Bell Inn, Derby - May 2006

On Saturday 13^th May, Alison, Evan and I headed to Derby, after an afternoon of thunderstorms, to stay the night at the Bell Inn (also known as the Olde Bell Hotel). Alison and I arrived first at 20:25 and wandered down to Sadler Gate where numerous establishments including the Bell were pumping out music into the street - the area was clearly the centre of Derby’s nightlife. We were met outside the Inn by the organiser Emma and her friends Steph and Katharine, all of whom had been at the Dudley Castle investigation we attended.

We were shown up four flights of stairs to the area of our investigations - the attic rooms. This was a rather surreal area as it had clearly not been in use as bedrooms for several decades but instead was a dumping ground for all sorts of junk. The dusty, untidy rooms, bare flooring, missing plaster, small windows, lack of electricity and old wooden beams only added to the atmospheric effect even before nightfall. Alison, aided by Steph, went round and cleared a path through the more cluttered rooms so that we were less likely to trip up when walking around in the dark later. We all chatted about a variety of things until Evan phoned to say he was just parking his car and on his way to the Inn. Half an hour later and there was still no Evan so we popped downstairs to check he wasn’t fortifying himself at the bar, just as he arrived outside. We then headed back upstairs to the kitchen area on the third floor which was our base for the night. Already everyone was quite chatty - something that would continue throughout the night.

We headed up into the attic rooms to start the vigils and it was immediately clear that the music from below would provide a constant background noise for us. The six of us carried out a vigil in what became known as ‘Room 29’ as it had that number on the door and then moved into the room opposite which, as it had a lot of paint pots in it I’ll describe (rather unimaginatively) as the ‘paint room’. It also contained a lot of other junk with loops of old electric cabling dangling from the beams. Here we managed to arrange a mixture of broken chairs, stools and cabinets into seats and tried to contact any spirits that were present. Nothing much was happening and I was sat with my back to the door when suddenly I saw Emma’s face (who was opposite) light up with terror and she yelled out “Oh shit!” just as I heard a noise behind me. At this, I immediately leapt up off my stool towards Emma to protect her - some others have suggested that this may have been because I was scared, but I prefer my version. Behind us, in the doorway, was the large shape of John, a member of staff who was staying the night at the hotel to make sure we were OK. He apologised for frightening us and as we had all become excitable, and then relieved that nothing more sinister had occurred, we took a break. We then returned to the paint room where we called out to any spirits present to make themselves known. Emma (a ‘medium‘) felt there was something trying to make contact with her. After a while she began to behave oddly, holding her head down, hunching up her shoulders, sucking her thumb and swinging her legs as if she were a child sat on a seat too high off the ground for her feet to touch the floor. It appeared as though she had been taken over by the spirit of a little girl who was obviously distressed. She only seemed to respond to questions from Alison who tried to comfort her and find out information. During this time, Emma, in the persona of the little girl, slid off her seat and crouched down on the floor. Later, after Emma had returned to us, she told us that during her previous visits to the Bell Inn she had never previously encountered this spirit though she had experienced other activity on those occasions. She also mentioned that if the little girl hadn’t been so terrified she’d have laughed at the way Alison was dressed and wearing jeans as they seemed outlandish to her! After breaks we returned to the paint room twice more and Emma became possessed again each time, apparently by the same spirit girl. After a time of sitting on the chair, hunched up and appearing frightened, Emma again slid forward to crouch on the floor. During this period of comforting and questioning by Alison, Emma went as if to get up to take Alison to another room to show her something when the possession seemed to end. When we took a break in the kitchen area I also noticed a small scratch on Emma’s face, but this may have been unintentionally caused by her whilst on the floor.

During the last vigil in this room two weird sounds were heard. The first was probably a pigeon in the roof and the second may have been plaster falling but in the heightened atmosphere they were quite noticeable. Also interesting was that at the end of the second possession Emma, while supposedly under the influence of the little girl, was clearly extremely scared by what she felt was a figure (possibly smoking a cigarette) standing behind Steph who was sat by the window. At the same time, Steph felt that someone was touching her hair. Suddenly a very strong waft of cigarette smoke was smelt, firstly by Steph and then in turn by the rest of us as it seemed to move across the room from the closed window towards the doorway. It is possible (but not so likely) that this came up from rooms below and seeped up into the attic; it could not have come up from the stairwell as it would have moved across the room in the opposite direction. During the possessions more details were obtained of the little girl’s name and other names, a date and various features supposedly associated with what appeared to be a very unhappy and distressing childhood for the girl during Victorian times. I won’t go into details here as a lot was involved and also it would be best to confirm these details separately, which should be possible as records of occupiers should have been kept from those times. the second and third possessions were recorded on video. Throughout, Emma, supposedly possessed by the spirit of the girl, only appeared to respond to Alison and in the last possession led us into Room 29 and cowered in the corner (again for a reason I won’t mention). In all, Emma appeared to be possessed by a spirit for almost an hour and was able to provide extra details of what the little girl was feeling when she returned back to us. The third session was particularly intense and long and we decided to end the night, just as the music ended at 4am.

During the evening we also held vigils in some of the other upper rooms, one of which seemed particularly unpleasant to be in (a reason for which was suggested by the girl possessing Emma) but nothing of any note happened other than having to determine whether a noise in one of the rooms was caused by Steph’s notebook or flatulence! A trigger object experiment in Room 29 did not show any signs of movement which could not be explained by normal vibrations in the floor – maybe none of the ghosts liked the 1p, 20p and £1 coins on offer.Emma and her friends are a friendly, fun, lively bunch and we certainly had an interesting and enjoyable night. Other than the activity related to Emma’s experiences nothing much happened. On the subject of the possessions, to paraphrase parapsychologist Ciaran O’Keefe, there are three possibilities - the person may be faking it, they may believe what they are saying is true but are misguided or it may be exactly what it appears to be.