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Wiltshire's GhostbustersYou are in: Wiltshire > Moonraking > Spooky > Wiltshire's Ghostbusters > PSI Ghostwatch Report: Littlecote House Hotel  Littlecote House Hotel PSI Ghostwatch Report: Littlecote House HotelKen Taylor (PSI consultant) A 10-strong team of researchers from Paranormal Site Investigators explored a 'haunted hotel' recently, where the ghosts allegedly outnumbered them. Littlecote House Hoteljust over the wiltshire border near Hungerford is a Grade I listed Tudor mansion situated in an estate of 24 hectares of parkland, and its dozens of stories of ghostly activity, which stretch back decades, attracted the attention of Swindon-based PSI. Among the traditional sightings described by staff is that of a black dog seen on the Jerusalem staircase: when you go to stroke it, your hand goes straight through. The same location was the scene of a bizarre incident where a man's collarbone and some ribs were allegedly broken when a ball of white light pushed him against the wall. Mother BarnesAnother of the most unusual stories is told by a woman who lived in a flat above the Orangery. She awoke in the small hours of a November night to see a figure crossing the lawn toward 'Mother Barnes' (a 16th century midwife associated with the site). The weird thing was that the witness felt herself to be floating in mid air throughout the experience, and only later realised that her accommodation was built long after the time of Mother Barnes. Mother Barnes figures in the most famous tale Littlecote House, that of 'Wild' William Darrell who, it is said, murderously cast his newborn child on a blazing fire. The child was illegitimate, and Mother Barnes was supposedly brought in to deliver the unfortunate baby. Haunted bedroomDespite some circumstantial evidence, there is no proof that this appalling event actually happened, but the room where the babe was reputedly born and slain - in November 1575 - is known as the 'haunted bedroom', and featured in PSI's vigil. Of the five locations investigated, the haunted bedroom was the scene of the most reported activity (with the chapel a close second). During a séance there, one of the team saw a woman rocking a baby and talking to a man, and during the evening several other investigators independently saw dark shapes moving around the room. At one point, four members of the team inexplicably felt cold, yet the group's technical equipment registered no change in the ambient temperature. Was this an instance where one person's suggestion inspired others to feel cold (primed expectation), or was this a supernatural chill that machinery can't detect? Long galleryThe Long Gallery was the scene of an immensely frustrating equipment failure that defies explanation. A video camera had been set there to monitor a trigger object (a coin placed on white paper, and drawn around). This experiment invites spirits to use psychokinesis (PK) to move the object, and the camera was there to record any activity. The investigation team had been alerted to the experiment, and were kept away from it. When the coin was checked it was indeed found to have moved - but the camera had broken down. Its new battery was completely drained, which is known to happen in particularly cold environments, but the temperature here was perfectly normal. Was the camera malfunction a symptom of real PK activity, or was it simply a coincidence that allowed human error to go undetected? The team took hundreds of photographs, nearly a hundred of which showed interesting anomalies, but natural explanations can be advanced for each, so no satisfactory evidence of paranormal phenomena has been claimed (when assessing evidence for paranormal activity, PSI prefers to err on the side of caution). The same high standard of analysis was given to the ten hours of video recordings, as well as the audio recordings and environmental data collected, such as ultrasound and electromagnetism. PSI is aware that a single investigation can be a rather hit-or-miss affair, and therefore often conducts 'longitudinal' investigations that take place over a period of months. There were so many interesting features revealed in the details of this investigation, that PSI is considering a return to Littlecote House Hotel, to discover more secrets of its permanent residents. last updated: 04/12/2008 at 14:22 Have Your Sayrachel ginger Jessie Bernessa Roost (nee Popham) big dave elvis TLC Carly Clarke Rachel ginger maddison Philip Coxon Sarah Abbs Julie Zoe John Bennett Paul Stewart Bennett jennifer Angela Harrop Annette Lisa Pearce amanda bennette Ken Durant Asamoah Twumasi Alan Jones joanna murphy Caroline Grear Ghost Buster Anne Martin Madeleine Lestrange Kayleigh Farrar SEE ALSOYou are in: Wiltshire > Moonraking > Spooky > Wiltshire's Ghostbusters > PSI Ghostwatch Report: Littlecote House Hotel  A pick of the museum's most unusual and surprising objects |
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