Event Reports, Sams Blog
Gresley Old Hall 12-08-2023
Aug
Gresley Old Hall
This marked a return to one of our favourite locations, Gresley old hall. We have had some amazing activity here in the past, especially with one particular spirit.
As well as our guests on the night, we were also joined by Tracey from Worlds Apart Paranormal.
1st Floor – single room:
We began on the first floor in largest room, one that we have not investigated as much. As we had the whole group together, we began with a pendulum, running spirit talker at the same time.
The first spirit was that of a child aged 10-15 who, unfortunately, was not aware that they had died. We got a couple of names on spirit talker, Donald and Robinson, possibly the spirit’s name. He was there alone and seemed interested in communicating with us. We started to get some action from one of the K2s, so Scooby placed his K2 (which makes a noise) in the vicinity and it went off, followed closely by “can you hear that” on spirit talker. We tried to get the spirit to engage, but when we pushed for more information, the spirit appeared to move on.
A new spirit came through, one that was clearly more agitated and possibly a bit aggressive. A soon as he joined us, he wanted Josie removing from the circle. We went round the circle asking “did you mean me” to see if the spirit could identify Josies location and they could. We got the name “Vincent” on spirit talker. This spirit was said they may be prepared to communicate in other ways, but was possibly confined to that particular room. We asked him “are you alone in here?”, – no, “are there 3 of you?”, – yes, “so, two others?” – “There’s more of us” came up on spirit talker. After a bit more back and forth, and the spirit showing what appeared to be agitation with us, we decided to break the circle, have a rest and reform.
Upon reforming the circle, we got a personal spirit come through, with a connection to one of the guests, the details of which (for privacy) will not be recorded here. We did, however, still have spirit talker running throughout the session, and as we were struggling for answers, I proposed that we used a board, to which, the spirit agreed.
Breaking the circle, we opened the board and attempted to communicate with the spirit, unfortunately, we ended up connecting with a new spirit. This new spirit kept messing about, almost as if they were exploring the board. “I am young” came through on spirit talker, and assuming this was a younger spirit, we moved to yes/no answers. We were able to deduce that this was a 7-year-old who had possible worked at Gresley and had died near by, although when asked for specifics, they shied away. In order to keep the child communicating with us, we offered to play a game. As we were to go room to room, we asked the spirit if they would jump out on us and scare us, if they could we would win. This seemed to please the spirit and we were greeted with some activity on the K2s and motion balls.
Whilst all this was happening we had the words: “lots of deaths”, “gas and “pilot” on spirit talker. Was this referencing something, perhaps a mining accident?
1st Floor – double room:
We decided to set up the SLS camera, pointing at the door to see if we could pick up any activity. Initially we tried table tipping but unfortunately did not get much activity, in fact the room felt somewhat flat. We moved to dowsing rods in the hope to get something more. Josie sensed the presence of two younger spirits in the other room. This makes sense for the interactions we have had at Gresley before and specifically in that room. We got the spirit of a lady with long black hair, accompanied by 3 children. We tried to get some answers from the lady but she was pushed out, replaced by another female figure, who claimed they cannot pass over as they need to stay here and protect the children.
During this, we were still getting intermittent responses on the rods, and the guest who was on the rods, started to feel as if their leg was getting warm, again a possible reference to interactions we have had before. However, getting little interaction on the rods, and with Josie sensing spirits in the other room, we moved.
1st Floor – double room, pt2:
Here we had a very active spirit box session. Straight away we were getting snippets such as “leave”, “get out”, “away”, making it evidently clear that we were not welcome here. We appeared to get the name, a scream and also what appeared to be a fair amount of profanity.
In an attempt to test the spirit, at the suggestion of a guest, we decided to play a different game. Here we counted up from 1, each person in the room taking turns to speak one after another, occasionally we would stop and see if the spirit box would give us the next number sequence. This took a few attempts. The first couple of time we got no response, the next time we got numbers but not the correct one in the sequence. This was followed by some more threats and profanities “leave us”, “d*** head” however, we then got “Polly’s dead” and “the numbers”, we therefore attempted to play the game again, this time the answers were correct almost every time we stopped.
3rd Floor – top room:
For our final session we moved to the top room of the building. Unfortunately, there was a party going on next door and we got a significant amount of noise bleed, this meant that experiments using devices such as spirit talkers or simply listening for noises and responses cannot be relied on. We decided to attempt a board again to see if we could get some more interaction. At the same time, by request, a couple of the guests had a go at a sensory deprivation experiment, effectively blocking out all external stimuli.
We got several spirits on the board in quick succession during this experiment, the first of whom was named George, he was somewhat slow to answer, confirming that he was male and had a connection to the building. He was quickly pushed off the board by another spirt, for who we never got a name, and another followed finally be Henry.
Henry is a spirit with whom we have had a lot of interaction with in the past. Initially he was hostile, almost violent towards us, but over time and with the work done by Jo and Scooby he has become much more accepting and understanding towards us.
Records
Mine incident:
On the 5th April 1865 a miner by the name of Reuben Bosworth was killed in a gas explosion. He had a tendency to leave his tools in a disused tunnel, as it was more convenient than taking them up to the surface each night. As this tunnel was disused it was not effectively ventilated leading to a gas build up. When he went to receive his tools, his light (likely a small flame or “pilot light”) ignited the gas and he was killed.
During the night Josie had also noted a figure with worn baggy trousers and a striped shirt, possibly the attire of the deceased miner whose information came through on spirit talker.
The first spirit we got could also have been that of a deceased miner, on 4th May, 1913, 16-year-old William Pargeter was killed after being hit in the head by flying rock from an explosion. He was on his way back from the workings with an empty tub, and he was stopped from entering a blasting area, however, no-one warned him of the dangers and that he should take cover, unaware of what was going on he was killed instantly when the explosion went off.
There was also the death of 14-year-old Thomas Smith, 15th May 1872 in a fall of call, both of these boys were killed quickly and may not be entirely aware of the circumstances of their deaths.
George:
One of the spirits we got through was called George with a strong connection to the house, possibly this could have been George Gresley who lived 1494 – 1548 and spent a considerable amount of his life in the area. Few facts are known about him other than he was made a Knight of Bath, and, by gift of Cardinal Wolsey, had a number of estates both at Church Gresley, but also at Draycot and Burton.
Robinson:
Though the deceased child we got at the start of the night may have been that of one of the miners, we did, however, get the name Robinson. This was a family that married into the Gresley family. Several girls by the name Christian Robinson married, and we know about those that took the Gresley name, thanks to the Gresley records. What it is fairly poorly known is anything about the rest of the Robinson family. Perhaps Donald Robinson was a relative of Christian Robinson.
