The event organisers Jacquie and George of Shanry Paranormal
Research Group along with team member Faeden headed the nights investigation
and led one team. Present from powergen were twenty two members of staff, seperated
into three groups, Abbey Ghost Hunters founders Angie and Mark were invited
along as team leaders of one group for the night by Shanry also present from
AGH was Wayne, the third group were led by Club Zero members Paul and Paul who
were also invited along by Shanry. Also present were Jamie and Stewart landlord
of Chestergate Tavern visitors of Shanry website. To read all reports from all
groups visit Shanry website.
The Galleries of Justice based in Nottingham in the Shire
Hall, the prison was first built in 1149 a court has been on site since 1375,
the shire hall buildings were in use from the 1700's to the mid 1980's, the
last execution on the site was in 1864. the site comprises a Victorian courthouse,
an 1800's prison, an exercise yard, cave cells (called the pits) , an 1833 prison,
women's prison with a laundry room and bath house, an Edwardian police station
and medieval cave system and the condemned mans cell. Men women and children
were all held prisoners on this site..
The investigation started at 22:00hrs joining AGH from Powergen were volunteers,
Vic, Jill, Joanna, Cathy, Shauna, Vesta and Mona,(we would like to the thank
all seven for a great night, and for allowing us to use their names on our site).
22:20 Our first port of call was the condemned mans cell, were angies digital
camera batteries drained completely.
Four of the powergen staff. Jill, Cathy, Mona and Vesta all stood around a table
on which we placed a glass, the four then each placed one finger on it.
We attempted to communicate with spirit through the glass, asking questions
which need yes or no answers, we ask the spirit to show us yes by moving the
glass in a side to side or circular motion, for a no we ask the that the glass
remains still.
23:00 the seance ended and we made our way back to the canteen to meet up with
the other groups.
23:35 Our next port of call was the chapel, here the group sat on the benches,
sitting quietly and opening their minds to see if they were able to communicate
with spirit individually. Whilst we all sat still and quiet, the group were
encouraged to say what they felt or speak whatever word came to them,
the whole group heard what seemed to be a cough from outside the room, the other
two groups were nowhere near our location so it couldn't have been any of them.
Jill had the urge to say bread, but couldn't explain why,
Cathy could feel the presence of a man stood in the corner but no further information
could be given on that,
Joanna got a name pop into her head which was Doris, again no further elaboration
came,
Mona and Vesta could feel a breath between them,
whilst Vic and Shauna got nothing.
During all this Angie was taking photos (using the canon digital camera, see
our equipment page) one of which was through the doorway of the chapel, a very
clear picture of a mans face appeared who it seemed was of dark skinned, the
photo was shown to all the group who agreed on this, we removed the memory card
for safe keeping and put in a fresh one, ( however since returning home and
inspecting the memory card the photo (number 33) has disappeared!!).
00:05 We then heard a noise coming from another room so we made our way there.
This was the bathing rooms and to the rear a room with a very large bed in it.
We stayed in the room with the bed in it, upon entering the room Jill thought
she had seen something in the wall but couldn't say what it was, we then asked
the group to form a circle and hold hands whilst we performed a seance.
During which some members could smell something similar to disinfectant type
smell, also during the seance Marks torch started to flicker several times as
Angie had said she could feel some young children in the room, after several
seconds the torch was fine, (recorded at 00:21)
Jill said she felt stifled, 00:30 nothing else happened so we closed the circle,
we then asked for volunteers to sit on the bed to see if they were able to sense
anything, Mona, Vesta, Cathy, Shauna and Joanna all volunteered, during this
Cathy had sensed the room was probably used as a maternity area as she could
sense women and children she also felt the name Sarah, (at this time our camcorder
has detected a door moving type of sound, recorded at 00:30 and 46seconds)
then at 00:42 we all heard what would appear the exact same sound, we moved
into the bathing area to see if we could detect what had caused the noise, by
process of elimination it would appear to be one of the metal doors on the cubicles,
these however are very heavy and we don't feel a draught was sufficient to move
them. We made our way back to meet the other groups at 00:50.
On our way back to meet the other teams, in a corridor adjacent to the condemned
mans cell, some of our group had noticed a couple of pictures of inmates from
here hanging up, they felt one in particular was the man Angie had caught on
photo in the chapel, he was Thomas Jenkins (dark skinned) a ships cook summarily
tried in 1863 for refusing to give evidence in a murder trial, the resemblance
and coincidence of name are both striking.
01:43 Our next stop was at the courtroom, the group sat down to see if they
could feel anything, no one seemed to be sensing anything at all, so we asked
for two volunteers to come and stand in the dock to see if anything could be
detected here, Vic and Cathy both entered the dock, Angie sat in the judges
chair, whilst Mark stood to one side of the dock.
After a short period Cathy sensed a tall man with dark hair and moustache, she
felt he was a barrister type person, she could see mentally he wore a navy blue
pin stripe suit, she sensed he was an angry man and often would shout, her senses
felt he had been there in a case to do with a young girl more of a baby, fair
haired and pale skin, Mark asked was the baby wearing a blue dress Cathys reply
no a pink one.
We then asked for another volunteer to sit in the clerks chair, Mona volunteered
she sat for a while to see if she could feel or sense anything, only a warmth
on one side of her face as though someone was stood very close to her, Mark
inspected the area all around her and recorded it as being very cold in that
area,
after a little time the group moved to the back of the court to see if anything
could be sensed there.
Whilst we were stood at the back the group stood quietly each asking mentally
for spirit to come forward and communicate, during this to the left hand side
of he room (or right side from judges chair) Mark thought he had seen a face,
although this was only for a split second, unfortunately no one else had seen
anything.
Not much really happened and we left the courtroom for a break at 02:43
03:45 Our next stop was to the cave cells (the pits) on entering the N.I.D
(negative ion detector) bleeped three separate times, the group stood and watched
some chains that were placed on display, these were very heavy chains and once
used as shackles on prisoners, one of these was moving side to side whilst the
others were perfectly still, the interesting fact here it was the heaviest of
all on display that was moving, on inspection it seemed it would have needed
applied force to make this move,
further in was a narrow passageway which led into a very small square room which
had two cells in it one of which has a display dummy inside and cannot be entered
the other had access, on the floor was a cage door which led to a lower cell,
some members of the group entered the cell on the left to sit for a while with
Angie whilst Mark stood outside with the others, after a short period everyone
except Angie and Vic left the cell and stood with Mark, whilst stood waiting
the women in the group were each looking over their shoulders as we could all
feel a presence stood near the entrance of the room, each member agreed the
atmosphere was heavy, and the women all felt uncomfortable and as if they were
not welcome there, the feelings were getting more intense as we stood there,
and nerves were getting high, Angie come out of the cell to escort the women
out of the area as they no longer wished to be there, as soon as Angie was about
to do this the N.I.D bleeped twice, once the women left the area, Mark, Wayne
and Vic all remained to do a seance to see if any connection with spirit could
be made,
nothing was gained from this, and all three agreed that the atmosphere appeared
to lift once the women had left, we then left the area and made our way to the
exercise yard to discuss what had happened and to make sure everyone was okay.
At 04:30 we made our way to the 1830s cells.
04:45 we had now joined with George and Jacquies group.
Faeden then led a couple of levitation experiments,
and then a seance led by Jacquie which everyone except George and Stuart took
part in,
during the seance a few loud knocks and bangs were heard by all present, the
whole time we all felt like we were not alone there and at one stage a shuffling
of feet could be heard, as George had not sat in on the seance he went to investigate
but could not find any rational explanations.
05:43 the seance was closed down by Jacquie, lots of people were now tired as
for them this was their first time on an investigation, and it was decided the
investigation would come to a close.
In conclusion:- the night was very interesting to say the least, the Galleries a very interesting place for investigating further, the group from powergen all had a good time and were very nice and pleasant people to be with. It was also a great pleasure to meet Jacquie the Medium, Faeden and also the two Pauls, and to work alongside George once again.
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