PENTRIDGE HALL

22nd July 2017

On Saturday, 22nd July 2017, Twilight Shadows Paranormal were granted access to conduct a paranormal investigation at Pentridge Hall in Dorset. The beautiful village of Pentridge's name originates from the Celtic word pen (hill) and twrch (boar). The first record of Pentridge dates back to the eighth century (eighty years prior to the birth of Alfred the Great). At that time, the village was recorded as 'Pentric.' Pentridge Village Hall is a former school house which we as paranormal investigators found very exciting. We did not have any idea of any specific spirit people who are connected with this lovely building but we were very eager to find out.

INVESTIGATION

After initially exploring the beautiful surroundings of the hall, we entered the building and it was like traveling back in time to a Victorian village school. It had a wonderful feeling of yesteryear. We were very excited to attempt to make contact with the hall's former occupants.

We decided to conduct a séance and just for something different, we stood around a large trolley, with our fingertips lightly resting on it, hoping that any spirits present would be able to use our energy and move the trolley around the room. We had all visualised a school mistress and we wondered if such an entity existed within the fabric of this building.

The trolley started to tap and we asked the question, “Are you a school mistress/teacher?” We received a negative response to this question. I think that we were all slightly disappointed. Dave had set up a Kinect Skeletal Tracking System and almost immediately the equipment had mapped two figures. It was fascinating. We speculated on who it could possibly be and as we were talking there were lots of bangs and taps on the surface of the trolley. The figures were quite small and we asked if they were children. Lesley said, “That was weird.” She had heard something right beside her. We could feel an energy coming through. There was a scratching noise by Tracey D and banging. Dave saw a shadow dart across the room.

We learned that the spirit who had joined us was a male and eventually he told us that he was a schoolmaster/teacher. Sadly, he died at age 52. The time frame was 1810. He said that

he taught approximately 8 children at any one time. That didn't seem many to us so perhaps we had interpreted the number wrong. We discovered that he was married with his own children. He was not stuck in this building but he liked to come in visitation. His wife did not visit the schoolroom with him. We asked if he could come and go as he pleased and he said that he couldn't. We did not find out what made him visit. We thought that perhaps he had responded to our call this evening.

It was quiet for a little while and then we all heard tapping coming from the other side of the room. Dave said that the hair on his arms had just lifted. The feeling inside the hall had changed. We felt like we had been joined by other entities. We asked the schoolmaster to tap out how many spirits were with us and there were 4 loud knocks.

There was a piano in the room and as always, I asked if a spirit person could play it. (The piano remained silent for the whole investigation. I have never been successful with this request). We found a school bell and we thought that it would be great if we could persuade a spirit to ring it. It did ring it in a fashion but not in the way we would have liked. Daniel suspended the bell on a piece of string from the hat stand. We asked the spirit to push the bell to ring it.

We were still standing around the trolley with our fingers lightly resting on the surface edge. I asked the schoolmaster if he would push the trolley to the place where he stood to teach the children. The EMF meters started to give positive readings and the trolley started moving towards the door. (This was a boarded up door which once connected to the cottage next door). We asked a lot of questions and we got the impression that this man really cared about the children he taught. Dave swung around quickly as he'd heard a noise. Periodically, we asked if he would ring the bell and this time, the trolley was pulled from under our fingers and travelled at speed towards the bell. The trolley missed, reversed a bit and crashed into the bell making it ring. After this, we replaced our fingertips and the trolley had us all running around the room, charging towards the corner and ringing the bell.

When we finally stopped, Jacky said that she could feel someone standing behind her. We placed the Geophone on top of the trolley which seemed to give it power. When Andrew removed the Geophone, the power seemed to diminish. I played an old fashioned child's song on my phone and the trolley was like a bull charging towards the bell. We all applauded.

We asked if we could hear 'his' voice and we heard a moaning noise like 'Huurrrruumph.' It came from the right of Matt. Matt said that it was icy cold where he was sitting. He was sitting near a fire place but we could not feel any draughts coming from there. Dave and I heard a tapping noise beside us and Jacky saw a couple of light anomalies. I asked if a spirit person would walk through the blocked up doorway between Dave and Lesley or throw something. Instead, we heard a noise near the kitchen.

Bearing in mind that it was July, we all started feeling strange, icy draughts flowing around us. This was accompanied by taps and strange lights. The area by the blocked up door and the fireplace was not a comfortable place to sit. It felt foreboding, like something was about to happen. Daniel and Tracy sat there together for a while but apart from feeling on edge, nothing happened.

We stopped for a break but during this, we could hear the top of the trolley knocking. We could all feel an energy. We all sat down and Dan started to talk about school life and how freely children were caned etc. This sort of punishment was still utilised when some of us were small. As we were discussing this, Dave saw a movement near the window so we resumed our investigation and Jacky started to 'call out.' Although we didn't hear any noises or see movement, Matt said that he thought that the room was getting darker and we all agreed. We could not find any rational reason for this.

For a long time, all was quiet and then I jumped and said, “I have just seen a dark shadow of a hand on the wall,” At the same time, Andrew said that he had captured this on his night vision Camcorder. Every member of the team had been sitting very still with their arms either folded or resting in their lap. Dave said that he had seen movement in the kitchen. The kitchen certainly seemed relatively active.

Jacky asked if we could hear some movement and Lesley (who had been sitting by the blocked off door and fireplace) suddenly shot off of her chair and ran across the room. She said that she had heard something move right behind her. There was a tap behind Dave. Matt said that he'd heard and felt things when he sat there earlier. I thought that I'd be brave and try sitting there. It didn't feel unduly cold when I sat there initially but when we started 'calling out,' the atmosphere and the temperature changed. It was as if icy fingers were gently stroking your skin. A figure appeared on the Skeletal Mapping software. It was as if it had come through the blocked off door. We all sat watching it. It was constantly moving and then it disappeared. I felt as if someone was standing right behind me and then it moved to my right side. I was enveloped within an icy atmosphere. This energy felt a little sinister. It was a different feeling to the schoolmaster's spirit that had made contact earlier.

Tracey D said that she had seen movement and as she was speaking, we heard a clinking sound. We could all feel the energy. We asked if the temperature could drop considerably and immediately Tracey D and Lesley said that they were freezing. This was all backed up with our digital thermometer which showed the temperature falling rapidly. Tracy said that she could feel a female presence. I was sitting in a chair and I could feel an icy draught swirling around me and at the same time, I felt hands pushing into my back, as if to push me off of the chair. Matt was standing beside me and he said that he could feel the coldness on his right side (nearest to me) and warm on his left side. There was a big cracking noise. The male spirit that we had connected with previously had felt strict but friendly but this new energy felt as if they had come from a 'darker' place. We all felt as if our mood had been affected. Tracey D said that she felt really unsettled by it. I saw a shadow figure move quickly across the room. It was relatively small so I wondered if it was a child. I suddenly felt really awful and not like myself at all and Tracy said that she felt intimidated. Most of us felt a feeling reminiscent of being a small child at school and being afraid of a strict teacher, and that emotional anguish when you were humiliated in front of your peers. It was really powerful. I could feel 'it' standing behind me again. I told the team about my experience of junior school with the headmistress who was a nun. She terrified me and now as an adult, I realise that she knew that she had that power and she didn't fail to attempt to humiliate me every chance that she had. I had previously placed my Camcorder (to record) on a table and we all heard a bang on that table. (It was very loud when I played the footage back).

We could sense a female energy so we reassembled around the trolley. The trolley started moving with force and before I knew it, I had been pushed into a corner of the room. This was still the 'dark' entity. The boys decided that we'd had enough of her and that we'd like the male schoolmaster to return. We immediately felt the sinister presence lift and the trolley was pushed towards the bell again. The Ovilus said, 'Students' which we all felt was fitting. The trolley kept smashing into the bell and we applauded a couple of times but after a lot of repetition, we tried to dissuade it. We started questioning this spirit but as soon as we did, he left.

As it was late, we decided to attempt a last try at communication. We were now standing around a large, heavy table. The table knocked and the Ovilus emitted the word, “Arrived.” We asked if this spirit was pleased that we had made communication and we were told, 'No.' However, 'he' still humoured us and as we rapped out knocking patterns, 'he' copied us. 'He' also finished off the end of some of our knocking patterns. Lesley said, “I wonder if this is a child,” Strangely, at this point while reviewing the footage, I can see that my Camcorder has picked up on what looks like the figure of a child, standing behind me and moving it's arms. Before, we can say that we have definitely captured the image of a child, we plan to return to the hall to examine the area and recreate the scene in the same area to try to discount a natural cause.

On behalf of the Twilight Shadows Paranormal team, I would like to thank Pentridge Hall and also team member Tracy who works so hard as our main Location Manager.

Written by: Maria Williams