The Winter Gardens has a wonderful history. Many famous Actors, Comedians (Laurel and Hardy) graced it stage. The theater fell into decline and finally closed its doors in 1977. Since the MOST HAUNTED visit the theatre has become very popular for Ghost Hunts and is bringing a regular revenue for the theatre restoration fund.REPORTED ACTIVITY
- Phantom footsteps
- Knocks and bangs.
- Physical contact - people touched and pushed.
- Haunted staircase - the spirit of a woman who fell to her death after a row with her partner. Was she pushed?
- Poltergeist activity
- Singing ghost - woman's voice heard singing.
- Dog - heard growling.
- Apparitions - a male on the stage who does not like anyone else there.
- The office is haunted by the two men who designed the winter gardens .
- A young boy named Thomas who drowned.
- Two ladies, Mary and Elizabeth.
CASE REPORT: START 9AM-FINISH 4.30AM
Areas Investigated:
- The main
auditorium - The Circle.
- The Gods.
- Gents and Ladies Bar.
- The Stage and Access balconies.
- Dressing rooms.
- The Cellar.
Evidence Collected:
2 x EVP's
Orb
Personal Experinces:
At one point late into the morning I was last to descend the staircase leading from the Gods down to the Circle balcony. Half way down, there was a very loud bang. I actually thought something had fell out of my rucksack and turned to look, but all was clear. The whole of the stairs was checked and there we found nothing. The bang sounded like a very heavy object had dropped. All the group present tried in vane to re-create the sound but to no avail.
The group were all present when individual seats in the Gods came down of their own accord (I did check how easy this was to do manually and the seats were quite stiff to pull down). All the seats were checked before hand. This happened 3 times. Jacqui (please view her detailed report on her experience) had a very alarming experience in the cellar area. Before I give you an overview of this I would like to state that I have know Jacqui for 8 years now and can say that she is a very honest down to earth person, and I believe what happened to her to be genuine.
NOW down to details. Our group plus the medium were in the cellar (part of this is flooded). The story goes that it is believed that a previous TV programme who ventured into this area opened a portal which allowed all and sundry to enter into the space. An Entity was said to live in the cellar and trap unfortunate souls who pass through the portal.
A circle was formed which included Jacqui and the Medium, John. Those left stood close to them. People reported cold draughts (I have to say I thought they were coming form the open drains), swirling blue mists in the centre of the circle (I could not see this) and some felt they were aware of the Entity and of a spirit of a small child.
Jacqui started to shake uncontrollably and gripped the hands of her companions to such a degree that she was hurting them, she stared to sob. John came in and held Jaquie hands. He came to the conclusion that a spirit was seeking refuge in the circle and wanted to be released through Jacquie... which was done. At which point Jacqui collapsed, sobbing. She was then helped out of the cellar to recover.
The Circle reformed on John's request, where the said Entity spoke through him briefly and said "Get the fxxxk out" nothing else transpired and as the team was leaving the cellar, Gill took a little paddle through to the other flooded rooms much to some peoples dismay.... of course, nothing happened to her.
During the start of the session I could clearly hear what sounded like the tinkling of metal, this was recorded on the Digital Recorded. This sound stopped when Jacqui had supposedly released the spirit. There was also a strange sound of what sounded like a man wretching in the background.
Conclusions
A great place that I want the team to return to at some point. The night was extremely quiet for such a reportedly haunted location, and apart from the seats, the loud bang and Jack's ordeal nothing else happened.
Did Jacqui channel the spirit of a trapped boy? I can only say that I feel Jacquie may have! We can only go by our own experiences, and I trust her to be genuine.
