Spooked out at a Shropshire castle

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Spooked out at a Shropshire castle
March 31, 2009
Ben Bentley
Shropshire Star

At Whittington Castle, near Oswestry, it’s approaching midnight: Time to talk to dead people.

Seated around a table in a ‘chapel’ lit only by moonlight from a nearby window, I am part of a group of paranormal investigators taking part in the first late-night vigils of their kind at the castle, attempting through a series of experiments to make contact with spirits and energies of people who lived and died here.

And they’re not shy. A few minutes into a seance, in which our collective fingertips touch an upturned glass, the tumbler shudders and begins to move, supposedly in response to direct questions from participants such as “Are you male?” “Did you used to work here?” “Have you seen bad things?”

A voice in the darkness asks: “Who do you want to talk to? Can you move towards the person you want to make contact with?” Slowly the glass moves towards the lady to my left, who shudders and lets out a ghoulish gasp.

Before long we are having a chat with a dead chap called Thomas, whose surname may or may not be Pickford and who apparently worked here.

Later, during an experiment with a pen attached to a small moveable trolley that works in a similar way to a seance glass, our man Thomas is invited to give us information about himself by drawing a picture.

Again the pen glides around on a piece of paper. The result looks like idiotic scribble until a member of the group points out that the drawing bears an uncanny resemblance to an iron.

Spookily, a different member of the group who works at the castle informs us that this room used to be used as a laundry. Might Thomas have been in charge of the sheets hundreds of years ago?

Personally I’ll admit to being a sceptic in these kinds of things but clearly I am among people who do believe in the supernatural and are happy to dabble in it.

Earlier, to whip up the vibes in the room, we sit in the darkness holding hands, attempting to send energy round in a clockwise direction. At one point the hand of the lady to my left suddenly goes cold and the back of my own legs feel as though they have frozen.

John the medium at Whittington CastleShe shudders. Her husband to her left jolts and lets out a groan, unnervingly announcing: “Something just touched me on the back.”

Whether there is a spirit playing a game of tag or I am part of the most elaborate piece of theatre this side of Scooby Doo I’ll concede one thing: I am scared. Very scared.

With television shows such as Most Haunted attracting huge audiences, ghosthunting and delving into the paranormal is more popular than ever. This is the first time a paranormal investigation like this, organised by Paranormal Tours, has taken place at the castle, which many say is haunted.

Among them is Peter Ray, a director of the castle’s preservation trust who in the process of restoring the historic Norman motte and bailey structure found himself sleeping here at weekends.

“One time I slept here in my old Volvo estate and I’d dropped off but half an hour later I woke up needing the toilet. I looked out of the window and I saw this shape that I could only describe as a wraith - a black shimmery thing that was there for about 30 seconds. It was really weird. I just lay there really scared.”

He’s also experienced radios that come on in the middle of the night and weird sounds emanating from the dungeon tower.

“I was walking along and as I got closer to the wall I heard this atrocious, gurgling noise. I looked around and there was no-one. That was very unnerving. A couple of weeks later it happened again.”

Before our ghost hunting vigils begin, there is a series of psychic workshops and a ghost walk around the castle led by a medium called John, who then leads a tour of the grounds, using his powers of mediumship to get messages from people on the other side. It’s odd to watch John’s mouth race away like it’s possessed by the people sending messages.

Exploring Whittington Castle dungeonsApparently he knows nothing of the castle or its history, and ahead of the event is given only a postcode to enable him to find it.

He paces one room and announces: “A lot happened here and it’s not nice. I’m seeing bodies and blood. A lot of blood.”

Of course this is true of most castles. At Whittington, there are supposed connections to Dick Whittington and to Robin Hood. During the civil war the castle was loyal to the Royalists until Oliver Cromwell’s Roundheads took it by force in 1643.

John leads us across the bridge to the dungeons where he ’sees’ young lovers doing what young lovers do. So do I. A friend of mine lost her virginity over there, but it’s not something that is picked up upon by John!

Later, we use an array of equipment including a digital thermometer and an EMF gauge to record any atmospheric changes caused by the presence of spirits.

One of the most common feelings people got was feeling suddenly cold, and our thermometer bore it out. Temperatures of walls would suddenly drop, and rise again, by several degrees.

During my night at the castle I don’t see a ghost. But I am left with many unexplained questions and having watched living people’s reactions to being contacted by the dead, I am, I admit, pretty frightened. I depart faster than Scooby Doo chased by a man dressed in a sheet.