Northamptonshire possibilities?

Just come across this section!

Well ive got a few suggestions none that ive seen here so far so apologys if ive missed them and theyve been mentioned before...

Guildhall northampton also chicagos northampton, there is a good load of tunnels under there and ive heard many many tales of things that have been seen/heard there, the tunnels actually connect right underneath the market from the guildhall and chicagos im told so may be one to look at.

Eastfield park/ Mansfield house(if the buildings still there) i heard a while ago about some strange instances there but back then i was a non-believer!! STONE HIM!!!

St Davids middle school, again a very old property that at one stage was run by nuns its been closed down and boarded up now but maria has heard rumor.

Delapre Abbey, got to be worth a look, again all rumours and hearsay but steeped in history so just maybe!!

I would love for any of the investgators on here to do something at any of those locations especially the first and would be more than happy to assist if we can get the dates right!! (work permiting,, as i work crappy hours!!)

Hi Tobz,

Sounds like interesting locations.
Just about all of the ones you've mentioned could have paranormal activity due to their history.
An abbey for example... monks spend just about all their life there, punishment was harsh, they most probably had some sort of hospital there, where people died of diseases or fatal injuries, etc. ...

The guildhall should be interesting, because guildhalls used to be court houses and I am sure that executions also took place there. The tunnels underneath might be also connected to some former execution place, especially if they run under the market... a central spot where capital punishment was usually done in public.

It would be quite interesting to find out more about those places.. Northampton isn't too far away from most of us... roughly about 1 1/2 to 2 hours drive.

Thank you for telling us about them.

regards,
Hella

I will try to get some background information on past uses of the buildings, i must admit the guildhall really does intrigue me as like you said it used to be a court house, ive heard that before and also it would make sense that prisoners were lead under the tunnels and into the market for execution and possibly there were holding cells down there too??

A freind of mine told me about the Mansfield house location, it used to be like a respite and recovery place, you know the sort of thing i mean, where patients with all manor of problems, mental and physical, were wheeled out into the sunshine in the hope that the fresh air would do them good!! near to that location is an area with a ring of trees callled the witches circle, not sure if it was dubbed that by the locals or what but sounds good!, the whole area used to be the gardens of the main house (Mansfield House) which was turned into a hospital. im babbling on here because im not even sure whats left there!! Again i will check it out!!

Tob.

Ok had a look round on the internet and phoned a few friends and so far this is what ive come up with:

Guildhall:
As you said Hella it was a court house as well as the main hub of all the council offices, Fire station and Police station. The site itself dates back to the 14th century and was where the local town hall was. It was redeveloped and finished in 1864 as the town was growing and the previous building was insufficiant for the town, it was added to again at a later date and then modernised again more recently. Below the main building is a network of tunnels used throughout its entire life to date so therefore was used right back in the 14th century too! There is a section of prison cells and various holding cells for prisoners in various stages of their trials so im guessing people waiting to go to the court right the way through to people given the death sentence. I cant find any info on hangings etc but im working on it.There have been some quite famous prisoners there the names of which i cant find again right now but if needs be can be found! There is also a secret Attic room which is accesible from some stairs,, not much of a secret mind you its on the internet!! Also from what i can find there has only been 1 team to investigate the guildhall for paranormal activity, this group was back in 2009 and i cant actually find out any details of their finds but they were there.
Im told Derek Acorah has also been into a part of the tunnel network further along under some other building. Ive been told that there is an aparition that has been seen there which has been named "The Grey Lady" on many occasions amongst a few other strange happenings. There is a pub just 20 yards away from the main entrance to the guildhall named "The Wig and Pen" ive heard some very strong accounts of poltergeist activity here. I was there one sunday morning packing some disco and karaoke equipment away and the landlord was going doolally about a glass that had been thrown at him whilst he was locking up the night before. I just thought he was mentally unstable and drank too much!! but that was THEN!!

Delapre Abbey:
Well this has been like a massive history lesson for me! Delapre abbey was Founded in 1145!!! and was 1 of only 2 Cluniac nunnerys in britain, in 1290 Queen Eleanors body was in prossesion from lincoln to Westminster abbey and they stopped here overnight, they erected one of the Eleanor crosses in her memory and thats sited just at the edge of the delapre estate.There is tons of documented history about this place but the bit that most took my attention was the fact that Delapre was host to the finale of the War of the Roses in 1460 which im sure some of you must know but for those that dont it was 2 families basically the Yorkists and the Lancastrians and a huge bloody battle occured on the land directly outside the Abbey. Its definatly seen its share of action through the many years and im sure that there must be some lost souls lurking! I cannot find any info on previous Paranormal investigators so im guessing either no-ones been there yet or they have but not documented it??

Mansfield House/Eastfield Park:
Unable to find anything on these!!

Hope theres enough there to decide wether either is worth looking at!! I like the sound of both!!


Edit: "The Grey Lady" is actually said to be haunting "The Royal Theatre" which is sited just along from the Guildhall,, Going to look at that place now!

Hi Tobz,

i had a quick look online for a list of executions at the Guildhall (or criminals that were trialled there and executed somewhere else).

There are in fact holding cells in the guild hall, but I would say, that most prisoners were kept opposite the hall in the city gaol (if I got that right), which now houses a bank (lol, I wonder if the employees there could tell some ghost stories about their place of work).

A trip to the local archives might be a good idea, if you are really interested in it.

About the abbey:
I had a look at the Abbey site.
They host quite a few events there and a big plus is that it's not owned by the National Trust (it's very hard to get permission for an investigation from the National Trust and also the English Heritage).
There's also plenty of history online about the Abbey... looks like a great place.

At the moment we are having quite a lot do to, but it looks like something we could consider for the future for either a team investigation or one of our events. We are still looking for places in the month after May.
i just got to find out about reports about hauntings

You really got me going there, Tobz.

edit:

Ahhh... they seem to let teams investigate there

I've found a report:
Quite amusing (investigation) report

As far as I could find out there are rumours about two spirits in the abbey... a blue lady on the staircase and a lady on a white house in the abbey grounds.

Supposedly the abbey is also haunted by a librarian.

"Book Keeper

Location: Delapre - Delapre Abbey
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: The building is home to a former librarian who died many years previous."

Source: http://www.paranormaldatabase.com/northants/pages/nantdata.php?pageNum_paradata=1&totalRows_paradata=113

Ah.. and they seem to rent out the abbey for ghost hunting events. I found two event hosts, that once did events there, one of them Phil Wyman's Most Haunted events.

HA! Well if you want me to look further into either of those 2 just let me know and also i would be more than happy to assist on an investigation/event id love to get into those tunnels!

you obviously know where to look better than i !!

I posted as you were posting there,, going to check out those links right now!

LOL, Tobz, That's one of my jobs in the team
It's all about which keywords you give in... et voila... google's coughing it up

i should really read the bits above peoples avaters huh!!

They had an uneventful night then eh!! must of been doing it allll wrooong!!

That second link is awesome! i had a good look through that lot and its even got a bit about that pub "The wig and pen"!!