a fairly interesting location that may warrant further investigation.

Mark Boulton

I was placed in team 2 with Gill, Sarah and team leader Simon. We started the vigils in the hotel block across the car park from the main pub. This appeared to be more recent in construction than the Inn itself, and is probably a barn/stable conversion.

Our first vigil started at 22:10 in Room 15. This room was upstairs, situated just above a porch to the left of the main entrance, fairly small and had a partly sloping ceiling. It had a central wooden beam running across and 2 foot below the ceiling with a hatch to the loft space. The floor was fairly uneven and the boards were very creaky. On first entering the room we smelt a ‘fatty’ type-cooking odour. During the vigil Gill felt there was a dark ‘figure like’ shadow in front of her, and Sarah thought she saw some light anomalies, but other than that all was quiet.

After about half an hour we moved to Room 10. This was again up stairs. On entering this room there was a very pronounced flowery smell. We searched the room to try and find the source but could not find any. We even looked outside but there was no obvious source, the smell gradually died away during the vigil. This room was slightly bigger than the last and had an en-suite. We called out a few times but other than the en suite door creaking once again we had nothing happen.

After a short break we embarked on our second vigil, rooms 30 and 31. Both are situated on the ground floor in a newer area called the ‘Cambridge Suite’, but still attached to the main hotel. Room 30 was a very small room and was extremely dusty and nothing was recorded or noted. Room 31 was a very cold room (approx 9 C) and was on a bit of an angle. I sat on a chair beneath the wall mounted TV. We did hear several pronounced knocks that apparently came from above my head but other than that nothing was noted.

After another short break, we again went back into the Cambridge Suite for rooms 26 and 27, this time we split into two teams of two (I was with Gill). Again there were little or no experiences to report.

During the next break we were joined by three local guests from the staff who accompanied us for the rest of the night.

The fourth vigil was back in the main hotel area rooms 18 and 16. I will mention here that there was a lot of excitement about room 16 going throughout the whole group. Room 18 was uneventful, so we went on into room16…this room seemed to be a cut above the rest and had better TV and DVD facilities and an en-suite. Even with the build up (other than our guests not wanting to go in) nothing much obvious happened. We did however try an experiment, in that we read out some pre-prepared generic questions. I believe all groups who went into room 16 did the same. If so I do think that this was a very good idea and one that should be used again in future investigations.

The last vigils of the night were to be held in the Feathers Inn building proper. The whole group split into two, each to do either end of the ground floor, then swap over. During these times there were noises heard, one door in particular being very noisy but no definite phenomena was experienced. There also was a couple of ‘senses’ of spirits, an older man (50 ish) and a younger woman (20’s) but that would appear to be all.

Obviously not being privy to the photos, videos or audio taken, to me The Feathers Inn is a nice country style Pub, but that was it.

Gillian O’Farrell

I was in a team lead by Simon, with Sarah and Mark B. the vigils started in the hotel that was at the back of the pub building. As we were staying in the hotel in preference to driving home at 4am we had a chance to check out the hotel side before the investigation started. It seemed to be a relatively newer building that had been recently refurbished. It gave the impression of being some kind of barn or stables given the wooden beams at random places.

Our first vigil was in Room 15, which was a rather small room with a central beam and a loft hatch. There was a strange musty type of smell. I sat under the window on the wall opposite the door. As I sat there I began to experience a strong feeling as if someone was standing in front of me. I could see small twinkling lights as if there was a mass in that space. It seemed as if this investigation was going to prove productive!

Next we moved onto Room 10. As soon as we entered we could all smell a distinctive flowery type smell. There were no plants outside and nothing in the room that we could find to explain this. We did some calling out but didn’t really have much response. However, when we were leaving Sarah went into the ensuite bathroom and the toilet bowl had filled-up.

Our next vigil was in the other end of the hotel called the Cambridge Suite. The first room was room 30 which we found to be extremely dusty but inactive in terms of phenomena. Next was Room 31, which was unbearably cold. In fact I found it so cold I couldn’t wait to get out! Some of the team felt they could hear a few knocks from the area of the TV but again we got very little activity.

We spilt into two pairs (Simon and Sarah, me and Mark B) and did vigils in Rooms 26 and 27. Despite lots of asking out, I could ascertain no activity.

The next vigil was to be the experiment in Rooms 18 and 16. Accompanying us were three staff members who were interested in working with us. Not a lot happened in Room 18 so we moved onto Room 16. It was obvious from the staff members’ reaction that they had some knowledge of this room. They were reluctant to go in and after a private discussion, they joined us. This room seemed quite pleasant although I was drawn to the shower area in the bathroom and experienced a sensation of pressure around the neck. I felt though, that this was residual energy and that there were probably not many experiences associated with this room. We did an interesting experiment with EVPs; I read some pre-scripted questions that were recorded in an attempt to engender audible responses. Despite the palpable tension of the staff members little was evident although there were a couple of noises and knocks.

After closing time when the last customers had long left to their homes, we moved into the main pub building and spilt into two larger groups. I felt a lack of character in this area and there was confusion about the history of the place; it seemed as it there were several different time layers tacked together. I personally picked up nothing in this area although we were interrupted by a disturbance back in the hotel.

The second part of the pub vigil was in the opposite end bar area. By this time, people were getting very tired and concentration levels were dropping. At one stage noises were heard from the toilet. My opinion was that these were most likely rationally explained as plumbing or other building noises. When some of the group were investigating, the set of door leading to the garden partially opened. I think this was due to air movements rather than of paranormal origin.

This marked the end of the formal investigation and we went off to our room for a good sleep before the journey home. Several times in the night I was awoken by a knocking which seemed to be emanating from the ceiling. I knew that the rooms above were not occupied as we had all been investigating them earlier. The Room above us was No. 10. The knocking was intermittent and irregular and did not sound like it was created by shrinkage, temperature drop or plumbing. It occurred on a few occasions and I could not find a rational explanation for it. Either way, I didn’t lose any sleep over it!