Michelham Priory
Michelham Priory - 03/03/07
Team 1
Kevin - Team Leader/First Aider/Medium
Dante - Scientific Researcher
Jo - Medium
Tess
Gail
Lisa
Team 2
Jay - Team Leader
Mick - Medium/Researcher
Graham - Scientific Researcher
Barbra - First Aider
Sue (Guest member)
Roger
The teams arrived at Michelham Priory at 7:45pm where Chris, Events Manager, greeted us.
Chris gave us a tour of the building as soon as we arrived which was wonderful as it allowed us to get a good feel of the place and take in the beauty of our surroundings.
The group headed back to the Undercroft where Kevin explained the necessity of opening the investigation with a spiritual protection, and he asks the team members to each spend a few minutes asking their spirit guides to be with them for the duration of the investigation.
At this point, the whole team were in the Undercroft, apart from Jo, who was returning from the kitchen, after taking some of our food to be left there. As she approached the kitchen, she observed a dark figure stood in the entrance to the toilet to her left. On returning to the rest of team in the Undercroft, Jo started to tell Mick about what she had seen, when the alarms in the building went off and Chris quickly appeared from his flat to investigate. He could find no reason as to why the alarms had sounded and reset the system before our investigation commenced.
Chris told us that this has happened before and he has had to get up in the middle of the night to respond to the alarm, but finds no reason for it to be set off.
As the venue had a lot of ground to cover, two teams were formed to perform the task quicker, so Team 1 covered the ground floor first with Team 2 covering the first floor.
Team 1 Report
Start time – 9pm.
As Team 1 begin their investigation in the Undercroft, Jo can clairvoyantly (meaning “Clear Seeing”) see herbs being prepared, they are dried out and then chopped, and as this is happening she picks up on the name Eric that has connections with royalty.
The temperature at this point is 12.5/13ºC.
At this point Kevin begins to feel quite light headed and slight EMF readings are picked up on the writing bureau and a small glass display case.
In fact as the team proceeded on their investigation, very strange EMF readings are found to be emanating from various items of old furniture.
Jo continues to see Eric, and sees that he wears a long grey coloured robe and picks up on a name that is not clear, but sounds like it ends in “Ville”.
Clairvoyant images continue to be shown to Jo, who now sees a man being dragged out to be punished by being flogged.
She feels he was being punished in this way for stealing food for a lady friend who she feels was with child, and was eventually shunned and almost driven out of the village for her predicament.
Jo hears the man begging and praying for mercy, but he is told that he has to be cleansed of his sins.
A possible date of 1627 was also picked up on at this time.
Kevin feels this man would have walked with his hands together, fingers clasped and with a slight stoop.
As Dante takes photographs of the room, both Jo and Kevin see a mans hand near Dante’s side.
Now this was quite an unerving experience as the hand was most definitely not Dante’s, it was much bigger and had the appearance of belonging to a much older person.
Kevin can clairaudiently (meaning “clear hearing”) hear flute music being played lightly, and it’s quite a jolly and uplifting tune.
Team 1 decide to move on to Tudor Room 1 & 2, and as they approach the rooms Kevin calls out in a startled manner, as he saw a grey spirit figure move across the doorway there.
As we enter Tudor room 2, Kevin finds that his camera batteries have already run flat and he has to change them.
As we take our positions in the Tudor room Kevin picks up on a portly gentleman with rosy cheeks, and as Kevin described him he said it reminded him of someone from a Charles Dickens novel.
While the team call out for any spirits present to show themselves and make their presence known to us, Jo feels like she is being put in to a trance like condition.
(Note - sometimes when spirit get too close to a person and try to use their body for communication purposes, it can result in a medium being put in to a trance like state - however, Jo recognises the signs and deals with it in the appropriate manner).
Jo feels like her body is very heavy and she is unable to move, and whilst she tries to writes her notes, her hand feels like lead.
As Jo continues to fight this feeling and write her notes, she points out to the team that her handwriting has changed, and it is no longer her usual handwriting.
The writing is slanting to the right in a scroll like fashion and the team watch as she writes and comment on how different it is to Jo’s usual style of writing.
Jo asks Dante to scan around her with the EMF meter as she feels spirit are stood behind her, and as he scans around the back of Jo as she is sat on the floor, fluctuations are picked up on the EMF meter.
EMF meters are used to monitor any changes in the earth’s magnetic frequency.
Everything including inanimate objects has an electro magnetic field, and when spirits are present it can cause a fluctuation in that field.
The Team team also note how icy cold it feels, but that this seems to happen in waves, warmth one minute, and icy cold blasts the next.
Team 1 then head off to the kitchen, and as they enter this area all of the team comment on how warm and welcoming it is in here.
Nothing of note is found in this room, the team feel a happy atmosphere in here and after taking several photographs they decide to rejoin Team 2 for our first break of the evening.
At 11:25pm the teams change positions with Team 1 heading upstairs and Team 2 investigating the downstairs areas.
Team 1 head to the Childs Room for next part of their investigation.
The temperature recorded at this time is 12-13ºC.
As Team 1 settle down to investigating the childs room, Kevin picks up on a small girl aged between 3 & 5 and he sees she has fair hair with ringlets.
Both Jo and Kevin feel that they are being shown images on the clairvoyant level and feel spirit are not strong enough to manifest themselves in any other way at this time.
Kevin also picks up on an older lady with a traditional style bonnet on and Tess can hear a lady humming quietly.
Before the Team head off to the next location, Kevin and Jo decide to conduct an EVP experiment (electric voice phenomena) so we leave a dictaphone running on a small unit within the childs bedroom.
As Kevin switches the device on, he tells spirit what he is doing and why, and asks them to make their presence known by speaking to us via the dictaphone.
We close the door firmly and move on to our next port of call, little realising how successful our experiment would be!.
12.25am.
Team 1 decide to investigate the Priors Room next.
Upon entering this room, we notice how icy cold it is in here, and the temperature is recorded at between 8-9ºC.
However, the atmosphere in this room feels quite peaceful and so after taking photographs for our records, we move on to the Exhibition Room and the Music Room for further investigation.
Again though, both of these rooms feel quite peaceful and as the team take photographs for our records, nothing of a paranormal nature is noted and so we rejoin Team 2 for a small break.
After our short break a small team is formed from members of Team 1 and Team 2, and they head off to the gatehouse to check it out, whilst the remaining Team members head back to the Tudor room 2 for further investigation.
The team in Tudor Room 2 notice straight away how the atmosphere this time seems a lot warmer, and although we feel spirit are close by as we call out for them to make their presence known, nothing is noted.
Within minutes however, the temperature begins to fluctuate, going extremely cold one minute and warmer the next, back to cold.
As Tess is filming with her camcorder, she calls out in surprise as she thinks she caught a strange light anomaly on her footage.
On examination of this footage the day after the investigation, Tess had indeed caught a very strange light anomaly which can only be described as a bolt of white light that shoots from out of nowhere across the room towards the team.
Both teams head back to the Undercroft to discuss their findings, and Kevin collects the dictaphone we’d left running in the childs room for analysis.
As Kevin plays dictaphone tape for us to listen to, it was with great surprise and excitement that we discovered that we had indeed captured spirit voices!.
As we listen to the tape, you can hear Kevin laying the dictaphone down on the small unit within the childs bedroom, you can hear his explanation of what he is doing and that he asks spirit to communicate with us via this method if they possibly can.
As he walks across the childs bedroom floor towards me, as I was waiting by the doorway, he commented on the doll sat in the chair there and how it looked evil, and I am heard reminding Kevin to turn the light off and shut the door.
Between these few moments, you hear a male voice whisper “Dante” which was very interesting as this of course is the name of one of our team members, and straight after that you hear a ladies voice cry out “Nooooo”.
We have listened to this footage over and over again, and have asked many other people to listen to it also, and they all hear the same thing as we do.
Because of our findings here, it was decided that we would investigate the childs room further on in the evening, and this will be included in the last part of our report.
Team 2 Report
The Music Room.
21.09.
Temp 17.1ºC.
Barbra reports to feeling a pain in her forehead like pins, which quickly gets worse, to the extent that she has to leave the room.
At 21.13 the temperature drops to 15.9ºC.
Mick calls out for spirit to make communication with us and shortly after faint knocks are heard from the child’s bedroom and the lights flicker.
The temperature is now 14.5ºC, so the lights are switched off and everyone sits quietly for a while to see if anything is picked up on or heard, and then having returned, Barbra gets the feeling that a little girl by the name of Rose is with us.
The temperature has now dropped further to 14.3ºC.
Mick feels a tightening round his neck like a hangmans noose.
The Child's Bedroom.
21.30.
Temperature is recorded at 14.7ºC.
As soon as we enter the room both Barbra and Mick say they heard voices outside. Barbra calls out for spirit to make some form of communication with us and soon after sees small orb light formations by the doll.
Nothing more is reported and we leave the room to progress to the next part of our investigation.
The Priors Room.
21.45.
Temp 15.0ºC.
At 21.49 Mick asks for spirit to work with us, and bumps are heard from the ceiling but it is noted that the flat Chris lives in is above.
Rog reports that from the moment he entered the room his legs were icy cold. He moves approximately 10 feet away from the cold spot, which is in the very far left of the room from the entrance. After moving, he doesn’t feel the colder air around his legs, but this appreciably low temperature is feet again when he returns to the “cold spot”. A check is made for draughts coming from windows or any other place and none are detected, so it was impossible to explain why Roger experienced this notable coldness in the lower half of his body.
At 21.54 we shut the door and all of the lights are switched off.
Barbra reports seeing a shadow pass by the bottom of the door outside moving towards the Music Room.
The Exhibition Room.
22.02.
Temp 13.9ºC.
Barbra calls out to spirit but all remains quiet.
A short while after Mick calls out and Barbra hears an “oooh” sound although faintly and starts to get the pains in her forehead back.
Rog suggests that we return to the Music Room and sit in the same place to see if the atmosphere is the same or not.
Barbra informs us that she still has the pains but not as intense, but then it is discovered the longer we stay in this room the more the pain increases and she says she will have to leave the room.
Jay and Graham stay to take temperature readings, the ambient temperature is 14.8ºC and we then return downstairs to join the teams at 22.26.
Both teams break for refreshments, and Team 2 carry out the next part of their investigation in the downstairs area.
The Tudor Kitchen.
23.30.
Temperature 16.6ºC.
The trigger object is set and left in the room by placing a fifty pence piece on a piece of paper then drawing round it.
This experiment is conducted to see if anything disturbs the fifty pence piece, which would be revealed if the money had moved from outside of it’s markings.
Jay gets the impression that someone who worked in this room got a lot of satisfaction from baking things and enjoyed being there, but after calling out in the hopes of spirit showing themselves to us, nothing is received by any of the team and there are no real temperature changes of note.
Tudor Room 2
23.48.
Temp 13.8ºC.
Mick calls out to spirit but when there is no response it is decided to turn off the lights and try again.
Mick tries to take a photograph but very strangely the flash wont work.
Jay calls out to spirit and the camera starts working again so Jay asks if it was they who affected Micks camera and if they could do it again, but after a short while it is decided to move on, as nothing more is received.
Tudor Room 1
00.10.
Temp 13.3ºC.
Everyone comments on how cold the room feels even though it not much different in reality to the previous room, and Mick picks up on the name “Sirus”.
Rog sits on the floor against the wall near the opening between the two rooms and he reports an icy cold draft around him.
Mick asks Sirus to give us a sign of his presence and immediately a cold draft blows across Rog. Again, some of the team look for any explainable draught sources i.e windows, doors, vents etc, but none are found. At the point that Roger is sitting on the floor, there is a very large tapestry on the wall behind him. The team notices that when someone goes pass the tapestry, it billows with the draught created, but when Roger feels the appreciable cold blow of air at just above floor level, the tapestry remains unmoved.
Mick feels that there is more than one spirit present.
The temperature rises slightly but everyone agrees that it feels really cold.
Barbra reports slight pressure on her head again and Mick sees orange light anomalies “the size of dinner plates” in Tudor Room 2.
Graham leaves the room to get a new roll of film and the temperature rises then drops just before he returns.
The Gatehouse
01.30.
Temp 10.3ºC.
Rog, Mick, Graham, Dante and Jay present.
We go up two flights of very narrow stairs, one stone and two wooden. After taking photos and temperature readings we sat quietly and called out for spirit but nothing reported.
Mick calls out to ask spirit if they are present but nothing of a paranormal nature is sensed or recorded.
At 01.50 we decend to the middle level and try again, temperature is recorded at 9ºC.
Roger notices the cauldron in the fireplace is swinging very slightly,
Jay calls out for spirit activity but we all feel there is nothing here of a paranormal nature.
Roger notes that the cauldron is now still and also adds that he may have knocked it while taking a photo up the chimney.
At 02.00 the team make their way back to the house.
Conclusion
There is no doubt that Michelham Priory is a fantastic venue for a paranormal investigation with its rich history, and Portals To Beyond certainly weren’t disappointed!
The vast majority of the rooms didn’t yield any conclusive activity, other than some light and sound anomalies. Many of these couldn’t be attributed to specific or atmospheric conditions and so remain unexplained. However, when some of the team’s photographs that were taken on the night were examined after the event, we found some incredibly interesting results with some of the light anomalies or orbs, recorded on film. When blown up, many of these orbs contained very distinctive symmetrical “maze like” patterns, some quite complex. The patterns contained in the orbs were almost all symmetrical, but each one was different to the others. To cite a comparison, some of the patterns were not dissimilar to crop circles in their appearance. Because of the individual yet perfectly formed patterns, we have discounted the possibility that they were dust particals and the team were stunned by the clarity of what was recorded. This was a first for Portals To Beyond and the team will certainly be investigating this further at future venues, to see if this occurs again.
The room that created the most interest on this investigation was the Child’s Room on the first floor. Our sound recording clearly picked at least two distinct voices. As most of team felt something untoward in this room at different times during the investigation, it was unanimously decided to hold a quiet vigil in there, toward the end of the night.
As the name of one of team members – Dante, had been picked up on our EVP recording taken earlier in the Childs Room, we decided to try and recreate the same experiment, but have Dante with us to see if it would make any difference to what was picked up on.
We also asked Mick to be present, because of his skills as a medium and Graham to be present as our scientific researcher, whilst the rest of the team waited for us in the next room. After setting up the dictaphone in exactly the same way as it had first been done, Jo, Kevin, Mick and Dante sat on the floor and began to call out for spirit for make contact with us.
Kevin, Mick and Jo begin to pick up on the spirit girl again, the same one that Kevin had sensed earlier on during Team 1’s part of the investigation and Jo feels her name is Victoria.
As we sat quietly, Kevin is suddenly overcome by a wave of emotion, and feels very tearful. This was very upsetting for him, as he feels that the little girl had suffered a great deal at the hands of a very unpleasant man and that this man did not care about the childs welfare.
We then decided to bring the rest of the team in to the room at this point, but chose not to share our findings with them, to see if the rest of the team would pick up on the same things as we had, without it being suggested previously.
The whole team settled down in the Child’s Room and silence was observed for a few minutes.
Kevin, Mick and Jo each took a turn at calling out to spirit to ask for further communication. During this time Jo could sense the same spirit girl, Victoria, stood behind one of our seated team members, Tess and felt she was being pushed forward by a male spirit presence.
Mick and Kevin also picked up both of these spirit presences.
At this point, Tess burst in to tears saying that she suddenly felt very sad and didn’t know why. This was very interesting to those of us who had been present when Kevin had also felt very emotional prior to the rest of the team joining us, as we hadn’t shared this information with them.
She felt very overwhelmed by the closeness of spirit and asked to move places with another team member, Gail.
However, as Tess sat facing Gail, Tess saw Gail’s facial features change to those of another person, and she made us aware of this immediately.
As Tess had not been on many paranormal investigations before and it was her first investigation with Portals To Beyond, she was quite shocked by what she experienced.
Jo explained that this can sometimes happen when spirit step in too close to a person and she asked that spirit stand back at once.
It should be noted that Gail didn’t feel any different at all during this time and suffered no ill effects as a result of what Tess saw.
The team decided to call it a night and head back to the Undercroft to end the night with our closing protection, making sure our guests and members were happy with what they saw, felt or experienced, as well as answering any questions posed to us.
In conclusion, PTB can say that there is definitely some paranormal activity at Michelham Priory, with most of it centering around the Child’s Room. It is a venue that would certainly warrant a return to conduct more thorough and specific investigation around this room alone.
We thank Chris and the owners for allowing us this fantastic opportunity and sincerely hope that we can return in the future.
