Ordsall Hall - 05/04/2008

Welcome to my second entry into my Ghost Hunt Event Blog. This time I visited Ordsall Hall in Salford, Manchester for what I would call a mini ghost hunt, 9pm to 3am.

On arrival at the Old Hall and after an introduction by the hall staff I went off on my own to conduct base readings on all areas in which we would be investigating during the night’s event.

The first room I visited was the Great Hall, a very impressive space full of history and a sense of mystery, this room could and does let your imagination run wild, and trying to imagine what life could have been like living here 200 or more years ago.

After taking in the awe of the room I started taking readings from the EMF meter and photographs from all angles. The readings showed no abnormal readings, no spikes or interference from any electrical sources. In my opinion it was what I call a clean room.

The next room I visited was the kitchen including the small room behind the fireplace where they used to hang and dry meat. Again I photographed in both rooms and then conducted the base readings. In both these rooms the EMF meter did go off the scale, being a sceptic I had to investigate further.

In the room behind the fire there was a piping system, it appeared to be of some age but was used for carrying hot water around the building, this gave a high reading.

Back in the kitchen area again the meter went off the scale on further investigation, it appeared that the stone floor had been lifted and relayed with new concrete at some point, with the meter now wailing to a point of it getting unbearable, I traced electricity cables under the floor into a room containing the main power feed for the building. This ruled out the use of the EMF meter in further tests in this area.

One thing I did notice about this room was the temperature, even with the heating pipes it did feel colder than normal and crossing the threshold back in to the main entrance hall you could tell the difference between the two.

The next room to visit was the Star Chamber which was back through the main hall. However, whilst back in the main hall, I remembered that I had not paid a visit to the balcony, which was  up a narrow stair case to the top, what a great view this offered of the hall, I think “wow” came to mind whilst up there. I had nothing on the EMF meter so this was declared anomaly free. So back down the stairs and down a few small steps and up a couple more I was presented with the Star Chamber. I would say this was the strangest room to me on my private tour. 

As I started meter readings I was not getting anything and then the meter started to come to life. I tested around and it went and then came back. Now this is where the strangest moment happened I was able to define an area or I could say the size of a shape, the length, width and height. I also got the impression of a dog, a specific breed of dog, a Lurcher, this I later checked with Samantha one of the Halls curators. I asked if there had been any reports of a dog, told her where and I was shocked with the reply ‘yes and it’s a Lurcher’. I also had a name from the same room Abby or Abigail and Samantha also confirm that this too had been picked up on before and the name was indeed Abby. I must say here that I cannot explain as to why I pick up these feelings or even sensed anything, but you could say it was unnerving at least.

The next rooms to visit were the rooms at the far end of the building and up the stairs, I think one of the rooms was called the Solar Room in here there was still the original ceiling, only  one of two in the country. Base readings for this room were normal and no un-normal orbs or light anomalies on any of the digital images.

The other room on this level had a stairway up to the attic room which again provided negative results for any anomalies. Back down the stairs and the final room did have an eerie feel to it due to the light from the outside coming through the windows, but no abnormal readings.

So it was back downstairs and through the Great Hall and on through to the stairs to the upper level on the other side which I would describe as the exhibition area of the hall, with glass cabinets containing amongst other things a dugout canoe. The two rooms up here were not separated by any doors and was more of an open plan with light streaming in from the outside, even with the lights off, this room felt well lit. Again pictures were taken and readings also noted with nothing of interest becoming relevant.

Lights Out

After the history tour and the tour with Claire, our Medium, both of which I did not go on as I did not want to be given any information about the building and wanted the experience to be mine alone.  This also gave me the opportunity to listen to other peoples experiences with an open mind and also when we visit again I will no prior knowledge of the history or any spirits the medium picked up on.

Once the tours were over the guest were split into groups to carry out experiments in various parts of the building.

I decided to upstairs above the kitchen in the exhibition area, were a glass moving experiment was going to be conducted. First we all joined hands in a circle to clear our minds and ask for any signs of a presence. Noises were heard, some was dismissed as the heating and others could not be explained. One guest had to leave the circle feeling faint and had to sit down to recover, was there a presence in the room?  Did this presence affect the way she was feeling? These questions could not be answered and the guest could not explain why she felt this way.

After a short rest period we continued with the glass moving experiment four guests were asked to participate and four stepped forward. I observed the experiment from the side of the table and at times it appeared to move to me but those that were taking part side there was no movement. With nothing seeming to happen we moved the experiment to the intersection of the two rooms in the exhibition area and new participants now took part and movement started to happen, nobody seemed to be pushing the glass as fingers were only lightly touching the top and at several times people had to leave and new participants joined in and the same reaction was observed. Overall what I observed in this room was to me unexplained and with the fact that the light was good due to the windows not being covered and the room being what I would call well illuminated I was able to see that there was no trickery used by any of the guests.

Next I went to the other end of the building and sat in a room the one below the attic, here I was able to listen for noises and conduct a simple experiment of my own using a digital SLR. In here there is a window that looks out across a road to an industrial estate.

I had the urge to photograph this window so I set the camera down on a table set the timer for the shutter to open after 12 seconds, this giving me time to move away and make sure that there was not going to be any movement to the camera when the picture was taken, due to the long exposure (about 6 seconds) needed as there was limited light in the room and no flash was being used.

It was not until I got home the next day and examined the pictures that the scene I was presented with was a bit unnerving.

The scene outside the window looked as if I was looking over a landscape of a tree and hills in the distance. Was this just a trick of light or was the photograph seeing something I could not see?

I will leave this for you to make up your mind, I have several theories as to disprove the image and others which I cannot explain, but being a sceptic I am more likely to believe it is a lucky photograph.

The final room for me to visit and one I should say I was looking forward too, is the Star Chamber.  This was the room I picked up on a name and the dog. This time I joined Claire the Medium for the night along with her guests. Knowing the my experience from earlier in the evening I decided to get out the EMF meter and test around the areas as before, this time nothing happened to the meter and all was clam.

Claire continued with her talk and with the group sitting in a rough circle on the floor.  I sat by the small table next to the bed with the meter in my hand and turned on still. At one point Claire asked everyone to spread out around the room taking different positions, this gave an open floor area for any entities to move freely. It was not long before my meter started to come to life and after a few moments was going of the scale, I moved the meter around and I confirmed to Claire that this was the same size and shape as earlier, this being of dog size.

Someone else came over to the area where I was and confirmed the reading I was getting was true with their EMF meter. We then conducted an experiment to see if the energy field would move. Several people called out and pattered their legs as if calling the dog. It was not long before I lost the reading and a search of the room found that the energy had moved to a lady sitting on the floor and it seemed that the form of the dog was lying in front of her.

Then out of the blue one of the guest jump and said that she felt something like a small dog had jumped on her back.  At the same time another guest said she had saw something that looked like a small dog, Jack Russell in size behind her. This activity went on for some time with several people experiencing paranormal activity.

I decided to stay in this room with the next group for their vigil. This time we had a slightly bigger group, would this affect any paranormal activity? We were soon to find out. As before the energy soon returned and again the same size and shape of the dog.

Again further tests were taken by other guests to confirm the activity was indeed genuine. After a period of time the atmosphere started to change and another presence was felt in the room, this being of a man. Several people reported seeing a figure enter by the door from the Great Hall.

The energy of the dog soon moved and we could not find it for some time. Later on there came another atmosphere to the room and several people reported a dark and sinister shape enter the room which seemed to scare away the presence of the dog and the man that entered earlier. Several people reported seeing light anomalies above the bed and I took a couple of pictures to see if I could capture anything, the results were somewhat disturbing due to what was be reported at the time.

Overall this investigation was one of intrigue, with many reports of paranormal activity being reported throughout the night by various guests, with experiences which seemed to match each other.