ghost hunt at poachers barn osgodby

Present from AGH were Angie, Mark, Jazz, Steph, Alan, Chris, Andy and Mike. Also present was Landlady Zoe and her friend Donna along with Dougie the Barman.

History of site: Formerly Osgodby Hall. Converted to the Barn Public House and Restaurant in 1975 and now the Poachers Barn, was built in the 18th century and was the former residence of the Wyvills. Built on the foundations of the original manor house that was built about 1275 with an adjoining chantry chapel dedicated to St Leonard of which only the north and west walls remain. Sadly, the only surviving Renaissance window was destroyed in 1969 during a reconstruction. The pub has also been known as Poachers Packet. The original barn is now where the main bar is. It was also used as a farmhouse.

We arrived at midnight and went on an initial walkaround with Zoe who showed us all the areas of the B&B, restaurant, bar, poolroom and kitchen. After which we set up a camcorder in the main bar where one spirit has been several times. We also set up some trigger objects and audio recorders in different areas, before the main investigation commenced.
We would start the night in two groups due to the size of the location. Group 1 comprised Landlady Zoe her friend Donna and Dougie with Angie, Steph, Jazz and Alan. Group 2 was Mark, Chris, Andy and Mike. Before we actually started Angie gave me some information she picked up on on first entry, one was a spirit in the bar area known as Fred and it turns out he is one of the more popular known spirits here. She felt Roman burial site which is true. She also felt there was a chapel of some kind here which is true.

01.00hrs. GROUP 1, The team entered bedroom 1, as they entered Angie sees an outline of a figure in the corner, she believes is a man who died of a heart attack. Alan says he can sense the man with a heart attack to, he also feels the room was once used as a nursery, as he can smell that new baby smell Donna says she can feel a man in the room who sits in a chair. Angie also picks up on a cleaner called Mary who lived in the village around 1982. She was here when George was too. After a little while Angie says people won't sleep well in this room as they will be aware of a presence before long. Angie says this property is not original and feels it has been rebuilt at some point. She then hears a horse and cart and says it sounds like a farm cart. Everyone then comments how the atmosphere in the room feels very heavy. Zoe tells the team she does not like coming into this room. Angie then says she can hear footsteps out on the landing, Two of the team both say they saw a shadow moving in the light under the door. Jazz went out onto the landing to see if anyone was about, but there was no one there. Angie and Alan both feel headachey and sickness, as Jazz re entered the room he thought he heard a voice but could not make out what was said, at the same time Angie comes up with another man who is in the room called Joseph. Before she can go any further she says she can hear John coming towards them, This is a man Angie had picked up on earlier when we went on a walkaround. Donna says she had picked up on this man before when she had visited here before us. Alan who on first entry to the pub had an image of someone being hung and still feels this, so asks has anyone picked up on it. Donna says she has felt this too. But at this moment I have not been able to confirm it. Angie then senses a man from around 1715 who was a selfish man and a bit of a loanshark, who lend out money to people in the village who were poor, he would though however take the men's women as sort of payment if they were short one week. Angie looks up and says she has just been told there are two tunnels connected to the building. (There have been rumours of tunnels connected to the property, one was believed to lead to cayton bay beach and used by smugglers). Angie quickly looks back to the corner she originally saw the outline of a man, and some members of the team taking turns to stand in the corner, they all felt as if they were being pushed and shoved slightly except for Jazz who felt he had been hit in the ribs.
GROUP 2. We went to the room where the priest hole is, as we made our way Andy tells me how he had got an image of a monk in the main bar area, walking from one wall to another, Angie had already told me this when I was setting up some equipment and had said she wanted to go back to that area at the end of the night. A little later on we would find out from Donna that she had seen this too a few times when she is in the pub. We came through the restaurant part of the B&B as we did Chris and Andy could smell something similar to cinder toffee, however Mark and Mike could not. We tried to find where exactly the smell was coming from but could not as it seemed to move around the room. After a short while we went back to the priest hole to see if anything was happening in there.
01.30hrs. We moved to the Function room. We set up motion sensors all around the room and sat observing and waiting, Richard the landlord had told me that when in the Bar area after closing he would often here movement coming from here as if someone was walking around. The Function room is directly over the bar. When in the bar you can hear when someone is above pretty clearly as we tested this out. There is a big difference to creaking floorboards to someone physically moving around. So this was worth looking into. We waited until 02.30hrs to see if anything happened before we rejoined the others. Sadly nothing happened.

01.45hrs. The team moved into bedroom 2. As they enter Angie asks Alan and Steph to sit either side of the bed with their backs turned to each other and see how they feel. (This was because she felt a big argument took place here once and wants to see if either of them pick it up). Alan soon says he feels a violent altercation between a male and female took place in this room. Angie says she feels that if you were lay down on the bed here you would see shadows moving around the room. Then she heard movement out on the corridor again as did Jazz who once again went outside to check, as he walked down the corridor towards another room he got a real uneasy feeling and decided to rejoin the team in room 2. Angie Alan and Donna all start to feel apprehensive when Angie says she heard a voice saying "my love, Robert" "Robert my love" she says Robert's wife is here, she is looking for him as they have not been reunited after death. She is another who wanders about a lot in the property.

02.00hrs. The team moved into bedroom 3. and this is where Group 2 joined them to form one group. Angie tells us John has rejoined them and wants to know who we all are, not much else happened in this room, so Mark asks who John is, Angie and the team tell him he is a man they picked up in room 1 and he was not nice, they explained the feelings they all had when stood in the corner, Mark is eager to se more of this, so as the team move onto room 4, Mark and Jazz go to room 1 to see if Mark gets any of the feelings they had. And so become Group 2.

02.15hrs GROUP 1. In the room Angie becomes aware that a Ouija board has been used here at some point by someone who lived in the property previously, she gets an image of a home made board and that the people using it had a very bad experience. (See further down when more on this unfolds). She says a spirit lady called Marion came through to them and she had mental problems, as Angie says this everyone present heard a Hmm!! Alan and Chris both say at the same time they saw a quick glimpse of a figure come out of the corner. Angie and Donna both go to the corner and stand there for a while to see if they can get anymore. But as they stand there they become aware of a little girl in the room. Angie says she sees her playing with a wooden ball, but it turns out to be the top of a ballast from a staircase. Alan joins them in the corner, all three soon comment how the little girl is very tactile as they can all feel her tapping or tickling them. Angie gets the name Lizzie with the little girl and Alan swaps places with Dougie who comments he can feel her touching his hand.
GROUP 2. Mark and Jazz entered room 1 and Mark stands in the corner and waits patiently but after 20 minutes feels absolutely nothing so they rejoin Group 1 in room 4.
GROUP 1. Still in the corner and Angie says Lizzie also likes to be called Beth, Donna swaps places with Zoe who also feels a tickling on her leg. Dougie describes the touching of his hand felt like the grasp of a small child. We stayed in here for a while longer whilst the Tactile girl continued to make her presence felt amongst most of the people in the room, when she finally stops we decide to stop for a break.

03.00hrs. BREAK.

03.15hrs. Freezer room. Donna had mentioned she hated this room on her previous visits, Angie had already told me she felt there was a graveyard once here and she had picked up on Romans here too, and Richard had showed me some old prints that showed a burial site here. In fact an archaeological dig here found roman remains. I decided to keep this information from the others, and Angie decided to wait in the kitchen area with Zoe and Donna. The rest of us went into the room to see if we felt anything, Instantly Chris left saying it stunk of death! the rest of the team remained in the room with myself. We spent a half hour in here but no one sensed or felt anything, except Alan who commented there where bodies buried below us.

03.45hrs. Function room upstairs. This time the whole team where together, Angie did say she felt a man named Walter who looked like a farmer was the one who came in here and he could be heard wandering around up here. Nothing else came of this or anything else and we moved on.

04.07hrs. We went back to the priest hole, As we entered the area Angie went in and looked down saying she felt there should be a stone seat there. She then says a priest hid out here from someone in the 1306! we were a bit surprised at this thinking as anyone would, that priest holes usually where around the mid 1500's. However this turned out to be true, as Angie sees this psychically the date 1308. In 1308 the priest of the Chantry Henry Bullhalls is believed to have hid here, when he was suspended by the Archbishop of York. (see photos page) Nothing more came of this and Angie then started to talk about the Ouija board again that she had picked up on earlier. Mark who was not present in the room with them at the time asked Angie to repeat what she had picked up on earlier regards this. After Angie told Mark the story, he explained that a couple of years ago he was contacted by a male who claimed he was being plagued by an evil spirit, Mark went to see the young man on his own and was told how this lad and a friend had conducted a Ouija board in the Poachers barn, one of them knew or where related to someone who lived here, ever since they conducted the experiment which had gone wrong the young lad could not sleep at night, as an evil presence would stand at the foot of his bed. I cannot go into anymore detail here, but things were resolved.

04.30hrs. We went back to the main bar area where the monk had been seen and took up positions near the wall he appeared to walk through. After sitting for a while and observing the area a real strong smell of sulphur filled the room. Other than this the whole time we stayed in the area nothing else happened.

05.00hrs. The night came to an end, so we packed up the equipment and left.

FINAL THOUGHT: I do feel that certain areas where very interesting and would be worthwhile a revisit. The team seemed to pick up on a lot of things the owners knew or had been told before.