Timeslips in Thetford

Thetford, Norfolk, England.

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Thetford Priory

West Door, Thetford Priory - In 1248 a notorious and dissolute prior of Thetford called Stephen was stabbed during a quarrel with one of his monks. He died just outside the great west door of the church.

Type of visit: Tour

I journeyed on, once again to Norfolk, it is one of my favourite counties in the UK.

I take a collection of paranormal related books with me on my travels, flicking through the pages of  'A ghost hunters guide to Norfolk', my memory was jogged by a story told by CJ Romer, (CJ23 to his friends) some of you old school investigators and paranormalists may remember the parapsychologist who featured on 'Ghost hunters' a UK TV show, episode: 2.1 (7) Ripples in Time, (Timeslips) which was aired in 1996 'pre-most haunted'!  As it states in the book, 'a respected paranormal researcher began a lifetime career and interest in ghosts' after what happened to him and some pals back in 1987; him and his four scientifically minded friends, (clinical psychologist, computer scientists) have various personal accounts of what they saw, a group sighting of a   phantom monk and staircase in broad daylight. Whether this case is related to the murder of Stephen remains a mystery, English Heritage note the stabbing of a monk.

In this video: Witness CJ Romer (Parapsychologist) (also JPTUK Patron).
He explains what he and his friends witnessed at the priory, this is also a very good example of critical thinking related to a paranormal type group experience.
 

The area where the phantom staircase and monk was seen

Thetford Priory just within walking distance of the town centre, it is a quiet and tranquil place, an English Heritage 'freebie' so you can investigate at night.

Paranormal Database
Singing Monks

Location: Thetford - Site of the Priory of the Canons of the Holy Sepulchre
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: 1937

Further Comments: The monks could be heard singing in Latin, in the ruins of the building. This was followed by a single reading from an unknown text.

THE BELL HOTEL in THETFORD
also a well known place for paranormal type experiences.

Skidbrooke "Demon Church" Saltfleet, Lincolnshire (St. Botolph's)

Type of visit: Legend trip

I had heard a lot about Skidbrooke Church or St Botolph's as being one of Lincolnshire's hotspot haunted places, with a good pedigree and lots written about it on the net So a visit to the 13th century isolated church was a absolute must. 

As we drove on the quiet and winding country lanes, I spotted the church in the distance, you can't miss it really, it's the only tall building you can see. Lonely and remote stuck in the middle of nowhere on Lincolnshire's flat marshlands. We pulled up on a side road in the car, Spaniel in tow. Only seconds out of the car I spotted what I thought was a big black dog bounding towards us, it just appeared out of nowhere and was running in our direction with no owner in sight! I shouted 'Get in the car now!!!' We all dived in the car like our lives depended on it. How the mind can play tricks, fortunately it wasn't a barguest with glowing red eyes, but a little stray black terrier dog, quite a tiny thing it was, I could have sworn it was BIG really big, I hate big black dogs, so glad it wasn't.

The dog continued to mind its own business and walked ahead of us up the long path to the church then disappeared in the long grass. By this point I was a little nervous as to what was around the next corner. Luckily the churchyard was all quiet, only a distant crow could be heard and a pigeon flapping its wings, the sun was shining  and there was no breeze.

"Mysterious Lincolnshire" By Daniel Codd

The 13th century church has stood abandoned for many a year now. It has not been used for Christian worship for 30 years. But its remoteness in marshland and corpse-shrouded eerie setting seem to have made it the focal point for gatherings of a sinister kind. Even before this there was reputed to have been the ghostly figures of hooded monks still haunting the place. A correspondent to the Lincolnshire Echo of 11 February 2006 noted how, late one night, in the hollow, empty shell of the church, he and some friends had clearly heard phantom footsteps crunch on the stone floor. Local lore tells ancient, vague stories of spells and witchcraft and is said that this church has been cursed! Stories first appeared in the 1970's and 80's that the empty church had become the haunt of Satanists, so much that it earned the reputation as the so-called Demon Church.

There were persistent reports of fires burning in its grounds and strange activities taking place, by January 2004 locals were so disturbed by the goings-on that they forced a meeting between the church leaders and the churches conservation trust to try and decide what action to take - one sad but extreme option being to demolish the church.

The Bassetlaw Ghost Research Group had set up base camp in one corner of the old church during an all-night investigation. They reported that the gloomy oppressive atmosphere of the place appearing to be almost trying to force them to leave. Strange noises were heard, and ominous flashes in the sky when the weather was calm. Parapsychologist David Wharmby also stated enigmatically to the Louth Leader Newspaper, "We Saw Small Babies among the gravestones and grass!"

In the hamlet of Skidbrooke itself, the dark rumours surrounding the church had forced one woman to have her house blessed by a priest! The woman said " I felt such bad vibes, the whole place really freaked me out!

To our surprise the place was a shell, but not in a total state of disrepair. The windows were out, the leading on the windows was all twisted and contorted giving it a rather spooky appearance.

We walked around the graveyard, found some old war graves. I didn't sense anything eerie, why should I? Maybe at night it would be a different story. I would have gone back at night, but the inclement weather soon put paid to that. Shelter from the rain, but the howling gales would have covered up any sounds of phantom footsteps! 

"Experts claim church is paranormal paradise"  Louth leader (lol) Experts??

A classic stereotype,  local lore, gossip, people up to no good, then the rumours start and before you know it, an innocent old place is crawling with ghosts, demons and ghost hunters. 

It only takes one paranormal investigation to go mainstream for a location to get a rating as 'One of the most haunted...' EVIDENCE PLEASE!? ? 

The scariest thing was the little black dog! 
  

A fantastic place to visit if you're in the area.  

Path up to the church

How the mind can play tricks!!!

View Larger MapLINKSSkidbrooke Church - The History & the Mysteryhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/St_Botolph's_Church,_Skidbrooke

Dunstanburgh Castle

LOCATION: DUNSTAN, NORTHUMBERLAND 

NUMBER OF ALLEGED GHOSTS:3 
THE EARL OF LANCASTER 
SIR GUY THE SEEKER 
AN UNKNOWN LADY

Photo - JPTUK

Visit this place at night its seriously creepy and desolate. Take suitable footware and be prepared to walk a couple of miles. Beware of the cows.

We had spent a week roughing it on the Northumberland coast in the last weeks of September 06. Ok not entirely true. We spent a week in complete luxury in our newly purchased mobile home, not quite a ghost hunting winnebago but it will suffice, it does come in handy on long spooky jaunts. The evening was drawing in and we decided to pay Dunstanburgh Castle a visit. The castle looked near but it would be a 4 mile walk there and back. We had to walk across two farmers fields and down a long country lane that was never ending until we reached the coastline, a golf course ran alongside it. The castle looked fantastic in the distance, sitting there on the basalt above the sea, it looked like something from a children’s fairytale. As we walked nearer the castle it seemed to be getting further away, a strange optical illusion. We had to pass some cows on the way to the top, we had no option but to walk past them, they just gave us a brief look but we were slightly nervous of our bovine audience, especially with having the dog with us, so we clambered the very steep slope above them to avoid a stampede, but they just ignored us and carried on chewing.
We had passed a young couple on our accent, she was wearing very high heeled sandals, ridiculous footwear for that terrain, she precariously planned her route, personally I thought she was crazy. We eventually reached the entrance to the castle, we were disappointed that it was shut and bolted. The English heritage sign on the gate said “The castle will shut at 5.30pm” we looked at our watch it was 6.05pm. The entrance fee for adults was £2.70 !! What a cheeky admission price English heritage, its only a ruin I shouted ! Been brave and slightly naughty, I climbed over the gate and took a look around whilst my partner and the dog waited for me outside. The whole castle had an electric fence around it, I wasn’t sure if that was to keep unsuspecting visitors out our to keep the cattle in. I walked under the stone archway into the gatehouse half expecting a security guard to jump up behind me, but no one was there to welcome me in, not even the ghost of Sir Guy the Seeker. The place was deserted and desolate, the ticket office was bolted and by the time I’d walked past the ticket office there was nothing else to see apart from a large field and a lone tower in the distance, I was still moaning to myself about the outlandish price to get in to see a field ! I decide to jog to the tower, I had a quick look around and jogged back. The gatehouse was creepy, I stuck my head around this dark L shaped corridor that led to nowhere and noticed a figure looking around the wall, when all of a sudden this creepy howl came circling around me, the wind howled around the place making really strange noises through the holes in the walls. I convinced myself the figure was just my imagination going wild, I was spooked, so I legged it out of there. By the time we got back it was dark.

Jules field trips - Sutton Scarsdale Hall

SUTTON SCARSDALE HALL


Location: Chesterfield, England

Built: 1724 AD

History: Sutton Scarsdale Hall is North of Derby, you can reach it via the M1 motorway, where you will see it opposite Bolsover Castle on the other side of the hill. There is a footpath that leads you right from the Hall to the castle, but be prepared to walk 4 miles. This now skeletal ruin was built in 1724 by Smith of Warwick and it is an 18th century remodelling of an earlier house. It used to be one of Derbyshire finest houses in its heyday similarly matched to Chatsworth House. The remaining artefacts from the building now reside in a Philadelphia and Los Angeles museums.

Ghostly manifestations: The White Lady.

*Ghostly anomalies: Sutton Scarsdale Hall has the reputation to be a very haunted house, witnesses have seen disembodied floating body parts, footfall and strange tobacco smells, sometimes unexplained screams. Moving shadows have also been captured in the cellar area by paranormal investigators* text pinched by RG
SP

Some of the weirdest things have been seen in the cellar area. This area is cordoned off to the public, there is a small aperture where you can see into, but it has a substantial iron grill over it. Apparently there are tunnels that run from these cellars. There has been talk of some dreadful act that took place in the cellar. This is the main area of all the accounted paranormal activity. Shadows have been seen whilst filming in the cellar too, I managed to put my night shot camera in but I didnt see anything.

During the latter half of the 1960's Sutton Hall was the centre of a ghostly enigma. A Bolsover man and his son reported seeing a ghostly apparition early in the morning moving between the church of St. Marys and the hall, the 'white lady' was seen gliding through the churchyard without legs, wearing a white hood with slits for eyes and crying like a baby or sobbing like a woman.

When interviewed the vicar of Saint Marys church, the Reverend Stanley Hare said, "It flies through the bushes and makes very weird noises at night and could very well frighten anybody".

The sounds of echoing footfalls have been reported coming from this shell of a former grand hall, and strange floating lights seen after dark.

Black Dicks Temple, Near Huddersfield, West Yorkshire - monument ruin

Beaumonts Bolt

http://www.kirkburtonparishwalks.co.uk/Grange%20Mo...pdf

Update: 13 January 2013. 
I was invited by PARANORMAL ENCOUNTERS (founder Agent Rob) a newly set up paranormal team in West Yorkshire to join them at Black Dick's Temple, earlier I said I couldn't make it, but later managed to get up there, apparently scaring the crap out of them as I turned up by surprise, they wondered who I was. 

You could see the temple all lit up from over a mile away, I was very impressed, all very professional, they had a generator running a laptop in a tent, with remote cameras and various other gadgets in abundance. The area they were investigating was locked off and they were viewing (recording) it remotely. 

Paranormal Encounters investigation - Black Dick's Tower

Many many years ago one of the team had seen a what they recalled was a full apparition, a man wearing tutor style clothes sat on a black horse, just looking at them, but later found no hoof marks. This prompted interest in the history of Whitley/Beaumont and the history of  Whitley Hall which was apparently near the site.  They are still reviewing the footage, although they admitted it was a little flat, other than the spikes they were getting from the electricity pylons nearby. But, earlier this week, a team member was up there alone and heard a very distinct growl in his ear.

On a freezing cold but sunny Sunday morning we decided to pay Black Dick’s Temple a visit which is situated in Hopton near Mirfield. The stone folly overlooks Huddersfield in West Yorkshire. You can see for miles in a 180 degree direction. As we walked up to the building. My husband told me that his grandfather used to be a look-out here in the Second World War; he was an enemy plane spotter at the temple, he and his family used to live in the area, but he said that he had never actually seen the building up close. As we looked around we were quite taken a back by the big hole in the centre of the temple where a floor used to be.  I precariously perched on the edge and sat taking EVP’s. The recordings didn’t come out very well for some reason so I couldn’t tell if I had caught any EVP’s or not. I waved my EMF meter about and I was about to get excited as I was getting some very high readings, but then I spotted the over head pylons.

Black Dick was born in 1574 ('Black Dick of the North' was a nickname given to him by King James I) or Sir Richard Beaumont is known to haunt the temple, he was the first cousin of Elizabeth I.  He was well known for his criminal activities, he was a gambler, a bad debtor and a highwayman who was involved in piracy to pay off his depts.
When Richard Beaumont found out one of his young servant girl  employees had got pregnant he murdered her, he was the one who got her pregnant! He was thought to have been killed in a tunnel near Huddersfield whilst in a duel in 1631.

To this day people report seeing the spectre of Black Dick most commonly on July 5th, on the day in which he died.