The George Inn at Woolley

The George Inn

3rd April 2010

On Saturday 3rd April 2010, the team set out for our second investigation of the year.

We were invited to join Twilight shadow at The George Inn at Woolley, Bradford on Avon which is very close to my own heart. I grew up in Woolley Drive which is just around the corner and this was my local pub for 17 years. I have often taken part in the Woolley Festival which is held every year at the George and helped my Dad to open the festival in 2008 when he was serving as Mayor of Bradford on Avon.

There is very little on the history of the public house. I do know that it was once an Inn and also a slaughter house, this was at the turn of the 20th century. The George Inn, Woolley Street, perhaps stands on the site of the New Inn, which existed in 1714 and under the name of the New Inn, Tooley Street, was leased in 1734 by the Duke of Kingston.

We were invited to arrive at The George for around 11pm. The pub is renowned locally for live bands and show cases live bands every week. When we arrived the band were still playing so we were shown upstairs by the Landlady to 3 rooms in the private living area. I was very surprised at how much space was up there.

The first room we visited was a play room, the second was the living room and the 3rd was an utility room on the top floor.

As there were quite a few of us, we decided to split into teams of 2 and our team made our way up into the room on the top floor. Initially both Dave and myself felt an atmosphere in this room and Dave commented that he felt death around this room. After we had got ourselves comfortable we switched off the lights and asked out for any spirit activity. We stayed in this room for a good half an hour but we did not experience any un-explained activity. The atmosphere that we originally felt had dissipated and the room felt completely normal.

We then decided to try the play room. This room was reputed to have had spirit activity in the past. Objects were supposedly moved and things had been thrown in the hall outside the room at the former resident’s. The present landlady stated that she had not experienced any of this activity but did say that the down stairs bar made her feel very uncomfortable at times. We once again made ourselves comfortable and switched out the lights. We started asking out but it was very hard to hear any of the subtle knocks or taps you get as the pub clientele were still downstairs and room was right over the bar area. We did hear a few taps after calling out but could not be sure if this was paranormal activity because of the noise level from down stairs. We did capture light anomalies on both still camera and video camera however.

We decided that this would be a good time to take a break and headed off down to the bar where a few of the locals were enjoying a lock in. We had a few interesting conversations with a few of them and Dave and Chris got to check out the cellar. Once we had, had a break, we headed off back to the play room and tried again to get some activity. Once again we got a few light anomalies on picture but the room felt light an airy and to be honest the scariest thing about the room was some of the dolls in there!!!!

As most of the pubs regulars had now gone home, we decided to go downstairs and hold a séance. We chose the lounge area and first tried a glass divination experiment. We did get the glass moving and through it we believe we were talking to a local woman in her 50’s that supposedly died from a heart attack and her husband still frequented the pub. The glass displayed a very unique way of communicating and would tap to communicate numbers to us. The energy was very strong and quick and the glass would move very precisely around the table. The glass informed us that there were other spirit people waiting to talk so we thanked the spirit for talking to us and requested someone else step forward.

The next spirit was male and much older. The spirit informed us that he worked at the pub around 100 years ago and when asked told us that he could move the table for us if we tried table tipping. We decided to try this and sat around the table with our hands placed on the top side. Almost straight away there was a very loud tap in the middle of the table. The spirit communicated by tapping but soon changed its tone and I felt that this was another spirit come through. This spirit was not happy for us to be there and wanted us to go. I said to the spirit that if he wanted us to go he would have to tip the table and we would go no questions asked. The tapping got louder and this turned into creeks. As we were talking, the table suddenly slid towards Louisa. At this point some of the locals that remained in the bar came through to watch. This seemed to break the energy and I noticed that Louisa didn’t look very well. I requested the lights on and thought this was a good point to call it a night.

I would like to thank the Landlady of The George for allowing us to visit her pub. I would also like to thank Maria of Twilight shadows for inviting us along to her investigation and also Dave, Chris and Sharon of Phoenix for giving up their Saturday evening to attend tonight's investigation.

J Wicheard ©

Here is my good friend Maria Williams account of the night.

On Saturday 3rd April 2010, Twilight Shadows Paranormal/ Phoenix of Wessex conducted a paranormal investigation at The George at Woolley.

HISTORY OF THE PUB

REPORT

We arrived at the pub at 23 00 hours, as the band was due to finish. The landlady Becky took us upstairs and gave us a tour around the living accommodation. We split into two teams. Jacky’s team started in the attic and we commenced the investigation in the play room.

PLAYROOM

This room was huge and filled to the brim with toys of every kind. It was a child’s wonderland. We switched off the lights and sat on the floor. There have been reports of paranormal occurrences in this room by the previous proprietors. They described things having been moved about and objects thrown down the stairs. However, Becky and Darren have not experienced any of these things during their time at the pub.

We sat ‘calling out’ for quite a time but we did not experience anything of a paranormal nature.

ATTIC

We climbed upstairs to the attic. This is used as a storage and utility room. Earlier when Jacky and Dave went to look at the attic, they came down looking excited and said that they felt ‘something’ up there. We assembled into the attic and started ‘asking out’ again. This room had a different atmosphere than the playroom and seemed to have an energy. It was quiet for a time but then Melody and Louisa said that they were rocking. Loretta and I were sitting on the floor and we looked up at them and confirmed that they were rocking to and fro. Matt then said that he was rocking also. They couldn’t seem to stop. I carried on ‘calling out’ and we heard a noise from the back of the room. A while later we heard another noise from this area. After this, apart from Melody, Lou and Matt rocking, all was quiet. We wondered what the cause of the rocking motion was. The floors were slightly uneven so perhaps that was the reason.

SITTING ROOM

This room was also huge. We sat down on the sofa and ‘called out’ asking any spirits to make contact with us. Apart from Becky’s Mum walking in and jumping out of her skin at us sitting in the dark, nothing at all happened. This room seemed devoid of anything paranormal.

We joined the other team for a drink in the bar and then we all went back up to the playroom. We ‘called out’ in there again but the atmosphere seemed flat.

LOUNGE

Eventually when the pub had quietened down, we went downstairs and assembled around a table to try some glass divination. In no time at all the glass started to move and we began asking questions.

The first spirit was female and she told us that she used to drink in the pub. Previously, when practising glass divination, we have experienced many different ways of communication with the glass. The glass has rolled, moved in a walking fashion and circled. But this time the glass started to tap. We were fascinated by this and rather impressed. The glass sometimes moved but tapped out anything that needed answering with a number. It was brilliant. The lady spirit who was tapping the glass told us that she had died 13 years ago of a heart attack while she was in her 50’s. Jacky thought that she may know this lady and enquired whether the spirit lady recognised some names which Jacky called out. The glass started to respond positively. Jacky also asked this lady if she worked for a specific local firm and the glass affirmed this by responding strongly. It seems that she comes back to the pub and when Becky asked if she could see her small daughter running around, the glass responded “Yes.” This energy was very pleasant. We asked why she came back to the pub and Jacky said “Do you want a drink?” This was answered by a resounding “Yes!” We all laughed and then proceeded to name a list of alcoholic beverages that she may like. We discovered that she liked gin, whisky, brandy and sherry. This lady eventually left the séance and another spirit came through.

The next spirit to make contact with us was a man. This spirit had died approximately 100 years ago. He used to work at the pub. We did not gain too much information from him but when Becky said that she thought the back of the pub was used as a brothel many years ago, the glass responded with vigour. I could not make up my mind whether this was approval or disapproval of such a notion.

After a while we thought that we would try table tipping. We all got into position and very quickly heard a loud tap from the centre of the table. We communicated with a spirit (which I believe was male) for a while and he tapped in response to our questions. Suddenly the energy changed and another more forceful spirit came through. I am very sure that this was a male spirit. It soon became apparent that he did not like us investigating the pub and wanted us to leave. Jacky told him that if he tipped the table up onto its side, we would leave. I could feel the table trying to lift but I don’t think his energy was strong enough. We persevered and eventually the table moved with force towards Louisa. A few of the locals who were still in the bar area came in and started to ask questions. This changed the energy completely and an air of negativity entered the séance. Jacky then noticed that something was affecting Louisa and we discontinued the séance immediately. We decided to finish the investigation at this point.

On behalf of the team, I would like to thank Becky and Darren for letting us investigate their pub. Also thank you to our brilliant team. I love working with you all.