Hey all!
Llanthony Secunda Manor - Caldicot, Gwent, Wales
This was my first investigation in about 6 months, so was well looking forward to it! It was a last-minute arrangement which included myself, my dad and bestest buddy Robin Pierce. Llanthony Secunda Manor is in Caldicot and is being refurbished to be used as a holiday let. It's very subtle, nestled in a modern housing estate. The oldest parts of the house date back to the 15th century; apparently owners never stay for long because of the ghostly presence. It's uses have included as a farmhouse, a monastary and a religious retreat.
I have uploaded an album of the photos taken through the night. There are a couple with weird lights appearing, but please disregard the 'orbs'. The house was dusty and I think these are just reflections of the flash.
The event, in a nutshell, wasn't overloaded with activity, so instead of doing this on a vigil-by-vigil basis, I thought i'd do it by room and pick out the main points.
To get the negatives out of the way first, I'll discuss my doubts. Readers of my previous investigation reports will know that I do believe in spirits, but I'm not naive - I do need convincing before I'll believe any old ghost story.
The 'mediums' didn't convince me. This isn't to say that they weren't genuine (they have, after all, worked extensively with the one and only medium I trust - Ian Doherty), just that they didn't convince me. During the whole 8 hour vigil, only 3 main energies (a man, a girl and a young woman) were identified with the occasional monk thrown into the mix. The teams were split into 4 groups and each one came back each time with a story of a nasty man and a young girl - how could they have been in 4 separate rooms at the same time? Also, glass tipping was a bit too polished - perfect answers to each question (I didn't get involved as I'm not a believer, so can't comment whether they were pushing the glass). There was also a lot of excitement in the group. For example, during the tour of the house, we all went to the attic. Immediately, people complained of being cold and feeling dizzy/sick/unbalanced. 1) It was an attic at 10pm in October... of course it was going to be cold. 2) The floorboards were bouncy and there were 30 people walking around - it was like being on a ship in a storm! I was very aware that people were taking any noise or emotion to be ghostly manipulation - they were ready to believe any garbage fed to them by the mediums or me or anyone else (not that I'd dream of taking advantage of this naivety).
Ok... back to the good stuff...
Suit of Armour Room (Study)
I only experienced stuff in this room whilst on my own or with Robin; when the group was in here I didn't pick up a thing. I even stood in the middle of a circle where a supposed energy was building, but felt nothing. On my own, I saw a shadow creep across the sloped ceiling. The lights were off, the heavy curtains were fully drawn and there was nothing moving to create a shadow. Apparently when we compared notes at the end, somebody else had also picked up on shadows in this room. Also, as I sat on the chaise lounge with Robin just talking about general nonsense, my throat became very dry and I kept coughing. I assumed this was due to the dust and thought nothing of it... however, this coughing stopped as soon as I left the room and didn't happen again at all throughout the evening, even when I returned to this room later on. See photo in my album - there is some kind of light in the bottom right hand corner by the chair - the room was pitch black when I took the photo.
'Safe bedroom'
This was the pink bedroom in the photos. The medium, Mike, identified this as the room where the little girl would have died. He felt it was a comfortable, safe room where she would have been locked to contain the disease which caused her death. I didn't really pick up much in this room, except again when it was myself & Robin alone. We sat on the bed, stared out of the window in an attempt to pick up any movement in our peripheral vision in the room. I saw a shadow move from the left of the window, towards the bed, but can't be sure that this wasn't caused by external factors (e.g. somebody passing the door). Here my Dad picked up the name of the girl as "Emily", which was later reiterated by 2 other people, including Mike the medium, who were not present at that time.
Attic
I think I've already mentioned that this room didn't convince me. Many people felt very nervous up here, many felt nauseous or cold... I felt fine. The windows did rattle a fair few times and people got very nervous... but I was lying in the middle of the room completely at ease, although very, very cold. Robin and I had a bit of a laughing fit up here for no apparent reason - spiritual manipulation or just childish - your call ;-) My memories of this room are pretty vague; I don't remember anything happening here.
Bedroom with sofas
Can't really remember the story behind this room, but this was where the final vigil took place and the glass tipping. Apparently the nasty man, the young girl and 2 monks were helped to pass over to the light here... interesting stuff... made people feel "humble". I joined the seance, I felt nothing... decide for yourself.
Master's Bedroom
Now, this was the one that got me interested and persuaded me that this place may actually be haunted. We did 2 vigils in here. The first was the most interesting for me because I didn't expect anything. I was completely happy, sat with Robin listening to everyone else sharing their feelings but not really paying much attention. It was the same old about the room feeling oppressive, the women feeling sick, the energy building in the middle of the room etc etc. Out of nowhere, I suddenly felt very lethargic. I couldn't hold my head up so lowered my chin to my chest. Tired, perhaps? My first inkling that something was wrong was when I felt the urge to sit upright and looked around the room with "Who are you?" repeating over and over in my head. No, I assure you I wasn't asleep and I wasn't imagining it... Mike advised that the spirit may be attempting to channel through me, and I should imagine putting barriers up around me. Well, this didn't work... soon my head lowered again and I felt on the brink of sleep when my heart started racing, my breathing became very heavy and I started shaking uncontrollably. My muscles tensed and my fists clenched. It was if I had too much energy in my body and I had to release it. All I wanted to do was stand up, shout and hit something. I felt aggressive for no apparent reason. In an attempt to release the energy, I punched ahead of me a couple of times and stamped hard on the floor, but this made me feel worse... the energy was getting too much. I didn't want to get aggressive, I didn't want to stand up so I attempted to speak, shakily, to explain what I was experiencing. Whether the medium used this to his advantage or not is unclear, but I was told the "nasty man" was pacing back and forth along that wall looking out of the windows. It had already been established that he didn't like women and perhaps I was picking up on his anger at women being in his bedroom. Suddenly, I heard a crackle and Robin jumped... he said he had a sensation like an electric shock on his back... that was enough for me and I moved to the other side of the room - my legs were like jelly and it took some doing, but I had to get away... within minutes of sitting on the other side with Mike, I was back to normal, laughing and joking again.
This is the only experience I had all night to convince me that the house was haunted.
Later in this room, we had another vigil. We split into small groups and held hands to build up energy. I was paired with Mike - we had created a good relationship through the night with friendly banter so I was cool with this. He attempted to goad the 'nasty man' to get him to make a noise etc. Although I heard no noises, I could see green, blue and red energy building up around Mike... whether this was my eyes trying to make sense of the dark or the anger building, I have no idea but I definitely felt intermittent breezes on my hands and the temperature fluctuated immensely.
Although I wasn't present at the time, my father also did a crystal experiment here, requested a tap on the furniture and got one... go dad!
All in all, a very quiet night but very enjoyable. I felt confident here and laughed and joked throughout the night.
Looking for a Welsh holiday let? Check this out!