Red Lion Hotel ghost hunt – 21st January 2012
Ever since this venue had been booked for a ghost hunt my team and I were anxious to investigate this amazing location, a building which has plenty of history and known ghosts and the very fact that just about every room that we were staying in had some interesting history, usually macabre.
After many guests (and team) enjoyed another kind of spirit at the bar, for nerves obviously! We started by splitting the guests into two groups, one group stayed in the Tudor Room, the other, my group headed into The Parliament Restaurant where we let the guests use our equipment which consisted of K2 meters, dialogue meters and a tricorder, many hotspots were detected and spirit generally stepped forward to be noticed, the dialogue meters proved to be quite active and spirit was able to communicate with guests through basic yes and no questioning.
After a while I suggested that we hold a séance to try to get spirit to come forward and give the group some form of personal evidence. After a short amount of time a young boy called Timothy aged about 6-7 years old came forward, the group had already detected him via the tricorder and our other electronic equipment. Timothy was wearing a smart suit with short trousers, not a school uniform, and by his appearance he looked as if he came from the 1810s. He also brought his Sister with him, called Mary but she was rather shy. However between them they managed to move the arms of some of the guests. Hot and cold spots were also felt by the guests, but generally the energy seemed only to interact with those nearest to the kitchen.
There was also another female energy present, she was about 23 years old and was very shy, and she emerged from the kitchen area and stayed within an invisible boundary from the kitchen door to mid-way into the restaurant. She did not interact with the guests, but she could see that Timothy and Mary were interacting with us.
Throughout the séance I could sense a male energy sitting near the bar, he appeared to be very grumpy almost angry and he appeared to be dressed in clothing which I would associate as being from 1920s – 1930s. He did not want to interact with the group and stayed in the same place, muttering to himself.
After we broke the séance circle I conducted an EVP (Electronic Voice Phenomena) experiment, which was stopped mid-flow due to a very noisy crowd making their way along the walkway just outside, but after we re-commenced the experiment there were two EVPs recorded. One which has been added to our website as it is very clear and the other which we cannot establish what exactly is being said.
You can listen to the clear one at http://youtu.be/XnZ-HpNAgvM
Many guests wandered over to where this disgruntled gentleman appeared to me and our electronic equipment picked up his energy. Some of the guests also photographed orbs in this location.
During this part of our investigation I set up the laser grid in the hope of seeing a spirit manifestation, as we have had some success with this in the past; however nothing notable happened at the time.
Some photographs were taken of the ceiling in the area which separates the bar and the restaurant and someone noticed that there seemed to be a woman’s face looking down through the window, but alas this turned out to be a mannequin! However during this time many people photographed what seemed to be a patch of brickwork on the ceiling, there was no brickwork. At the time the photographs looked very real however on examining the photos that we took and those taken by some of the guests we can conclude that it wasn’t brickwork, it was the wooden beam, which although doesn’t look anything like brickwork under certain circumstances the wood of the beam is reflected in the flash, which lightens the wood and since the beam is etched this looks like brickwork because the beam is out of focus. A mystery solved!
The second session we swapped the groups and my group headed into the café since the noise on the street had quietened down. We were assembled in the cellar of the café and although there were spirit energies present the activity was rather subdued. We did however hear some very loud bangs and crashes which sounded like they were emanating from right above us, but we know that we were the only people in this area. A male energy called David made himself known to the group via a electronic equipment, I could also sense him and he told me that he was involved in an RTA (Road Traffic Accident) in the 1980s. I thought that he was riding a motorcycle as he was dressed in leathers, but he answered via our dialogue meter that he was not on a motorcycle. What his fate was I do not know because he didn’t provide us with answers.
I found this café area strange, not because of the lack of spirit energy, but when I first visited The Red Lion this room seemed to be electric and I felt vitalised and full of energy, yet on the night the reverse was true, everyone including me felt drained and tired which was a huge disappointment as I was hoping for some great activity to take place in this room.
After this session we headed into the cellar which is situated on the other side of the public walkway. This was a very spooky place and the group was split. The majority of us were in the main cellar and a couple of guests were near to the beer cask entrance as the other group reported some strangeness when they were here.
A male energy joined us he was from Norfolk aged between 17 and 19 years old, called Phillip and seemed to be a very simple minded chap. He did not physically interact with the group instead we heard all manner of strange noises like groaning, whistling, loud bangs, knocking and all round weird noises. Every time something happened all the guests jumped, as these noises came with no warning and were not caused from people walking on the pavement above us, as we could hear everything that was happening on the street above, the noises in the cellar were coming from the floor or from within the hotel.
The group of people who stayed by the beer cask entrance heard and felt much more than they bargained for and on many occasions some very loud bangs and crashes were heard in this area and just after the noises the guests who were near that area screamed!
During this session a guest felt a party popper (which was stored there) hit his leg which made him jump! And two guests witnessed a Christmas tree (which was being stored) move in front of their eyes. Some of this session has been videoed and hopefully the noises especially the whistling have been recorded. Many orbs were definitely recorded.
The final session of the evening we allowed the guest to roam between the rooms, as my team were all staying overnight and we had the majority of the haunted rooms.
In room 7 which has many stories, a mist formation was photographed by a guest and an EVP was recorded, however the EVP is unintelligible and has been sent off for further analysis.
In room 6 we tried a scrying experiment and all guests who stood in front on the mirror could feel their features change, the spectators could see the results and on several occasions the spirit energy that people could see looked either scary or malicious which frightened some of the guests!
One of my team members who was staying in room 9 reported that when he entered the room the shower was on, much to his amazement. He was not responsible for this as when we arrived he just dumped his overnight bag in the room and then joined the rest of the group in the bar.
After the public investigation had finished, those who were staying in the hotel overnight, which included some guests as well as the team members decided to re-visit the cellar, as it was now much quieter on the streets of Colchester. As before some of us were near the beer cask drop and the rest of the group in the main part of the cellar. I stayed by the Christmas tree in the hope of seeing it move and to experience some of the noises which seem to be related to this old opening. We heard many strange noises here but during the séance which was being conducted in the main cellar I felt that there was an unwelcome spirit energy and although this energy was doing what was asked of him – gentle movements etc. – I felt that one of the guests would soon need my help. I thought I knew which guest it was going to be as this guest (who will remain nameless) has had a similar experience at another investigation of mine.
When I entered the room the guest that needed help was Andy, his partner Wendy was scared of him and said that she felt that Andy was looking menacing and threatening even though Andy was feeling generally fine, he could feel an unusual force or energy around him and I realised what was in progress and stepped in to help Andy, and ultimately Wendy! The spirit energy that was responsible was called Adrian Muller and he was able to push Andy with great force whilst I was standing directly behind Andy, which was probably just as well because otherwise I think Andy would have fallen over.
After giving Andy some much needed energy in the form of emergency healing and placing him in the circle the feeling that he had and his appearance to the group had changed, Wendy could now look at him without being scared!
This event was a huge success and the guests thoroughly enjoyed themselves, we as a team also had a fantastic night and we cannot wait to return to The Red Lion Hotel as I believe there is so much more to experience at this venue.
We have recorded many hours of video footage which is currently being analysed for audio-visual anomalies; any results will be published on our website in due course.
Our next public event at The Red Lion is scheduled for 14th April 2012 and tickets are available from our website. http://www.ghosthuntevents.co.uk
This venue is also available for private events (birthdays, hen nights etc.), for more information please see our website.
I would like to thank all the staff, especially Warren the General Manager for making this event run smoothly and Jason the Night Porter who although sceptical helped us with the event into the early hours.
Steve Moyle
Spiritualist Medium
Ghost Hunt Events
http://www.ghosthuntevents.co.uk/
