Westbury Swimming Pool

8th June 2013

The month of June saw the team heading to the now very famous Haunted Westbury Swimming Pool in Wiltshire that is home to the infamous ghost of George the Janitor.

The swimming pool was built to mark the Jubilee of Queen Victoria in 1888 and was given to the town of Westbury by mill owner William Laverton. The Victorian pool is reputed to be the oldest still working public pool in the country

Westbury Pool is a relatively recent haunting with poltergeist activity and full manifestations which have been reported by visitors and staff on numerous occasions.

The resident ghost (fondly nicknamed George) by the staff, who have reported his presence on numerous occasions. A full manifestation walking at the end of the pool has been reported several times.

One of the stories told, is that George was a First World War soldier who visited the pool whilst on leave, with the absence of diving boards he decided to jump off the viewing gallery, as he did, he misjudged the distance and broke his neck on impact as he hit the edge of the pool. Others say that George was one of the pool caretakers, whatever the case, George is still very active. Locker doors swing open of their own accord, staff and customers have been pushed, and dark shadows have been seen darting around corners

Another reported haunting is of a drowned child. The life guard jumped on spotting the child in trouble but the child had disappeared. This sighting happened many years ago.

On arrival we were greeted by Jim and Myles (our life guards for the evening) who gave us a full tour of the building, a health and safety talk and also some brief history which included some of their own experiences.

As there were quite a few of us we divided into 4 teams. We had quite a large area to cover so we decided to spend 45 minutes in each before moving onto the next.

My team (Pete, Nettie, Dave and Myself) started in the offices. This area the staff had experienced their things being moved around in the office while nobody’s there and they have heard voices. I set up a trigger object experiment in the office and we then settled down to start our vigil. As we were in a building with quite a large swimming pool, you can expect a certain amount of humidity and warm. However, it was also a very warm night which only added to the already very warm rooms. The office was a very small room on the top floor. The room was very uncomfortable to be in. We were just commenting on this when the door opened then slowly closed. We all stopped what we were doing when this happened. The door is very heavy so not likely to blow open in a draft and it is also equipped with a fire door hinge so doesn’t close slowly either. Great, maybe the activity is starting already?

We tried calling out for about 10 minutes but didn’t get much. Pete felt drawn to the room next door which happened to be the staff room so we decided to move into there. While in here we heard 3 thumps on far wall where what looked like a bricked up cupboard was. This turned out on closer inspection to be another door into the corridor which was no longer in use. We also spotted a very old picture and a very old, very large wall clock. The picture generated particular interest. Pete did not get a good feeling from one of the men in the picture and when he asked us which one he thought it was, we all picked out the correct person.

Our next area was the ladies changing rooms. This area is where one of the members of staff (Jim) had seen George the ghost himself. The changing rooms themselves felt fine, however when you walked up passed the lockers to the toilets the atmosphere changed completely. Every member of the team also picked up on this. Pete said that he could see in his mind’s eye George standing on the corner next to the toilets and entrance to the pool, leaning on the pole of a floor mop just watching (almost leering) at the ladies going passed. Pete also felt that there are certain cubicles that people avoid using. He felt that at times people changing have got the feeling someone is on the other side of the curtain peering in but when they have looked, no one was there. He felt this is also George. He also felt that at times the locker doors are either all opened at once or closed which is also George’s doing. Jim joined us for the latter part of our time in this area and also confirmed some of what Pete had picked up.

Our next area was the mens changing rooms. Andrew joined us for this one and Jim also stayed with us as we set up some experiments. Dave and Andrew both own Ghost boxes. Ghost boxes work by sweeping the airwaves on a continuous loop and spirits are said to be able to communicate through the static and white noise that is generated. When we first came into the area, the atmosphere was dark and heavy. When Maria’s team who was previously in the room left for their next area, the atmosphere lifted and totally changed. Pete felt that George (who Pete was now calling Arthur) was following Maria’s team. Loretta had been feeling very sleepy and lethargic. I wondered if George had latched onto her. At first the vigil was very quiet. We didn’t get much on the ghost boxes or camera. Some of us have ghost radar on our phones which is an app that is supposedly meant to detect spirit energy and can also convert information into words. Dave put his ghost radar on. During our vigil I asked out a number of questions. One was “do you know you have passed on?” We heard “passed on” said back through the ghost box. I then asked how the spirit had died. Nothing came through the ghost box but Pete got ‘heart attack at 82’ given to him psychically. The activity seemed to die off for about 10 minute or so but then the atmosphere changed again. I noticed that there were energy readings on the Ghost Radar showing and was trying to keep my eye on that and the camera. Out of the blue I suddenly realised I saw a white hand come up under my camera. I was so shocked my reaction was a little delayed while I was processing what I had seen. I was so annoyed as this would not of been captured on the camera I was holding as the hand came up underneath. We were trying to get more activity from George when we suddenly got a very distinct ‘hello’ through the ghost box. We replied and then heard ‘shut up’ come through the ghost box. Jim said he felt something touch his leg. We also heard what sounded like the word ‘hell’ through the ghost box and ‘you’re scared’. We said we weren’t scared and Pete felt George liked the nick name he had been given as it gave him anonymity. Dave said he could feel a draft where he was stood and Jim said that a lot of people had reported that from time to time. Things died down. I asked what did George want and on the Ghost Radar the word break came up. I joked and said that George wanted a break. Pete replied he wanted on too so we decided now was a good time to go get a coffee.

After our break, we divided into 2 groups for our last vigil. We went into the small room on the balcony over the swimming pool. In here we set up a Ouija board experiment. After we did some grounding exercises we quickly got a little girl come through called Grace. She told us she was 7 years old. She tried to spell out a word but it didn’t make sense. I thought she meant she was going to be right back but this was not correct. Pete asked if she wanted to be here. She spelt out deep. Pete asked if she meant deep water and asked if she can see the faces looking at her through the water. Pete also said again she didn’t want to be here and she replied no. She told Pete that she can see her mother and that she is scared of the light. She spelt the word Pushed on the spirit board. Pete felt that she was pushed by a friend which was a joke that went wrong. Pete did a small ceremony and sent Grace over to her mum. We had a small discussion about why Grace may have been scared to cross over and then we tried again on the board. I soon sensed another energy building (which turned out to be our friend George). We asked what the spirits name was and straight away it started to spell a rude word. George started off by pretending he couldn’t spell but this soon changed. We got the word Plead (spelt pled). We asked if he wanted help but he said no. Pete asked if he was feeling guilty. The spirit then spelt out tired (tird). We asked for the name again. The spirit didn’t make any sense. We tried another approach and asked the spirit to move the planchett in a clockwise direction. The spirit then spelt out XB. I asked if the spirit had a message but it went to No. I asked if they could step away from the board and it went to goodbye. We tried again and I asked if there was any other spirits in the room. Pete suddenly gasped. I asked if he was alright and he said he was but George was very cross that we had moved Grace on. The planchett did move and Pete took charge. He said he was going to get rid of George. George spelt out wait (wait) we asked what we are waiting for. He spelt out god. The spirit spelt lack. I asked lack what? The spirit then tried to spell the word Faith. We asked if the lacked faith in god or himself? The spirit answered yes. Pete said that the spirit knew he can’t stay here anymore? It didn’t really move. Pete asked for the planchett to be moved into the middle of the board. He tried to get the spirit to confirm he was called Arthur. The spirit would not confirm this though. Pete tried to start to move the spirit across but he wouldn’t do as he was told. Pete asked if he could see the white light. The spirit said no. Pete tried again. The planchett went to no repeatedly. The spirit then spelt out ‘you go’. All the while Pete was talking the board was spelling out the words no and go. I asked if he wanted us to come back. It said no. It also confirmed that he didn’t like Pete or any of the team. The spirit did like the staff members though. I asked what was the spirit going to do to make us go? We heard a knock under the table and a spirit breeze started up. The spirit tried to spell Jim. We then realised that he meant Jim was going to make us go which he would as he was the one locking up shortly!!

On concluding our investigation, the trigger object in the office had moved. A picture of this is just below this report..

Even though George didn’t seem to like us, I liked his cheekiness and I hope that we get to encounter him again soon. We thoroughly enjoyed our evening at Westbury swimming pool and hope to return again next year.

I would like to thank the staff at the pool for allowing us the permission to visit their lovely Victorian building and all the team for giving up their Saturday evening and making this investigation a fantastic one.