Southern Paranormal - Investigations
Fort Widley
Saturday 12th February 2011
Attending Investigators Julie Harwood, Sarah Pettet, Amanda Horley, Maureen Taylor, Marie Holder, Steve Boston, Robin Turton, Brian Witt, Wendy Callaway, Zoe Anderson, David Baxter, Amy Coxhead, Gilly Utting, Daniel Cook, Paul Flexman.
Guests Sarah & Bev
The Investigation
Vigil Teams
Team 1
Brian - Team leader
Julie
Sarah
Wendy
Paul
Daniel
Bev
Sarah
Team 2
Steve - Team leader
Amanda - Team leader
Maureen
Marie
Robin
Amy
Gilly
David
Zoe
Itinerary
7.20pm Team meet outside East Gate
7.30pm Enter fort
8.00pm Settle into team room & set up team equipment Sarah & Julie to speak to newest members & guests
9.00pm Vigil 1
Team 1 East & North Tunnel
Team 2 West tunnel, team room complex, stable area & grounds
10.30pm Break - 30 minutes
11.00pm Vigil 2
Team 1 & 2 Team room/building complex for experiments
12.00am Break - 30 minutes
12.30am Vigil 3
Team 1 West tunnel, team room complex, stable area & grounds
Team 2 East & North tunnel
2.00am Break - 15 minutes
2.15am Vigil 4
Team 1 & 2 work together about where they would like to investigate during this vigil. If the team splits up then one team leader (Amanda, Steve, Sarah or Brian) must be with each smaller group.
3.15am Pack up
3.45am Depart
Personal Reports
Brian Witt
We started in the north tunnel. We walked down about half way and stopped to get used to the dark. We called out here for a while but had no response. We then walked down to the end rooms. There were open gaps in the walls that allowed air flow through the area. In the centre of the room we had a table and chairs so we sat down and started calling out again. At one point I started getting pain in my head which came on very suddenly and went away just as quickly after about 5 minutes. It was commented that someone could smell leather. When this had been said I could also smell leather but this may have just been suggestion.
The second vigil was in the kit room. We had 2 tables at either end of the room with letters and numbers on the table and a glass in the middle. One table was in the light and the other was very dark. I started on the dark table. We had no responses for 5 -10 minutes, but then to my surprise the glass started moving. It was not quick movements and didn’t seem to be pointing to any letters or numbers. The glass did move from the centre of the table to the edge. I believe the video camera was running the whole time. Apart from the glass moving the most interesting incident for me was my finger being touched. It was on the glass (nail down) and I felt someone touch my finger. I moved it to the left and touched Wendy’s finger. I said to Wendy “ah you just touched my finger” she replied “no, you just touched mine” I said “no before that”. Steve then told us that no one had touched my finger as he was watching it on the camera. It felt exactly the same as when I touched Wendy’s finger so I can’t explain that one. Our third vigil was in the communications room. We did hear some sounds that could not be explained, but they were not in response to questions. Analysis of the audio is needed here as some of the sounds where very interesting. For the forth vigil we tried the table work again for some members who had not seen the glass move in the previous test. We had very similar results to the first attempt. There was nothing conclusive but very interesting to see the glass move again. For the last vigil we went back down to the tunnel areas that we had not visited. Very interesting to explore but nothing paranormal happened.
Julie Harwood
Vigil 1:
On our way into the tunnels I was walking behind Sarah (who was leading the team down) and she stopped abruptly and asked what I had said. I had not said anything but apparently she had heard a voice close by her.
We congregated half way down the North tunnel. We called out but I personally did not experience anything out of the ordinary.
At the end of the North tunnel we all sat around a table and started calling out. I was unbearably cold for most of the time we were sat here. I do not usually suffer from feeling the cold so this was slightly unusual. It was cold in there however I remember Brian and Bev saying they actually felt quite comfortable and I could not believe this as I was frozen. There was a small temperature difference between where we were all sitting (I believe near me was 2 degrees lower than around some other members) but I found it hard to fathom that it would make this much difference.
Having sat there for a bit longer I was now almost convulsely shaking and could not stand it much longer so swapped seats with Wendy who was sat just behind me. I have to admit I felt a little better here and Wendy could feel it was colder where I was sat. I have to consider that I may have been sat in a draught as I was sat facing the entrance to the tunnel and also had open to the elements windows either side of me.
While sat at the table Paul felt the sensation of someone breathing on his neck (behind him).
We decided to go up to the rooms above and some strange noises were heard in here by one of our guests and some of the team but we could not find a reasonable explanation for these noises.
Vigil 2:
As a group we tried 2 glass experiments with letters around the tables, running simultaneously in the team room, one lit, one in the dark. I was sat at the table that was in the darkness at first and we seemed to be getting movement in response to Amanda asking questions however as I recall it did not make an awful lot of sense. This I must admit did surprise me as I thought the dark experiment, where the letters could not be seen would be the one that got the least result. This proved not to be the case. Sarah who was overseeing the experiment for both groups regularly swapped members around between tables. I was moved to the lit team and the glass there was not moving at all and didn’t for the whole experiment. Very interestingly, the dark experiment continued moving regardless of who was sat there and at intervals each member took their finger off of it and it continued to move.
Vigil 3:
Our vigil team stayed in the team room, while Amanda & Steve’s team went down to the tunnels. We tried a glass divination again and the glass did seem to move in response to Sarah asking questions. It was good experience for the new members however I don’t think any useful information was gained from this experiment.
We then went down to the communications room. This was an odd feeling room and was the only one that evening, for me, that had a noticeable atmosphere.
We called out and heard lots of creaks and taps however there were a lot of us in a small room and so we felt that it was more likely to be the floor and walls settling rather than anything paranormal.
I was stood by the door with the window into the corridor. I hated it and felt that I was going to see someone walk past. I had to stand with my back to it.
We could also hear noises overhead us but we debunked this as Brian noted that if you leant on the door frame it caused a loud noise above us which is what we had heard.
Just as we were planning on leaving, there was a very loud noise (I have to say like someone had wind!) but it came from behind us all. We tried to replicate the noise and when we moved one of the old communications board, we could identify that as the noise. Oddly enough no one was able to stand anywhere near where the noise came from as it was set back on the tables and was very heavy! We were not able to get this noise to happen again and so we headed back to the team room.
Due to having to leave a little early this was the end of the night for me but just before I left I was very interested to see and here what the other team had experienced / seen etc.
Sarah Pettet
Vigil 1
On the way down to the tunnels, just before entrance, I heard a voice whisper right behind me; unfortunately this was not heard by anyone else.
In the north tunnel – we stopped half way down the tunnel, took temperature readings, photos etc and called out. We didn’t get any response so we moved on down to the rooms at the end of the tunnel.
In the ground floor room we took readings, photos and then sat round the table in the room and prepared to call out. I checked the distance between myself and Dan as it felt noticeably (in such a cold room) warmer on my right side. Dan was not sat close enough to me to be the cause of the difference in temperature. The temperature was measured and it was 2 degrees warmer than the rest of the area around us. I became aware of a face appearing between myself and Dan to my right, after establishing this was Dan moving I became aware of another figure by the side of Julie in front of Wendy. And another between Brian and Sarah – the temperatures were taken in each of these areas and was warmer than the rest of the area as well. We called out some more and began to hear foot shuffles around us that we were unable to explain. We were noticeably giggly whilst we were in here and then suddenly at one point went very sombre, then back to giggly. It was a strange atmosphere. I got the impression of a group of men sat round playing cards but nothing more despite trying to request some form of communication. We were not able to draw anything close enough to do anything more though. We went up to the upper gallery level. Here Dan and I explored one of the side rooms. In here I twice heard a voice. The first time I couldn’t make out the first word but the second time I clearly heard “here”. We left the room to explore elsewhere. Afterwards Bev also heard a strange noise emanate from the same room. None of the team were in it or near it at the time. Finding nothing more we decided to move on.
We decided to go back to the entrance where I heard the voice. We called out here and took some photos, although we heard the odd sound we could get nothing more before the vigil ended.
Vigil 2
Experiment in kit room
We set up two tables with words and letters and a glass on to do some divination work – one team would do this in complete darkness and at the other end of the room one would work under torch light. I split the group into 2 teams – each team had a few people not participating they had to ask the questions and record what was happening. Interestingly the table in darkness were getting more response than the table in light. To ensure fairness and mix up energy I also swapped team members around, but it made no difference to the results.
Vigil 3
Team room and communication room
We moved on to the communication room. To begin with we were hearing creaks and tapping noises which appeared to be in response to call outs but also even when we didn’t ask for anything. We managed to rule out paranormal activity for this as it appeared to be the floor settling to our weight. Over-head noises were also ruled out as we found if anyone lent on the door or door frame it would cause sounds that appeared to be happening above us. We were not getting anything substantial so we decided to leave and as we were about to go we all heard a very strange noise, like one of the communication boards moving. We were not able to replicate or resolve this noise and we hope we have caught it on audio recorder. We could not get anything further in here though so ended the vigil.
Vigil 4
Tunnels
Some of the team had to leave early so Amanda and I bought the team together to choose where they would like to investigate. Some choose to stay in the team room but the majority wanted to go back down to the tunnels. I went with the tunnel team due to the inexperience of some of the team members.
I went with Brian’s group to the west tunnel whilst Steve took some the group to the north tunnel. Brian’s group looked round the tunnel but the atmosphere felt a little flat, although Bev remarked that she felt uncomfortable in the West rooms.
We changed with Steve’s group and went into the north tunnel rooms. Again we sat round the table. We felt giggly again in here and then went quiet as if uneasy again then back to giggly. I became aware of shadowy figures seemingly darting around. When calling out we heard the odd noise but nothing conclusive. The rest of the team joined us for the last 15 minutes but nothing substantial happened. And although I don’t think any of us wanted to we had to end the vigil.
Summary
For me personally, Fort Widley was even more active than it had been for me previously. I didn’t think I would enjoy the investigation as much as I did and would like to thank Julie for convincing me to come along to this one.
Maureen Taylor
Its many years since I visited Fort Widley, at a time when it was possible to visit and go on a guided tour of the fort. However, that was so long ago - that I remember little of it; so it was great to be able to go back and renew my acquaintance with the place.
West tunnel and team room complex
Tunnel - - Interesting to see how this set of tunnels were obviously once meant as stabling for a considerable number of horses, a sign of the times in which the fort was constructed. Unfortunately while I was in the tunnels I didn’t pick up on anything that could be considered out of the ordinary, it was very quiet down here for me.
Corridor below the team room - - This area can’t really be considered to be two rooms, but rather a wide corridor linking several rooms. We wandered through, and then all the team members selected a spot to settle down. Gilly and I found ourselves in one half of the corridor, while all the others gathered at the other end. Neither of us sensed anything in our area, but things seemed to be happening at the other end – it was a little crowded with six of them along there, so we stayed where we were. Because the acoustics in the building are quite appalling I found it near impossible to catch much of what was going on at the other end of the corridor, so look forward to reading the reports submitted by the other members of our team and finding out what they were getting.
Team Room - - We only spent a short time here as it was getting close to the end of the first vigil, and once again I was picking up on nothing here – though that was to change later in the night.
Ouija/EVP experiments in Team Room
Unusually we set up two tables with glasses and alphabet, with several members of the group around each table, while others observed and recorded what went on.
I started out seated at the table by the windows looking inwards on the fort. Though the glass didn’t move around the table as far as we could tell, there was certainly some movement from it, this was in the form of what I suppose you could call a ‘wobble’, and we could hear it rattling against the table. Every so often team members were called from one table to the other and vice versa – I was called to take a seat at the table nearest the windows that look out over the city. As I walked from one table to the other I had a vague sensation of someone following me, but thought no more of it until a while later when precisely the same thing started happening with the glass on this table as had happened at the other table – it got the ‘wobbles’ and again we could hear it rattling against the table top. We did get some movement from the glass at this end of the room, but it was slow and laboured. We were given no definite answers as the glass, when requested that it be moved to ‘M’ for male or ‘F’ for female didn’t actually reach either letter.
West/North Tunnels
These tunnels just seemed to go on forever. One could quite lose all sense of direction down there. A shame that we didn’t have time to have a good look at all the graffiti carved into the chalk walls of the tunnels. So much of it, covering a considerable time period – from the earlier 1800s right up to the later 20th century. However, time was not on our side and we had to get on with the vigil. Unfortunately, once again, I sensed nothing down here. Other members of the group spent some considerable time trying to work out whether something some of them saw in the distance at the far end of one of the tunnels was actually someone there or something unexplainable, but unfortunately I was sitting in such a position that I was unable to see the phenomenon that they were investigating. Hopefully they will have caught it on video and will be able to work it out eventually.
Final vigil – free choice of where to go
Most members of the group wanted to go back down the tunnels, however, because of a fall I had before Christmas (in all that snow and ice) and a resulting injury to my coccyx I was hurting too much to cope with going down there again, so elected to stay in the team room. Amanda also stayed so that I’d have some company. We got chatting quietly about our experiences of the night and of what she had sensed in this room on a previous night at the fort. When she started talking about a young man that she had felt was in the room I had a definite and very strong sense that someone was standing behind me. Amanda started asking me questions about who I though it might be – male, female, old, young etc etc. As I answered her questions and thought through what I was sensing I realized that this must be the young man, who she thought of as Thomas or Tommy, and who she had picked up on during her previous night here. In the hope that he might be willing to chat to us I got out my dowsing rods. He was reasonably willing to chat to us and we got a fair amount of information out of him. We established that his name was not Thomas/Tommy, but we couldn’t come up with what it was, and he was willing that we should refer to him as Tommy during our conversation. Amanda put him as being in his late teens, which coincided fairly closely with what I was getting. She felt that he had died in an accident on the road outside the fort, possibly a car accident, perhaps a military vehicle. Further questioning suggested that he was actually killed in an accident in either France or Belgium. A date for him? – likely to be towards the latter end of WWII. We established that he stands looking out of the window towards where he used to live in the city, and where, at the time he died, his mother still lived. He told us that he was sad that he had been unable to say goodbye to his mother, and that was why he was still at the fort looking out to where he had once lived. We were both getting quite emotional by this time, and both had to get the tissues out of our pockets to wipe tearful eyes and noses – obviously picking up on his sadness. All too soon the vigil was over and all the others came back from their foray down into the tunnels, and it was time to pack up and go home.
Overall this was an exceedingly uneventful investigation for me, until the final vigil. I actually found that on the last vigil, without all the lights, bells and whistles of all the electronic kit that members now use, I could concentrate more easily and was picking up much more than when surrounded by all the gadgetry – I feel that maybe we should in future have at least one vigil during an investigation where all gadgets other than the basics of digital cameras and camcorders, and maybe just one EMF or KII meter and a laser thermometer, should be banned in order that we can get back to making more of our own abilities and not rely on the electronics.
Steve Boston
On arrival at Fort Widley I was presented with a large impressive Victorian style brick fort structure. I had never been to the site before so this was my first investigation at this location. I was aware that the structure continued underground with many tunnels carved out of the chalk hills. It was fair to say that this was an investigation that I was really looking forward to and little did I know that it was a location that was not going to disappoint. For this investigation I was joint leader of Team 2 with Amanda.
Vigil 1 – West Tunnel Stable Area, Communications Room and Team Room.
2100 – 22.30 approx.
West Tunnel – Riding Stables
We began our evening’s investigation in the West Tunnel that is now used by the equestrian centre as riding stables. We headed down the tunnel to the room at the end. The ambient temperature was 9.4°C; base line K2 readings were negative. We had no responses to repeated calling out, no activations on our EMF Meters, and no changes in temperature. In all, this was a quiet vigil and after a period of time we decided to move back to the main complex and move to the communications room.
Communications Room
We began our vigil by taking a few baseline readings. The ambient temperature was 11.1°C; base line K2 readings were negative. We turned the lights out and settled down and began with some calling out. We had no immediate response, but after a short period members of the team kept hearing someone breathing. We were all fairly confident that it was none of the team. We also kept hearing a strange sound repeatedly, it is hard to explain what it was, and the closest I can come to any explanation is a radio type sound, like a small sound burst of a radio transmission. As we were in what was once a communications room this would fit in with what it was once used for. We had no other occurrences in this room and with time running out for this first set of vigils we headed up to the team room to investigate our last location. We had a slight temperature rise in the communications room which was due to the fact it was a small location and our combined body heat would naturally cause the temperature to rise.
Team Room (Lecture Hall 1)
Having picked up on some unexplained noises in the Communications Room we were keen to see what the rest of Fort Widley had to offer, with this in mind we moved onto the Team Room. The ambient temperature in this room was 13°C. We had picked up some base line readings on the K2 Meter. This was due to older wiring in trunking running up the walls, and there was also a large electrical junction box on the wall. We tried calling out but got no responses. Due to the events in the Communications Room we did not spend a great deal of time in the Team Room. What little time we spent here was very quiet with no events. We had no K2 activations and no changes in temperature. At approximately 22.30 we drew the first set of vigils to a close. Fort Widley had given us a little taste of what we might be in store for as the evening progressed, however at this point nothing that I could definitely put down to being paranormal.
Vigil 2 – Group Vigil In The Team Room – Join Ouija Board Experiment. 2300 – 0000 approx
For our second vigil we joined with team one for a joint Ouija experiment, this was something that I’d never seen done before at past investigations. It involved two groups at opposite ends of the room, both using Ouija Boards to try and capture evidence. Both board sessions were being recorded. One board used letters spread out in alphabetical order and was observed by torch light. The second board had all the letters and numbers mixed up, this session was done in darkness and observed by myself using a 0-Lux Sony Camcorder. The experiment started out slowly with very little glass movement. After approximately twenty minutes we had some movement on our board. It was at this time that I felt something tug on the zip toggle of my left hand jacket pocket. It was strong enough for me to feel my fleece move against my body on my right hand side. Shortly after this Brian asked Wendy if she had just pushed his finger. She was adamant that she had not touched him. I was recording on the Camcorder at the time and was zoomed in on the glass. I can say with no doubt in my mind that Wendy did not touch Brian’s finger. During these sessions Paul also felt his glove get tugged and Gilly had her foot pushed. All these events occurred in the same area and on the board that I was recording. We had a little movement on the glass, however to me the most exciting results came from the physical contact that was made with myself and three other team members. After an hour we drew this session to a close and took a much needed break.
Vigil 3 – East, West & North Tunnels. 0030 – 0200 approx
So far Fort Widley had given us some unexplained noises and some physical contact. With these events in mind we headed down a flight of stairs from the team room and into the tunnels that run beneath Fort Widley. First of all we headed down the West tunnel. The darkness down here was perpetual and torches were a must. I used my 0-Lux Camcorder aided by an IR Torch to see my way down one of the tunnels. On arrival at the end of the tunnel the group settled down. Robin and I explored the vast networks of rooms that lead off from the end of the West tunnel, taking photographs and EMF readings on the K2. We picked up no strange K2 readings during this walk around and went back to join the team. The temperature down here was very cold around 6°C. I carried out an EVP session, this has been reviewed but nothing picked up.
With this section of the tunnels proving quiet and with much more left to investigate we headed back to the large circular room that all the tunnels lead off. This room also contained a large spiral stair case that wound its way up a chimney style construction. This went up approximately 60ft all the way to the surface. We had a brief look around this area then headed down the North Tunnel.
This tunnel seemed somewhat shorter than the previous one. You could see all the way back up to the stairway room. The stairway room had a circular porthole style window in it that faced toward the North Tunnel. The stairway room was also partially lit, this meant you could see ‘light at the end of the tunnel’ if you’ll pardon the pun!!! The team settled down and I had a quick look around the rooms that lead from the end of this tunnel. I carried out another sweep with the K2 but picked up no unusual or background readings. The temperature was around 6°C, as it was in the previous tunnel. Amy experienced some physical interaction in this room, so much so that she felt as if she were being dripped on by water from the roof. I checked her jacket and found this was not the case, her jacket was dry.
After investigating the rooms at the end of this tunnel I settled down and stood just at the end of the tunnel looking back up toward the light in the stairway room. After approximately five minutes I thought I saw a shadow move across and block the light out. I called out my observation. At this point Robin, Amy and I made our way up the tunnel toward the stairway room. We stopped just prior to half way up the tunnel and I tried to figure out if my eyes had played a trick on me. As we looked toward the port hole window we all saw something move, then the shape of a head and shoulders appeared in the porthole window. We all agreed it looked like someone was in that stairway room. I ran as fast as I could up to the porthole window, as I got closer the shape disappeared. I ran round to the entrance to the stairway room and found it empty. Robin and Amy were not far behind me. As I looked around the area Robin stated he thought he’d heard shuffling up on the stairway. I made my way all the way to the top, the door opened out onto the old parade field. The door could only be opened from the inside; there is no way anyone could have come from the parade area down the stairway to the lower tunnel levels.
With the vigils in this area now drawing to a close, Robin, Amy and I took it in turn to stand in the port hole window and stand in the tunnel at the same distance we all had been when we saw the figure. We all agreed that with one of us stood in the porthole window it was identical to what we had all witnessed. Amy was also recording this on her Camcorder. She picked up a very strange light anomaly that floated up the tunnel toward her. Having seen dust particles in IR light countless times, I can say with conviction that it was in no way similar to dust. This is the most unexplained visual thing I have witnessed since joining SPUK. With the time now fast approaching 2am we reluctantly drew the vigil to a close and went for a break and a much needed coffee.
At this point Julie and a few other SPUK members had to leave for transport reasons. The members that stayed behind joined up for a final vigil back in the lower tunnels.
Vigil 4 – Back In The Lower Tunnels. 02.15 – 03.15 approx
Having had the rare occurrence of a physical sighting, the remaining team members were keen to investigate the lower tunnels one last time. A few members stayed in the team room as the trek down to the subterranean levels was not that easy going. On arrival at the stairway room Sarah and Brian took some of the team down the West Tunnel, Robin, Amy and I went back down the North Tunnel and tried once again to make sense and debunk what we had seen. I kept my K2 Meter on but got no readings. After a short period of time we were joined by the rest of the team. The final part of the investigation was quiet and as the time neared 3am we bid the lower tunnels farewell and made our way back to the surface and the team room. We were unable to explain what we had seen of the strange light anomaly that Amy had picked up on her Camcorder shortly after we had seen the figure.
Afterthoughts
Fort Widley had proved to be a very fruitful investigation, from breathes and noises to physical touches and even a sighting. As a Paranormal Investigator you really could not ask for much more. I would return to Fort Widley with no hesitation. It is now 3 days after the investigation and a couple of pictures have surfaced from the tunnels which add further evidence to the case. I have reviewed the majority of my pictures, video and audio but I am yet to turn up any recorded evidence, however I know without doubt what I saw, heard and felt at Fort Widley and there is no doubt in my mind that some of its previous residents still frequent its vast array of rooms, tunnels and hallways.
Amy Coxhead
Fort Widley was my third investigation with SPUK and it proved to be very memorable for me!
Stable area and tunnel
After settling in at our base room, Team 2 headed off to the stable area and the western tunnel. After several unsuccessful attempts at calling out, we decided to leave the area and head on down to the communications room. To begin with this room seemed rather quiet but every now and then I could hear heavy breathing. I presumed it was one of the other team, although we eventually realised that we were all presuming the same thing. At one point I heard it to my right and the next it was on my left. It also seemed to be only an exhale of breath rather than rhythmically breathing. A few minutes past and we started to hear a new noise, a gurgling sound. Again, we all thought it was one of our stomachs growling but didn’t appear that it was. This sound also seemed to come from different areas of the room but this may be due to the acoustics of the area. After a while all was quiet again and we left the area.
Team room – Ouija experiment
Two tables were set out in the team room with the standard letters, numbers and words of the Ouija board. Table 1 had alphabetized lettering and was lit up so that everything was visible on the table. Table 2 had all the letters and numbers jumbled up around the sides of the table. No light was permitted on this table and it was impossible to tell where a particular character was. Both glasses being used were clear and contained a coin underneath as a way to track any movement. I started the experiment on Table 2 where Steve was filming the entire event. The five of us placed our nails on the glass and after a few minutes the glass did appear to be moving. No letters or words were picked out but the glass would move in one direction, twist, and change direction and at one point it almost appeared to vibrate. With the coin under the glass we were able to see that it had moved. About halfway through, Brian felt something touch his finger and thought it had been Wendy who was sitting next to him. Steve had been filming the glass at that point and confirmed that Wendy’s finger had been nowhere near Brian’s at the time. Steve also felt something tug on the toggle of his jacket yet nobody was near him at the time. Everyone, including myself became quite giggly for some reason and I am really not sure why! I was then moved on to Table 1 where the glass did not even move once. I suggested switching the variables of the lighting over but even in darkness Table 1’s glass still did not move whereas Table 2’s continued to have activity.
Tunnels – West and North
We first entered the western tunnel and after some exploration onto the level above, we settled into doing some call outs. A few minutes passed and I decided to move from my original spot to stand with my back facing an inner wall. I started to feel uneasy, to a level which I have not felt before. It was almost as if I could sense someone standing right behind me but there was only the wall. This feeling continued and I felt a sensation of something touching my back and then on my elbow. The first time I thought it may have been the folds in my coat but the elbow felt like a definite poke.
Next, we moved into the north tunnel to the room at the end. All seemed quiet until Steve said that he could see something pass in front of the light back up the tunnel, so I got up to have a look too. This light was from a large circular hole in the wall surrounding the staircase. The light was from the entrance tunnel and through the hole you could make out some dark objects that were the gate and architectural features. This is what I thought Steve could see at first, but there did seem to be something dark bobbing around within the light. Robin, Steve and I all started to walk a little closer up the tunnel and as we did, we saw a defined shape block out the light. Steve gave chase up the tunnel and as he got nearer I saw it dart to the right and out of sight. When we reached the area we could not find a trace of anything or anyone. We decided to recreate the scenario by heading back down the tunnel to where we stood and for someone to poke their heads into the hole to see how high this shadow stood. When David and I headed down the tunnel I began filming our “recreation”. By this time the rest of the team were up towards the staircase and it was just me and David in the tunnel. As I was filming, a bright circular light appeared on the view finder of my camcorder. Thinking it was a flashlight, I shouted for it to be turned off. As I looked up, I realised that I could not see any light at all but it was still showing up on camera. When the light appears, it is extremely bright and then gradually it fades. The light repeats this process twice and I have no explanation for it. I cannot understand why it showed up on camera but I could not see it with my own eyes.
We spent the last vigil trying to recreate this light with little success. It doesn’t appear to be a reflection or an external light source. The light from a torch gives off a glare and reflects off the walls of the tunnel. The unexplained light did not have this effect. The phenomena did not occur again and I am still baffled by it!
Amanda Horley
Having investigated Fort Widley before with some interesting results, I was really looking forward to a return visit even though it was a particularly cold February night. We were split into just two teams, enabling us to have one team above ground and the other in the tunnels without disturbing each other. A great idea, as particularly in the tunnels, noise carries a long way. Because of the lack of power supply in the tunnels we were not able to have the usual technical set up, just the equipment we could carry with us.
My team consisted of Steve (joint team leader), Maureen, Robin, Amy, Gilly, David and Zoe.
Whilst we were getting ready to start and the new members were having a talk from the trainers, I was very aware of a presence in the team room. It was a spirit I had picked up on before in this room, and I had forgotten about until I went and looked out the window at the view over Portsmouth. I immediately felt very sad and found myself with tears running down my face. I love standing up on Portsdown Hill looking down at the view below, so this is not a normal reaction for me. I decided to spend as little time in the team room as possible until we were due to hold a vigil there.
Our first vigil was on the upper levels and was to include the tunnel by the stable block, the two rooms immediately below the team room, and the team room itself. We decided to start in the tunnel by the stable block. Although I am aware of the history of this area, I didn’t pick up on anything whilst we were down there, and despite Steve and me calling out a number of times, the only reaction was a knock on the outer door. However, that could have been caused by the wind or passing traffic rattling the door.
After a time we moved on to the two rooms below the team room. These are effectively a converted corridor and are a storage area for old communications equipment and other items. As we were quite a large team we had the central door open and spread out through the rooms. After a time several of us could hear breathing that as far as we could make out did not come from any of us. We were all trying to breathe as quietly as possible, but they were definitely there and did appear to be moving around the room. There were a few creaks from the end of the room where Amy was standing that we also couldn’t explain, and these were repeated when Robin went and stood down there. There was a further room leading off of this area that was unfortunately locked as we could also hear noises coming from in there, but couldn’t investigate what might be causing them. Frustratingly, calling out did not get us any other responses.
To finish off the first vigil we moved into the team room and I immediately got the name Tommy or Thomas in my head. I felt that there was some connection with the spirit I had picked up on earlier but the only other information I could get seemed to suggest that he had been killed in a road accident. I knew from previously that he was a young man in his late teens or early 20s, was from the time of World War 2 and his mother lived in Portsmouth. Unfortunately I didn’t get any further details, and despite us calling out we did not seem to get any reactions.
The second vigil was a group one in the team room. We had set up two glasses with alphabets. One by the outer wall of the Fort and the other by the windows overlooking the inner area. The alphabet by the outer wall was placed randomly, and when the lights were turned out it was not possible to see the letters (or glass). The other table was lit by the external lights. The group split into 2, with observers and Video cameras at each table. I chose to observe and ask the questions and stood by the darkened table. We had placed a coin under the glass and there did seem to be some movement. When we checked, the glass had definitely moved and the coin was now up against the edge of it. Although we asked several questions and there was movement of the glass, it did not seem to move to any specific letters. I couldn’t get a sense of who may be moving the glass. At different times during this vigil, Sarah switched members from one table to the other. The glass at our end continued moving despite these changes.
Our third vigil was down in the tunnels. The southern tunnel leads inland to a central hub from which radiates three other tunnels (Camponnieres). The eastern one appeared to be closed off as it had a no entry sign in front of it. I was a little disappointed by this, as it had proved interesting previously however we decided to start our vigils in the western one. We went down to the end of the tunnel and some team members checked out the upper level whilst the rest of us remained in the lower area. After a team we all gathered downstairs and tried calling out. There did not appear to be any responses, but I was interested in the fact that Steve’s style of calling out had changed. Instead of asking for any spirit present to touch somebody he asked for it to grab somebody. I asked if realised what he had just done, but it appeared to be sub-conscious and not deliberate. Gilly then joking suggested that if there was a spirit present it was a good time for it to grope someone as it was dark and no-one would see. I found this very unnerving as it has been documented that there is a very unpleasant spirit in the tunnels (mainly the east one admittedly) that has been known to grope women that go down into the tunnels. Our previous reports contain further details relating to this individual but both Steve and Gilly said they were unaware of this and hadn’t been on any previous investigations here. We didn’t seem to get anything further so decided to move on to the northern camponniere.
We again explored both the upper and lower rooms at the end of the tunnel and decided to remain in the lower level. I am always uncomfortable sitting looking into dark areas, and feel that this can often make me imagine things, so I placed myself so that I wasn’t looking directly into the tunnel. We again called out with little response, but after a short time, Steve and Amy thought that they had seen something down the tunnel towards the central hub that had partially blocked out the light. From where we were positioned, it was possible to see the light from the main building as there is a round window in the structure in the central hub. I seemed to recall something like this happening on a previous investigation we had done here and although I couldn’t remember the outcome, felt that we hadn’t got too excited about it. As we settled again, Steve, Amy and Robin continued to look down the tunnel and suddenly Steve declared that there was someone in the central hub area looking through the window and ran down the tunnel towards the hub, with Robin and Amy following. As we had strict instructions to ensure that if the team split up there should be one team leader with each group, I remained with the others in the end room. We had a quick discussion and decided that we should join the other three and see if we could work out exactly what they had seen. They all described seeing the head and shoulders of a person through the window and when Steve shouted and ran towards it, it appeared to duck back behind the wall. They also thought they had heard footsteps on the stairs in the central hub. We checked up the stairs, but the door at the top was firmly locked. We tried to recreate what had been seen, and seemed to do this fairly successfully, with one exception. Steve and Amy could clearly see Robin’s facial features, when they hadn’t been able to see any features on the figure they saw originally. We did not check the East or North tunnels to see if anyone was there, but as there is external access from both of these; if there had been a person there they would have been long gone. Also, noise does travel well in the tunnels and no-one heard anyone running down either of these tunnels. Unable to explain what had just happened and coming to an end of the vigil, we returned to the team room.
As some of the group had to leave early at this point, the final vigil was a combined one with the opportunity to go where we liked. Understandably almost everyone opted to return to the tunnels. Maureen decided to remain in the team room, and as I was chilled to the bones by this point I decided to remain with her as I couldn’t face the cold of the tunnels again. We sat and chatted and I told her a little about the spirit I had picked up on in the team room. Maureen felt that he was stood behind me and she was also picking up information about him. Earlier I had assumed that his death had occurred outside the Fort, but now I was fairly sure that this wasn’t the case, and by getting him to respond to us using dowsing rods we decided that the road accident he died in was overseas in France or Belgium during the war. He said his name was not Tommy, but we couldn’t get a clue to his name and he seemed happy for us to continue to call him Tommy. His sorrow was due to not being able to say goodbye to his mother, and by this point both Maureen and I had tears running down our faces. He seemed to feel so much pain. We didn’t try to get any more detail from him, just talked to him. We tried to say things that we hoped would make him feel more at peace and less sad, and after a time he became less “intense”.
Unfortunately the night all too soon came to an end. There was certainly a lot happening as far as our team was concerned and it was fascinating to see things that tied in with previous investigations. I think I can safely say that I will definitely go back again if another investigation is arranged, although maybe next time we can have a summer one.
Robin Turton
Vigil 1.
We started in the west tunnel/stable area. We made our way to a largish room at the end of the tunnel the team carried out a calling out session nothing was heard or felt in this area so we moved to the communications rooms. Whilst investigating these rooms some members of the team believed they could hear breathing also sounds were heard similar to a radio/walkie talkie. It seemed to come from a locked room so we could not investigate the area. Some knocks and creaks were heard but the floorboards did creak when members of the team shifted their weight. The team then moved to the lecture room and carried out a vigil but nothing was heard.
Vigil 2.
The group carried out a glass divination experiment in the lecture room, The group split in two and I was tasked with videoing one of the tables unfortunately nothing was noted or seen at the table I was filming.
Vigil 3.
We carried out a vigil of the north and east tunnel complex. We made our way to the end of the first tunnel where Steve and I checked out the upper floors. Nothing was noted. We made our way back to the team who were in the process of calling out. Amy kept having a sensation of being touched on the back and her jacket being tugged gently. Nothing else was heard or felt by other team members. The team moved to the centre tunnel of the three. We slowly walked to the end where a number of the team checked out the upper floors. We then joined together around a table to carry out a calling out session. During the session Steve said he had seen movement at the top of the tunnel. Steve, Amy and I made our way up the tunnel. We stopped about 2/3rds of the way up the tunnel to watch and listen. We concentrated on the round window in the wall directly at the end of the tunnel where Steve had seen the movement, but saw nothing. I suggested we move further back down the tunnel which we did. We stopped and looked again and whilst I was talking to Steve about eyesight, he saw a movement. Amy and I looked and saw a head and shoulders at the round window. It moved to the side then came back into view. We started to move towards it then Steve started running up the tunnel. Amy and I hurried up the tunnel, constantly watching the shape which kept ducking to the side. As Steve got closer to the end of the tunnel the shape moved to the side and didn't reappear. Steve went down the tunnel to where the other team was in the communications rooms to check no one had come up the tunnel which they had not. Amy and I checked the other tunnels but saw and heard nothing we then checked the spiral staircase. As we went up I heard shuffling above but saw nothing. Steve then went up and saw and heard nothing plus confirmed the door at the top was locked. We then spent some time experimenting with someone looking through the window which confirmed what we had seen was a figure and not a trick of the light. The main difference was that what I had seen had no facial features but I could make out a flesh tone during the re-enactment. During this encounter Amy also picked up a very strange light on her camcorder.
Vigil 4.
Vigil 4 was a free vigil Steve Amy and I made our way back to the north and east tunnels. During this vigil everything seemed different. The atmosphere and light levels seemed to be different. It was very strange. We again tried to work out if what we had seen could be explained but it couldn't.
In conclusion Fort Widley was somewhere I have wanted to investigate for a long time. It was a fantastic experience.