Littledean Jail

07th October 2017

Littledean Jail

For our latest investigation, the team found themselves at the very unique and sometimes disturbing Littledean Jail (Crimes through Time Museum). Dave, James and I visited the Museum earlier on in the year. It does say that though it does not ban children, it may not be advisable for children to visit. We thought this was a marketing ploy to stoke people’s curiosity. Though this might be true, it is also true that children may find some of the exhibits too much. While we were there however, we felt that this would be an amazing place for the team to investigate. Following a very interesting conversation with the man on the reception desk, 6 months later, we were back with our team with the whole place to ourselves to investigate. I could not wait.

History

The Crime through Time Museum is situated in the Littledean Jail building, and is actually inside the cells and courtroom. It was designed and built by the revolutionary pioneer or prison reforms, Sir George Onesiphorous Paul and leading prison architect William Blackburn. It was completed in 1791. This building was so good in its time; it was later seen as the Government’s model for Pentonville prison in London and then later was the design used for Cherry Hill penitentiary system in Philadelphia.

The Jail is now owned by Andy Jones and his wife Nicola who live in the jail with their children.

Known hauntings

The ghost of a young child is known to wander around the cell-block area, day and night. Ghostly children have been heard running up and down the corridor on the first floor. (It is historically documented that children have died in the jail.) At least 2 babies died in the cells.

The Investigation

Once the team had all arrived, we were met by Nicola who gave the team a tour of the building. We only had the building between the hours of 5pm and 9pm so we were eager to get to work straight away. However, with all the fascinating (and disturbing) exhibits, it was very hard to focus on the job in hand. We did manage eventually to turn our minds to the investigation which I started with a small summary of the history of the building.

We split into smaller teams and chose our areas of interest. One of the cells on the 1st floor is reported to contain a spirit which does not particularly like woman. Maria and Lesley chose this cell. Others of the team also went into cells on this floor. I was very drawn to 2 of the cells on the ground floor that were left as they would have been while the building was a jail. One of the cells however, did contain an electric chair which I was also drawn too. I did spend some time on the upper floor but after 20 or so minutes, I decided to go down to this cell. Dave also joined me. While in the cell, I got a strong urge to sit in the chair (which I just could not resist). We started the vigil like we would normally. We sit quietly for a while to get a feel of our surroundings and then start to call out. I suddenly had an irresistible urge to sit on the electric chair. At first I did it for a dare but while sat on the chair, I decided to include it with our experiment. Dave took a few pictures of me while I was sitting on the electric chair and was amazed to see that with each picture, there was an un-

explainable shadow or distortion to the picture. We stayed in this room for a while longer but then started to hear other team members starting to move to other areas of the museum.

We decided to go and visit the building out in the back yard of the museum. Originally this was called *the tread wheel house but it was now used to house a quadrophenia paraphernalia exhibition. Dave and I headed over to the out building and a few other members of the team were also in there. We decided to try calling out and seeing if we could get any activity. Given the buildings original history, I am sure we would get some type of result.

It was not long until we all heard a loud tap. Maria asked if a spirit person had made the tapping noise and asked for a repeat. We heard a tap again. This time it came from behind me. We noticed that the atmosphere had changed in the building. I was filming this on my night vision camera and saw a travelling light anomaly. We heard a tap again. Some of the others that were stood down by where the tread wheel would have been came up to where we were sat. Things went quiet again and the atmosphere seemed to settle and feel more comfortable. Some of the team decided to leave the wheel house and explore other areas of the jail. We stayed behind for a little longer and then moved on.

Maria and I decided to sit on the spiral stairwell which leads up to the 1st floor. Dave decided to take a break. There has been reports of the jailer being seen (or heard) in this area. We both were filming with our night vision cameras so called out and asked that if any spirit people were there, could either make a noise or show themselves in light form? At first we felt very comfortable sat there but after a while the atmosphere definitely started to feel more uncomfortable. We were briefly interrupted by other members of the team moving around and the eerie feeling went. Dave also came back and joined us. We attempted to call out again and this time Maria thought she heard footsteps above us. I didn’t. I didn’t want to look up in that direction with my camera though.

We decided to take a break so went back to the main entrance and exhibit room (which was once a court room). With all the different exhibits in this museum, you just cannot help but become distracted with them all. A few of us decided to look around some of the side rooms. After spending some time in each, (and as time was now getting on) we all got back to our investigation.

I suggested that we tried vigils in the 2 cells which were still as they would have been when the building was a jail. This turned out to be a very good idea.

I decided to try the cell opposite where the electric chair is kept. Half the team were in this room with us and the others were in the cell with the electric chair. It really wasn’t long until we started to hear some strange tapping noises. They sounded like they were coming from above us. We called out to the others to see if they were making the tapping noises, they weren’t. They came and joined us in our cell (it was a bit of a squeeze) to see if they could also hear these noises.

The tapping noises continued. In fact, they appeared to be getting louder. It was suggested that it sounded more like footsteps. Matt reminded us that children’s footsteps are reported to be heard upstairs. He also reminded us it could be the jailer. We called out and asked if the spirits could walk down the stairwell just outside the cell we were in. To our amazement, the footsteps did sound like they were coming down the stairs. Some of the footsteps did sound lighter (like children’s footsteps) and some sounded much heavier (like adults). We then began to get tapping noises actually in the cell that we were in. The tapping noises appeared to be coming from under the bed some of us were sat on. This was very unnerving to experience. We encourage the spirits to walk down the stairs and walk passed the cell we were all in. The footsteps did seem to come down the stairs but not entirely all the way down. It was suggested that perhaps we should close the cell door and see if the spirit would walk passed us. I wasn’t very happy about shutting the door and suggested we kept it open a little (just in case we all got locked in). The tapping and footsteps we could hear were insane. I did ask if anyone knew where the family’s living quarters were (just in case we were underneath them). We worked out that the living quarters would be situated above where the main entrance and exhibit room is and the cells we were exploring at the beginning of the investigation were above us. We were all speechless. We have only ever witnessed footsteps this loud before during an investigation and that was at St Briavels castle which actually isn’t too far from Littledean Jail. Unfortunately, our time at the Jail was now up so we had to wrap our investigation up.

I would like to thank Andy and Nicola Jones for allowing us permission to investigate the Littledean Jail. I hope we will return very soon.

I would also like to thank the team for once again giving up your Saturday night and making this investigation possible.

*The work on the tread wheel was to hold on to a bar and walk up the wheel. You did ten minutes on and five off, for eight hours, climbing the equivalent of over 8,000 feet in the process. The treadmill (wheel) was used to power machinery in the prison.