This post concentrates on the second night of Ghost Hunter Tours investigation of Maidstone Town Hall. Catch up with the event of night one here.
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| Credit:SJP |
A month ago was the first time I had walked through the front doors of Maidstone Town Hall and experienced what the three floors had had to offer with a fantastic group of people.
Now 4 weeks later it is important to discuss the variables that could influence the night’s vigils. Half of tonight’s crew were new to the venue, and although we had all worked together before, we all bring different experiences, thoughts and expertise to the experiments. The guests were all completely new to the Town Hall, with a fantastic mix of first timers, experienced hands and beliefs. Our host for the evening was Russell who had replaced Ray, and would be spending his time catching up on his emails.
Weather, light and the phase of the moon were also all different and so could also have an influence on the night’s results.
So what had remained the same? The building, was unchanged and the same areas as night one; the Cells, the Council Chamber and the Cellar would be in play. The timing, a Friday night starting at 2000 hours was the same as before, and correlated with similar people seeking alcoholic spirits and a good time in the local pubs and clubs.
Chairs set up, tea urn on and we were all set for the arrival of our guests for the evening. Disappointed with the lack of interaction with my handcuff and whistle locked off experiment in the Cells I changed tack and set up a magnetic white board and letters asking the question “What is your name?” in the hope of some movement this time around.
As I was setting up the experiment I took a cheeky look into the attic space, that was off limits due to the risk of falling through the floor, and took some photos in the hope of finding something lurking in the shadows.
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| Credit:SJP |
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| Credit:SJP |
As you can see I was left a little disappointed.
Replacing the board at the bottom of the stairs, to prevent unauthorised access I went down to the room adjoining the Council Chamber and tucked a chalk board with the question “leave a message” and a choice of chalk under a table. Having provided some instruction to any spirits listening I returned to the ground floor to meet the teams for the evening.
The same briefing was provided, but a change was the celebration of a couple of birthdays. Lifting the energy with a rousing ‘Happy Birthday’ and presentations of cards, the sound of the door was heard again.
The distinctive mechanical click was traced to belonging to a clock hanging on the wall in the corridor leading to the stairs. Interesting evidence from night 1 – debunked.
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| Credit:SJP |
In a change from the first night my group would be starting in the Council Chamber, so once everyone was reminded of their group number (another constant from the last investigation) we climbed the stairs to the first floor.
As we pulled out our gadgets and gizmos our guests formed a circle in the middle of the horseshoe of tables and started to get used to the noises from outside and the feel of the space. Setting out my now super charged plasma ball (I had it plugged into a rechargeable battery pack), a motion activated music box and some cat balls – the group began to call out.
I placed my K2 on a desk and set up a laser grid. The K2 was again registering 3 milligauss indicated by the flickering orange light in the middle of the array. This was the same as the first time, and even using a second K2 the results were repeated throughout the banks of tables. There were microphones and cables running along the inner edge of the horseshoe, and an illuminated panel on a podium appeared to indicate the system was live.
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| Credit:SJP |
Waving the K2 to identify any massive peaks found it top out at 3 milligauss with no areas of peaking to red identified. A further check with my multi meter presented no voltage detected but a reading of 3.3 milli gauss around the cables. I could only conclude that the readings we had seen on both occasions were electromagnetic frequencies emitted by the set up in the room rather than anything paranormal. Another piece of interesting evidence debunked.
What we couldn’t explain was the sudden activation of the motion activated music box. The sensor was pointed towards the back wall (towards the cheap seats) and no one had moved anywhere near its angle of range. It may be an errant rodent but there was no evidence of rats or mice residing in the opulence of this room.
A second activation of the music box was followed by a visible power drain of my laser grid, which had been fully charged before tonight, prompting me to check this failing piece of equipment. In doing so my boot hit a cat ball, which you would expect to illuminate. But it remained resolutely dark. My crew mate was adamant that it was on when she put it down, and I had seen it flash when deployed. Pushing the little red button, it burst into life flashing red, blue and yellow. So I placed it back allowing it to reset before tapping it with my toe to be greeted with an explosion of coloured light.
My attention was diverted from the cat ball to the plasma ball as it was described as behaving weirdly. One of the female guests who was sat near it was reporting that she felt that she could not move, like a child who had been naughty and the eyes of a parent were upon her. The plasma ball was happily seeking for an earthing point on the side furthest from this particular guest but the tentacles facing her were resolutely static.
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| Credit:SJP |
I’m not talking about the accounts of people who have stopped to pick up a sodden person from the side of the road only to discover them vanished on arriving at their destination. I’m talking about spirits who seem to find interest in a particular person and follow them around.
Ghost hunts are prime ground for any spirits to be able to communicate with this realm, mostly because we are actively asking for them to step forward and talk. You will often get Great Aunt Ethel or Uncle Bert come through on a board, even I have received personal messages when out at Maidstone Museum.
Usually we thank these spirits and give them a moment before asking them to step away but sometime its worth pursuing, but always mindful as not everything that purports to be friendly actually is. This is because 1, we are here to investigate the location and the hitchhiker cannot generally provide that information; and 2 because a personal message for one guest is not likely going to interest the rest of the group who have paid for an experience.
In this case, there was an interest in the story and the emotions displayed by the guest. The human pendulum provided some answers that corroborated her beliefs of who was trying to make contact.
We closed this session with a spirit board, but aside from a feeling of vibration coming from the planchette, and a feeling of a temperature drop (but the thermometer registered no change) no further communication was received.
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| Credit:SJP |
Exchanging groups it was time for our second vigil, which saw my return to the Cellar. During the previous visit the word Candle appearing on the screen of the Chattergeist Touch had made me think (and make an equipment purchase).
I suggested to the group that we try something, that I hadn’t seen on any ghost hunt before – Candlemancy. Explaining the theory of using a lit candle that spirits could interact with, and the safeguards I had attempted to put in place to prevent errant gusts from interfering with the flame it was agreed and we commenced our first experiment.
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| Credit:SJP |
Setting the candle in a deep glass container I lit the wick, the yellow flame cutting through the darkness of the tunnel-like structure. We establish communication, movement of the flame indicated ‘yes’, a static flame for ‘no’.
Asking around the circle the flame appeared to respond to questions but no links to the area were established. The experiment was on the whole enjoyed by the group but a lack of corroboration or meaningful responses means that further tweaking and maybe inclusion of additional equipment would add value.
Of note in lighting the candle the oppressive atmosphere that was prevalent on both occasion in the Cellar lifted almost at once – maybe the spirit who dwells below the hall just wanted some softer light for their room?
Sensing a slight reluctance in the physical use of the spirit board, I suggested the use of a hands-free option, producing the Chattergeist Touch. Setting it up with my prototype paper board the planchette freely spun. Adding an Alice Box into the mix enabled an element of corroboration, as when asked how many spirits are there here? The planchette pointed and the Alice box spoke the same word – Three.
Making contact with a spirit called Roger we flipped the board over to the ‘ye,no,maybe’ side. Roger said that he was still with us as you can see in the following video:
Continuing our questions Roger confirmed that he enjoyed our company, reiterating it with a screen colour change.
A similar report of a pacing guard, soldier or policeman was made walking backwards and forwards as felt during our first investigation. Was this Roger? It is difficult to say with the information we had gained. Searches for a Roger connected to the Town Hall have been inconclusive but it was good to see that even in such an oppressive environment that the Cellars had been there was something that did in fact enjoy our company.
One of the ideas suggested by a guest was to increase the number of colours that the Touch displayed during the planchette mode. This has been passed to Dimension Devices who have included this idea in the patch notes for the next update.
Our time below ground over it was time for a break, and it was interesting talking with the guests over a well-deserved cup of coffee and a slice of birthday cake how many similarities had been discovered during their vigils to this time on the last investigation. The names William, George and John featured, as well as Elizabeth and Sarah. Activations of cat balls, K2s and Rem-pods had all been witnessed.
Revitalised by our break, we called for our final group and headed to the top, to finish our evening in the Cells.
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| Credit:SJP |
Catching our breath, the guests familiarised themselves with the room, reading the graffiti and minding the roped off section. We set up a plasma ball, cat balls and K2s and commenced an Estes session. Pulling a chair into the further cell the sitter sat and the safety light went out. “Dick” came from the sitter. I asked if that was in reference to anyone here or if the name was Richard. “Yeah” came the reply.
Over the 2 male sitters the words were uncomfortable “Rape,” “would her” and words that the sitters refused to repeat came through the static of the Spirit Box. The atmosphere felt close and tense, the subject matter raised clearly upsetting.
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| Credit:SJP |
Further research could not uncover a Richard sentenced with sexual offences and no Richard appears on the Penenden Heath hanging lists for the offence of rape (burglary and highway robbery but nothing correlating to what we received).
Placing several objects on a shelf on the opposite wall I asked any one present to move it, push it and even challenged to throw it at me. But there was no indication of movement at all. Suddenly we heard the sound of the door at the bottom of the stairs open and close I looked, expecting to see someone coming up the stairs. No one was present and on checking no one had been near the door whilst we were in the cells.
I took some photos, illuminated by my UV torch as my red torch had decided to give up the ghost, but nothing was uncovered.
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| Credit:SJP |
Our time had been served and it was time to close the evening with more questions than we had answers but also having had some really interesting experiences.
Collecting my locked off experiments, the letters on the board in the cell did not appear to be moved, and my chalk board had received no message from the other side.
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| Before Credit:SJP |
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| After Credit:SJP |
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| Before Credit:SJP |
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| After Credit:SJP |
My thoughts on the way home revolved around my head. There were so many similarities to what had been experienced in the Town Hall.
The Cells had provided very consistent feelings with all the guests, a sense of foreboding, of anger and fear. The names John and William recurred during all the sessions and appeared on devices used in the location. One thought of this was priming, our guests were told the room was used to hold prisoners, the names John and William are also documented amongst the graffiti on the walls and floor.
There is a lack of known information about who was held in the cells, documented evidence does show that prisoners were held here awaiting deportation, but there is a lack of clarity as it appears the Town Hall cells were not the only place of incarceration for the Assizes.
The cells were decommission in the mid 1820’s apparently after a scandal was caused during a prisoner escape. I could find no record of this daring feat and would love to know more about who and how this was accomplished.
Prisoners were not executed in or near the building as records show that executions were held on the other side of town at Penenden Heath until moved to Maidstone Prison. So if the spirits we encountered had been deported or departed elsewhere why would they return to this dingy wood lined box in the centre of town?
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| Credit:SJP |
The Cellar is another interesting space, the only thing that appeared to lift the oppressive atmosphere was the lighting of a candle. Similarities between both nights were that there was this feeling of something pacing like a guard. The tunnels usage has no record but is believed to stretch for quite a distance with a shop on the corner of Gabriels Hill reporting tunnels under their shop. These are believed to have belonged to a 14th century abbey that was constructed but was not put
into operation with its crypts and vaults filled in to create basements for the shops and buildings that came later. Which would probably explain why no reports of phantom monks, nuns or clergy were reported.
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| Credit:SJP |
The Council Chamber was odd, with differing reports from those who entered there on different nights. The first night receiving a young boy called Alexander and the second engaging with a guests hitchhiker over anything resident.
I love it when guests make contact to share their own experiences and research, as I can only write from mine and any additional research that people can find is always useful. One guest wrote to me with her experiences of the night, and I found her experience in the Chamber really interesting.
She reported an impression of masonic rituals, secret societies and a need to be ‘male’. She shared the sound contamination problem and concurred with my assessed of K2 activity and proximity to cabling. Further research I uncovered that Robinson Lodge No. 2046 was consecrated at 1430 hours on Friday 7th November 1884. That consecration and many subsequent lodge meetings were held at the Town Hall. So the perception of ‘ladies nights’ and the removal of female fingers from the table was very apt as her group then finally saw some activity from the table tipping experiment they were performing.
So when looking at the variables, did they impact across both nights? The answer is yes. There appeared to be more activity from the experiments that we conducted on night 2 over night 1, but it is interesting that not all responses were the same. The appearance of a hitchhiker and the masonic connection appear unique to those that experienced them, but both groups of guests put everything into both nights.
You could therefore say that as long as everyone gives there all on an investigation then some of the spirits will communicate, but they might not be the same ones or even the ones that you expect.
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| Credit:SJP |
As I have said, even after my research of what we uncovered over these two fantastic nights, I still have so many questions of who or what remains at the Town Hall. I’m hoping one day to return would you join me?
If you want to find out if you are brave enough, then join Ghost Hunter Tours (GHT) on an investigation click here to find tickets for some fantastic venues. I can’t do them all (as much as I want to) but follow me on Instagram or Facebook to find out where I will be heading next.
If you are interested in the Chattergeist Touch then all the information and a 10% off in the shop are available by clicking here.
SJP is an affiliate of GHT and Dimension Devices. Sales through these links will earn me commission.
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