The Guildhall

12th April 2014

History

The Guildhall Salisbury is seen by many as one of Salisbury's most historically significant buildings. The building has recently undergone a £1.2million refurbishment project.

The first Guildhall dates back to medieval times, when it was known as “The Bishop’s Guildhall”. At that time the building was under the control of the Bishop who exercised his feudal rights of criminal and civil justice.

In 1585, the Merchants Guild built a new headquarters called “The Council House” to the north of the Bishop’s Guildhall, near to where the present War Memorial stands.

The current building, dating back to 1795 and owned by Salisbury City Council, is the fourth building of its type to be constructed on the Guildhall Square.

The first Guildhall was built in medieval times and was known as The Bishop’s Guildhall.

In 1795, the building had fallen into disrepair following a substantial fire. Later that year an act of parliament was passed to surrender the bishop’s rights to the building and saw it returned to the city. This was on the condition that new city goal was included in the building.

As home to one of the courts in the City, the building would have seen cases such as petty theft and more gruesome crimes such as murder. One of the most notorious judges, Justice Park sentenced 28 defendants to death, even when one of the crimes was stealing just half a crown!

Although the courts have now left the building, the Oak Court remains. This magnificent court room now provides a unique and historic setting for wedding ceremonies and conferences.

A must for any visitor is a trip to the downstairs cell block which was added to the building in 1889. Used up until 2000 the cells are dark and dismal and give a glimpse of the darker past of the building. Many people claim to have heard strange noises from this area including some of the builders who recently worked on the refurbishment project.

Location 1, Room upstairs.

We started off our investigation by holding a séance in the top room which had lots of tables pushed together in the middle of the room and 2 glass cabinets either side of the room with various trophies and things of interest in them.

We started to call out and quite quickly started to hear taps around the room. As we started to get into the experiment I noticed that some of my equipment was not working as it should. I had noticed that the sensor light I had brought had not switched off. I went to go and sort it out and Maria called out instead.

We continued to get knocks to our questions and I asked if the spirit had affected my sensor light. It tapped in reply. Maria also asked the spirit to finish shave and a haircut, which it did. We all laughed. (This is Ben’s favourite.) We asked if it could answer a question and it tapped 2 for no!!! We felt that the spirit was being playful and we asked again to which it replied 1 for yes. We asked if the spirit was a former judge and it tapped to reply but we were not sure if it had replied yes or no. Maria asked if the spirit was a former Mayor and it clearly tapped twice for no. I asked if the spirit could speak to us so we could hear them. Despite our repeated requests we did not hear a voice and none was picked up on my voice recorder or video recorder. We continued to ask the spirit questions to which it replied by tapping on the table. The spirit said it did not like the way the guildhall looked now and did not like the people making noise outside. The spirit told us that he was the only spirit in the building. We had a short debate if this meant he was not aware of any other spirits rather than he was the only one. Maria asked if spirit could walk around us (it seemed to respond to her voice more than mine). Just as she asked that we heard a massive bang. (Not paranormal) this made us all laugh. I said "wow that was brilliant!"

We decided to move to another table as we noticed that most of the knocks we were getting in reply were coming from a table at the far end of the room. For a while we did not seem to get any response. I asked if this was the table that the knocks were coming from. Maria wasn't sure. Eventually we started to get responses to our questions but the taps were very few and far between. We talk amongst ourselves for a while as sometimes this gets things moving along. We start to get louder taps on the table so we direct our attention to the table again. Maria asks if the spirit can finish shave and a haircut for us again (and she knocks part of the Rhyme out on the table) we didn't get a response. We ask the spirit if they can bring more people into the room to try and help move the table. We get faint knocks in reply and Maria asks if the spirit is going to try and move the table. Loretta felt that the table was trying to lift where she was stood. However, it goes quiet again.

We have a debate about moving to another table in the room. We decide to move and seem to get a response to our questions right away. Maria asks if the spirit can move the table. We start to hear the table creaking. I hear a movement at the far corner of the room which sounded like someone shuffling. Maria says she feels really goose bumpy. I see some movement on my video camera and ask Maria is she feels like someone is stood by her. She says yes and I say I thought I just saw something on the video screen near her. Maria asks the spirit to please do something and asks if they are still here. We get a faint knock in reply. Maria thinks she hears footsteps on the carpet near Dave and Loretta. Others say they heard it too, however, I did not capture anything on my voice recorder. We hear footsteps again. Dave hears what sounds like the floorboards creaking. We hear shuffling again and Ben exclaims he is hearing footsteps everywhere now. Maria asks the spirit to carry on and invites the spirit to really stomp around so we can all hear them. Ben attempts to tell a joke to get the energy going. I suddenly hear a "huh" noise behind me which startles me a little. Maria asks the spirit to do 1 big run around the room so we can hear footsteps. We do hear some. Maria jokes for the spirit to go and scare Matt (who is off taking some photographs of the hall on his own). We hear footsteps near me (which i am not too happy about). Maria asks if I turn the camera off will it lift the table. I turn off my camera and say "It’s off!" Maria says she is going to do something ridiculous and runs around the room and asks if they can copy her so we can hear them. Ben does it next and aks if the spirit is still there. Matt comes and joins us and tells us where he has been taking photos. Maria asks if there was anywhere he felt particularly uncomfortable but he replied he didn't really feel that anywhere. We decide to move on to the next area.

Oak Court Room

Next we set up on the Oak Court Room. I exclaim that the room smells like old record players. (This brought back fond memories). Maria asks if anyone wants to sit in the Judges chair. Loretta takes up the challenge. Dave turns off the lights and then asks if the curtain by the Judges chair just moved. Loretta almost immediately says she wants to get off of the chair!!! Maria asks her to hang on as she wanted to take a picture. Loretta (with panic in her voice) asks Maria to hurry up! Loretta comes back and joins us saying it was really creepy up there. We have a debate about where everyone would have sat and who they would have been. Ben goes and has a go in the Judges chair and acts out being the Judge. We hear some tapping in the room. It doesn't really respond to any questions. We go back to Ben playing judge. We hear banging noises coming from the Judges room. We aren't sure if it is some of the other team members though. Maria says she doesn't really feel atmosphere in this room. I agree. Maria asks if there are any spirits in the room that could do anything for us. (She also asks if the spirits could scare her). We have only done 10 minutes in this room but feel we should move on to another location.

The Cells

As there is only 1 cell which is accessible, we decide to go in 2's to investigate. Loretta and I volunteer to go first at being locked in the cell and the others on our team stay in a smaller room to investigate while we all take turns in having a go. Loretta and I stay in the cell for about 10 minutes but we didn't feel scared or spooked. In fact, I feel really comfortable. I try calling out but apart from Dave coming to check on us we didn't get response to any of our questions. We decide to go back to the little room and let some others have a go in the cell. Maria sets off to have a go with Andrew. We decide to have a go at table tipping in this room. I try calling out but we don't get any response. We try a focusing exercise to get the energy going on the room. It feels very atmospheric in the room however, still nothing happens. Maria comes back. No one else wants to try going on the cells. We have a small debate about what’s happened in this room and the cells. I feel that there is someone in the room with us but doesn't want to make contact. Dave says he wants to go and investigate the corridor around the cells to court room as he and Maria had heard footsteps down there earlier which turned out not to be coming from anyone. Maria admits that they did run when they realised this. We decide to go there a bit later as there is another team down there at that present time. We decide to move into the big function room.

Function Room.

This room is very impressive to behold when you initially walk into the room. It is lined with pictures of past mayors on one wall and portraits of royalty on the other. One particular portrait is very eerie as it is a post Mortem portrait (Memento mori) of a mayor painted after he died. It gives it a very sinister feel.

We try some table tipping in this room. I decide to sit out and film the experiment. Maria and Ben ask out and try and get the energy going. They do get very faint taps and knocks to their question. I hear a tap behind me that does get picked up by the voice recorder. The table does start to move very slightly to the groups requests. All of a sudden the table lifts on one side and goes back down with a thud. Ben hears taps over the other side of the room. Maria asks if it was the spirit. They get a tap in reply. The table shifts to one side and then thuds down on the floor. Maria asks out but doesn't get a response for a while. We talk among ourselves. The table starts to move again. Ben asks for the table to lift again. The table suddenly shifts to one side. Maria asks if the spirit is happy for us to be here to lift the table on one side. The table lifts. Maria asks for the spirit to tap how many spirits are here. The tapping starts before she has finished. She asks again and gets 1 tap. She asks the spirit to lift the table on the opposite side. The table slides to one side instead. Maria asks the spirit to move the table faster. The table slides to one side again. A device we have been trying (ghost talker 11) which had been silent all night suddenly makes a noise. Andrew turns on his Ghost box. Maria asks out for the spirit to tell us its name. Despite repeated calling out, nothing much happens. At this point, as it was so quiet I had started to doze off. It is here I hear what sounds like a chair sliding to one side behind me. I shoot off of my chair with a real fright and scare everyone else in the room. This is caught on the digital voice recorder; however, looking back on the video footage I think that what had happened was Dave moved his chair and this made a dragging sound. As I was nearly asleep I heard the dragging noise and interpreted this as happening behind me. I was visibly frightened by this at the time though and did not feel comfortable sitting in that area after. After I had calmed down, we focused back on the investigation. The Ghost Talker 11 made a sound like laughter. Maria asked if the spirits were laughing at us and asked if we were ridiculous. We enter into a period where the ghost talker starts making a string of noises. They don't really form words that we can make out though. We think it says bid you!. Maria asks Bid us what? It sounds like it is trying to form words again but we can't quite make them out. After a while we decide to go and investigate the corridors down by the cells.

Corridors.

We all assemble in the corridors under the guildhall which lead from the cells to the court room. Maria starts to ask out. Maria asks if there are any spirit people with us, could they do something for us. (Throw something). Maria says that the other group heard a growl while they were down in these corridors earlier. Ben says something has just hit his leg. Ben asks for the spirits to throw something else at us. I hear on the voice recorder a small clatter and Ben says "There is another one, (a stone) again by my feet". I remember feeling very uncomfortable in this corridor and hear footsteps behind me. Maria asks for the spirits to come forward and to walk towards us. She asks if we can hear their footsteps. Dave and Ben at this point do hear footsteps. Dave said he thought it was Matt. Matt confirms that he has not moved. Maria asks if Matt heard them and Matt agreed that he had. Ben continues to call out for us to see if we can get any response. Maria asks if the spirits could whistle. Ben thinks that someone has whistled down the other end of the corridor. Another small stone is heard hitting the floor. Matt gets something thrown at him from our direction down to where he is stood. Ben asks out again and said he could of sworn he saw a shadow walking down the corridor but it could be his eyes playing tricks. We then hear a large object clatter to the floor. Maria cheekily asks if the spirit can throw something else at Matt. We hear lots of movements in the corridor that leads down towards the court room so some of the team (Dave and Matt) go down to investigate and see if anyone is in the court room. Matt comes back and said that the gate up by the court room just swung back and shut on Dave. Maria said that is where they were chased earlier. It goes quiet for a bit and Maria asks the spirits what they are going to do. She asks if they can do some more scaring because this is what we like. We hear something that sounds like a shuffle. We ask if anyone has shifted their feet. Everyone says that it wasn't them. Sharon asks how far it goes around the corridor. Maria suggests we go and have a look. I get spooked and ask if someone can come and stand at the back of me (Dave comes to the rescue). Maria asks if the spirits can do anything for us in this part of the corridor. I hear Dave whisper that he say movement down the other end of the corridor from where we have just come from. Matt says he has heard footsteps up by the Oak Court Room. Ben says he hears a thump, thump, thump noise on the wall. he asks if they can do it again. Listening back to the sound file I can hear the thump noise on the wall. Not much else happens so we move on.

After this Dave and I decide it’s time for us to go home as we have a long journey home. Some of the others stay on and carry on the investigating in the upstairs room we started in.

I would like to thank Maria Williams for arranging this investigation and all the team for taking precious time out of their weekend to join us.

*History of the Guildhall taken from the internet.