MEETING HOUSE

13th May 2017

On Saturday 13th May 2017, Twilight Shadows Paranormal conducted a paranormal investigation at a Meeting House in Hampshire.

HISTORY

Built in 1727, the building was a Presbyterian meeting house. The Presbyterians who were also known as non-conformists or dissenters worshiped God in their own style, without the dogma of the Church of England.

During the 19th Century, the congregation became Unitarian and it was then known as St. Thomas's Chapel, reverting back to its original name during the 1930's.

In 1976, the Unitarians combined with a congregation in Bournemouth due to financial constraints, meaning that they couldn't continue to maintain the building. The Meeting House is now run by a registered charity and has been beautifully refurbished.

INVESTIGATION

Upon entering the Meeting House, we were amazed at how lovely and quaint it was. There were boxed pews, balconies and a beautiful organ. As we explored and went upstairs to the balcony area, we all felt a presence. I was talking to E and she told me that the Christian Spiritualists hold services/meetings every week and they have said that they see spirits in the building.

We decided to start our investigation downstairs and I 'called out.' We all heard a noise in the room. Tracy and I continued to invite the spirits to come forward and make contact with us. I asked if one of the three trustees of the Meeting House would like to try and communicate as the spirits will see them on a daily basis. E 'called out,' We heard three knocks. We kept hearing three knocks but we eventually realised that they were caused by the large clock that was situated near the organ.

J said that he felt the spirit of a little girl. He thought that she was a shy child. Dave said that he thought her name was Henrietta. J asked the little girl if her parents were present with her. We heard a strange vibrating sound. E asked, “Are you not allowed downstairs?” The table we were sitting around shook. She asked, “Is somebody with you?” The table shuddered. I heard a noise to my left and then I heard footsteps.

J said that he thought that the little girl was alone. E felt that she was upstairs alone and asked if she'd like to come downstairs with us or would she like someone to go up and get her. E said, 'I think that she's frightened.” She then asked. “Do you want me to come and get you?” The table shuddered and E went up to get her. E returned to the table and the temperature plummeted so we wondered if the little girl had joined us. Matt had been upstairs on the balcony when E went up to get the little girl and he said that he saw a shape dart away to the end of the balcony.

I 'called out' and there was a noise by the stairs and the table shuddered. I felt that a male spirit had joined us and I asked if this was so. I asked him to shake the table and the table did shake slightly. Some of us could feel an icy breeze blowing across our hands.

There was a tomb outside the building and many graves underneath. E wondered if we would get a positive reaction if we placed Mr. X's bible upon the table. There was a bang within the room and a scratch underneath the table. Andrew got the bible and put it on the table. It was a huge bible and had such a presence about it.

E asked, “Do you like what we are doing with the building? Are you pleased with the renovations?” The table shook and it seemed to be an affirmative response. I really felt as if we were being watched. E started to ask:

Have you got anyone with you? Yes

Is your wife with you? Yes

E said that she thought that there was something in the bible that he wanted us to read.

She asked, “Do you want us to open the bible?” The cover of the bible tapped. E opened the bible and asked if the spirit would like her to read from it and the bible cover tapped again. There was a ribbon book mark and we all thought that she should read from where the book was marked. The passage she read was about everlasting life.

The Ovilus emitted the words, ledge and Southern. We asked if T was with us? There was a knocking sound from the balcony. We asked if the spirits ever talked to the Spiritualist Mediums during their weekly meetings. Dave and Matt said that they heard a tap in response. A small stone was thrown near the pulpit.

Tracy asked if we could have more information. She asked if the child would come and sit next to E. Tracy called Mr. X but there was no response. E 'called out' and there was no response. We could all feel a presence.

We asked: What is your name? Axe

How old were you when you died? 33 portar

Is that your name? No (I have since discovered that the word portar is a Spanish for 'to carry.' We do not know if that is relevant).

When were you here? 1831

Did you live in this town? Yes

Were you part of the congregation? Yes

Were you a farmer? No

Were you a minister? (No answer)

Are you male? Yes

Were you married? Yes

Were you a descendant of one of the ministers? No

Did you have children? Yes

How many? 6

Were you a Presbyterian? No

Non-conformist? Yes

Did you help build the Meeting House? (No answer)

Were you here when Mr. X was here? No

Were you here in J's time? (No answer)

Is it your daughter that we were talking to earlier? No

A friend of your daughter's? Yes

Was she scared to talk to us? Yes

How old is she? 6

Was she aged 6 when she died? Yes, drowned

Were all your children boys? NO, 4

Can you see us? Yes

How many of us are talking to you? 5 ,8, 3 (There were five of us trying to communicate, eight of us altogether investigating and three trustees).

How many spirits are here now? 4

All male? No

So we have two male spirits and two female communicating with us? Are the females adults? Yes

Is the little girl still here? No

Will she come back? (No answer)

Are you all from the same era? No

Can you communicate with each other? Yes

Do you like us being here? No

I said that we were sorry for intruding but we just wanted to find out about the people who used to be here. We asked to speak to someone else. A new spirit took over.

Hello. Dead

Are you female? No, goodbye

Is anyone else here? SOS

Do you need help? No

What year did you die? 1936

Were you killed? Yes

Was it an accident? No, SOS, stabbed

Were you in a fight? Yes

Did you attack him? (No answer)

Did you live in this town? Yes

Did the other person die? No

Was the other person convicted of your murder? No

What's you name? Fred, channel

Spiritualists channel, do you come and speak to the Christian Spiritualists? Yes

Are you sitting with us? Who are you sitting next to? Tracy

UPSTAIRS

Some of us went upstairs to sit on the balcony. We looked over and down to where Tracy, Dave, E, J and G were attempting some table tipping. They had good results and the table was actually shoved towards J. While sitting up on the balcony, I became asthmatic. The Meeting House was very clean and not dusty so I couldn't work out what was wrong with me. Andrew had his laptop on with some software and it clearly said Maria. Shortly after this, my asthma settled.

DOWNSTAIRS

E, J and G left to go home and we stayed a little longer to see if we could get any spirit activity. We heard a whistle in the room, twice. I asked if we could hear another whistle and the table knocked. There was a knock and movement in the room. We asked if the spirit liked us being there and we received three taps (it was not the clock this time). Jacky told the spirit that we would like one tap for yes and two taps for no. We heard one tap. I asked if the spirit could knock out the amount of spirits that were in the room with us. There was no reply. I asked, “Is it just you?” We heard one knock.

We were chatting amongst ourselves and the table started knocking as if to get our attention. There was a bang in the room. I asked if we could hear the spirits footsteps and received two knocks on the table to tell me, no. Andrew said, “I heard a sound behind me, it's behind me.” We heard the sound of movement around the room and there was a lot of strange noises upstairs. Matt and Tracy said that they had breezes blowing around them.

Jacky asked if the spirit would manifest for us. There were knocking noises, footsteps and a big thump. It was quiet for a while but suddenly Jacky jumped as something hit her on the arm. It was another little stone. We asked if the spirit could shake the table and it knocked twice and then shook. We heard a scraping noise underneath the table and then a whistle. I started whistling and the table started to knock the amount of notes that I whistled. I had a sudden cold breeze on my arm. I asked, “Did you breathe on my arm?” There was one knock. We asked if the spirit could do something spectacular. All was quiet for a while and then we heard a scratch underneath the table. All was quiet after this and we decided to end the investigation as it was very late. We said, “Goodbye” and there was a large thud in response.

On behalf of the Twilight Shadows Paranormal team, we would like to thank E, J and G for allowing us to investigate this wonderful building. Thank you also to team member Tracy for arranging the evening.

Written by: Maria Williams