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Dane Mill, Congleton

It was a windy wet night when we arrived at Dane mill. It was a night I was looking forward to. We would be working along side the team at Dragoon publishing investigating their office and the surrounding area. They'd had paranormal activity ranging from fleeting glances of shadows to full body apparitions.

On arrival we set up our gear, had a coffee and introduced ourselves. Kath and Gill gave a talk on what we would be doing during our investigation and the history side of things. Then we split into our teams. In my team I had Jon and Andy who are part of Dragoon publishing and Andy's wife Sam. Being relatively new to paranormal investigations I found the thought of leading my small team a bit unnerving. As we made our way to our first location I tried to think of what I would want out of the night if I were them.

AREA ONE,THE STAIRS.

We decided to start our investigation on the first floor stairs. I thought we could have a chat and talk about our paranormal experiences. I had my voice recorder running and we tried some calling out. Apart from a few cold feelings all was quiet, so I gave Andy my video camera and we split up, Jon and I located at the entrance hall on the ground floor while Andy and Sam stayed on the first floor.

After about ten minutes Jon and I heard a bang on the door on the left as you enter the mill. This was followed by the sound of a machine being used in the workshop behind the same door. It's hard to describe sound in words but it was like 'kerchink' then a gap of a second or two then 'kerchink' again, like a lever being pulled backwards and forwards. We called Andy and Sam to come and listen, they could heard the noise too. There seemed to be a gap of about 50 seconds between the two sounds. Sam asked it to do it four times and it did. The sound went on for a while, sometimes on asking but that could of been a coincidence. Also at times there was a strong smell of coolant, this is used in the cutting of metal. Without gaining access to the room the noise was coming from we cannot say for sure what it was but Jon has heard this noise before at a much faster rhythm while no one has been in the room. He has asked the people who work in there and they say everything is turned off at night and no machines are running. But again without access we cannot say it was paranormal.

AREA TWO, STOREROOM CORRIDOR.

Before we started in our new location Gill and I went to listen to the noise in the workshop, again after a while we got a strong smell of coolant, not straight away, only after Gill had called out a couple of times. We set out to join the rest of the group and as we both climbed the stairs we both looked at each other and said "That felt like someone walking behind us". We tried walking up the stairs again to see if the steps creaked after we stepped on them, they did but straight away. The time difference between the creaks was longer when we first climbed the stairs, as if someone was behind us.

I rejoined the rest of my group and headed for the storeroom area. This had a totally different feel to it than the rest of the building. As we sat by the lift door, Sam complained of a tightening of the throat. Now this is strange because unknown to Sam a man is supposed to of hung himself in the lift we were sat outside.

While we were sat in this area we heard voices from the landing above, at first we thought it was one of the other groups but Jon reminded us we were too far away to hear them. About this time Sam and Andy said they had seen a "glow" on the stairs to our right. I kept watching the stairs and saw the glow. It was grey/light blue in colour just a bit bigger than a football. I started to look around to see what was causing the glow of light but could see nothing. As I looked back it faded away. I could of kicked myself for not taking a picture. Next time it will be photograph then find an explanation.
We decided to move nearer to the storeroom. Again this had a different feel to it than the corridor we had just been in. I felt warmer (though the window was open) and calmer. The only thing to happen in this area was the sound of a door scrape along the floor then shut. We went to investigate but found nothing. It was about this time we got the call to meet up with the other groups.

AREA THREE, THE OFFICE.

After a little commotion about the women's toilet flushing on it's own our group settled down in the office area. It had a nice feel to it after the last area we had been. We sat and talked for a while and before we knew it our vigil was over.

CONCLUSION.

After all the noises and smells etc, our small group had nothing concrete in the way of evidence. But one of the other groups did. They caught a number of E.V.P's. I'm afraid I had nothing on camera, video camera or on my voice recorder. Which is a shame because at times some of the area's felt quite active. I look forward to going to the mill again because i feel it has a lot more to give up.

THANKS.

I would like to thank everyone at Dragoon publishing for making us all welcome, especially my team of Andy, Sam and Jon who helped me out all night with their enthusiasm to get involved. Most of all i'd like to thank Gill and Kath without them these nights would not happen.

Morecambe Winter Gardens

This was my first vigil with a organised/paid group which i was looking forward to very much.

The theatre is in a bad state of repair in places but what is left is a really nice building, that at one time held up to 5000 people. It is said it will take about another 2 years to complete the restoration work.

We were given a tour of the whole building being told what the different rooms where and the history of the building. also the dangers to look out for.

Then our vigil started. Our first visit was to the stage area. At this point I realised we had the residnet medium with us which was another first for me. I joined a circle with the medium and a few others, but felt nothing only cramp in my arm from trying to stand still for more than 5 minutes. At this point the medium told us he had felt the presence of George Formby. Now I found this quite comical as it is well documented that Mr Formby graced it's stage, as did many famouse comedians and actors of that era. This is why I have avoided mediums, I just don't believe them they can get information quite easily from sources .

After a break we headed for the bar areas, the group we were with tried some glass work which they were totally ill prepared for, the glass was hard, very heavy and was difficult to move when being pushed by a us, so I think a spirit would have trouble too. The SA team had a wonder around trying to find something away from the main group but to no avail. Kath suggested that the girls move to the mens bar area alone as she commented that it was unheard of in the victorian perod 'Women' in a 'Mens' bar. She thought it might encourage some paranormal activity. On her return thye had been unsuccesful.

Then we were off to the gods. This is where you realise how big the theatre realy is. Looking down on the stage makes you feel a bit wobbly, when we arrived in this area we were told one of the seats was down. We had to take their word for it as the punters could not get near it for the organising group. After we did get a look at the seat our medium tried to make contact again, nothing happend, so he suggested we went to investigate a noise he had heard. It was obviously a plastic sheet used to cover the roof but off we went anyway.

When leaving this area we exited down a wooden stairscae, with Kath still on the stairs and at ther rear of the group and myself at the bottom. We heard a large bang, as if some thing heavy had been dropped, on inspection nothing had? We looked around for something to explain the sound but could not find anything. After being told we had to hurry up we made our way to the next area, THE CELLAR.

Now, a lot of hype had been made of the cellar throughout the night. So it was of no surprise when the medium said there was something evil down there with us. The medium formed a nother circle (one of the SA team, Jacqui joined them) and attempted to make contact with any spirits. Something quite unexpected happend to Jacqui (you can read on her blog page). I must admit being possessed by spirits and such is something I find hard to believe. BUT in the time I have known Jacqui I have found her to be a helpful, honest and a lovely person, which has made me think a lot more about things like this.

The medium talked a lot about a swirling blue mist in the middle of the circle that a few people said they saw and some talked of something stood next to them. I shot video the whole time in the cellar and nothing was caught on camera. We had the usual bad language from a possessed medium but nothing much more. The highlight of the night for me was when Gill entered further in to the cellar, this is where the evil spirit was supposed to hide away (you can just make her out in the photo above). Some of the group were not happy with her doing this but off she trotted anyway, fearless as ever. She reappeared after a time totally unharmed.

The winter gardens is a lovely place to visit and the SA team had a great night.The only down side was the medium and the organising group was a bit poor. Having said that, without these though, people would not get a chance to see such a magnificent building.

Dendigh Asylum

After speaking to Kath and Gill (plus what I'd seen on the Internet) I knew Denbigh Hospital was a place I HAD to see.

So on a very warm summers evening I made my first visit to north wales hospital. The first sight you get of this place takes your breath away. I couldn't believe the size of it and there is lots more you cannot see from the road.
When entering the grounds you realise that the Vandals have made short work of any glass that they could get to with a stone, plus some had sprayed their tag names on the walls, a couple even managing to join the letters together.

After passing a group of small buildings that might of been used for storage, we visited the chapel(which has been stripped)and the morgue.this we found to have been vandalised.

The next building we found was used as a ward, the curtain rail for around the beds was still in place but not much else. After this we made our way to another building. This was much bigger,here you could see the damage the weather and the vandals had done, ceilings had come down, holes in the floor and paint doing its best to grip to the walls.all this added to the feeling of the place.

We found room after room, small doorways leading to more rooms, large doorways leading to small rooms, long corridors blocked by a fallen ceiling, moss growing on the floor.

Then we found the ballroom/gym. There is a lot of the floor missing in here and someone had burnt the stage down but you could still get the feel of what it was like, the glitter ball is still standing proud hanging on in there.

We then made our way upstairs, smashed basins and swirly carpets greeted us, was it a shadow I saw a couple of times in one of the rooms? I'm not sure.

On returning to the lower floors we made our way around the grounds again. It had started to go dark now and the wildlife had come out to break the silence that surrounds the hospital. We had a look in a few other buildings and found them to dangerous to enter, the bats had found a good use for them though. One building we found looked like it had been a ward.along one wall there was a row of single rooms that had a look of cells. In here we did some EVP work and on 2 occasions we heard what sounded like a female voice and the sound of parts of the roof falling. at the far end we found a really nice solid wood revolving door.

On leaving this area we realised we were not alone.we could hear voices some where in the grounds.at the last place we visited we heard the voices of two males,not knowing who they were or what they were doing in the hospital we decided to cut short our visit.

When we left the grounds we came upon 7 youngsters, after a bit of a chat we found they were there for the thrill of a fright, I think they got one. We made our way to a pub not far from the hospital, here the locals told us that since the hospital had closed the town had never been the same and how disappointed that the building had been left to fall apart.

If you go to Denbigh Asylum be careful this place gets into your head, it was about 10 days before I slept at night without thinking of the it. It's a weird and wonderful building, the size of it is something else, you would think a building of this size would be full of noise but no it's deadly quiet apart from the sound of a owl and the roof falling we heard nothing.

Just a few things to remember if you go to the asylum:

• It is so dangerous,so don't go alone.none of us had a signal on our phones and the last thing you want is to fall through to the basement on a disused asylum with no chance of help.


• On the night we visited there were 10 people in the grounds,all there to see what it was like inside.not everyone goes for these reasons.you never know who or what you'll bump into.


• It's easy to get lost make sure you remember your route.don't panic,to many holes in the floor for that.


• At no point did we force our way in,we only went through open doors and easy to access places.


• Take a torch even in the day time.


• The buildings are monitored by security.


• Enjoy the building and take a camera, it'll be hard to tell people how magnificent Denbigh is without the pictures to help.
  

Denbigh hospital is so fantasitc, but it's future needs sorting before it's to late. the town and it's people deserve more.

Use the link to my photo's to see a few pictures I've posted of the asylum.

Kathy has set up a Denbigh hospital blog and we would love to hear any tales from you about your visit or if you worked there.

My Top 10 Horror Movies

Now I know this is nothing to do with ghosts or the paranormal, I just wanted to share with you my love for horror films.

It's taken me a while to narrow it down to 10 and even longer to put them into order so have a look, see if you agree or let me know your favorites via our e-mail address.you could even recommend a film to me.

So, here we go.

1. THE EVIL DEAD 1 - This was the first video i watched at home. I still love it today.The end few scene's are a bit Dodgy but a great film.My mum likes this one too.
2. HALLOWEEN 1 - Mr.Myers first film and i think his best, though the scenes are a bit mixed up (the break in at the store) it's still creepy today.
3. PSYCHO - Being in black and white gives this film a sense of unease with the shower scene music instantly recognisable.
4. EXORCIST - Always every ones number one.lots of head spinning and pea soup.
5. FRIDAY THE 13th - A classic from the early days of video.A great slasher movie.
6. THE SHINING - Avoided naked women in hotel rooms for a while after watching this one.
7. SALEM'S LOT - Watched this one as a child over 2 nights on t.v.Jumped like hell all through it.
8. HOSTEL - This the most up to date film on my list.Gore all the the way.Makes you think there could be somewhere like this.
9. PET SEMATARY - Gage comes home a little bit different and his parents pay the price.
10. CANDYMAN - Didn't know what position to put this in but felt it had to be in the ten somewhere.Helen says candyman five times into the mirror and it all goes horribly wrong from then on.

Well thats my top ten at this time .It might change at some point.I could of put other films in like the first scream film or Donnie darko.they might make it in there one day.

Let me know what you think and of any films you could recommend.

These are exciting times for us at spectre analysis.keep checking our blog for some big news coming soon.

Also if you know of a haunted house or pub etc,let us know we're always on the lookout for new venues to investigate.