Private Residence - Kent


Aim: To investigate by request, via scientific means reports of paranormal activity at this property.

Background:
Ghost Connections was contacted by the occupier of this late 19th century terraced house as they were interested in some odd phenomena that had been and still was frequently occurring. It is interesting to note that the property was formally used as a funeral parlour and all the normal activities associated with this were carried out within what is now the house. This changed when the company expanded but the property was then used as offices. A young female employee once worked in these offices, in what is now the dinning room, and apparently did not work for the company long as she was terrified by an experience in this room and upstairs. The dinning room was originally the "arranging room" where the deceased were prepared! In fact we were told by the occupier of two independent stories of a presence in this room. The smell of cigar or pipe smoke has been smelt upstairs in the bathroom area but this no longer happens since there was some structural alterations to the bathroom. It is suggested that coffins used to be made or stored in the attic, now the spare room, and the occupiers grandson is no longer happy to sleep in that room, although he was happy to do so when he was younger. Personal items and pieces of jewellery have been known to go missing for ages despite searching the whole house, only to reappear on the corner of the lounge coffee table? But a black jewellery box that went missing has never been found?

Three representatives from Ghost Connections visited the property prior to the investigation to speak to the occupier about these occurrences and to look over the house to see if an investigation was viable. Whilst we did so we certainly felt that there was something about the place and the areas of the house mentioned above, anyway, what team of paranormal investigators would turn down the opportunity to investigate an ex funeral parlour!

Apparatus:
Cameras:
Nikon Coolpix 3100 digital camera
Fuji Finepix S5500 digital camera
Fuji Finepix S5000 digital camera
Fuji Finepix 4900 digital camera

Camcorder:
Samsung VP-D351
Sony DCR-HC19
Sony DCR- HC30E

EVP:
Olympus DM-20

EMF:
Gauss EMF Meter

Thermometer:
Digital Probe Thermometer
Inside / Outside Digital Air temp. Thermometer

Other:
Tripods
Torches
Tapes (MiniDV)

Experiments:
Crystal pendulum unit.

Investigators:
Ian, Kim, Dave, Paddy and venue occupier.

Method:
To call aloud to request activity or responses from any potential paranormal force, using camcorders, still photography and digital voice recorders to record events in three separate locations being the attic, the lounge and the dinning room. Also to conduct an experiment in the lounge using a crystal pendulum sealed within a clear air tight dome. This was to be closely monitored, with temperature readings in and outside the dome and close up camcorder footage. The purpose of this being to promote movement of the crystal by any potential presence. We conducted the entire nights investigations with the lights on as we considered that light or dark, there should be no difference to the results.

The Investigation:
We arrived at the property to be greeted by the occupier at 8.00pm, after a period of setting up equipment and discussing the night ahead we started our first vigil at 9.15 pm in the attic, now the spare room. Ian and Paddy filmed on cam Kim had her DM-20 running and all the team were taking stills. Dave tried calling for spirit activity but none was forthcoming. After a while Ian also tried but again there were no apparent results. The team all felt comfortable in this area although both Ian and Kim complained of being breathless or tight chested briefly. Also Paddy feelt a pain in his left shoulder. After an hour we chose to have a break and then move into the lounge.

At 11.10pm we gathered in the lounge with our host to conduct an our pendulum experiment. Paddy's camcorder was set up to film close ups of the pendulum to capture any movement that might occur, Kim's camcorder was set up on a tripod in the corner of the room looking inwards to the pendulum and both Paddy's and Kim's voice recorders were running, also again the whole team were taking stills. The temperature inside the dome was 23.6C, outside was 23.9C. At 11.00pm Dave started posing questions to any spirits that might be about suggesting they might wish to come closer and move the crystal pendulum for us? The team and their host were feeling quite comfortable and at 11.20pm some slight movement of the pendulum was noticed. Dave continued to call for spirit and a some more significant movement was noted. At 11.25 close up filming of the pendulum switched from Paddy's to Ian's Cam as Paddy's tape had run out. At this point the temperature inside the dome was 24.4C and outside was 24.6C, by 11.50pm these had risen slightly to inside the dome being 24.4C and outside 24.9C. Paddy was still complaining of a sharp pain in his left shoulder? At 11.57pm we chose to end the experiment and move to the ground floor dinning room.

After a break we cleared the dinning table for a glass experiment, Paddy, Ian and Dave took part in this along with our host, Kim filmed the session on her camcorder, but after half an hour of asking for spirit to help us to move the glass there was nothing to show for our efforts. Hence at 1.10am we decided to loose the glass and try a "spiritual experiment", in other words a séance over the table. There were 4 clear knocks heard from the corner of the room behind Dave which seemed to be in response to our request for activity, after we asked again another 2 knocks were heard by all. Subsequent knocks were also heard but these were more ambiguous in origin and some of these noises could be explained by some wind chimes in the back garden. At one point though, during the séance, Ian thought he saw a shadow in the hallway at the bottom of the stairs which darted up the stairs as he turned to look? Sadly this was all that was all that could be noted from this session so at 2.00am we decided to end the séance, and the investigation.

Results

There were occasions when we thought we heard knocks, some that could and some that could not be explained. Regrettably there were no major unexplainable occurrences on the night of this investigation and nothing was caught on any of the camera footage or EVP recordings made on the night . What Ian thought he saw at the bottom of the stairs could have simply been the effect of tired eyes, and both his and Kim's feelings in the loft could have been brought on by the slightly enclosed space. Sadly neither of these occurrences can be classed as paranormal. There was an amount of information forthcoming of a clairvoyant/psychic kind, but this cannot be validated. As Ghost Connections conducts scientifically based investigations we do not publish such observations, however, this information is held on a separate database and is released upon request at our discretion. Should you wish to see this information please email us.
Conclusions

It is always nice to be invited to investigate a private residence, especially one with a past like this building has. However, given the total absence of occurrences on the night and lack of evidence collected on our equipment we are not able to conclude that there is any paranormal activity here. But this does not mean that there isn't any, may be we were just unlucky on the night? As we keep in frequent contact with our host we will not doubt hear of any other odd goings on.

 
  Thanks
 

Our host wishes to keep the both themselves and the identity of the property confidential, which we are of course happy to do. But needless to say we pass on our thanks for the invitation................ and for the sandwiches!

 

   

 

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