Hellfire Caves - How our journey began

Hellfire Caves, in Buckinghamshire, features strongly in the world of the paranormal, perhaps not surprising in view of its’ name.

The entrance to the caves

Whilst Laura and I have been there on a couple of occasions, it was our first visit to the location that perhaps sticks in the memory the most, as not only was it the first time that we’d been there, it was also one of the first locations that we went to when we first started working together.

After an uneventful journey to Buckinghamshire in the early Sunday morning traffic, we found ourselves stood in the weak winter sunshine, in a garden centre car park a couple of hundred yards from the entrance to the infamous Hellfire caves.

Excavated by hand in the 1750’s by the workforce of Sir Francis Dashwood, who undertook the project to provide work for unemployed farm labourers following a succession of poor harvests, the caves subsequently became host to the ‘Hellfire Club’ following the destruction by fire of the club’s original headquarters at Medmenham Abbey.

It’s here, at their second location, that the Hellfire Club became synonymous with, eventually lending its name to the man-made cave complex.

Crossing the road, Laura and I headed up the short, steep hill past the small primary school, leading to the entrance to the caves.

Finding the entrance guarded by an automated turnstile, we entered the small café and tried to attract the attention of the uninterested staff so that we could purchase some tokens for entry into the cave.

Five minutes later we found ourselves in the entrance passage to the cave, the tired white paint clearly in need of some refreshment before the summer season arrived.

The cave system

Entering the Cave 

As we walked along the narrow passage, pausing only to take some photographs, Laura turned to me and asked me if I felt anything.

I told her that, as usual, I didn’t feel a thing and I asked the same question of her, to which she gave the same negative reply.

After a couple of hundred yards or so, we found ourselves at the ‘Circle feature’ - two passages hewn out of the chalk, forming a huge central pillar.

We took the left hand side passage and soon rejoined the right hand side passage, around the other side of the pillar.

It was at this point Laura started to appear disorientated and started to proceed along the adjoining passage, back to the point where we had originally entered the Circle. I told her that she was merely going back to where we had started, to which she replied, rather than directly acknowledging that fact, that we hadn’t been there before and needed to make sure that we had not missed anything out.

Having taken some more photographs, Laura paused and asked me to lead on. Nothing unusual I accept, but I got the impression that there was a reason for this request.

Moving along the passages, pausing only to take photographs in Franklin’s Cave, we moved down to the Banqueting Hall.

It is here that things started to become very interesting from my point of view.

The Banqueting Hall

Entering the large, domed cave, we went our separate ways to take photographs. Laura went to look at the wax models on the right hand side, whilst I went to the far left to take some wide angled shots.

Whilst there, we were joined by some other visitors, the first ones that we had encountered during our visit. After a couple of minutes Laura walked over to where I was standing, totally ignoring me. If I hadn’t have stepped back as she passed she would have walked into me. She appeared very focused, as if she had something on her mind.

As I watched her, I realised that something was up and she could be picking up on something. I thought about taking some photographs of her at that point but held back, as I didn’t want the flash to disturb her.

Laura pacing back and forth

I watched her pace back and forth, retracing her steps and repeating this action. At this point I decided to risk taking a photograph and managed to capture her, deep in thought as she repeated her steps.

Laura finally paused and looked up at the ceiling, then to the floor to her left. Initially I thought that she was watching the occasional drips of water falling from the roof of the cave high above us, falling down onto the gravelled floor.

Laura then seemed to snap out of herself, looked at me and told me that ‘there was a pool of blood right there” gestating with a sweeping movement of her right arm and stepping around an imaginary pool of blood.

I took a couple of pictures, just in case the camera could capture what I couldn’t see, more out of hope than any real belief.

Laura later told me that she can’t recall telling me this or indeed even speaking to me until we left the Banqueting Hall.

I asked Laura if she was feeling ok and, if she wanted to leave the Hall and continue on our journey, to which she gave a simple “yes” in reply. We made our way to the lower passage and left the Banqueting Hall, passing the two other remaining visitors.

As we left Laura explained to me what she had experienced, a male, looking up, something falling from the ceiling and getting hit on the head, leaving a pool of blood where he fell.

The remaining system

After 50 yards or so we reached the Triangle cave.

Initially, it looked as if we had reached a T-junction, but it quickly became clear where we were in the scheme of things. We turned right to find the next side passage, Laura pausing at the entry point to the adjoining tunnel, to take another picture with her camera.

We proceeded along the passage, passing the point where the right hand side of the Triangle joined up again to form a single passageway. Laura looked left along the passage and, as we continued to walk, calmly told me that she had observed a spirit of a little boy, ten foot or so along the adjoining passage.

At this point we were again joined by some others, so I asked Laura if we could go back at the earliest available opportunity and take some photographs of where she had seen the spirit. Laura readily agreed.

We arrived at the Miner’s Cave, taking some more photographs as we waited for the other visitors to snake past.

Once we were sure that the passageway was now devoid of any other human life other than our own, we quietly made our way back along the passage to the Triangle Cave, to the point where Laura had seen the little boy.

As we reached the side passage, we spotted, to our dismay, more visitors making their way down the passage from the surface. I could only think that the staff in the canteen must have undertaken a quick customer service course and were now dishing out tokens to the cave like there was no tomorrow.

Laura, at the spot where she saw the small boy 

Unable to wait no longer, Laura made her way up the side passage whilst I stood stationary watching, camera in hand. As Laura reached the point where she had seen the boy, Laura gently touched the wall, a pillar, with her right hand, just as two other visitors passed her from the other direction.

I allowed them to pass me where I was standing and walked up the passage to where Laura was waiting, where I asked her if she had seen the spirit at the point where she had touched the wall. She confirmed that indeed that was the spot. I then asked her if the spirit was still there, but sadly Laura replied that he was not. I asked Laura to stand next to the pillar, where she had observed the boy, so that I could take a couple of shots.

We then made our way back down the passages, through the Miner’s Cave and River Styx, to the final cave, the Inner Temple, which passed without event.

We found the Inner Temple to be caged off and containing some wax models of presumably Hellfire Club members, complete with baboon that looked as if it had seen better days.

Laura departs....

I turned to Laura and suggested that we should return to the surface.

Laura turned around and bizarrely sped off along the passageway leaving me standing, puzzled at her quick escape. Quickly gathering my thoughts, I thought that I’d better give chase and proceeded back along the tunnel, Laura quickly disappearing off into the distant gloom.

Laura disappears into the darkness

As I raced along the passage, I thought it most strange that Laura was now moving so fast, especially as we were at the steepest point of the tunnels and we had previously walked at a leisurely pace, throughout our journey through the cave up until this point.

In the distance I could see the light of the Miner’s Cave and watch as Laura pushed her way through the crowd of visitor looking at the wax work displays and into the darkness where I could no longer see her.

My pace had now developed into a speedy trot as I tried to gain ground.

As I passed through the Miner’s Cave I could see Laura ahead in the dimly lit passage leading to the Banqueting Hall, bumping against the side of the narrow passage as she went.

This seemed to slow her down and I called out to her, which slowed her down even further. Catching up with her, Laura looked really confused. Unlike the earlier episode in the Banqueting Hall when she appeared to be deep within herself, she appeared to be her normal self, but just a bit confused.

She turned to me and said we need to go there, indicating what appeared to be a small recess, but clearly what looked to be a solid wall from where I was standing.

I convinced her that there was no passageway there, which she sort of accepted despite her confusion and we made our way up the passage to the Banqueting Hall.

This I found interesting as there is a long standing tradition of a long lost tunnel within the cave system. I noted the spot.

As we continued our walk, Laura asked me if I had felt unbalanced as I walked along the passages from the Inner Temple.

I replied that not really, although I advised that the gravel flooring appeared to be much deeper in the deepest part of the tunnels, which gave the impression of walking along a beach in places and may have given the impression of ‘unbalance’.

Making our way along the final yards to the Banqueting Hall, Laura explained to me what she had experienced deep down in the bowls of the cave, the feeling of being attacked and ‘clumped’ hard on the head, the need to exit the caves as fast as she could.

Although I asked several questions regarding her experience to try and make sense of things Laura wasn’t really able to add to this, so I let the situation be.

Back at the Banqueting Hall, Laura proceeded to again tell me exactly what she had already told me about her vision of the dying man when we were in the Hall for the first time.

I pointed out to her that she had already mentioned this to me earlier, but was met with a blank look.

She advised that she had no recollection of saying anything to me whatsoever last time we were there.

Laura looks up

We paused to take some more shots of the Hall, including one where I managed to capture Laura unaware, staring high up at an unreachable point on the ceiling where I can only assume that whatever she had saw fall first time around had originated.

The rest of our visit was taken up taking photographs before we decided to make our way back to the surface and make good our departure.

Summary

Looking back, what transpired that day was not what we were at all expecting but, as it turned out, set the scene for how we would operate, allowing us to develop the protocol that we follow today.

Up until Hellfire Caves, before we started working together, the process that I would follow would be to record investigations, both audio and visual, with the hope of recording paranormal phenomena that I could sit down and analyse, whilst Laura would do something similar but also rely on her senses, which she hadn’t really pushed much at that point.

Working together has required us both to change how we previously had approached investigations, but it is something that has worked very well for us and, whilst we are not going to make any rash claims that it has enabled us to produce any evidence of paranormal phenomena, it has provided a lot for us to think about all the same.

L&M

A demonstration of the Ghost / Spirit Box

For those with just a passing interest in the paranormal, they will often encounter reference to a ‘ghostbox’ (or ‘spiritbox’) and openly wonder what an earth one of these things are.

Effectively, it’s a modern radio that has been modified to repeatedly scan a radio band, to infinity, without stopping at the first radio station it comes across for which it was originally manufactured to do.

How does it work?

The theory behind the device is that spirits (or similar) can utilise the airwaves and use it to communicate with us in the living world, the same as someone may choose to use white noise to attempt to record EVP.

The device is controversial on many levels and is openly criticised by some, even experienced, paranormal researchers.

Effectively, those who argue against the voice suggest that people were just listening to snippets of radio broadcasts whilst the radio band was being scanned, whilst those who believed that something genuinely paranormal was happening, arguing that, as the radio was constantly being scanned, you shouldn’t get a long sentence in a single voice and the amount of four letter word responses frequently obtained ruled out anything being broadcast by radio stations anyway.

For us, whilst having doubts about the ghostbox, we felt that it was unfair to criticise the device without first having used it ourselves, so we decided to get one ourselves and see what it did, fully expecting to stick the thing in the bin after a couple of goes.

A ghostbox at last!

Anyway, a couple of weeks after ordering from America, one duly turned up in the post.

It was a lot smaller than we imagined.

Our ghostbox of choice - the P-SB7, with external speaker

Rather than just do something off the cuff, we decided to set down a schedule for recording sessions, that we would adhere to, which would be at different times to minimise the chance of recording the same voice from a regular broadcast and confusing it with repeat visits from the same ‘spirit’ (for want of a better term).

In preparing for the first session later in the evening, I put batteries in the ghostbox and turned it on to test it. I immediately got a ‘HELLO’ from the device.

I turned it straight off.

Interesting.

To save reading through a boring transcript of what followed over the sessions that we recorded, you’ll find a segment from the recording of the first session below.

There has been no editing other than isolating the segment from the main recording.

We are not proposing a paranormal source for what we recorded, nor are we suggesting that we just recorded random radio broadcasts. To this day, we do not know.

This article is simply to demonstrate the device in action, nothing more, nothing less.

As always with audio phenomena, the recording is best listened to using headphones.......

Any comments would be most welcome, we may post another session that we did, if there is sufficient interest.

L&M

The fallacy of relying upon third party data – The Bull Hotel, Long Melford, Suffolk.

In most of our accounts that we have published, we often only hint at what we have recorded or found during our visit to a location.

This intention is deliberate as, from a paranormal perspective, the information is no more, nor no less reliable than any other paranormal account you may read and, more importantly, if we do discover something that is different to what everyone else is reporting, we don’t want to put it in the public domain in case it ‘influences’ anyone else who follows us at a location. 

We wouldn’t wish to put words in anyone else’s mouth would we?

One such case that springs immediately to mind was our visits to The Bull Hotel, in the sleepy village of Long Melford, of Lovejoy fame, where what we found was different to all the published accounts you can read.

What we found there was completely at odds to everything else that went before us.

In spite of this, we were able to validate our ‘discoveries’, thanks to a respected local historian and his wide network of contacts and, a close friend, via his own independent investigations at the location, that, for us at least, turned the ‘known’ paranormal history on its head.

The Bull Hotel

The Bull has a long and interesting history for the paranormal researcher, including a link to Borley Rectory.

Believed to have been built sometime in the mid 1400’s, this was the hotel where Harry Price stayed whilst carrying out his investigations at the Rectory, which itself used to stand a mile or two to the south west, just over the border in neighbouring Essex.

 

The Bull Hotel, Long Melford

It is also well known for at least two alleged haunting – a set of brawling brothers and, that of Richard Evered / Everard, murdered in 1648 and left to roam the rooms and corridors to this very day.

As an aside, I find it ironic that despite Price being the foremost paranormal researcher of his day, he never (publically at least) acknowledged any of these hauntings, despite staying at the hotel on many occasions.

Background

We’ve made a couple of visits to the hotel over time, with each occasion Laura appearing to tap into the history of the building.

Whilst I also recorded our sessions there, both audio and visual, unfortunately, we have never been able to record any EVP (Electronic Voice Phenomena) there.

Laura herself was unfamiliar with the history of the building (paranormal or otherwise) or, indeed, the village of Long Melford itself.

Whilst Laura came out with a variety of information during our visits, for this purpose of this article, I’ll focus on the information that I’ve taken to relate directly to the two incidents that I mentioned earlier – the ‘fighting brothers’  and ‘Richard Evered / Everard’.

The ‘fighting brothers’

Depending on which account you read, these brothers were fighting in the upper corridor of the hotel over the discovery of one of the brother’s advances towards the other’s wife. Or something else entirely different.

They were fighting, very noisily and still are to this very day, if the story is to be believed.

The upper corridor appearing to be the main focus of activity in the hotel, we obviously based ourselves in this area.

During our time there, Laura advised of two separate fights in the upper corridor.

The first fight was between two men, who were from rival pubs in a dispute over ownership of the hotel.

The Cock and Bell is almost opposite The Bull on the other side of the main road and it’s tempting to link one of the men to it, but we have nothing to connect the two.

Laura felt that the hotel had changed name. It was something about the name – a different name in fact. Little did we know at the time as to how significant this last bit of information was to turn out for us.

Laura also placed the fight in a very different location to where tradition dictated that it had taken place. This, again, was very interesting as events transpired.

The second fight involved two brothers, although they weren’t actually fighting, but a significant dispute at that. Laura also picked up a surname relating to the brothers that I will not document here.

On a further visit, Laura was given the information that one of the brothers did rape / attempted to rape the others wife.

This second fight ties in with the known paranormal history of the location, although it doesn’t appear to fit the very audible element that witnesses have described.

As I mentioned earlier, Laura was not aware of the history of the hotel, so should not have been influenced by anything that had been written about the location. What she picked up departed majorly from the ‘accepted’ account of the haunting, so to summarise:

1.       There actually appeared to be at least two fights recorded in the fabric of the location

2.       The ‘noisy /violent’ fight that was traditionally placed at one point in the corridor was actually in a totally different location; and

3.       The ‘noisy / violent’ fight was not between the two brothers but two totally different parties.

Things get interesting

Post investigation, I undertook my usual research and thought that the best place to start would be in relation to the change of name to The Bull – this was exact information which would generate either a positive or negative result

I could not recall ever reading that The Bull Hotel had a previous name during my initial researches and, again, I could find no mention whatsoever any change in name of the hotel no matter what source I referred to.

Indeed, where ever I looked, it was confirmed in stark black and white, that the building had a short life as a private house, before converting to its present use, for which it has continued trading continuously for almost 400 years.

Things were not looking too good.

However, being a thorough sort of chap, I was given the contact details of the local historian in Long Melford by a work colleague, who I decided that I would take as the final authority on the matter and leave things at that.

I subsequently made contact with the gentleman and, not wanting to disclose how I had actually came about the information, I explained that I had overheard a conversation that the hotel had actually traded under another name prior to being named ‘The Bull’ and I was trying to establish if this was true or otherwise.

The historian quickly advised that I had indeed contacted the right person, as, if anyone would know, about this it would be him.

And......., he went on to advise, it has always traded under its current guise, having converted from a private dwelling.

Sadly, there was no other name. Case closed.

Or so I thought.

A couple of days later, the historian contacted me out of the blue.

He said that I’d piqued his interest with what I had sought to find out and wanted to know where I’d got the information from.

Suspicious, I simply repeated that I was keen on local history and I’d just overheard a conversation where this had come up in discussion.

Clearly disappointed at hearing this, he nevertheless went on to explain his reason for getting in touch.

Curious about my question, the very next day he’d contacted his colleague at the Suffolk Records Office in nearby Bury St Edmunds, who again came back with the information that we both already knew – The Bull was the first and only trading name.

However, they too were also very interested in what I’d said (it must have been a slow week at the records office), so they went off and did some digging.

The next day the historian was contacted by a very excited researcher, who said that they’d managed to locate a 17^th Century Will that described a “*** ****** of Sudbury, who briefly owned The Bull, formally known as *** ******” - another trading name.

Stunned, I thanked the historian for his time and asked him to pass on my appreciation to his colleague at the Suffolk Records Office. I promised faithfully that I would direct the people I’d heard having the conversation there way, if I ever encountered them again.......

The rear courtyard of The Bull

 The murder of Richard Evered / Everard

Accepted accounts state that Richard, a yeoman, was stabbed to death in the entrance hall of The Bull in a dispute over politics or, more precisely, defending the Royalist side in the English Civil War.

The date of his murder, 1648, fits the timeline of the civil war, which was fought 1642 to 1651.

Ever since, the ghost of Richard is said to haunt the Hotel, along with his murderer, Roger Greene (who went to the gallows), have both being blamed for the footsteps and other ghostly happenings at the location ever since.

After picking up on the fights, the flow of information that Laura appeared to be tapping into started to slow down.  However, she was picking up on the odd snippet, including a name.

It was indistinct but, she felt that it could have been Everard or Everett.

At the time I made the note, I couldn’t recall the name of the murder victim attached to the story, so I simply scribbled it down and left things at that. With effort put into establishing the facts surrounding the name change of the hotel, believe it or not, I’ve never mentioned the significance of the name to Laura until a couple of minutes ago when I was writing this account and referring back to my original notes.  

I know, I know....

Laura also advised at the same point that someone was killed ‘here’ with an axe.

However, she couldn’t be sure if this was in connection with the Everard name, or a totally different event.

Most traditional accounts only refer to a ‘stabbing’ so, with the new realisation regarding the hit with the name, this now gives me further impetus to try and establish the exact murder weapon used upon poor Richard.

More is uncovered

As with most things, once you’ve made a visit to a location, the next one beckons.... soon our attentions were turned elsewhere and the case filed in pending, awaiting further attention.

A couple of years since our last visit had passed and I found myself having a telephone conversation with our close friend and fellow paranormal researcher Jason, on a totally different matter, when the topic of The Bull Hotel came up.

He mentioned that he’d, unbeknown to us at that point, had also investigated the location and had the opportunity interview some former and current staff members, who had shared their experiences of the Hotel with him.

One, in particular, had reported often hearing a loud noise, like a violent fight, in the upstairs corridor, but whenever she got near as she went to investigate, the noise immediately stopped and there was no one there.

Interestingly, she put the ‘fight’ in the same location as Laura, which was different to where it was traditionally assumed to be.

During our visits there, amongst other things, Laura had reported seeing large black dogs in the upstairs rooms. Interestingly, these had also been witnessed by the same person whilst working at the hotel and were assumed to be the animals of a former owner of the hotel.

It has been reported that dogs appear fearful of being at the hotel but, I am unable to find any references to the more paranormal type being witnessed so far.

Conclusion

Laura picked up far more information whilst at The Bull than I’ve documented here, with additional names and events that warrant further investigation.

However, as we plough through reports that others have filed online generally, we felt it important to illustrate the fallacy of relying upon the accepted history of a location when undertaking an investigation – many just seem to regurgitate what has been written before by others.

It would have been very easy to just dismiss the information that Laura picked up, on the basis that they were at odds with the ‘well established’ facts of the paranormal history of this particular location, which have been written in stone in the annals of history so to speak, for many years.

So, do not dismiss your own data – do so at your peril.

In spite of what you find contradicting what is ‘known’ about a location, it is important to pursue your research to the very end and you may be pleasantly surprised with the results – I know that we were.

*************

As always, we would be keen to learn of any other experiences at the location, so don’t be shy, feel free to contact us and discuss, privately if you would prefer.

L & M.