Submission May 2008, Version 1.0

Woodchester Mansion, Paranormal Experience Event April 5th 2008

By Peter Drake

(Click here for Paranormal Events log)

The woodland was thickening as we went deeper into the valley. It was getting dark, and we had driven for what seemed like ages across that long, broken path. At last we passed a last tight corner to see our destination for the night: Woodchester Mansion. Even at a distance it loomed ominously - an abandoned, old Victorian hall, in such a lonely spot.  Where better for an all-night ghost-hunt?

I had been invited along to a paranormal investigation of Woodchester Mansion in April 2008 by WOLF – which stands for ‘World Oneric Life Force.’ WOLF is a West Midlands-based team that specialises in supernatural research and spiritual healing. Simone Taylor and David Ball are the team’s founders and lead investigators. Supporting the event at Woodchester were Vanessa Penny, Rachel Penny and Gemma Taylor. They all share a keen psychic sensitivity.

The investigation was open to the public, and there were 19 guests who had paid to participate in the night’s activities. I attended the event as a neutral observer. Similarly to many of the guests, I am open-minded in my opinions on the supernatural, and I neither believe nor disbelieve. It was interesting for a ‘newbie’ such as me.

Woodchester’s notoriety

I had heard of Woodchester Mansion’s infamous reputation for paranormal activity. It has featured on popular TV shows such as 'Most Haunted', 'Scariest Places on Earth' and 'Scream Team.' Sinister sightings have included headless horsemen and Roman soldiers; there are reports of wandering spirits, apparitions and weird smells. When ‘Most Haunted’ held a vigil at the location in 2005, they captured much activity such as strange noises and moving tables.

The building itself is an old, bizarre relic of Victorian gothic architecture. It is located in a secluded Cotswold valley, in Gloucestershire, and it is out-of-the-way, not easy to reach. At night there is absolute silence.

The mansion seems complete only from the outside. A grand renovation of the main building was mysteriously abandoned in 1868 after workers dropped their tools and left, never to return. No refurbishment has subsequently taken place, and there are whole floors of the building missing, where there are no proper ceilings, or plasterwork, or doors or furnishings. There is only the monumental stone infrastructure.

It seemed a labyrinthine and eerie building, and I found myself walking down maze-like corridors that turned to dead ends; spiralling staircases; looking at ornate, vaulted ceilings. From the passageways I saw large empty rooms without plaster or without floors, with vast open drops over the balconies.

WOLF’s Gemma agreed that Woodchester Mansion was an imposing landmark.

“It looked very scary indeed, it was in such a deserted location.”

Séance in the chapel

The investigation began with a mass group séance in the chapel. All the guests gathered in a circle, and as space was limited, I remained in the archway along with Gemma, Rachel and Vanessa from WOLF.

The lights were turned off, pitching everything into darkness. For a few minutes the atmosphere was calm and still, with Simone and David challenging spirits to show themselves. As I grew accustomed to the dark I saw tiny glints of light from outside. It did not really matter, as I still could not see a thing.

Simone became aware of a male energy entering the room.  “He did not seem particularly interested in any one person,” she said, “he seemed to only want to observe. I was giving my full attention, trying to get information as to who he was. “I was startled at a stronger energy coming up to me from the right side and I felt and saw a very dark shadow push up towards my face.  I stepped back slightly in surprise and it quickly moved away.  During this time the name John was given to me intuitively.”

David seemed to sense a different male energy: older, stronger, and with an unusual physical appearance, his face being ugly and mangled. “This energy was not frightening but slightly imposing. I could see him in my mind’s eye walking around the circle, leering into people’s faces, including mine!”

Some of us whom were standing near the archway heard a male groan from somewhere in the adjoining part of the chapel. This section contained scaffolding and had a high ceiling, with evidence of plans for a huge stained-glass window. The groan was not long after the séance began, and I heard it distinctly. It was low, and not very loud.

People saw shadows in the séance circle. Participants also experienced strange sensations, such as gentle touching, a breeze rushing past them, and light anomalies. Flashes of red light were explained by peoples’ cameras, and small white flashes were caused by minute reflections from spectacles. But for several reports of a purple light anomaly in the centre of the circle, there were no explanations.

I could swear that I saw this purplish flash myself. I was looking into the chapel where the séance was taking place, which was completely dark. I suddenly saw a quick flash of light in the middle of the room. It was bright, purplish, and moving like a gash in the air. It was momentary, and as it disappeared I perceived some kind of deepening shadow in front of that same spot which then itself evaporated.

I had no idea what it was, and did not see it again. I did not mention it to anyone until I had heard that other people had experienced the same thing.

The séance also helped David and Simone to become aware of a child, perhaps a little girl’s spirit, and Simone was intuitively given the letter J, followed by a name which could have been Jean or Jeanette. The child moved around the circle, and guests commented on a cold feeling around their legs.

Not long after this the atmosphere grew quiet again, and it was decided that we would split into smaller groups to hold vigils in different locations throughout the building.

A dark energy in the cellar

The cellar seems to be an epicentre of activity at Woodchester Mansion. On previous investigations the WOLF team discovered a dark energy that dwelt there. Tension had been high as the team entered the cellar on their initial scout of the location, before the guests arrived.

A door opened to the cellar, which was accessed by steep stairs. As I descended, I saw that the ceiling was vaulted and ridged, narrowing towards the bottom almost like a throat. Below lay the place where the WOLF team had seen a shadowy, amorphous thing which had been ‘aware’ of them.

“The only way I can describe this entity as a negative soul that never rests,” David said later, “and I seem to see it in the form of black smoke.”

He later compared it to the black smoke-like entity in the TV programme ‘Lost.’

“As we descended the staircase, a sense of uneasiness drew upon myself,” said David.

Others felt uneasy in the cellar. Fresh batteries in cameras died immediately, and Rachel saw a heavy wooden door start to swing open by itself. As we climbed the stairs to leave the cellar, some heard a faint shuffling sound coming from behind us.

There were several vigils in the cellar after the chapel séance. During his group’s vigil, David psychically sensed the presence of a pack of dogs, being fed meat by “a tall, butch fellow with a bloody white apron…like Leatherface from ‘Texas Chainsaw Massacre.’”

“After calling out to him he did seem to then engage with us and once he saw us he became a little unnerved himself. This is something I have never seen before.”

During a glass divination session in the cellar, there seemed to be a spirit trying to impersonate a guest’s family member, and David was led to believe that they were communicating with the negative mass in the cellar.

Rachel also tried glass divination in one of the cellar’s rooms, and it developed that her group was in contact with a male spirit that had killed people in the mansion, and now wished to harm one of the investigators in the house. Understandably there were a few people not unperturbed by this news.

Many vigils in the old mansion house

Everybody had split into smaller groups, and I headed to the third floor at the top of the house where paranormal activity had been reported on previous investigations. There was a long corridor, with almost no light, and we stood at the farthest end, away from the staircase.

We conducted a séance. At the opposite end there was a luminous sign, which was bright but difficult to focus on due to the distance. Some people were adamant that a dark form was moving in front of the sign, blurring it.

I was sceptical, as it seemed blurred to me but only because of my eyes straining to see in the dark. Tests to judge the phenomenon were inconclusive, and I did not sense anything unduly strange.

We moved and held a vigil in the bathroom. This was a peculiar place, with a large, stone bath. Simone helped a guest to use a dowsing pendulum for divining. I observed as they spoke to the male energy Simone encountered in the chapel, and discovered that the little girl she had also sensed was his daughter.

Other groups that held vigils in the bathroom experienced stones being thrown during séances, and I personally observed a trigger object that had been mysteriously moved.

As guests and WOLF staff split into smaller groups, there were a myriad of experiences. One guest saw an old lady walking down a corridor towards her; Vanessa heard heavy and repeated banging, and felt a sharp drop in temperature, as she managed a vigil on the 2nd floor.

Several groups gathered together again, and headed to the top floor.  

“His face was transforming…I was terrified!”

I was in one of these groups that met on the third floor, where there had earlier been consternation at the luminous sign. A man now claimed that he had sudden difficulties breathing, and that he had never felt like this before.

Now it was Gemma’s turn for a terrifying experience.

Earlier during the chapel séance, Gemma had sensed a male spirit in the chapel whose name was Tom. As she now looked at Paul (a guest), he seemed to transform before her eyes into the semblance of Tom.

“This spirit was staring at me, trying to tell me something… he seemed very powerful, very strong.”

She seemed frightened and moved away from Paul. Another guest shared her disquiet, agreeing that she could see Paul’s appearance morphing. I could feel everyone’s nerves become more highly-strung. But to my eyes, in that darkened place, Paul had not changed, and his face was unaltered.

“Ghosts were frightened by seeing ‘real’ people!”

The night was very cold, and by dawn the stone floors helped to make my feet feel like blocks of ice. Time passed very quickly. The event closed down, and we went home.

I do not think that Woodchester Mansion was prowled by any malevolent or evil spirits this night. I only have experience of this single investigation, and I am not overly-sensitive to the supernatural - I’m far too prosaic. I also understand that ‘quiet’ places can unexpectedly blaze into paranormal activity. But on this occasion I was not convinced that the building had a bad atmosphere.

From the outside it appears to be a very strange and gothic mansion; internally, with the archaic architecture and vast, open spaces, it is a feast for the imagination. However, I did not feel anything too unsettling. There were one or two moments that I could not explain, but on this night it was not buzzing with paranormal activity.

What could explain many of the sights and sounds I had experienced? Was it eyestrain from looking too hard in the deep dark? Were echoes and footfalls magnified into something creepy in that old, empty shell of a house?

I agree with David, who has suggested that many reported incidents could be the result of ‘residual’ energy from the many previous buildings that have stood on the site, which date back to the 16^th century. It is important to remember that Woodchester has never been extensively lived in, and only certain rooms have ever been inhabited for any length of time. Perhaps the things which are seen at Woodchester are psychic echoes.

David’s encounter with ‘Leatherface’ in the cellar was significant to my mind. One possible theory that I have heard discussed before, asks whether ghosts and spirits are not supernatural but instead something real - perhaps entities on another plane of existence, or people in the past seen through some kind of window in time. Maybe Leatherface saw David and thought, “Bloody hell, it’s a demon!”

I may not have been scared shitless, or converted into believing, but it was surely amusing that ghosts were frightened by seeing us ‘real’ people!