Woodchester Mansion Investigation
Woodchester Mansion Investigation - 3rd December 2011
The team arrived at approximately 19:30 and were met by our guide for the evening who gave us a walk around this historic building. After providing us with a fantastic amount of info, and the odd ghost story thrown in for good measure, Damien and Matt set off to the corridor leading from the chapel to the scullery. They were both startled by a sudden loud crash from the end of the corridor but upon investigating it became obvious that it had been caused by a large (domestic) cat that had entered the building somehow. Damien and Matt were sure they had chased the cat out of the building but informed the rest of the team none the less, as it could have a bearing on any experiences or evidence. After setting up the relevant equipment the team were ready to begin the investigation by about 21:00.
As the investigation got underway the group consisting of Damien and Matt with three guests were investigating the passageway leading from the rear entrance up to the scullery kitchen area. After setting up both camcorders to cover both ends of this corridor, everyone in the group heard a loud click from the area of the camcorders. On investigating Matt found that his manual lens shutter had closed and the camera had stopped recording. Putting it down to error on his part he opened the shutter and began recording again. At this moment Damien noticed his camera which was side by side with Matt’s had also stopped recording and restarted it only for Matt’s camera to turn itself off and Damien’s to stop recording again. Although this could be down to technical fault it is very unusual for it to happen to two cameras, with fully charged batteries, simultaneously.
Passageway running from rear entrance down to the entrance of scullery, seen on the left of the picture, where a lot of activity happened on the night.
After finally correcting the faults on the cameras the group began calling out. Although nothing paranormal can be reported to have happened during the calling out everyone at some point mentioned having feelings of someone watching them although this can probably be explained away by the dark and the psychological effect of the building. Matt also suddenly got a very painful neck and shoulder.
At this point the group members decided to call this part of the investigation to a close and move on. On leaving the corridor the pains Matt was experiencing stopped as suddenly as they began.
While all this had been happening the other two groups were in the upper corridor and the cellar area they had nothing to report other than Ryan, who thought he heard a voice at the top of the stairs leading into the cellar. When he ran up to investigate he found the corridor was empty.At around 23:30 the group consisting of Damien and Matt had moved and were investigating the upper corridor when everyone in the group became uneasy and a sudden darkness seemed to engulf the corridor. Both Matt and Damien as well the three guests that were with them all experienced this and it was extremely unnerving for all involved and completely unexplainable. The little light that was entering from outside had not noticeably changed and no logical explanation for this could be found for this unless it was just a by product of everyone’s eyes adjusting to the dark.
The group consisting of Damien, Matt and guests then moved onto the cellar were sitting together. Damien began calling out. At this point two of the guests began to feel very uneasy and asked if they could leave. Damien escorted them back to the main room which was being used as a base area for them to get warm while Matt and another guest stayed in the cellar. No activity presented itself though and after about 20 minutes it was decided to have a break to warm up.
After a break to have a warm drink and regroup the investigation began again around 01:30 with Damien and Matt heading back to the cellar with Jo. Although the atmosphere was quite relaxed Jo felt someone grab her by the arm, her first thought was it was either Damien or Matt trying to get her attention but she soon realised it could have been neither of them. Matt then decided to go into one of the cellar chambers on his own where he reports hearing whispering and what sounded like a very faint sneeze from within the chamber with him.
At 02:00 Ryan suddenly became very ill with a headache and nausea and had to leave the building where upon he decided to call it a night and head home. The remaining team members and guests then split into two new groups consisting of Damien with two guests and Matt and Jo with the remaining two. Matt and Jo headed back up to the upper corridor while Damien headed to the kitchen area. Everything appeared to be quiet and relaxed now in both areas. Matt and a guest headed off to the middle corridor while Jo and the other guest remained upstairs. On the upper corridor both Jo and a guest said that they were picking up the images of a party with carol singers in one of the rooms below and felt it was a very warm cheery scene – much different to the usual feelings on this top floor.
After about 45 minutes the groups swapped locations. While in the area of the Kitchen/scullery Matt and Jo’s group began to experience some strange things. Matt stood on his own in the passageway outside the scullery door and began calling out. The team had heard stories of stones being thrown at people in this corridor so Matt called out that he was about to throw a stone and asked if it could be returned to him. He threw a stone around 5 meters down the passage away from the scullery. About two seconds after the group heard Matt’s stone land a stone landed on the floor of the scullery amongst the rest of the group. Matt tried various experiments to recreate this happening, to rule out it possibly being him accidently dropping a stone from his hand or kicking one with his foot but he could not get it to happen again. Matt also called out again and threw another stone down the passage but this time nothing happened and Matt re-entered the scullery and stood in the doorway between it and the kitchen. At this point Matt apologised to Jo as he had bumped into her in the dark where he was obviously stood in the way of the door and moved aside to let her past. Finding this odd Jo, who was in the kitchen and only a metre away from him asked who he was apologising too. To be told he thought he had bumped into her. Jo hadn’t moved from where she was stood and had felt nothing, and the rest of the group were in the scullery. After more calling out to no avail the team decided to call it a night at around 03:40.
On reviewing the evidence a few things of interest came up especially noted was an EVP of what appears to be a laugh and a mouse that decided to have a look into the lens of Damien’s camera in the cellar.
Avon Paranormal Team would like to thank Woodchester Mansion for allowing us access and especially our guide for the night who gave us some fantastic history on the building as well as some interesting stories about the place. We would also like to thank our guests who came on the night and look forward to having them along again at some point in the future.