Manchester Haunted

The Ancient Ramm Inn with the Spook Nights team 9/09/07

Few places (none that I have been too) could give you the surreal feeling the The Ancient Ramm Inn gives. After reading and hearing many accounts of the place we went with an open mind.

We arrived around 9:50 (early again!) and was welcomed by the Spook Night team. Everybody was very warm and friendly and we felt a part of the team straight away. Initial thoughts the moment we arrived is that from the outside the Inn is a very beautiful and creepy building, made even more so by the night sky which we particularly clear. We went into the Inn and was welcomed by John Humphries the owner of the Inn. We where warned by various people that he was an eccentric character but we found him a very kind individual who obviously had a great love for the building and cared deeply of what people thought about it, to me that means that John has a great character and is OK in my book. Another thing he cares deeply for is collecting thousands of random objects. They are scattered about all over the place and adds to the Inns already surreal feeling. We walked around to get accustomed to the building. It is very creepy to walk around, and strange smells that change in every room makes an awkward feeling all round. Unfortunately we wasn't aloud in the attic where numerous apparent poltergeist activity has been witnessed due to (according to John) certain Gender specific people of a large nature (or big boned) have ruined the staircase. Although taken with a pich of salt, we where guests and honoured John's wishes (sort of). We then had a brief summary of some of the things witnessed by John and by the people who have investigated the Inn by John then we set about the vidual.

First point of call was the Bishops Room. apparently you have to knock three time and ask "is there anybody there?" (clichés come from somewhere) which we did, as we heard nothing we entered into the room. The Bishops room gives a very eerie feeling on entering. 3 beds to the right (where apparently some investigators lied down on and subsequently had to be exorcised). Well I sat on the floor just to be safe. Natasha sat on the middle bed and members of the Spook nights team scattered around the room. Some on chairs and other laid on the beds. With all lights out the team started to call out. The main experiences that people started to get was temperature fluctuations. I felt it go ice cold around my legs but the rest of me was absolutely fine. Also bye the use of are infra red temperature reader the fluctuations where quite extreme and I would be at a lost to explain this in any normal way. Also some members of the team where feeling a presence near them and felt beds shake etc. as this wasn't experienced by all members of the group it is hard to comment further on but interesting none the less. On are way out of the room towards the stairs me and Natasha went into another bedroom that has two chairs, one apparently belongs to a girl who has been known to protect people and the other to a man who by the sounds of it, is not nice at all. Neither enjoy anybody sat in there chairs so Natasha went and sat in the ladies chair. Me being slightly apprehensive (not like me at all to be honest) I chose to stand. We stayed for a few minutes before following the team downstairs. Natasha said that she wanted me later to sit in the chair later and tell her what I thought...Something to look forward to....

After the experiences in the Bishops Room the team thought that trying Glass Divination to contact some spirits that may be in the ether may trigger some more activity. Almost immediately the team contacted an apparent spirit, and proceeded to ask the spirit questions. The spirit was of a man called Michael who had killed his friend by pushing him down the stairs in the building. The man who he killed was also present but Michael would not let him come through. Although I am not completely convinced by Glass Divination I always find it a very interesting experiment to witness and be part off.

At this point we took a short break and may I add we ate some fine cheese balm cakes that the team had put on for us. So thank you for that. Something to be noted is at this time a few members of the team, me and Natasha included, kept hearing a cat. I am at a loss to explain this as there was no cat anywhere to be seen.

After this we decided to go of in two's and pick a room. So me and Natasha went back into the room we where in earlier with the two chairs. we where joined by two other members (one a strict sceptic woof woof) and one of the teams psychics. I sat in the ladies chair that Natasha was on previously and Natasha sat on the apparent nasty mans chair. we all got comfy and we began to call out. Unfortunately the psychic wasn't picking up on anything in the room and the calling out wasn't achieving any results, however the chair I was sat on felt absolutely freezing, as I said this Natasha told me that that is exactly what she felt, which was strange because the temperature meter was showing that the chair was a little warmer than the rest of the room. Natasha also reported and so did another member of the team that the other chair felt very comfy and not scary at all. Go figure??

The next room we visited was the infamous barn. For those of you that watch Most Haunted, this is the place that Stuart got attacked which resulted in him getting alopecia. This place is completely different to the rest of the building. It is far more cold and menacing. It is also very enclosed and doesn't leave much room for movement (see picture's). 4 of us went in and immediately started to feel the energies of the room. All of us where swaying if on a boat. I lost my balance several times nearly crashing to the floor. We also heard 3 or 4 time's a Childs whimper. I always find this sort of activity the most chilling. Its easy to dismiss sounds that a fully grown person makes but I personally find it difficult to associate death with a child. The energies of the room got to much for a few of us and we had been warned not to go into the room in small numbers we left and let another team venture in to see what they experienced.

It took me a good few minutes to calm down from the feelings I had acquired from being in that room. Some of the team went into the barn and some tried some more glass divination. I stood and watched as Natasha and the other members of the team where contacting Michael again. As the experiment was going on we could hear banging’s coming from upstairs and also a large bang coming from the barn. Not one to miss out on anything I went to check if everyone was ok. The team members told me that they where calling out and asked for whoever was there to make a sound or make there presence known which they can only assume a rock or something was thrown which caused the sound. Me and Natasha decided to join the members. we called out and to are surprise we started getting knocks on are commands. Wasn't always exactly the same (i.e. a member asked for the spirit to repeat what he did and knocked three times and the knocks was repeated but maybe 2 time's unless it was too quiet for us to hear). One of the members got the name Richard in his head, so we called out asking if this was infact his name only to find that knocking became louder and more frequent. During this period members joined in but couldn't stay in the room due to its oppressive feeling. Although the knocking was fantastic evidence, to me it never felt frightening until the room suddenly seemed to go much darker and I felt much more uneasy. I commented on the sudden change to the room where everyone appeared to be thinking the same thing. Natasha and the team started calling out to see if there where any other spirits with us. We got one knock indicating to us that there was one other spirit with us. we then asked if this spirit meant us harm, again we got a knock. We then asked if we where in danger to knock very loud and we will leave, there was a knock but very faint and the spirit of Richard seemed to be loosing his energy or didn't want to be around with the other spirit that join us. We asked again only to get a very loud bang. This was are cue to leave.

I personally found this absolutely fascinating. As sceptical as I am, I found the controlled questions and replies astonishing, we tried to contact Richard through Glass Divination but to no avail. After this we decided to call it a night. Said are goodbyes and got some well earned sleep.

I would like to thank Spooks Night for a great night at The Ancient Ram Inn. A fantastic team, very professional and also great fun to be with. Also it was great to be with a group who wasn't having a break every 45 minutes for a cig, something I find very annoying. Thanks to them.

One last thing, I would like to say to some of the groups who was negative about the Inn and John Humphries. In this game there is a lot of times I have sat in the dark for hours on end and nothing has happened and all of a sudden you are there 2 months later and it sounds like a party going on upstairs. It is all part of the experience. The Ancient Ramm Inn is a fascinating place to investigate and I would urge anybody to do it. I would never say anything negative about a place to anybody who is going on an investigation. Everybody has to make there own mind up and although everybody is entitled to an opinion it isn't proper to force that on other people. I think they should get of there high horse and give it another go. At the very least you are helping towards keeping a beautiful key to are past alive.

The morning after are investigation we went back to the Inn to take some pictures in the day. As we where doing so, John came out and said hi. He recognised us and invited us into the Inn too have another look around. That’s the kind of guy he is. Proud of his building and what it holds and why shouldn't he be. Romance is most defiantly not dead but a lot of things are and some of them I feel are in the The Ancient Ramm Inn.

Brougham Hall, Cumbria. 11/08/2007

Brougham hall was an interesting place to investigate to say the least. We arrived early (as usual) at 8:45pm, after a gorgeous day and in typical English fashion, it started to rain and decided to keep raining for the rest of the evening.

After Meeting up with Phil Whyman and the team we had a brief and informative guide around the grounds by an emplee named Neil. The place gives off a very creepy feel despite its beautiful appearance. Anyhow after the look around we started the viduals.

We split off into 2 teams (originally entitled Team A ad Team B) and set of on are evening. The first place we visited was the none spookily sounding Scout leaders office. There has been reports of tapings, shadowy figures, orbs showing up on film etc. Most of the team went into the office, Phil decided somebody should stay in the hallway/stairwell to see if anything happened there. Me and Natasha volunteered ourselves and so we started. After the initial getting used to the dark part we called out. I was sat at the top off the stairs and Natasha on a set of stairs leading to a locked room. On calling out nothing much happened, there was a cool breeze coming from down the stairs but nothing strange there. Natasha however, was starting to feel more and more uneasy having her back to the door at the top of the stares. She felt colder and colder and also felt a gentle touch on her finger. we decided to swap places. We sat again calling out for a few moments when Sarah (a part of the team) came through to see how we where doing. We discussed what we where feeling and then started to talk about trivial things when I got a very quick breathe and murmur in my left ear. Now I am very sceptical but this un-nerved me to say the least. Never really felt anything like that before and it took me a few moments to calm down. Doesn't sound much now but at the time it was a shock. we rejoined the team in the other room and called out but nothing really happened and compared to where my and Natasha had just been sat, the room felt very comfy. we decided to take a short break.

Next place was (I think it was called) Vanessa's Reiki room. This room was completely pitch black and completely flat. Nothing of any interest happened there apart from feeling very comfy and tired.

Next room was the Country Furnishings room. We split up again, me and Natasha went upstairs on are own and the rest of the group stayed downstairs. we sat for a while and called out to no avail but as there was a lot of commotion going on downstairs we joined the other team. The where trying a glass divination experiment to some good success. They where talking to a few spirits and the glass was moving quiet violently. Me and Natasha took over from a few people and continued the experiment. Now the glass was defiantly moving and I know I wasn't pushing it and I trust Natasha with my life. I found it interesting however that when we turned are fingers the other way around so are nails was touching the glass, next to nothing happened. It would personally have been a more convincing experiment if it had moved with are fingers the other way around. So I am not convinced that it is definite proof of communication with a spirit but it was interesting.

Next we where told to go off on our own, so me and Natasha firstly went up to an office part of the building. We sat there for a while calling out. We caught a few orbs in the picture and felt un-easy but nothing much else. Before we left I did have the feeling that someone was about to pounce out from the shadows, I had a definite picture of this man in my head but kept it there thinking that my mind was playing tricks. we then went on are own to the Scout leaders office. This felt very different than when we there before. We where both un-easy (my part may be down to what happened in the corridor earlier). Natasha said that she had an image of a bald man with no top on in the shadows ready to pounce out at her. Now this I found interesting as I had thought some similar earlier. we then went to the Country Furnishings room where the most people where, they where performing the glass divination again and to apparent great effect but nothing much else. We took are last break.

For are last vidual we went back to the office where me and Natasha had gone half an hour earlier. a number of people sat around the table and called out. A few things started to happen, a chair fell to the floor and broke (poltergeist activity or poor workmanship, we had all been told not to sit on the chair as it wasn't safe but when it fell over in the dark it gave everyone a shock), a filing cabinet that someone was sat on, one of its drawers fell open, again this may have been the spirit or merely the fact that he was sat on the cabinet. Most interesting was while we where round the table trying to get a spirit to communicate 2 members of the team (Natasha included) began to see Neils face transfigure, the man who was witnessing it along with Natasha said he saw a bald, quite large man coming through for a few moments and then faded away. This we found very interesting as me and Natasha had both thought about this person. Maybe a coincidence maybe not.

Brougham Hall is a fascinating place to visit would urge anyone to go there. I know what I felt while I was there that’s good enough for me.