Tutbury Castle - September 2007

The group made a return to Tutbury Castle. It was the third overnight there for me, the second for Alison and the first time for Nina and Steve. This time the event was run by Eerie Evenings who had organised a ‘Ghost Hunt’ evening for 60 people, followed by more in-depth vigils for half that number from 2300 to 0300.

Alison and I arrived at the castle at 2010 via the excellent local fish and chip shop. Whilst we were ravenously scoffing our dinner in the castle car park we were approached by two knights in armour.  Instead of coming to appropriate our food as Alison feared, they were just hurrying us along as we were the last to arrive. We headed into the castle and received a talk on the Witchfinder General by a costumed guide before heading up to the Great Hall. It was here that the curator, Lesley Smith, was re-enacting Mary, Queen of Scots - she gave her usual strong and knowledgeable account as well as a faux mediumship display. After a big build-up we headed into the King’s Bedroom - a supposedly very haunted room which this year had a different carpet (thankfully less nauseating than the previous one), a big wooden blanket-box and new informational wall displays that made the room feel less scary and austere.

After we left the King’s Bedroom, the four of us decided to break away from the others to explore other parts of the castle grounds, lit by the full-moon now breaking through the clouds. Unfortunately both towers and the undercroft were ‘off-limits’ so we started our walk-round with a visit to the ‘torture chamber’, a large room under the North Tower. Nina felt a presence close to the entrance but nothing else of note happened.

On the way back to the main building we had to pass the foundations of the chapel, the only part of the building that remains - it was only excavated in the 1980s. Nina wandered in and about seven feet in suddenly felt that she was feeling some sort of force which went on until just a few feet from the far end of the building (probably originally the altar) where it ceased and also suddenly felt colder. She summoned the rest of us in without telling us what she had felt (and we had not noticed her movement in there either). We all walked in the same entrance and headed towards the far end. Alison seemed to experience a similar effect to Nina, describing it as follows:

“I slowly entered the chapel and walked along what I imagine would have been the central aisle. After a couple of metres I felt like I had trouble moving forwards because of a soft invisible force (like walking through treacle) that was slowing me down. This effect continued for some way until I passed through the remnants of a doorway into the sanctuary area where the effect ceased. Moving forwards towards the altar area, I noticed the wind took on a chillier note the closer I became to it. It seemed as though the altar area was a couple of degrees colder than the rest of the chapel area. Sadly we didn’t have our remote temperature sensor with us to verify this.

On re-tracing my steps to leave the chapel I did not experience the ‘treacle’ sensation again, however as I approached the exit I felt I was being gently pushed from behind and my feet were being slid forwards. It is worth noting that at this point the surface of the ground was broadly level and didn’t appear to be muddy or slippery. Perhaps there was a ‘presence’ in the chapel who didn’t welcome female visitors!”

Neither Steve nor myself felt anything at all, making us wonder whether it was just women that were affected. It is probably worth noting that, apart from on one previous investigation in Devizes, Alison has never picked up on anything - however on this night she was taking a lot of medication for a bad cold, and this may have caused her to have experienced, or felt she was experiencing, these feelings.

Next we headed up the mound to the folly tower built in the Victorian era. On entering the folly Nina felt a sudden cut occur to the knuckle of her finger which could be clearly seen - there was nothing obvious that could have caused this. After this surprising incident, Nina sensed and half-saw out of the corner of her eye a small presence moving around the central part of the folly. Alison also felt drawn to a certain part of the folly where the initials JA were etched onto the wall.

We returned to the main building to rejoin the others and while the four of us were talking Nina felt her chair tilt forward without anyone touching it. This was initially very interesting but after further investigation we discovered that the movement was caused by a large paving slab under her chair being rocked when someone walked around behind her - this shows how important it is to explore every phenomenon thoroughly.

Now it was time for the more in-depth vigils for the more intrepid of Eerie Evening’s customers.

Following an introduction from the medium provided by the organisers we split into two groups with our group of fifteen heading off first to the ‘torture chamber’. Once in there the candles were blown out and the group lined the walls. After a short while a few people reported some lights, some said blue, some red in the area of the fireplace. We had a shuffle round and I headed to stand by the fireplace - but when we resumed this time a few faint taps were heard in the corner I had just vacated, but these did not respond to call-outs, and they may just have been cooling noises or unintentional movements.

We now returned to the main building’s cafe to warm up before heading upstairs again. The group now split and eight of us carried out a vigil in the Great Hall whilst the others entered the King’s Bedroom. After a bit of calling out by one of the organisers and the medium, particularly focussed at the spirits believed to inhabit the castle, some taps were heard near the door. Unfortunately the organiser appeared too scared to approach these sounds - so I went over to the door, which was off its latch and suffering a strong draft, and latched it. This caused the taps to stop - what a surprise!

We now ventured into the King’s Bedroom full of hope for some good activity at last. Steve stood and filmed from the foot of the stairs - an area where a spirit is said to attack men - and Nina stood in the far corner where the ‘vortex’ is said to be located. After twenty minutes in there nothing had happened to either of them, or anyone else, and the organiser and most of the group left the room, leaving Nina, me and another lady guest (later joined by her male friend). We asked out and nothing happened until the lady said she felt like a small hand was grasping hers - this is said to happen regularly in this room and is said to indicate the presence of ‘Ellie’, the spirit of a little girl that met an unfortunate death. We asked the spirit to touch Nina or me but with no reaction - maybe she preferred to touch the only person in the room who was a mother. We also had the lady swap locations in the room but still she felt her hand was being held, and when she sat on the chest with her hands no longer available she twice felt something rub strongly past her knees. But it was now time to end the night’s investigation and the lady was feeling very emotional after her experiences in the room - it was clear that she had found the experiences more upsetting than she had let on at the time.

We all left the castle at a little after 3am, tired but having enjoyed ourselves.

The highlights of our visit were the strange experiences in the chapel area by Nina and Alison, the unexplainable cut on Nina’s finger and the curious hand-holding and knee brushing incidents witnessed in the King’s Bedroom.

———

Later checking of the videos revealed an unusual flashing ‘orb’ on a shot taken by Steve in the Great Hall. Look above the fireplace in the centre of the screen for two flashes (just click below to start).