TEAM PROFILE

INVESTIGATOR. OCCUPATION - Vehicle Builder.

I found myself interested in the paranormal when I was quite young. Like a lot of young kids I would read books, listening to stories, explore grave yards or anywhere that was spooky with a few of my friends. Did we see anything scary? Lots. Was it ghosts we saw? I don't think so. Every night I was sure something was in my room or in the bathroom or even around the next corner. Though I was scared, I still couldn't get my fill of ghosts.

I watched as many scary films and programmes as I could. Some of you may remember a programme called “Armchair Thriller” that was a hide your head under the covers at bed time programme and Mr.Myers, he had the power to make me walk home a little bit faster in the dark.

As I got older, I still loved a good ghost story and horror film but my appetite and curiosity in the paranormal had not been quenched. Then along came a programme called Most Haunted. Putting aside the theatrics of the resident medium, this is what I had been waiting for, haunted houses, infra-red cameras the whole kit and caboodle. But soon the cracks started to appeared in its production and at one point someone decided to take the programme in a direction I didn't agree with (lets not forget, it is after all, for entertainment only). For those who watch it and enjoy it, that’s your choice and it’s not up to me to tell you what to watch. But if you want real investigations, tune in to ‘Ghost Hunters’ (TAPS) that is just about as near to REAL, HONEST, paranormal investigating your going to see on the telly.

Despite my disappointment and down turn in the MH programme, it did not deter me. I thought, I want to do this, I had to find out more, to get out there and search for ‘things that go bump in the night’… but HOW was I to accomplish this?..

Then along came the internet. On there I found groups, message boards and clubs doing investigations. posting pictures and video's of things they had seen (and in some cases they hadn’t). I was desperately trying to find a local group which I could get involved in and this is how I found Kath and Gill, via the Crewe Ghost Walk web site. When speaking to them, I found them to be down to earth, nice people, only dealing with hard evidence and not ‘Orb’ chasers or ‘thrill seekers’.

At my interview they rigorously questioned me on my commitment and professional approach and what I could offer their group. I was VERY surprised when they took me into the ‘haunted cellar’ of one of the local hostelries to see how I handled a ‘hands on’ situation straight off the cuff. Thankfully I passed the interview.

At last, I'd found my group. Something that had started over 30 years ago as a young boy’s dream was going to move to the next level. I get the same buzz as I did in those grave yards when I was younger, but without the hiding under my covers.

Are there such things as ghosts? I don't know, but if there are I hope we're the group to prove it.

And finally to sum up how I feel, in the famous words of Mr.Ray Parker Jnr …

“Bustin makes me feel good”.

Friday, 17 October 2008

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.

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