Southern Paranormal - Investigations
Woodlands Castle Investigation
Saturday 19th March 2011
Attending Investigators - Julie Harwood, Maria Street, Mark Wright, Marie Holder, Brian Witt, Robin Turton, Steve Boston, Maureen Taylor, Amanda Horley, Mark Pettet, Sarah Pettet, Abbie Holding, Wendy Callaway & Rob Butler.
Guest Investigator - Leathen Hanlon
Host - Gemma Halliwell
History of the House
Woodlands Castle was built in 1810, and was remodelled and enlarged by Richard Carver c1833 for Mrs Lock. The house originally a farm house is far more elaborate than you would expect from a late 18th century early 19th century building.
With its picturesque façade in the then fashionable pseudo-Tudor style and its planted pleasure ground it seems to be attempting to be a stately home, designed for public appearance and private pleasure rather then mere accommodation. The house appears in Kelly’s ‘Directory of the County of Somerset’ of 1861 which describes ‘Woodlands, the seat of the Hon. Charles Napier, is a pretty villa residence, situated in well laid out grounds, and commands a fine view of the Cothelstone hills.’
Other notable residents of the house include Major-General Henry Brasnell Tuson CB RMA, aide-de-camp to Queen Victoria, Commandant-General of the Royal Marines, and in more recent years Dr Fleming.
Information courtesy of www.woodlandscastle.co.uk
The Investigation
Teams
Team 1
Julie – Team Leader
Mark P
Amanda
Rob
Maureen
Team 2
Maria – Team Leader
Mark W
Robin
Abbie
Wendy
Team 3
Brian – Team Leader
Sarah
Steve
Marie
Leathen
Vigil Areas
AREA 1 – Basement which includes kitchen & storage areas
AREA 2 – Ground floor which includes 3 function rooms
AREA 3 – 1st floor (3 function rooms) & attic (3 rooms)
Itinerary
6.45pm Meet at location
7.00pm Meet host and settle into team room
Start equipment set up
8.30pm Vigil 1
Team 1 – Area 1
Team 2 – Area 2
Team 3 – Area 3
9.30pm Break
10.00pm Vigil 2
Team 1 – Area 2
Team 2 – Area 3
Team 3 – Area 1
11.00pm Break
11.30pm Vigil 3
Team 1 – Area 3
Team 2 – Area 1
Team 3 – Area 2
12.30am Clear down of equipment
1.00am Depart
Personal Reports from Investigators
Maria Street
Woodlands Castle is glimpsed from the main road, its pink turrets peeking through tall trees and at the end of a long driveway. At first glance you could be forgiven for thinking it was a hotel but it is, in fact, a conference centre and wedding venue. Once, a grand house, it still retains a lot of its original charm.
I drove down from Southampton with Amanda, picking Julie up on the way. We made good time and we were able to book into our Travelodge by 5pm. We settled in and went outside to meet the other at Woodlands. We were met by our host Gemma and her lovely little dog and settled into our kit room. There was a little time before we started so I went outside for a little fresh air. Amanda beckoned me to the back of the house and asked if I could pick anything up. An image came to my mind of a young girl from ‘Pride and Prejudice era, all dressed in white, picking up her skirts and running laughing across the lawn, being chased by a young man (very Mr Darcy) and they both ended up under the tree. I felt this was part of a lovely courtship. Amanda told me this was a similar scenario picked up by others that evening. Mark and I set off to set up the DVR equipment on the first floor. We set one camera up in the Blackbrook Room, clamping it securely to a table. As I was checking the angles for the next camera, I noticed the first camera move and fall over. Mark and I checked the room and there was nobody in there. The camera involved was one of the bigger ones with a weighted bottom and we could not figure out how it happened to be out of the clamp and laying on its side. We discussed the possibility that the clamp had slid off but this still did not explain how this heavy camera could have fallen so easily on to its side. We set it up again, this time with no further incident.
After the set up of DVR equipment and trigger object experiments, we started our vigils. I was in team 2 with Mark W, Wendy, Abbie and Robin. We started on the ground floor in the Orchard Room. Initial baselines showed no fluctuation on the gauss meter or K11 and the ambient temperature in the room was 20.5°C. We settled down quietly and soaked up the atmosphere. Almost immediately Abbie and I saw a small bright white flash of light just behind where Robin was sitting opposite the door. We took turns in calling out and I felt the room was predominantly male. I could just envisage a man stood leaning on the mantelpiece with a cigar in one hand and a brandy in the other. It’s almost as if this was the room where the men retired to after an evening spent with the ladies. I got the name of Bernie in here and I also heard a loud sigh coming from the far corner but nobody could lay claim to it. A song popped into my head and I promptly wrote it down and I’m very glad I did as at the end of the evening it transpired that Wendy also had the same song in her head at the exact time that I did. The song was ‘I am the Music Man’. Towards the end of our time in this room the button on Mark’s jacket popped open. This was notoriously hard to undo so Mark could not explain this.
We made our way to the Ruishton Room. There was a spike of the K11 by the door which was not constant and the temperature was 21°C. In contrast to the previous room, this room felt predominantly female. We sat down to try some table tipping. We have had various results with this in the past and on this occasion we were unsuccessful. However Abbie spotted a shadow moving in the corner of the room and I felt what can only be described as somebody blowing on my right arm. This was not a breeze; it was too concentrated and felt completely different. Mark measured the temperature on both my arms and my right arm was around 8°C colder than my left arm. The smell of babies was detected particularly talc and baby sick and Abbie felt somebody come between me and her. I asked that if there was somebody there, could they please leave us in doubt as to their presence. The light on the Dictaphone immediately started to flash. Mark checked the memory but it was empty and the batteries were full. We could not explain how this had happened and we could not get a repeat performance. I got the names of Isabella and Penny in here and I could hear the children’s game, ‘Hokey Cokey’ in my head. Abbie could spot a shadow go past me and Wendy started to feel itchy in here.
We set off for a half hour break then carried on, this time on the first floor. We settled in the Henblade Room. The K11 meter showed no fluctuations and the ambient temperature was 20.5°C. Mark could hear a door handle rattle in the Blackbrook Room and went to investigate. There was nobody there. I got the name of Frances in here and Wendy could hear footsteps coming from the Blackbrook Room. This room appeared very active so we made our way there. As so often happens, the activity died down in the actual room and this time Mark could hear voices from the hall and we could all hear creaking, which sounded like footsteps. We also heard what sounded like keys jangling. Further investigation showed no explanation and it quietened down so we made our way to the Ladies toilets which had a certain feel to them. We called out and asked if there was somebody here, could they please make themselves known. We heard two distinct thuds and on checking with the team directly below us, they confirmed they had not made the noise. Mark and Abbie got shivers in here and Abbie felt emotionally overwhelmed. I felt quite comfortable even when we heard a distinctive ‘ping’ and some footsteps. We continued on to the attic and made our way to the nearest room. Mark was feeling very cold despite the temperature being a balmy 19.5°C and Abbie could feel a tingling on her head. Mark and Abbie could also smell tobacco, but all was quiet for me in here. For the next part of our vigil we did a boy/girl split and we girls made our way to the server room whilst the boys stayed in the far room. Wendy and Abbie immediately felt very uncomfortable in our room, showing symptoms of nausea and dizziness, along with a healthy dose of apprehension. We swapped with the boys who were armed with the gauss meter. Inspection showed the emf levels in this room to be off the scale. This would certainly explain all the unpleasant symptoms Wendy and Abbie showed. Whilst the boys were in the server room the K11 spiked in our room. We could not find any reason for it and it didn’t happen again, so possibly a power surge from somewhere.
Another welcome break and this time with cake! It was Mark P’s birthday and Sarah had had a cake made for him. It was lovely so thank you very much Sarah and Mark.
Our final vigil was in the basement. We started in the kitchen (temp 8.5°C) and a door handle could be heard squeaking from one of the other rooms. We also heard two knocks from just outside the door so we went to investigate. We found ourselves in the ‘Christmas tree’ room where high emf readings were evident. We believed this to be from electrical influences. Robin heard two knocks coming from the kitchen but all was quiet after this. In fact, the activity in the whole area seemed to come to an abrupt halt and we could not invoke it to start again, so we decided to go outside and try a vigil there. However all was quiet here also so we came back indoors and settled in the Ruishton Room once more. Abbie called out and I got the name of Margaret and the song ‘Donald, where’s your trousers’. I called out and asked ‘Do you know you are dead? Almost immediately Abbie and Mark felt the atmosphere change and become heavy. The room also inexplicably darkened in front of our very eyes. I get the word ‘Lady’ in my head and felt this was linked to the title, not the word. There ended our wonderful night at Woodlands and I would like to thank my team for working so well together. It really was as if we were all in sync with each other. A great night had by all!
Amanda Horley
Having met up with most of the rest of the team, we continued the short journey to Woodlands Castle and were presented with the most beautiful building set in a wooded and grassed area that disguised the closeness of the M5. Gemma, our host and her dog Harvey helped us settle into the team room and then we began the set up. Fortunately, I was involved in getting together the team equipment, which gave me some spare time before the vigils started. I decided to explore the outside of the building. Round the back I found a large open area that was partially enclosed by a wall on two sides and immediately felt a lot of activity in the area. It didn’t feel like a walled garden, more like a stable yard or something of that nature. I got the impression of bare knuckle fighting taking place here, and as Julie and Abbie had also come out of the building, I asked them to come round and give me their impression of the area. Abbie also felt that it was a “busy” area, and Julie picked up the impression of a man leaning against a tree alongside this part of the grounds. When I mentioned the boxing, she confirmed that the man she saw was wearing britches and was bare-chested. We both felt that he was muscular, with dark hair and a real ladies man attracting both the servants and the gentry. He knew he could have any woman he wanted, but wasn’t arrogant about it. There was nothing malicious about him. I felt that he would have been a servant rather than the owner of the house. Separately we were joined by Maureen and Maria, both of whom had similar impressions of this man. To be honest, I could have spent a lot longer in this area but we were due to start our vigils, so had to return to the inside of the house.
I was in team 1 with Julie, Maureen, Mark P and Rob. We started out vigils in the basement, and started in the storage room that held the Christmas decorations. I didn’t pick up anything in here, although Maureen, Rob and I all got an extreme fit of the giggles which seemed to disappear when we moved to other places within the room. We also spent some time in the next door room and could hear noises coming from the room we had just been in. We were unable to confirm exactly what had made the noises, but it sounded like cardboard being moved across the floor. We then moved into the kitchen area and could hear noises coming from above the corridor area. However, although it didn’t appear to be one of the other teams, Gemma was moving about on that level, and it could have been her that we heard. I then sat on the stairs whilst the others remained in the kitchen on the other side of the corridor. Julie heard a distinct bang from the corridor although I heard nothing.
During the break, I was keen to return to the outside area by the tree, and Brian decided to join me. Without telling him what had been picked up on earlier, he was also able to pick up on the man. Whilst we were chatting, I got the impression that the man was up in the tree, sitting on one of the branches, and at the same time Brian said that he pictured the man up in the tree. I did try to get more information about this character, but other than the name Roberts meaning something, I couldn’t get any more detail.
Our next vigil was on the ground floor of the building and we started in the Ruishton room. Although I sat down, I felt very fidgety and couldn’t get comfortable. I decided to go with it, and found that I wanted to pace across the room from the door to the bay window. I felt agitated and as if I was trying to decide how to tell someone something. We all got names in here, but unfortunately they were all different. The room felt to me like it was a man’s room. A study or room where he would have worked away from the family. We moved on to the Orchard room, and this one felt very feminine. Somewhere the women of the family would have gathered to read and embroider. Mark leant against the mantelpiece over the fire, and both Maureen and I (almost in unison) picked on a man doing exactly the same thing. Mark however was too short, and not thin enough. We asked Rob to go and stand in the same place and again both felt that although the height issue was now resolved, he was still not thin enough. After the vigil was over, we did ask Mark Wright to stand there, and this time felt that the build was right but he needed to be a couple of inches taller. Unfortunately, I couldn’t get any more information on either the man, or the women that would have used the room. We finished our vigil with some time in the Ilchester room, which we were using as a team room. This was a quiet room for me.
Our final vigil was on the upper levels. We settled in an area outside the ladies toilets, and could hear noises coming from across the stairs, or downstairs. Again we couldn’t rule out Gemma moving around in the office. After a time, the others moved across the landing, but I remained where I was. I had been unwell during the week, and I don’t know if it was all catching up with me, but I felt very drained and “not right”. I can’t put it any more distinctly than that, as I was not really sure myself how I was feeling. Whilst I was sat there, the others could hear noises out on the landing between us, but I didn’t hear anything. I then went and joined them, and after a time, Rob felt far too hot sitting where he was and moved out onto the landing. As he sat down the four of us left in the room all saw a flash of light that we could only liken to a flash gun of a camera going off, as it does if the red eye reduction is set up. We are hopeful that this may have been picked up on the DVR cameras. For me, this was a very strange vigil although I didn’t pick up on anything, and couldn’t hear most of the noises that the others were hearing. I really didn’t feel myself, and it took the best part of an hour for that feeling to pass after the vigil was over.
This was a fascinating investigation, and when comparing notes with the other teams afterwards, it was great to hear about the similarities of the experiences we had all had. The highlight for me was the outside area, and I would love to go back and have that as a vigil area. All in all, a great night.
Wendy Callaway
Team 2 – Maria, Abbie, Mark W, Robin & Wendy
Vigil 1 – Ground Floor
Orchard Suite – We started the night in the Orchard Suite, where the wedding photography stand was set up. There were no movements on the K2 meter in this room.
Whilst we were in there a number of the team saw the pictures on the wall moving. We debunked this as the pictures were hung on chains above a very hot radiator. We also saw the chandelier at the far end of the room moving, we could only assume this was also due to the temperature of the room as there were no drafts from the window.
During the vigil Mark’s popper came undone. I’m sure he will mention this more in his report. Both Maria and I got names in this room; the name I got was Jacob. We also both got a song, at the same time, which was ‘I am the Music Man’, I just had the ‘Pia Pia Piano’ line going round in my head as Maria said I have the name of a song.
Ruishton Room – We next moved on to the Ruishton Room, as we entered the K2 meter went orange for a 1.5 to 2m stretch inside the door. We went back and tried the same spot a couple of times, but there were no readings apart from this initial time.
Whilst in this room we decided to try table tipping. We didn’t get any movement on the table, however, both Abbie and I could smell newborn babies, and then Robin and Mark said that they could smell vomit.
Whilst in this room I felt very itchy, starting on my face and then my forearms and hands. Once we moved out of this room the itching stopped.
Vigil 2 – 1st Floor & Attic
Henlade Room – We started vigil 2 in the room where the wedding dresses were on show. I felt nothing in this room, but could hear noises from the small room over the corridor next to the ladies toilet.
We then spent some time in the small corridor outside the ladies toilet and heard some footsteps and movement towards the Blackbrook Room.
Finally on this floor we went in the Ladies Toilets, where both Mark and Abbie, who were near the door, felt very uncomfortable.
Attic – next we moved up the attic, and started in the room at the top of the stairs with the office chairs in. Nobody felt anything in here, so we moved to the room at the other end of the attic space. This room felt uncomfortable, but was full of cobwebs and old lampshades, etc so we just put it down to that.
2nd Floor – Next we moved back down to the 2nd floor and while myself, Abbie and Marie went into the small room next to the Men’s Toilets, Mark and Robin went in to the Blackbrook Room.
Abbie and I felt very disorientated in this room, so we swapped with Mark and Robin. Mark got high readings on the gauss meter in the room we had just come from so we guessed this is why we felt unwell in there.
We had nothing in the Blackbrook Room.
Vigil 3 – Basement
We visited all the rooms in the basement as part of our 3rd vigil but nobody felt or experienced anything down there.
We then moved outside and had a look around the gardens and outbuildings. Again we had no experiences here.
Finally we went back into the Ruishton Room to see if we could follow on from earlier. At the point that Marie asked, ‘Do you know you are dead’ the room went very dark which was noticed by everybody. At the same time I saw a light anomaly go across the screen on the monitor that was in there, however, this could of course have been a dust particle and pure coincidence.
Julie Harwood
After travelling up with Amanda & Maria we met the other investigators and headed off to Woodlands. Almost hidden from the road, the house looms over you when you drive in and looks spectacular lit up by the flood lights in the grounds. After meeting Gemma and her dog Harvey we began the set up for the evening. After making sure all was going smoothly I was able to have a quick look around the grounds with Abbie and a very jubilant Amanda called us over to the rear of the house. She asked us what we felt here and from out of nowhere I informed her I could imagine a man in trousers, braces, boots (and not much else) leaning up against the large tree we were stood near. Amanda said this tied in with what she was feeling. Amanda had said absolutely nothing to me about this before hand. Abbie also felt feelings of lots of people around the back of the house.
Our first vigil area was in the basement of the building. EMF meter readings done – nothing abnormal to report (unless KII was held close to mains boxes). Temperature constant 20-21. I normally hate basements and cellars with a passion but had to say this one did not bother me as I thought it would. We headed to the furthest room first and all stood quietly inside. The only thing that seemed to happen in here was that for no apparent reason Maureen, Amanda and Rob had a fit of the giggles. They had no idea why but could not stop laughing. Mark & I were a little perplexed as we did not get affected in this way. Mark and I even went and stood where Maureen & Amanda were but they continued to giggle in their new positions while Mark and I felt a little like party poopers and still had no reaction. This is very unusual behaviour for our fellow 3 investigators but the minute they left the room they all seemed to calm down and by the time we got to the 1st little kitchen less than 10 feet away all were back to normal. I stayed in the corridor just outside the kitchen and I could hear noises from the room we had just been in. I called the other members of the team and they could hear them too. It sounded like boxes being moved or opened. When Mark & I went to investigate we did find a box by the door open (and half obstructing the door we had just been through). This would account for the noise that we heard and none of us had remembered either seeing the box open in the doorway or knocking it ourselves however as we have no recorded evidence of this we have to consider it may have been one of us that knocked it on the way out of the room or that for whatever reason none of us noticed it when we went in to the room (though I remain sceptical of this as it would have hit all of our legs as we entered and we would have noticed it). We then went in to the 2nd and main kitchen area. We were watching the dvr camera screen in this room and noticed the vast amount of light anomalies on it. We experimented moving around and seeing what effect that had on dust etc and I think we can put 99% of them down to that. The others may have been little insects, moths etc as they seemed to fly in patterns consistent with insects. Maureen was clearly not happy about being in the corridor and so Amanda went and sat outside while we stayed in the kitchen. Rob, Mark & I heard a loud bang from outside the room (so should have been closer to Amanda) however on investigation Amanda never heard a thing. That was very strange. This ended our first vigil and we returned to the kit room.
After a break my team remained on the ground floor and we decided to spend some time sat in the Ruishton Room. Temperature constant 20, EMF meter readings done – nothing abnormal to report. Mark & Maureen sat on the left hand side (as you enter the room) and Rob and I sat on the window sill. Amanda however would not settle and seemed uneasy. She was pacing the room and seemed to keep heading towards Rob and I near the window. When she got near us she would turn on her heals and walk back towards the door before repeating it again. This was very odd and very out of character. I felt completely at ease in this room. I had the name Mary in my head. Others had similar but not the same names. Oddly if I remember correctly all the names started with M. We then decided to move on to the Orchard room. Temperature constant 19.5, EMF meter readings done – nothing abnormal to report. I unfortunately did not experience anything in here although Maureen and Amanda both picked up on a man standing by the fireplace. They asked both Rob and Mark to stand by the fireplace to see if they could match it to where they sensed him but both Mark & Rob we not what they were sensing. We finished our vigil in the Ilchester room (our team room). Everyone felt very at ease in here but this was the only room I felt anything in on the ground floor. It made me feel uneasy and I felt like I was being watched the whole time.
Our last vigil was on the 1st floor. We spent a little time in one of the rooms and also outside the ladies toilet. We could hear some very strange noises from downstairs and at one point it sounded like someone coming up the stairs however we could not rule out Gemma may have moved in the office. I checked the stairs but there was no one there. We left Amanda in this area and went round to the farthest room away from her. Temperature fluctuating 22-23.5, EMF meter readings done – nothing abnormal to report. Amanda joined us a little while later reporting that she had felt very odd in the area we had left her in. The room we were in was warm but not boiling and I was sat next to the radiator. Rob however was sweating and was bright red and so he decided to go and sit on the sofa on the landing area (just outside the door). He had only been out there for a couple of seconds when the 4 of us left in the room saw the flash of a camera. It was not a single flash, it flashed like digital cameras are set for red eye reduction – 4 or 5 short bursts of light. We all looked at each other and for a couple of seconds I think we were happy to put it down to Rob taking a picture however having been caught out in the past (and also the fact that I had not seen Rob take a picture all evening) I went out to where he was. He was sat on the sofa and looked almost surprised to see me. He had not taken a picture and even more oddly had not seen the flashes even though we had seen them come from where he was. It was not the sort of thing you would blink and miss as these were very bright flashes. It was just like Amanda not hearing the bang when we did in the basement. We checked all we could and can confirm that no one had taken a photograph at that moment, we were the only team on the floor at the time and that Gemma was in her office the entire time. EMF readings on the part of the landing where Rob was were normal and the temperature was not fluctuating from the norm. Very odd and something we may never be able to explain.
That concluded our investigation and I have to say that even though it was a fairly quiet night for me, some of the things I did experience could not be readily explained making it an interesting night. Thank you to Gemma (and Harvey) of Woodlands for making our visit possible. We feel very privileged to have spent time in this wonderful building.
Brian Witt
Vigil 1
1st floor and attic
We started off in the attic. There was not a lot of room in the rooms but we sat down and called out. We had no response to the calling but 2 members of the group picked up on a women close by. We tried talking directly to here but still had no result. We moved to another room in the attic and started again. No results here either. We decided to go down to the first floor and try there. At one point I thought I saw a shadow of an arm in the staff office but could not be 100% sure. Nothing further happened.
Vigil 2
Basement area
I had set up the DVR system in the kitchen area so we had a look where the cameras were and then had a walk around. We called out in the kitchen area and had no response. We moved to the room at the end of the corridor and to the right. It felt calm in this room but I couldn’t stand still. I was pacing back and forth for no reason. We had possible door movement on a locker but I need to review the video footage. We moved to the room at the end of the corridor and to the left. We called out here and had no response. A male was picked up on but did not respond to any questions.
Vigil 3
Ground floor.
Room 1 – We sat down and called out. No response.
Room 2 – We sat down and called out. No response. An interesting thing in this room was a candle. It had fallen from its holder and landed on the radiator. I can’t think a group member would have done this and not put it back.
Room3 – We sat down and called out. No response. Towards the end of the vigil the K2 started flashing. It had not happened all evening. It was not in response to questions but still strange.
Maureen Taylor
The photo I had seen of this building gave the impression that it was much larger than it actually proved to be. A nice size for an investigation, with not too many stairs, corridors etc for us to find out way around (or get lost in). I was looking forward to this one.
Vigil 1 –basement
As the rooms down in the basement don’t have any particular designation I shall refer to them by what we found in them – so the first room we went into was the ‘Christmas tree’ room. One of Julie’s first comments was about the low ceilings making her, for once in her life, feel really tall!! – this set the tone for much of the rest of the night – on two out of three vigils some of us kept succumbing to fits of the giggles. In this room I got the impression of a young man here with us, possibly in his late teens, and probably a servant – I felt that he was the cause of our laughter, a happy young man in his life and communicating this to us in his spirit form. Our conversation was getting quite silly in here – I won’t go into detail, it would take far too long!!!!
We moved on to the room where we had set up a couple of trigger objects, but sensed nothing here so didn’t stay long but moved on to the final room down here that we could access easily – the kitchen. From my recall we didn’t pick up on much activity down here, but some of us found the corridor outside it quite disturbing when any of us was on our own out there – if there were more than one it was fine.
Vigil 2 – three rooms to investigate on this level – Ruishton, Ilminster and Orchard
Ruishton – Having taken a few photos and had a quick look around the room we each selected somewhere to settle down. I chose to sit close to the fireplace, feeling that there should be a large armchair at each side of it. Amanda was unable to settle and felt the need to pace to and fro between door and window, feeling rather agitated and apprehensive. I got the impression, and she confirmed this, that she was sensing the presence of a young lady, maybe in her late teens or early twenties, who was waiting for someone to arrive, she had something important that she wanted to tell him, and that he wasn’t going to approve of what she had to say. The image I was ‘seeing’ suggested to me that this was sometime in the first half of the 19th century (1800 – 1850). Further on into the vigil I got the idea in my head that she was waiting for her father to arrive – at more or less the same moment Amanda came up with the same information. Julie said she had a name, and some of the rest of the team said that they also had names, we came up with Margaret, Mary and Miranda – Mary was to be significant a little later in the evening. This room felt very masculine, perhaps the study of the man of the house.
Orchard - This room felt far more feminine in character, but I think it was either Julie or Amanda who had the impression of a man leaning on the fireplace. I then got the impression of a very tall, very slim man (Very similar in height and build to my youngest son, Edmund – this was to prove more interesting later in the evening). We asked Mark and Rob to go and lean on the fireplace – one at a time of course – to see if either of them looked right standing there – neither fitted the bill – we needed someone taller and slimmer.
Ilminster – (our team room for the night) – we moved on to this room, but got very little, and it was nearing the end of the vigil.
Vigil 3 – first floor and attic
We had picked up very little here, but the happenings in the last room we went into overshadowed everything else. We were all finding it very warm up here, and the final room that we went into was no exception. Mark decided to lie down on the floor, while Julie, Amanda, Rob and I found chairs to sit in. Julie, Rob and I were along one wall, Julie was comfortable enough, I was feeling rather too warm, but Rob began seriously overheating, the sweat pouring off him, so he decided to go just outside the room and sit on the sofa there – within about thirty seconds or so of his doing this the four of us still in the room all saw what can only be described as a re-eye reduction type flash but far brighter and lasting longer than is usual. We asked Rob if he had taken a photo looking into the room, but he said no, he didn’t even have a camera with him. He’d not seen the flash at all – very odd considering that it appeared to come from a point about a foot outside the door of the room and very close to where Rob would have been sitting, yet he saw nothing. There was an IR camera positioned near ceiling height, pointed towards the sofa, and we’re hoping that it may have picked something up and will help solve the mystery for us, but I suspect that the flash was just beyond the range of the IR camera. We then decided to spend the last few minutes of the vigil sitting on the sofa and calling out in the hope that perhaps the explanation for the flash was not a rational, physical one, but nothing more happened. We did the usual checks on whether there was anyone taking photos anywhere nearby, but it seems that no-one was. Besides which, the flash certainly emanated from immediately outside the room we were in and only our team were up there.
At the end of the vigil – the last of the night- I was chatting to Maria for a few minutes and she told me that she too had sensed the presence of a man leaning against the fireplace in Orchard – and she got the name Edward (not to dissimilar to my son, Edmund), and that she too got the impression of a tall, slim young man. Good to know that members of another team were picking up on similar happenings.
In conclusion – a most interesting night, in a very pleasant location. A return visit one day maybe? Would love to go back there for another night, and maybe solve the mystery of the ‘phantom flasher’.
Marie Holder
Introduction
Wendy and I arrived at the location at around 6pm and met up with the rest of the group. We then made our way to the location and met our host, Gemma.
I was given the task of helping Mark P set up the DVR on the first floor, once that had been completed I then met up with my team and we made our way to our first vigil.
Vigil 1
Our first vigil was on the top floor attic area. We made our way to one of the rooms where I got the name Alice or Alison who I felt was about 17 years old. Steve asked if they worked here and I felt as if she was very offended by this as I wanted to shout NO I do not WORK here, I LIVE here! I also got the impression that she had been let down by a man in her young life as I suddenly felt resentment towards all the male members in the group. We then made our way to one of the other rooms, but I did not feel or experience anything in this room or any of the other rooms on the top floor.
We then went down the stairs to the 1st floor and went into all the rooms, but experienced nothing in any of the rooms but got a feeling of being watched in one of the corridors outside the gent’s toilets. It was quite unnerving in this area.
Vigil 2
This vigil was conducted down in the basement. We started off in the kitchen but nothing unusual happened in this area. There was a room at the bottom of the stairs off to the left that I did not like the feel of. It felt like there was someone in there waiting to jump out on us! We moved into the room at the bottom of the corridor to the right which looked like a storage area but nothing unusual happened or was experienced in here.
In the room at the bottom of the corridor to the left, I picked up on a man in his 50s that did not like women and I heard a growling noise in my head as if he was getting frustrated with us for asking him so many questions. Sarah mentioned that she saw a man standing behind Leathen and that she was quite wary of him but he chose not to do anything for us on this occasion. Sarah and I went back to that room on our own later on in the vigil but the room did not feel as menacing as before.
Vigil 3
We spent this vigil on the ground floor. We went into each room in turn but unfortunately nothing was experienced on this vigil.
Conclusion
This was an interesting location and although on a couple of occasions it was quite quiet, I would not want to be down the basement on my own as there is definitely something down there that does not like women!
Robin Turton
Team 2
Vigil 1 Ground floor
Orchard room
Temp 20.5 oC
We settled into the room then started a calling out session, Some noises and pops were heard but were probably just settlement of the building. At one point Abbie felt the right side of her face become hot. I checked the room temp and noted a 3°C difference from one end of the room to the other I never felt anything myself in the room.
Ruishton room
Temp 21°C
We all gathered around a table to carry out a session of table tipping and calling out. During this three of us, Abbie Wendy and myself kept smelling a smell we could only describe as the smell of a baby the others couldn't smell anything. During the session Maria suddenly felt cold down her right arm. On taking the temperature, her right arm was 10°C colder than the left. A flash and noise was seen to come from the voice recorder on the table in front of us but no reason could be found for it. Unfortunately the table never moved, toward the end of the vigil I had a very strong smell of vomit come to me which lasted for about a minute then disappeared. No one else smelt anything.
Unfortunately that was all that I experienced on the investigation. It was a very interesting house with masses of history, just quiet for me. It started with a great deal of promise but ended a bit disappointingly from my point of view.
Steve Boston
This was the group’s first investigation at Woodlands Castle. After a long drive we arrived and met up with the rest of the team. It looked an interesting building, looking more like an old medium size stately home than a castle. A quick look around the location showed it to be a wonderful old fashioned house, decked out with many old paintings.
My first job was to set up my DVR and cameras in the attic, we benefited here from having four sets of 4 camera DVR set ups, meaning we could cover every floor with a total of 16 cameras throughout the whole building.
TEAM 3
VIGIL 1 - 20.30HRS – 21.30HRS (approx) 1ST FLOOR & ATTIC
We began our investigation in the attic. This was the most run down area of the house, mainly used for storage of old computer kit and other old things like chairs and tables. It was very dusty up here with many loose floor boards. We had no strange temperature fluctuations or back ground EMF readings on the K2. We began by calling out. Both Sarah and Marie picked up on the spirit of a teenage girl but we gained no physical evidence of this with photography. I have also checked my audio but this has turned up no evidence.
After approximately thirty minutes here we moved down to the 1st floor. This was another quiet vigil with no temperature fluctuations or K2 readings. It was soon time to return to the team room for a break.
VIGIL 2 – 22.00HRS – 2300 HRS (approx) BASEMENT AREA & KITCHENS
We headed to the basement following our break. We began in what looked like it once used to be the main kitchen, but soon spread out into the other smaller rooms and hall that made up the basement area. This is another area of the house that is used for storage. In one of the smaller rooms Sarah picked up on a male spirit that was stood behind Leathen. We tried calling out and asking this spirit to give us some physical evidence but nothing was picked up on our equipment, or my audio. We had no strange temperature fluctuations and nothing on the K2. This was an interesting part of the building but unfortunately again it was a quiet vigil. The hour soon passed and it was time for a much needed coffee.
VIGIL 3 – 23.30HRS – 00.30HRS (approx) GROUND FLOOR
Our last vigil was held on the ground floor. We began in one of the function rooms. We picked up no strange temperature fluctuations or back ground EMF on the K2. We picked up on nothing in this room. From here we moved to the team room. Again we had no temperature changes, or back ground EMF. We called out but got no responses to questioning. We did get two brief activations on the K2 but not in direct reply to any questioning. These were unusual as we had nothing on our baseline checks; the K2 was in the middle of the floor. It was soon half past twelve and time to bring the evening to a close.
Although Woodlands Castle had been quiet overall on the physical evidence, it was an interesting venue which has good potential and is definitely a location I would like the chance to investigate a second time.
Sarah Pettet
Team 3 – Brian, Sarah, Steve, Marie and Leathen
Vigil one– Attic and 1st floor
We started in the attic and went to the room at the far end, we all decided to sit down in here and after we had settled I began calling out. After getting no response Steve took over asking for responses to questions. He began by asking for a name; as soon as he asked this I got Arabella in my head (Marie also got a name of Alice).Steve then asked if they lived here, no response, he then asked if they worked here. At this point I had the impression of a blonde haired teenage girl who was most put out about that question (Marie got that she flatly denied working in the house but did live there and that she was around the age of 17). When Steve pushed the working here I felt an enormous energy coming from the doorway, I asked if she would step forward into the room but she would not step over the threshold. We decided to move into the corridor and as I walked through the corridor I felt her energy very strongly again. We tried seeing if we could get some physical reaction from this energy but could get none. Eventually the energy appeared to dissipate. We moved into the room at the other end but got no reactions here to our calling out. We also went into the room decorated with wall murals but again got no responses.
We moved down to the first floor. We sat in various rooms asking but getting no responses. I tried out a room I had visited earlier where I had gotten a massive headache upon entering the room. This time I did not get anything but Leathen who was with me had began stretching his neck out. Eventually we gathered round the sofa at the top of the stairs and we called out. We heard some noises and a couple of us felt as if something was going on in one of the rooms on the left, Steve and Leathen went and sat in there. We called out again and Brian thought he saw movement in the room directly in front of us but we were able to rule this out as a reflection of car headlights. Sadly we did not get any other responses or feelings (other than how comfortable the sofa was!)
Vigil 2
Basement
We started in the area currently laid out as a kitchen. We had no responses to call outs in here and we all felt fairly comfortable. One of the cameras on the DVR was playing up situated at the other end of the basement to the rear of the building so we went to sort it out. Steve noted at one point that he felt uncomfortable in that part of the basement. We decided to move into the room next door to the kitchen, at the front of the building. Apart from Brian and I feeling as if we could not keep still (we couldn’t stay still either we literally had to force ourselves to stand still) we got no other responses or feelings. We decided to move to the room where Steve had felt uneasy. We had not been in this room long when I noticed a shadowy form behind Leathen near the doorway. I began picking up this was a male person and not someone I wanted to have my back to. Not being a person to back down I was surprised to find that I really wanted to back away from this entity. Marie picked up that he did not like women, which led the boys to try and get some responses from the entity, but it would do nothing but stand there menacingly. Then suddenly it left the room. We went into the next room to see if it was there but it wasn’t so we went back to the main kitchen. Steve suggested that Marie and I go back down to the room again to see if it reappeared again and after a bit of convincing, we did so. We were a bit on edge after the last encounter; however, it did not come back.
Vigil 3 – Ground floor
We started in the room opposite the kit room (Ruishton room). After settling down we called out but did not get any real responses. We thought we heard something in the hall but this turned out to by Gemma in the office next door. I was disappointed that we had nothing in this room as early on in the evening I had the impression of a gentleman nervously waiting for something/someone on the window seat, he was twisting a ring round on his middle finger as he waited.
We moved on to the other ground floor room (Orchard room) and settled into here, again I had visited this room on an earlier walk round and found it very hard to pick through the layers of energy within this room, it felt very busy but the energy felt more recent. During our vigil we saw a shadow pass by the door, Brian went into the hall and it turned out to be one of the teams who had decided to investigate the grounds. We let things settle again and called out. Marie and I heard 3 slight taps come from behind were we sat. We decided to investigate what could be causing it and discovered that a candle had fallen on to the radiator, the tapping we heard was the wax dripping on to the radiator and the floor.
We decided to move on to the kit room. We sat in here, I felt most comfortable in here. We called out and initially got no responses. Then suddenly the KII that was in the middle of the floor went off. We ruled out that it could have been picking up phone or electrical activity. We tried asking for the KII to be set off again but got nothing. Then it went off a second time on its own without any requests from us. Unfortunately we got nothing more.
Summary – Woodlands castle is a fine example of early Victorian folly style architecture. The energy within the house in most areas was one of busy-ness, but considering how it used currently this is not surprising. Apart from the one basement room, I felt most comfortable and welcomed in this house. Of the older energies in the house I really felt that they were either echoes of the past or were just keeping an eye on the house.
Mark Wright
Our first vigil saw us cover the Ground floor. This included the Orchard Room & the Ruishton Room.
Soon after entering the Orchard room we noticed the pictures on the wall were moving, but we quickly put this down to the heat rising from the radiator below it. We also noticed the chandelier was also moving. Whilst this wasn’t near a radiator it was such a minute amount of movement I think it may have been affected by the hot air moving around the room. At one point during calling out, one of the poppers on my trouser pockets popped open. It wasn’t pulled tight at all and needed to be physically pulled for it to open.
Moving on to the Ruishton Room, we sat around a table and started to call out. We heard the odd knock and tap but could not really say whether it was paranormal or not. Towards the end of this vigil we did hear several loud bangs. Just after hearing these Julie’s team radioed through to ask if we where moving and asked us to bang on the floor. We did and they said they could hear us, but this was not the banging we had all heard.
After a break we started our next vigil on the first floor. We started in a room that had been setup for a wedding event the following day. We spread ourselves across the room and started to call out. Almost immediately we heard shuffling in the adjacent room but on looking, there was nothing in there. Nothing further happened in this room so we stopped briefly in the hall and tried calling out then moved onto the attic. We tried to call out in the attic but got no response at all; it was eerily quiet. We moved on to cover the other rooms on the first floor but all of these were quiet.
After another break (and a slice of Mark P’s birthday cake) we moved on to the cellar which was a storage area and a kitchen. I felt very uncomfortable in this area. It didn’t take us long to realise why. There was a massive electrical box in one of the rooms which was pumping out EMF’s. Nothing further happened in the basement so we headed outside to have a look around. After heading back into the house and back to the Ruishton Room. We tried table tipping but had no results. Unfortunately the same applied for calling out. All had gone quiet.
After this we packed up our kit and left. It was an interesting night; a few little things happened that I couldn’t explain and I would like to revisit the castle in the future.
Mark Pettet
Team (Julie, Rob, Amanda, Maureen, myself).
Vigil 1 - we started the vigil in one of the rooms to the rear of the basement. Amanda and Maureen were commenting on the roof height. Amanda saying it should have been higher and Maureen saying it should have been lower. After a short while Amanda started to snigger and laugh as did Maureen and Rob. We then went to the room which was at the front of the basement but sadly it was a little quiet in here. While we were in there Julie was in the corridor and heard a noise from behind her coming from the room which we had just been in. Further investigation showed the torn side of a cardboard box was sticking out across the doorway. Had this been there when we were in the room we should have noticed it. Next we moved to the kitchen where it was quiet. We heard a noise in the backroom so I went in to take a look and to find out what the noise was. I found a leaf from a dried out plant which was on the floor so I picked it up and dropped it and it was the same sound I had heard.
Second vigil ground floor
We started this vigil in the Ruishton room. It was really hot in there and we did some calling out. Amanda was acting very strange in here as she was pacing up and down the length of the room while the rest of us looked on in bewilderment. Apart from this not much was going on in this room. We then moved across the hall to another room and Amanda pictured a man where I was leaning against the mantlepiece. I was told I was too short and stout (fat) to be there so Rob stood there, and was also told he wasn’t thin enough. Nothing else really happened on this floor; even the kit room was quiet.
Third vigil first floor/attic.
Rob and I decided to sit in a little area off the landing but then were joined by the rest of the team. We called out but nothing was heard. We all decided to go the biggest room on this floor and got settled. After a short while Rob was sweating lots and couldn’t understand why and had to leave the room. Two other strange things happened here. The first was that Julie and I both heard a `YES` in a whispered voice the room whilst we were on opposite sides of the room. The second was that we all saw a flash around the doorway like the redeye reduction on a camera flash but more intense and brighter. I tried to re-create it but couldn’t. We could rule out any flashes from windows as there weren’t any in view, and also rule out any other team as Rob was on the landing and would have seen anybody come up the stairs. I decided to go up to the attic but wasn’t up there long so came back down to end the vigil. This was also the end of the night’s proceedings.
Abbie Holding
I have driven past Woodlands castle on so many occasions, each time only catching a glimpse of the building from the road and thinking that the building looked intriguing. It’s not until you drive into the grounds that you really experience how fantastic the building and its setting actually is.
Once all our equipment was set up and the teams were ready to go, we headed off to our first vigil area, the Ground floor and function rooms. We started in the Orchard room. Baselines showed no EMF fluctuations and with the heating on full blast the room was feeling very warm. We began to call out asking questions about the room and asking for reactions to our questions through taps and knocks etc. The chandelier was gently moving and so were the pictures hanging from the walls, but with the heating on so high it was likely to be caused by the hot air circulating the room. There was a general consensus that the room felt very masculine, as if it may have been used as a gentleman’s study at some stage. A name came into my head ‘Jeffrey’ and I had a strong feeling that generals or military men would have been gathered in this room. We moved onto the next room which was the Ruishton room. In here there was a completely different atmosphere it felt very much feminine in comparison to the previous room. We all agreed after some calling out, that we would try table tipping where we all sat around the table with our finger tips lightly touching the table. We continued to call out and after a short while I kept seeing a shadow out of the corner of my eye in between Maria and myself. Shortly after this I began to smell the very sweet soft scent of a baby. At first I put it down to my memory senses as I have a 16 month baby at home. But shortly after Wendy described the same thing, then Robin and Mark began to smell what they described as baby sick.
Our next vigil was on the first floor and attic. We started in the wedding dress room where I felt very uncomfortable, yet all of the other team members felt completely at ease. After calling out the only sounds that could be heard where coming from outside of this room. Just before we left the name ‘Sofia/Sophie’ came into my head. We headed into the ladies toilet where the atmosphere was uncomfortable yet there was no response from calling out and no EMF fluctuations. We headed up into the attic which was very creepy to look at, but the atmosphere felt calm and again there was no response to calling out or any changes in our equipment. Back on the first floor we separated and Wendy, Maria and I went into the small office room whilst Robin and Mark went into the adjoining room. I felt very queasy and dizzy in this room and the EMF was going off but I believe this was because of the computer server being stored in this room.
Our last vigil was the Basement. We called out and wandered around but there was absolutely no response and no EMF fluctuations or anything on the camera’s so we decided to go and have a wander outside. Earlier on before we started the vigils i had taken a wander outside and I had the feeling of a Man playfully chasing after ladies around the garden; there was an electric feeling as you wandered around. When we went outside as a group it was very interesting as Maria said a very similar thing about sensing a man chasing ladies playfully around the grounds. The outbuildings were fantastic but again there was no direct response to out calling out so we returned back to the ground floor. The other team on the ground floor were finished in the Ruishton room so we decided to go back in. Again we began calling out and I caught shadows moving from the door across into the room; the baby smell had one. Maria then asked “Do you know that you are dead” and that’s when the atmosphere in the room changed. I felt colder and the room actually grew darker which is something I have never experienced before. This only lasted for about a minute and then there was again no response to our questions.
This was a fantastic location and it was an absolute honour to be able to investigate this building.