Southern Paranormal - Investigations
Merryoak Community Centre Investigation
9th April 2011
Maria Street
Merryoak Community Centre looks rather unassuming from the outside but is actually part of the now defunct Merryoak Boys School. I arrived with Amanda and Rob to meet Sylvie, our host. She showed us the alarm system and left us to get on with it. Brian and Robin turned up not long after. We made the computer room our kit room and whilst sorting ourselves out I got the name of Sheila in my head.
Our first vigil was in the main hall. This is the original hall of Merryoak Boys School, complete with original flooring. We measured the temperature as 16.8°C. We settled ourselves down and called out. This vigil however was very quiet apart from a few oddities. A thud was heard behind Brian and a small whimper was heard. I had the name of Mr Brown in my head. The only Mr Brown I knew was Headmaster of Sholing Middle School many years ago. Could he have started as a teacher at Merryoak or could it be somebody else entirely? I have no idea. We were also hearing knocks but due to the acoustics of the building, could not be sure if they were paranormal or not.
Our next vigil was in the Computer Room and the atmosphere in here felt so different. The conversation took on an almost bawdy tone, full of double innuendos and banter. We felt there may be a bawdy lady in here and I had the song ‘Let me entertain you’ in my head. We tried a glass divination but could get no response.
We moved to the storeroom for our next vigil but despite calling out, all remained quiet in here and the same has to be said for the kitchen.
For our last vigil we decided to split. The boys went into the attic whilst Amanda and I stayed in the computer room. The atmosphere this time was entirely different to the first vigil we did in here. It felt quite threatening and not at all light-hearted as before. Amanda picked up on somebody and I will let her explain in her report. A little while later, the boys joined us again and the atmosphere lightened again, although not immediately.
This was an interesting end to a largely quiet night and I would really like to thank Sylvie for trusting us enough to conduct a vigil here with no supervision. Without hosts like you, we would find it very difficult to investigate places like these.
Brian Witt
I set up a locked off camera in the computer room which was also the kit room. We investigated the main hall, the computer room, the store room, the kitchen area and the attic. There was a fair amount of noise from outside due to the location of the building, but this was easy to identify. Unfortunately it couldn’t have been quieter on the inside.
We had planned to do a vigil outside but it was too busy and we didn’t want to draw attention to ourselves.
Rob Butler
The attending investigators were Maria Street, Amanda Horley, Rob Butler, Brian Witt and Robin Turton
We arrived and began our investigation about 9 o’clock. We started in the hall area and although there were a few taps there was nothing conclusive for me. In general the whole night’s investigation was quiet for me. Nothing happened that couldn’t be explained, although other members had slight experiences. For me was a quiet night.
Thank you to Sylvie for letting us conduct an investigation in the centre. If we get the opportunity to return, I would like to go again. Many thanks.
Amanda Horley
This was a small investigation for us, in what, from the outside, seemed to be a small building. It was a bit like a Tardis with a lot more space on the inside than there appeared to be from outside. Maria, Rob and I met up with Sylvie, the site manager and when she showed us into the computer room, which was going to be our team room for the night, I felt very uncomfortable even though I was only just inside the doorway. Sylvie then showed us around the rest of the building and shortly afterwards Robin and Brian joined us.
We decided to stay together as one group for the vigils, and started in the main hall. The acoustics in here were very strange and even noises from outside echoed within the room, however although we did hear some noises I think we were able to account for all of them and for me this was a quiet room.
Our second vigil was in the computer room, but I didn’t feel uncomfortable here this time (and hadn’t done during the breaks). There did seem to be a vague feeling of a female presence, and although the atmosphere was quite jolly during this vigil, the words I wrote down were “calculating” “not very nice below the surface” and “manipulative”. I got nothing further however.
On the third vigil we spent time in both the store room, and kitchen, both of which were quiet for me.
We finished with a further vigil in the computer room. Initially all five of us were in there, but after a time the men went up into the attic and Maria and I remained where we were. Immediately the atmosphere in the room changed and both Maria and I commented on how uncomfortable we felt in there. The men were only gone for five or ten minutes, as the attic space was not very large and as soon as they rejoined us the atmosphere returned to being returned to its previous happy state.
Overall this was a quiet investigation for me, but there was definitely something strange about the computer room. Thanks have to go out to Sylvie for making us so welcome, and trusting us with the security of the building.
Robin Turton
A small number of investigators met up outside the building for the evening’s investigation. We carried out an investigation of the hall, computer room, store room, kitchen and the attic. Unfortunately, I felt, saw and heard nothing unusual and the equipment I used also failed to give any reactions or fluctuations through the evening. Nothing was heard when I replayed the vigils later on my recording equipment.
The area around the Community Centre was not particularly conducive to paranormal investigations there was a lot of noise from people and cars outside. We attempted to investigate the outside area but the neighbours opposite the centre seemed to be having some kind of domestic problem which was still going on when we left so the noise curtailed the outside investigation.