Woodchester Mansion - December 2006

On Saturday 16th December, Alison, Steve, Nina and myself joined a PIRT Event at Woodchester Mansion. Unfortunately I was not able to open this up to a larger number as spaces were limited. The group of about thirty people assembled at nearby Nympsfield and headed down the long wooded drive to Woodchester Mansion. Once at the Mansion we all gathered in the Drawing Room, which was to be our base for the night - this room is the only room in the building that was completed, the rest of the building was deserted during construction and is being maintained in this state by the Woodchester Mansion Trust. Woodchester was recently used as a film-set for the interior of Count Dracula’s castle, shown at Christmas and various props and doors were left over from that production.

Here we were split into three groups and thanks to Michelle we were able to join Michelle and Mel (who I know from several previous investigations) and three of their friends in the same group. The idea was for a member of PIRT to supervise each group on one of the levels of the building and we initially headed down to the cellar with Steve, PIRT’s medium. The cellar consists of a passage with four rooms on the left and one on the right. Steve split the group into three to investigate the rooms on the left and I was with Michelle and Mel.

The three of us started in one of the middle rooms and after forming a circle and calling out for some time both Michelle and Mel heard a strong sigh apparently emanating from behind Mel. We now moved to the largest cellar room and after some time Michelle and I again heard a sigh from behind Mel - again Mel did not hear it. We now moved to the smallest of the cellar rooms (which also hosted a coffin with a skeleton left over from a Halloween party). We carried out another circle and were about to finish when a loud noise (a sort of cross between a loud sigh and a snarl is the best I can describe it as) was heard from an empty part of the cellar corridor. I rushed into the corridor where neither Steve nor Alison, who were in the corridor, had heard anything or believed it could have been them who made it. However Nina came out of the second room as she had also heard it but had assumed someone in the corridor had made it. It should be noted that there was some background noise at times but especially the first and third noises seemed far too distinct from the sounds heard - and this has been noted in the cellar by previous paranormal groups - there was no wind that night.

This was a good start and we all headed up the second floor corridor with high hopes. Unfortunately the second floor proved to be unspectacular, though an interesting photograph of Nicola in the corridor did at first appear to show a man’s face (see below). However Nina heard singing, which may have been female choral singing coming from the the most southerly room on this corridor - however, like all the sounds heard, activities of another group could not be ruled out.

Our next location for an investigation was the first floor with the group splitting between the bathroom and the first floor corridor - nothing of interest was reported here, but we did admire the fine stone carvings in the bathroom.

By now most people were doing what they wanted in the investigation and our group moved to the kitchen area - an interesting room where the clock was in the Most Haunted episode, though it has now been moved. Again it was quiet here.

We finished the night, as many others were leaving the building, with a return to the cellar. This time we kept together as a group,.but did not experience any more sounds. This time, however, Michelle felt that her coat-hood had been brushed past.

Steve’s video came up with some interesting orbs during the visit but with the high levels of dust it could have been just that. I don’t think that any member of our group sensed any names or particularly unusual feelings during the visit.

Unfortunately there were a lot of rather noisy people in the Manor at times - a problem with such a large and varied bunch of people and they cannot be ruled out as the source of the noises our group heard. Also a number of people seemed unprepared for the cold weather and seemed to spend much of the time complaining about it or shivering.  Woodchester is a fascinating place and is also worth a visit in the daytime when its architectural wonders can be appreciated better..