The Red Lion Southampton

October 26th 2013

For this investigation, we found ourselves travelling down to Southampton on a very blustery, rainy night. We were joining B.U.S team at their investigation at the Red Lion.

History

The Red Lion can be found in the High Street below the Bargate and within the old walled town of Southampton. Here lies one of the oldest, characteristic and spooky inns in the city

The cellar is of Norman vintage dating back to the 12th century. Parts of the upper building (which has been considerably altered), are of Tudor origin.

The most attractive part of the Inn is the fine half-timbered balcony known as Henry V's 'Court Room'. The trial of Richard, Earl of Cambridge, Lord Scrope of Masham and Sir Thomas Grey of Heton, was held here, all of whom conspired against Henry V in 1415. The trial was a famous landmark in English history. The conspirators were found guilty of high treason, condemned to death and summarily executed outside the Bargate. A rubbing from the stone describing the execution can be found in the 'Court Room'.

The Main Bar

When we arrived at the Inn, I had absolutely no idea how amazing the interior of the building is. The main bar is more like a hall with a very high ceiling and lovely oak beams. We soon settled down in the main bar to start off our investigation.

Claire from B.U.S briefed us on what she had picked up psychically when she entered the building. As it was Claire’s investigation we invited her to call out first to see if she could get any response. I very quickly saw light anomalies on the night vision cam which mainly seemed to travel to my right. We did initially get a few taps but these were very few and far between. Claire’s K2 seemed to set off briefly but she could not get the lights to activate again.

Dave then tried to call out to the spirits and again I caught a few light anomalies on camera. We also heard taps coming from the wooden balcony above us. Claire went up there to see if she could sense anyone. She said that she felt there were two females there and they seemed to be arguing between them. She felt they were from a different time period as one referred to the building as Inn and the other referred to the building as a pub. I tried calling our and addressed a more dominant male spirit that Claire had sensed. We all felt a temperature change which registered on the laser thermometers. This phenomenon lasted for nearly 10 minutes. I kept seeing in the corner of my eye a figure stood in the doorway to the corridor which was directly opposite where I was sat. Claire also felt there was a spirit there just hiding away from us. Dave took a picture from the balcony which later showed what looks like a lady stood where we thought the spirit was. Claire has also since said that she has got some footage showing also possibly showing a female spirit in the same place. I have clips of this which can be viewed on our Facebook page. Dave also felt that his hand was touched. This experience unnerved him slightly, however, he asked out for the spirit to do this again which he felt it did. When he says this I could see a light anomaly travel away from him. Clips from this are also available to view on the Facebook page.

The Cellar

After a short break we decided to hold a vigil in the cellar. Not much really happened in here. Claire felt she could sense a little boy, possibly from 18th Century which was hiding down there. She felt he was used as a slave and was hiding from a very old and miserable old man. She said that the old man was also down there with us but was just watching us. I did feel at one point that an energy was building up just behind me in the corner which did leave me a little un-nerved. I moved to allow the landlady to stand there and see if she could experience the same feeling, however, she did not. As it was very quiet we decided to relocate to another part of the Inn.

The Balcony

For this vigil, we decided to try our hand at a bit of table tipping. Maria and I sat at the table and Dave and Andrew decided to sit this one out. Just as we started to call out, we heard something metallic drop on the floor. Claire said she thought it came from one of us up on the balcony but we assured her that we had our hands on the table and the 2 boys were sat well away from the edge of the balcony. This is also caught on camera. About 5 minutes after this I had turned to talk to Dave who was sat by the camera and saw something fly past landing on the table and then bouncing off. This is also caught on the camera. I initially thought it may of dropped from the ceiling, however you can quite clearly see that this was not so. We also heard a loud tap on the table during our séance though not much else was experienced.

The Corridor.

We decided to investigate the long corridor with the last bit of time at the Red Lion. We decided to go right to the end of the corridor down by the fire escape. At first not much seemed to happen, however the last 15 or so minutes really seemed to kick off. We had just called out when something was thrown very close to us. This turned out to be an old foreign coin. We also heard footsteps coming down the corridor towards us. We stopped talking and I turned expecting to see Gary from B.U.S coming towards us, however, there was no one there. We also heard footsteps above us. We asked Gary (who was holding a lone vigil in the restaurant) if he had come out into the corridor. He confirmed he had not moved from the room he was in.

As it was getting late and we also had a fair way to travel home, we decided to call it a night.

I would like to thank B.U.S for allowing us to share in their investigation and also the Landlady of the Red Lion for being kind enough to give us permission to investigate her lovely pub.