Ghosts at Christmas

by Darren W. Ritson

  Rather clear-cut prophesies and, amazingly, as you will shortly hear, accurate too. We all arrived back at Doxford House at 10 p.m. The place was shrouded in darkness (there was no electricity supply) and the atmosphere felt entirely different to our afternoon investigation.

  GHOST were joined by a number of guests, mostly members of the family who own Doxford House, but it was anticipated they would only stay for an hour or so before becoming extremely bored, and cold. We were correct, as most of the guests vacated the premises just after midnight, leaving the team to plod on until sunrise. Trigger objects and motion sensors were placed around the older part of Doxford House, including a crucifix on the main stairwell, and motion sensors on the stairs, in the Ouija room, and in doorways to certain rooms. A night-vision video recorder was also left running all night and was trained on the stairwell. If General Beckwith appeared in his usual location, we should catch him on tape.

  At 10.22 p.m. we were preparing to begin the investigation when suddenly the tape from inside Drew’s video camera ejected itself. Drew claims to have been holding the camera with its correct handle and states ‘there should be no reason for the eject mechanism to have been triggered’. At 10.45 p.m. we began the vigil at the foot of the stairwell with Drew, Andrew Hughes, Lloyd, and myself. We called out to the atmosphere to see if we could get any responses from the netherworld, but to no avail and, after sitting quietly at the foot of the stairwell for a time, nothing occurred. We then moved into the ‘Ouija room’, closed the door and began to call out again. Once more we had no response whatsoever. At midnight we all heard the sound of a footfall followed by a single bang. No one was moving at the time and we called out once more to see if we could get more ‘signs’.

  We then headed into another of the large rooms on the lower floor, where we sat in silence for a while. Nothing major occurred in this room, however there were two minor incidents. A rustling of paper was heard by Lloyd and myself coming from a corner of the room where there was about 250 old books, literally strewn all over the place. Lloyd said the noise we heard resembled the rustling you would get if you unwrapped a boiled sweet. Whatever it was, it was strange to say the least. Even stranger was the fact that I had asked the spirits to try and make their presence known to us by rustling one of the book pages. The other thing that occurred was that the temperature of the room dropped noticeably and, at the same time, a dull thud was heard coming from somewhere within the darkness. At 11.20 p.m. we retired to the base room for a short break.

  I asked Fiona if anything had occurred during her first vigil, which was on the top-floor area and in the loft. She told me that guest investigator Gemma Carrick had had a bit of an experience:

  We were up in the loft and I was stood where Fiona had been standing previously, I suddenly felt a draught on my leg. Fiona had been standing in this spot and had also felt a draught and that is why we swapped places, to see if I could also feel it. As I could feel the draught the room temperature dropped from a fluctuation between 14–17 degrees Celsius to 1 degree.

  That was a staggering temperature drop of at least 13 degrees Celsius, which is quite phenomenal to say the least. Fiona said the room was foreboding and stated that ‘someone didn’t want us there’. Another interesting odd occurrence took place when Yvonne’s son, Malcolm Moore, saw a movement from behind one of the wooden beams. Described as ‘something darting behind the beam’, this anomaly was also caught on Fiona’s night-vision video camera. As the camera pans to the right, you can clearly see something zip across the screen from the left and go behind the wooden beam. On studying the footage in super slow motion you can see the anomaly (which is likened to a head) move behind the beam. As the main anomaly disappears, it is followed by wisps of … well, we have no idea what they are.

  Ralph’s group reported some odd activity too. He was on the middle floor with his group and told me that they had heard a tremendous thud on the floor while they were calling out, asking for phenomena. It was as though someone had a broom handle and thumped the ceiling from downstairs (only my group was in the room below and we heard nothing). Ralph then asked for more phenomena and the whole group heard what they thought was our group chatting to ourselves. Our group, during our vigil, did indeed communicate with one another but we whispered when doing so. There was no way the voices that Ralph and his group heard were ours, so whose voices were they? It remains a mystery.

  After our break it was time for the second vigil. Some of the guests had left the premises, which left the rest of those present to re-group to continue with the investigation. My new group consisted of Ralph, Gemma, Lloyd and Mark Winter and we were investigating the top floor. We began our vigil at the very top of the old stairwell and, almost straight away, Ralph began to tell us what he was picking up. Ralph began pacing back and forth and up and down the stairs and was adamant he was picking up on a spirit. Suddenly he called out, ‘Who is there, who is there? There is someone on the stairs.’ At that point I clearly saw someone, or something, move down the stairs and with some considerable speed. It moved swiftly and silently as it flitted from one section of the stairs to another, lit up by the distant light of street lamps coming in through the windows. It then disappeared into the darkness.

  Lloyd confirms that he also saw the movement under the stairs we were standing on, so that brings the total number of witnesses to the sighting to three. At 12.15 a.m. we all heard a noise that sounded like a cross between a growl and a hum coming from somewhere on the stairwell. What it was we have no idea. It was now 12.17 a.m. and we decided to venture into the loft space. One by one we clambered up the steep wooden steps and into the loft. While in there, we all experienced a number of cold rushes of air, but after looking around for a cause we found an aperture in the ceiling from which the cold breezes probably came.

  A thump, thump, thump noise was then heard by myself and Ralph, for which no explanation could be found. Then the sound of a guttural breath was heard by all present and everyone said that it was definitely not them that produced it. Ralph then heard another growling type noise coming from within the loft space but said it was a psychic sound – in other words because Ralph was the medium he was the only one to hear it. After a while, it seemed to quieten down a little so we made our way back down to the top floor.

  We then went to investigate the newer wing of Doxford House and Ralph found himself being pulled on the arm as we walked past room 21. Earlier on during a walk around Gemma had lost her breath and found her chest to be getting ‘quite tight’ outside room 21. A guest investigator also reported that she felt unwell and said her legs ‘tingled’ while standing outside this particular room. Gemma thought nothing of it until Ralph mentioned that he felt something tug on his arm. We thought room 21 could be trying to tell us something so we all went inside. As it happened, room 21 provided us with amazing auditory phenomena in the form of a female voice. It must be stressed that we were all standing in silence and everyone there, all five of us, heard this voice. It simply said, ‘I am coming in.’

  At first we thought it was a voice coming through on the walkie-talkie, but the walkie-talkie was actually turned off at the time. This occurred at 12.55 a.m. and it dumbfounded us all. After discussing the voice (which unfortunately was not picked up on video or dictation machine) we made our way back to the top of the stairs. It was here we all experienced the most perplexing phenomena of the entire night. Looking along the corridor, Ralph spotted the spirit form of a child that seemed to be moving back and forth in the corridor. I, at this point, was down the stairs and looking out of the window. Suddenly, Lloyd said in a surprised voice, ‘Bloody hell, I can see her!’

  When Lloyd announced that he too could see what Ralph was looking at, I realised that it wasn’t just Ralph psychically seeing things. Ibolted up the stairs and looked along the corridor and, to my utter astonishment, I too saw what looked liked a white figure moving around. It flittered hither and thither and it looked as though it was a young girl dancing aroun
d. We watched this in total disbelief for about five minutes or so until another, taller figure of a woman materialised next to the smaller one. They both then disappeared into the darkness of the corridor, not to be seen again. It was as though the older lady had come for the young girl.

  Four people in the group witnessed this spectacle. Mark was filming it on his video recorder but could see nothing. When he took his eyes from the camera to look down the corridor (as his viewfinder was closed), his vision was distorted. This was due to the fact that he was looking into darkness after looking into the light. The video camera failed to pick up this amazing phenomenon, but that is not surprising. It was, however, very disappointing. How many times do you hear of investigators hearing voices that have been recorded on tape or EVP machines but do not hear anything at the time of recording? Likewise you can hear footsteps, murmurs, bangs and raps with your ears, and not pick them up on tape. Sometimes, for example, a group of six people may be present when a ghost shows itself and although they are all looking in the same direction, only two people see it. The same principal, I feel, could apply to this sighting as four witnesses watched it yet the camera failed to pick it up.

  Could it have been our eyes playing tricks on us in the dark? Maybe so, but all four of us? Could it have been a group hallucination? Maybe it was caused by the power of suggestion after Ralph mentioned what he could see. Once the thought had been implanted into our heads, maybe we were all led to Ralph’s pacing? (Pacing and leading is a technique used by hypnotists to build a rapport with the subject. He can set the pace for example, in his breathing or perhaps in his state of relaxation, and then lead his subject into a close bond in order to induce the trance-like state, therefore disabling his subconscious mind far quicker and easier than normal and giving him the influence to take away any reservations or inhibitions the subject may have.)

  I am not saying Ralph did this on purpose to fool everyone into thinking that they were seeing ghosts; on the contrary, it may have occurred on a subconscious level, without him even knowing he was doing it. This happens all the time in everyday life. For example, if you yawn in a room full of people, and then sniff, the chances are that others in the room will soon yawn and then sniff. This is pacing and leading on a subconscious level and it could have happened when we all saw the figures. Having said that, it is also perfectly possibly that we could all have seen a genuine apparition.

  Drew reported that during his vigil Andrew Local (one of our guests) thought he saw a figure standing in the doorway in the entrance foyer at the bottom of the stairs. He walked over with his EMF meter and ventured a little way down the corridor. Suddenly, the EMF meter spiked, giving Drew a sharp reading of around 4mg (Milligaus). He decided to step back and ask the spirit (if indeed there was one there) to come closer, but nothing happened. He then ventured forwards, EMF meter held flat on his hand, and, sure enough, it spiked again. Apart from these instances, nothing much else was reported as most taps and bumps that were heard had rational explanations found for them.

  Our next vigil saw my group investigating the ‘Ouija board’ room and, upon entering the room, I closed the door behind me, properly. I say properly because it must be noted that, as I turned and walked into the room to check on the trigger object, the door silently swung back open. As I turned around to say something to the group, I saw Ralph walking towards the open door with his arm outstretched, saying, ‘I am just going to shut the door’ and I realised that, no sooner had I closed the door tightly in its frame, it had opened back up behind me. Lloyd can confirm that I did indeed close the door, however, no one saw it re-open. It was a very eerie experience.

  Later on, we all clearly heard a voice that sounded like Drew calling my name ‘Darren’ from the main foyer. We ventured out into the main entrance area to find no one there at all. I subsequently called out to Drew to ask him if it was indeed he who had said my name and got no reply. I called him again and this time I heard him answer, but he was far off in the distance. It was clear to us that it was not Drew that called out my name as he was far away at that time in his respective location, so who called out my name? There was no one else around.

  This is the second time on my paranormal investigations that my name had been called out by an alleged spirit person. The first time it occurred was on an investigation in July 2006 and it was caught on tape. This time it was heard by all the investigators in my group but not recorded.

  We called out to the atmosphere, tried a séance followed by a table-tipping experiment in the hope that we got more odd activity, but the rest of this vigil proved fruitless. We then moved into the main entrance area and joined up with other groups to try a séance. A number of things occurred which we found most peculiar, including the motion sensors that were situated on the stairwell being activated when Ralph was calling out. A sigh was heard along with some laughter, and some odd sparkly silvery specks of light seemed to float down the stairwell. What they were is anyone’s guess but most of the group there saw them. Along with the temperature dropping, this séance proved rather interesting.

  After another break we all ventured back onto the stairwell for one final vigil. We sat out on the stairwell for about forty-five minutes calling out and generally observing. Ralph and Andrew local claimed to hear a scream but no one else did. Others felt temperature changes and cold spots throughout the vigil. It must be noted that it was now about 3 a.m. on an icy morning in December and everyone was naturally cold and tired. The investigation had proved to be really good, with some rather bizarre things occurring. Ralph’s prediction prior to the investigation regarding what we would experience turned out correct with the door opening, a voice being heard, auditory phenomena (including the voice), seeing something, and more besides. ‘I think it’s going to be very exciting,’ he had said, and how right he was.

  Doxford House near Christmas time was always going to be an exciting venture and we are confident that it will no doubt reveal all its hidden secrets and ghosts to our research team over the coming years. Our next investigation was held a week or so after Christmas Day in early January 2009. The story of our not so ‘silent night’ follows.

  A NOT SO ‘SILENT NIGHT’: DOXFORD HOUSE CHRISTMAS INVESTIGATIONS 2009 – PART TWO

  It had been a few weeks or so since our first investigation at the magnificent Doxford House, and, for a house that had never been investigated prior to the Ghosts and Hauntings Overnight Surveillance Team going in, it certainly seemed to prove its worth. Drew and Fiona had visited Doxford House on a number of other occasions since the first investigation before Christmas 2008, not as investigators, but as cleaners. The house, although in rather good condition considering its circumstances, was rather messy, with reminders of the time when it was once home to a thousand students. They say the more time you spend in ‘haunted houses’ the more chance you have of witnessing paranormal activity, and cleaning the house up and getting it into a safe condition for investigators would have been an ideal opportunity to do this.

  I asked Drew and Fiona if they happened to encounter any paranormal or odd happenings during the few occasions they visited the house to clean it up, but nothing of an unusual nature had occurred during Drew and Fiona’s clean-up process. However, a good friend of Fiona’s, a lady called Pat (who also happens to own a very well known haunted establishment), was a woman who had worked at Doxford House as a caretaker/manager/cleaner. We were told that during the many years that she worked there, she experienced what she considered to be ‘hundreds of odd happenings’ and ‘saw all sorts of things’. Whether these experiences are subjective or objective we will never know, as the woman in question sadly died in August 2008. Being denied the chance to interview someone who could have been a ‘prized witness’ is of course a blow for the team as every piece of witness testimony, even the somewhat trivial data, can be of the utmost importance to us. Nevertheless, it is simply interesting to note that yet another of the frequenters of Doxford House reported strange things occurrin
g and although we can’t document what it was she experienced, we can record the fact that she thought the house was haunted.

  Early in January 2009 we commenced with our second investigation. Drew, Fiona, Ralph Keeton, Nikki Austwicke, Trevor Walker and Yvonne Moore visited the house on the afternoon of the investigation to make sure all was well for the evening to come. That evening, Drew told the rest of the GHOST team what had occurred:

  This afternoon we had a little tour around and, just before leaving, we were on the second-floor stairwell, ready to come down, when I heard a door slamming somewhere upstairs near the top landing, and it was quite loud too. I then asked if everyone else heard the door closing and they all replied yes. Ralph then called out, and asked whomever it was to do the same thing again and the door bloody well slammed again. Then, to our astonishment, we all heard the sound of footsteps walking along the top corridor; no one else was in the building and we were all accounted for. I must also add that this afternoon the sun was shining and it was a nice calm day, it was nothing like the windy conditions that we are experiencing tonight.

  Interestingly, it was here, on this top corridor, that I had a nerve-racking experience, an experience that I had never encountered before in all my years of frequenting haunted locales, and which literally chilled me to the bone – but more of that later.

  The investigation started and hopes were high of getting something good documented. Along with myself, Drew, Fiona and Mark, and the usual guests Ryan Bartley, Jim and Paul Collins, ex-team member Paul Dixon joined us, as did Ralph Keeton, Nikki Austwicke and their guest Trevor Walker. The weather was very cold and, it must be stressed on this particular night the wind was howling to such a degree we all thought the house would be blown down. Due to the fact there were a few broken windows that still need repairing in the house, any draughts, temperature drops, or any other phenomena for that matter, had to be seriously considered before a decision on whether or not it may have had paranormal origin.