The White Horse
The White Horse - 20/01/08
Team Present
Jo - Group Manager
Barbra - 1st Aid
Gail - 1st Aid
Mick - Medium
Staff Present
Rosie
Lisa
Natalie
Emma
Jessica
Alexis
Jana
Ben
History
1646, Samson Horne, vicar of St.Marys church came to reside at The White Horse.
With the coming of the reformation in 1660, Samson, a supporter of Cromwell and the commonwealth, opposed the church and was ejected from office in 1662. He died alone and penniless here in 1669. It was during the 1956 alterations the inglenook fireplace that had been bricked up since 1740, was uncovered. Since that date many a pint glass has fallen on the shelves only to land upright and unbroken
Is Samson trying to tell us something!
(Taken from information available at The White Horse)
Also during alterations in 1956, two complete, preserved male skeletons were found 2 foot underneath the kitchen floor.
The general opinion is that they were either soldiers who fell in the battle at Chilham during the Wat Tyler rebellion, or the much older remains of men buried in the pre-Christain era.
The Wat Tyler rebellion - the first great popular rebellion in English history. It's immediate cause was the imposition of the unpopular poll tax of 1381, which brought to a head the economic discontent that had been growing since the middle of the century. The rebellion drew support from several sources and included well-to-do artisans as well as the destitute. Probably the main grievance of the agricultural labourers and urban working classes was the Statute of Labourers (1351), which attempted to fix maximum wages during the labour shortage following the Black Death.
The skeletons now rest in the churchyard of St.Marys, Chilham, where they were given a Christian burial by the vicar after a coroner's inquest declared them to be ancient bones and not the end result of a crime.
The Investigation
The team arrived at The White Horse at 9pm and were greeted by Rosie the Landlady, as well as some very enthusiastic locals!
It seems our planned investigation had attracted some attention, so we found ourselves talking to several of the local villagers who were keen to share their thoughts on all things spooky!
Rosie had kindly offered to close the pub a little earlier so that we could have more time to conduct our paranormal investigation and so at 10:10pm when the pub was empty, Jo opened the investigation by performing a spiritual protection. This is a simple visualisation technique, which helps to calm the mind and bring in our spirit guides to protect us and enable us to work with any spirit energies that may present themselves to us during the night.
Jo asks the guests to let the team know if at any point they start to feel sickly or have any dizzy spells as sometimes when spirit are around you these kind of symptons can be felt although they soon pass and are harmless, but we always advise people on this before an investigation.
We began the investigation in the front bar. The EMF readings are nil and the temperature is 22°C.
The team and their guests sit quietly and conduct a quiet vigil. This is where a member of the team will call out for spirit to communicate with us by knocking or tapping on something, such as a table or chair. Barbra calls out for spirit to make the link with us and Mick notes that the temperature rises sharply to 26°C.
The EMF readings begin to rise sharply at this point, and what is interesting is that they seem to fluctuate around one of our team members, Gail.
As Gail moves from one spot to another, the spirit energy seems to follow her and this is indicated in the EMF readings. Gail reports the air around her feeling very cold and at this point she beings to feel the effect of being in close proximity to spirit energies, telling us that she suddenly feels very dizzy. Jo then takes Gail to one side and asks Gail to request politely that spirit take a step back from her. What is interesting is that at one point the energy readings all point to a particular bar stool, as if a spirit was sat on it!
Barbra then calls out for spirit to make contact with us and again, the EMF readings go off the scale and the temperature rises from 22°C to 26/27°C in a matter of seconds.
Mick moves the bar stool away from the bar to the other side of the room to see if it changes the readings in any way, but as he scans it with the EMF meter, it is still off the scale! After a few minutes of observing this extraordinary event, the temperature starts to drop down and levels off at 18/19°C.
At this stage of the evening, we decided to try some table tipping. This can be a good way to give a visual demonstration of a spirits presence, so Jo asks Natalie and Barbra to stand at the table with her and requests that they place their fingertips only on the table.
As we stand around the table Jo asks for any spirit energies present to move the table for us. We feel the table move slightly and vibrate, but sadly nothing further happened. However, Natalie and Barbra report feeling an instant headache descend upon them, but state that when they move off the table the pain goes, most unusual!
The table is then moved to the old bar where the fireplace is but again, nothing more than a slight movement and vibration is felt. We decide to take a short break before we carry on with the next part of the investigation.
The temperature is recorded at 23/24°C and EMF readings are nil.
Barbra calls out to spirit but Jo and Mick both remark on how this room feels a little flat compared to the front bar.
Barbra feels a slight breeze across her face and both Jo and Gail notice the same feeling across their faces and Mick notices a slight change on the EMF meter.
The temperature starts to fluctuate, going from 24, 25, 26 and then 21°C before it goes back to 23/24°C and EMF returns to nil.
Mick then clairvoyantly picks up on human bones, and he feels that somewhere in the pub is the connection for this feeling.
During the break, all of the guests apart from Natalie move in to the front bar.
Mick, Jo, Barb, Gail and Natalie sit near the fireplace chatting. Natalie asks us can we check out the kitchen area where she works as she has experienced strange things in there. As we sit chatting, we are suddenly aware of an overpowering smell of cigar smoke. What’s unusual about this is the manner in which it comes and goes. One minute it’s there, the next minute it’s gone and it only seems detectable by one or two members of the team and guests at any given time but it was most definitely cigar smoke. Then, just as quickly as the smell came, it was gone!
At 11:45 Jo, Mick, Barbra, Gail, Jana and Natalie move in to the kitchen to see if we can pick up on anything there.
Mick picks up on the energies of spirit children and sees an image of 2 cots and senses a female energy around them both. He also feels the back of his trousers move, as if someone has pulled at the trouser leg.
Natalie tells us that she often feels “funny” in the kitchen area, and has felt a tug on the back of her shirt when she is working. She senses she is being watched but when she looks around no one is there. Although this has been an unusual thing for Natalie to experience she tells us she is “Ok” with it.
Jo says how she can feel that the energy present in there seems to go around in waves, coming and going every so often but having quite an effect on whoever is in there at that time, and Natalie agrees that she has felt that same effect.
As we stand in the kitchen taking readings and photographs, Jo can pick up on soldiers that connect to the pub in some way. In fact, the things that both Jo and Mick picked up on proved to be rather interesting after researching the history of the pub itself!
The team then move down in to the cellar area but it’s impossible to take any readings here as the fans were switched on, and the noise and the draft that came from this meant it was a no go.
However, we did capture an orb on film in here!
In this area Mick felt there had been an accidental death and says that he feels anyone coming down in to the cellar would feel as if they were not alone there.
The time is now 12:10am and so the team call it a night out of consideration to Rosie and the guests who needed to be up early for work the following day.
Closing protection is led by Jo.
Conclusion
This was a last minute investigation as we were planning to go in on a later date, but Sunday suited Rosie the best so luckily we were able to fit it in.
Although the team didn’t record huge amounts of paranormal activity, there is without a doubt, a level of spirit energy present in The White Horse and we would welcome an opportunity to make a return visit and take our full team in there to try different methods of capturing evidence of paranormal activity.
The team at Portals To Beyond would like to thank Rosie and Lisa for allowing us in to this charming and most historical venue, and a special thanks to Natalie for her help and enthusiasm on the night along with our core team members Barbra and Gail who put us in touch with Rosie.
