Synchronicity – a concept introduced by the psychologist
Carl Jung almost a 100 years ago, who stated that events are meaningful
coincidences if they occur with no causal relationship, yet seem to be
meaningfully related.
The term has enjoyed a renaissance in recent years within
the paranormal community, but it is actually phenomena that the Psychic
Questing community has been acutely aware of for over 40 years and plays a
significant part in their activities.
Throughout our research, we’ve encountered many instances
of synchronicity, many of which we’ve only been aware of after the event, but
does it really have any deep meaning?
Snowdrops
To illustrate the point, recently, we visited a
churchyard in a neighbouring village to photograph the first emerging snowdrops
of the year, prompted by a post that we’d seen on social media the previous
day.
We were honestly expecting more......
It was a cold, damp day, so our focus was purely to take
a couple of photographs and get back home as quick as we can.
Having taken all the photographs of snowdrops that we’d ever want for, we
decided to return to the car, walking back through the churchyard, near to the
Church, when we noticed a handyman appear out of the gloom of the impressive
porch, so we approached him and politely asked if we were able to go inside.
Without hesitation we were curtly told no, as there was a
funeral taking place in 30 minutes. The response was abrupt, leaving the impression
that the funeral was simply a convenient reason and that our presence inside
the Church wouldn’t have been welcome regardless.
Taking the hint, we went to continue our walk to the car,
disappointed at the refusal.
A lady in black
Without warning, a smartly dressed lady, clearly there
for the funeral, came over to us, having overhead the conversation and informed
us that it would be fine and there would be plenty of time to view the interior
before the rest of the mourners arrived.
Thanking her, we entered the church, the handyman’s stare
burning uncomfortably into the back of our heads.
The inside was very grand, but we knew that the church
was a former wing of a Priory that used to exist on the site, so this did not
surprise us as much as it should have.
We restricted our tour to the rear of the nave, the altar
area being prepared for the funeral and decided to leave, to give the mourners
that were now arriving time for themselves.
As we went to leave, we approached the porch exit, the
same handyman, now back inside the church, came over to us and told us that we
needed to go and look at what was at the other end of the church.
He appeared rather proud of whatever this was and was
quite insistent that we had to see it.
Laura, ever supporting, walked off at this point and left the church, leaving
me to it.
With time running out, I quickly walked to the front of
the church and immediately spotted what the handyman’s excitement was all
about.
Well I thought that she looked like a knight.....
Above me, high up upon a window ledge, lay the stone effigy of, what I took to
be at the time (due to my viewing position), a praying knight, which is relatively
common in local churches, although this appeared to be one of the earliest
examples that I’d seen to date and was exhibiting a bit of wear.
Disappointed, I walked back to the Porch to join Laura
outside the Church, passing the now beaming handyman. “Did you see it?” he
asked me, his large smile still in situ.
“Yes”, I replied, “it was interesting”, not wishing to
disappoint him and bade my farewell.
Synchronicity?
Later that evening, my thoughts turned to the effigy that
I’d seen in the Church earlier that morning.
With growing curiosity, I decided to establish exactly who’s
effigy it was that I’d seen in the Church. I suppose it was the least I could
do, taking into account how keen the handyman was for me to view it. I didn’t
wish to appear ungrateful, even in his absence.
Unsurprisingly, it didn’t take long for me to establish
that the effigy was not of a knight (which was a surprise to me), but that of Maud
'Athelida' De Ingelrica (1032 – 1100AD), the founder of the Priory, the remains
of which form the Church today, as previously referenced.
It was believed that the effigy was the lid of her
sarcophagus, the only surviving remains of her tomb, which was originally
located in the chancel - before being destroyed during the Dissolution of the
Monasteries, in the 16th Century.
There the story
ends, but the synchronicity?
You see, Maud 'Athelida' De Ingelrica is my 32nd
Great Grandmother (on my mother’s side).
Whilst I was aware of her connections to the village we
visited, I had never researched her any further and, had absolutely no idea
that she was buried in what is now the Church there.
We had no intention of going inside the Church during our
visit to the Churchyard and, we wouldn’t have done so without the intervention
of a complete stranger, who had overheard our chance conversation with the
handyman.
Likewise, even inside the Church, we avoided the area
where her effigy lay and if it wasn’t for the handyman’s return as we left the
Church, insisting that we went to see what turned out to be Maud’s effigy, we
would have departed, without any plans, nor any need, to return in the future.
The sight that greeted us on our very first visit.
Ever since Laura and I first started working together, there
has been one location that has remained a constant, even as we found ourselves
relocating several times around southern and eastern England over the past ten
years.
An ancient place of Christian worship, located deep in
rural Essex, insular and isolated and, as far as we could tell from our initial
visit, of little historical significance - although further research could
reveal otherwise.
As any visitor will attest, as they often have, it cannot
be denied that the location has a certain atmosphere, one that Laura herself is
not to fond of, so we have always found ourselves being drawn back to the
church, time and time again.
Needless to say, with so much time spent at the site, we
hold a large set of notes on file, that have produced numerous lines of
research that we have still yet to investigate fully.
However, we thought that it was time to share with you
some of our experiences and discoveries that we have made there, over the last
decade or so.
Background
The church building itself dates back several hundred
years, of a very distinctive design and, without intending to be unkind in anyway,
it certainly looks and smells its age. Over the centuries there have been
several major alterations made to the current building, in more recent times, being
mostly been enforced due to damage and decay.
The church was effectively abandoned to the elements some
50 years or so ago and now classified as redundant.
The building was only saved following a series of
fortunate decisions that initially commenced with a demolition order in the
1970’s, leading ultimately to the substantial conservation work undertaken to halt
the decay and underpin the church, that was completed a couple of years ago.
This is how the visitor will find the church today.
Even now, the church is little known outside of the local
community and it still retains its sense of isolation.
We first came across the location whilst searching for
new research projects in the East Anglian area, where we were both based at the
time.
We’d found several reports made by various people mentioning
the high number of EVPs (Electronic Voice Phenomena) that were allegedly being
recorded there, but little else of note concerning the history of the church,
which still remains elusive, even now.
However, this was still enough to pique our interest, so
notes were made and the site added to our ever growing list of future locations
that we intended to visit.
Thinking nothing more of the matter, we then turned our
attention to other areas of interest and simply forgot about the church.
Several months later, during a quiet period, we went back
over our notes and decided that it was finally time to undertake a field trip
to see if there was any substance to the reports that we’d read.
The start of our relationship with the building had
begun.
The visits commence
Our initial visit took place on a warm summer’s evening,
the air filled with the rich evening chorus of blackbirds ringing out to
accompany the setting sun, greeting us as we left the car.
Despite this pleasant welcome, Laura immediately commented
that, to her, the location had a foreboding atmosphere and I noted that she
appeared apprehensive as we entered the church grounds.
The entrance to the church stood in front of us, at the
foot of the Tudor Bell Tower, almost obstructed by a grave memorial, which in
itself we found unusual.
We soon realised that the doorway was a more recent
addition to tower, the main entrance being located on the North side of the
building, via an impressive 17th Century wooden porch, that complemented
the tower.
The present view, looking up from inside the Tudor Belfry.
To our disappointment, we found that both entrances to
the church were securely locked, upon safety grounds as we later found out, due
to the desperate condition of the building and the imminent risk of collapse.
Indeed, apart from an annual service, the church had been
closed off to the general public for a number of years, until the conservation
project was undertaken and completed.
The restoration itself was completed a couple of years
ago and thankfully saved the church from demolition, with the added bonus that
the public were now able to view the interior of the building, but we
digress....
Finding ourselves restricted to the small churchyard, we
decided to walk around the structure and examine the building and explore the
surrounding churchyard to see what was revealed.
We found that the land surrounding the church was very
overgrown, with trees encroaching right up to the building itself in places,
adding to the atmosphere of the location.
At the time we recall thinking that someone would need to
act quickly, as nature was clearly looking to reclaim what was originally hers
with a vengeance.
Thankfully, as events transpired, action was taken.
Darkness falls – a secret to uncover?
As we strained our eyes and looked as far as we could
into the wooded areas, we could make out old gravestones dotted amongst the
trees – a particularly eerie sight as the sun finally set.
General maintenance of the graveyard had evidently long
stopped here, although the remaining grassed areas had clearly been recently
mown.
We continued our exploration and, Laura remained
unsettled.
In addition to some names and dates, Laura also felt that
the location was being used for occult purposes and not in a particularly nice
way. This use was both historical and, something that was continuing to the
present day.
A quick search of the surrounding area thankfully found
no psychical evidence of such activity.
There was one particular monument that Laura was drawn to
and which continues to be so to this very day, a very large slab of (type of
stone), surrounded by a set low, decorative cast iron rails, protecting the
monument.
The memorial was engraved with the name of family members
covering a number of years, even some that had left these shores and commenced
a new life in a distant country.
However, despite being in a relatively good condition for
its age, it was covered in ivy and other fauna and its inscriptions proved
difficult to read.
Thankfully, this memorial has also been restored and we
now have a complete copy of the inscriptions.
The memorial, now restored, helpfully providing us with a lot of information.
An interesting back story surrounds the family commemorated
by the memorial, although we have still to undertake any further research
relating to this.
Laura felt that the whole location held a secret and that
the memorial, or the people listed there, were the key to unlocking the whole
thing. The memorial indicates that most of the family emigrated in mid 19th
Century, which obviously will form one line of our ongoing research.
The EVPs
Over subsequent visits, various EVP’s were recorded and
the ominous feeling that Laura was getting from the location intensified, to
the extent that Laura was eventually reluctant to visit the church, even in day
light hours.
Laura has never been keen on visiting the church......
It is worth mentioning that, despite continually
searching, we’ve thankfully never ever found any evidence of ‘occult’ activity
to this present day. Although, in spite of the lack of physical evidence, Laura
is absolutely certain that the location is still being used for such purposes.
The EVPs that we record at the location are of varying
quality, but at a more frequent level than we experience elsewhere. Helpfully,
they are usually in direct response or in context to the conversation that we were
having at the time.
We’ve also recorded the same EVP on two separate audio
recorders that were recording at the same time, one of the few times that this
has occurred for us.
Of greater interest to us, looking back through our
notes, Laura has been receiving the name ‘James’ during the majority of our
visits, although we weren’t really conscious of this due to the time that had
passed between our visits and this has only come to light recently when looking
back through our notes.
Curiously, during a recent visit, Laura once again picked
up upon ‘James’, only this time our audio recording also picked up another female
voice whispering ‘James’ immediately following Laura asking if James was with
us at the time.
(As always with EVP, best listened to via headphones)
‘James’ is undoubtedly a person of interest for us in our
research, although we have made no progress as to his identification to date.
The restoration...... and a new chapter begins
The restoration of the church itself a couple of years
ago affords visitors access to the interior, after many years of being sealed
off.
In 2015, having recently moved back to the area, we
visited for the first time since the restoration work had been completed and
finally found ourselves stood inside the building at last.
Opening the door for the first time, we found ourselves
inside a church that looked far bigger inside that it did from the outside,
causing us to look around quickly for any Time Lords in the vicinity.
Breathing in the musty air, we found bare plaster walls,
compete with sections of 300 year old murals and even older wall paintings.
The pews and pulpit, which, at the time, we took to be of
a similar age to the murals, but have subsequently found out had been salvaged
from another church locally, were in excellent condition.
The floor mainly consisted of black and red clay tiles,
straight onto an earthen floor, that looked to date from Victorian times, but
we could be wrong.
Almost immediately, upon entering the building, perhaps
unsurprisingly, Laura started to pick up people’s names and dates, together
with what she described as a ‘young boy’, around 11 or 12 years old, who was
holding her hand.
This was not the first time that she had experienced this
at the site, although she was unsure as to whether this was the same ‘boy’ that
has been attracted to here on previous visits.
She also felt that there was a room or area beneath the
church floor itself, where young children were secretly taken and ‘punished’.
At one point Laura received this impression so strongly, she
knelt down to examine the floor for any signs of an entrance to the room below.
Was there a room beneath the floor here. Research has indicated that there isn't, but was something here in the past?
When I later pressed Laura for an explanation, she told
me that all this activity was linked to a person (or persons) that was
connected to the large monument outside (the one that she’d always been drawn
to and mentioned previously) – if we could identify the person(s), we would get
closer to what had happened and, perhaps, the truth behind it all.
More Research and another visit
Over the following months, I made some discrete enquiries
and undertook further research, but could find no mention of an underground
room or area - although, tantalisingly, I did find references as to the reason why
the church building had been in danger of collapsing, necessitating the
restoration, which was down to subsidence, in part caused by vaults, or crypts
under the church.
Could it be that one of these vaults be the room that
Laura had referred to, where the ‘punishments’ to the children had taken place?
This new information led to me to visiting the church
once again, without Laura, to see if I could find any trace of the vaults in
the fabric of the floor that remained, although I had my doubts, as the tiles
were clearly of a relatively recent vintage.
I particularly wanted to inspect a gap under a pew that
we’d noticed on a previous visit, although the task would be made more
difficult, in the fading winter light at the time I made the visit.
Although I was unable to determine as to whether there
was anything underground, my inspection was nonetheless worthwhile and, undoubtedly
necessitated a further visit when the light was better.
Of more significance however, it appeared that my visit
to the church had acted as a trigger of some sort, as later that evening Laura
received an image and a vision, relating to the church.
The good the bad and the Pigman.......
The image was that a shard of white frosted, or smoky
glass, self standing, in the area of where the font is now located, containing
an image of a female saint, in prayer.
The Praying Saint
This image quickly faded and was immediately followed by
a ‘vision’.
It should be noted that we use the term with reluctance
here but there were no other words to describe it – a vision.
In it, Laura was stood at the threshold of church itself,
at the entrance in the Tudor Bell Tower, the door wide open.
Here, she found herself facing a priest, who was stood
immediately inside the church.
Beyond the priest, she could see a figure, a man with a
pig’s head (the skull being almost skeletal, coloured brown, but she could
definitely see ears, albeit dried and curling over).
The ‘pigman’ (for the lack of a better term) was stood at
the end of the pews, in the open area adjacent to the font, next to the North
Entrance to the church.
In her ‘vision’, as Laura strained to see beyond the
clergyman, the ‘pigman’ asked her if she was coming in.
As she thought carefully about the invitation, the vision
faded and ended.
Laura, re-enacting her 'vision' of the pigman
Looking at my phone I could see that it was approximately
midnight (my phone was displaying the time of 00:00 am).
Things did not end here and, at approximately 00:40 am,
Laura received her final image of the night, of a rectangular, almost square
headstone, that was in the churchyard, lying flat on the surface of the ground
but raised (rather than level with the surface), with the inscription of a
young woman’s name and age.
To bring this particular episode to a close, the next day
Laura saw a set of symbols that she drew for my inspection when I returned home
that evening.
At the time, I attempted to link these events together
and felt that perhaps the best to interpret the whole affair was on a symbolic
level – clearly British history had not been awash with reports of pig headed
men, from our current level of understanding at least.
We therefore decided that a further visit was necessary,
this time with Laura in attendance, to try and make sense of the vision.
The follow up
Within a week Laura and I found ourselves at the
location, this time late morning - the first time that we’d visited the
location at this time of day.
Laura, having just had her hand 'held' by a child once again.
As I stopped to get my equipment ready, Laura stopped
ahead of me and turned to tell me that she’d been touched by a child, although
she was not certain that it was one of the ones that had made contact with her
previously.
We started off with a tour of the graveyard, meeting a
friendly dog (and owner) out enjoying the crisp spring air.
This was the first time that we’d really inspected the
area surrounding the church together in detail since its restoration, so we
spent some time looking at the memorials, wondering if any of the names were
familiar to us from our previous visits.
We then turned our attention to the church and began to
walk the circumference of the building in a clockwise direction.
At an area on the south side of the church, Laura
suddenly knelt down and started ‘sweeping’ her arm across the grass.
Catching my attention, I asked her what was wrong?
Laura informed me that, at this spot, she had felt the
urge to immediately kneel down and pray, which then quickly turned to the
desire to uncover something that was buried, or concealed, beneath the ground.
The ‘spot’ was close to the south wall of the church,
immediately next to a bricked up (very large) door or window, with the ground
being uneven or disturbed, which we’d always put down to rubble being dumped
there in previous years.
Subsequent investigation revealed that the bricked up
aperture was the grand entrance to a private chapel attached to the south side
of the church, which had been destroyed and removed in the past. This had resulted
in the disturbed ground where Laura had felt the need to pray.
The former entrance to the chapel, that stood in the grassed area to the lower left of the image. It was in this area that Laura felt the need to pray and uncover a concealed object.
With nothing else forthcoming, we made our way to the
Tudor Bell Tower and into the church itself.
Once inside the church, Laura pointed out where she’d
been standing during her vision and, where the ‘pigman’ and priest were stood
in relation to her, but nothing further was forthcoming.
As we moved further into the church, Laura mentioned (as
she had done on her previous visit inside the church), that she felt that we
were once again being watched by a man high up in the church, against the Bell
Tower. She felt that the man lived in the church, or at least had the habit of
staying overnight there and, was possibly a curate that was attached to the
church.
Laura walked towards the altar and sat down on the step
in silence and attempted to tap into the atmosphere of the building.
After several minutes in quiet contemplation, she arose,
walked forward several feet and then bent her knees and touched the floor at a
certain point in the aisle. She insisted that there was still, or had been, a
room or chamber below.
It was at this point that Laura asked out aloud if James
was with us now, sensing that he was possibly close, resulting in us recording
the female voice whispering ‘James’ that we referred to earlier.
The present day.
As we mentioned right at the start, our research is still
ongoing and there is clearly far more to be revealed at this location.
However, we have reached the point where we have started
to make some progress, so perhaps this is an opportune moment to cover some of
our experiences at the location, together with our current findings date:
1.There
are a lot of children connected to the location
This has been a constant for
Laura ever since we first visited the location - the building would have served
at sometime as a sort of workhouse, possibly a school.
Whilst we’ve been unable to
establish anything definitively, in a recent conversation with a local historian,
from his research, he believed that there was a second chamber within the
church, no longer existing, that was used either as a school room at some
point, or indeed where a priest lived (which also ties us to point 5. below).
As you can imagine, this has
been an important development for us and has now become a strong line of
research for us, which we will hopefully be able to expand upon at a future
date.
2.An
underground vault, where children were abused (not sexually)
This has, so far, proved a dead
end for us. Apart from a reference to underground vaults, or crypts, being
mainly responsible for the subsidence at the church, we’ve not been able to
progress this any further so far, even with physical inspections at the
location itself.
a.A
secret connected to the family mentioned
in the large memorial slab, adjacent to the Tudor Bell Tower
b.A woman, her young son torn away from her,
still upset; and
c.James
Laura feels strongly that
these three separate ‘events’ are potentially linked.
Throughout our visits Laura
frequently senses the presence of a woman, who is grieving, having had her son
taken away from her.
In the same way, she feels
that this woman is linked to the family detailed on the memorial slab and that
the child was taken away because of the shame that it brought onto the family.
Less confidently, Laura feels
that the James that lingers there could possibly be this child, but she has
never receive any answers to this when she has asked.
At this moment, this remains
an ongoing line of research, with the only facts that we’ve been able to
establish is the names on the family memorial. However, Laura feels that we’re
close to getting an answer here, so only time will tell.
3.Something
concealed beneath the ground where the chapel was located.
Again, our enquiries are
ongoing, but details of the former chapel are sparse and obviously we’re not in
a position to go around digging up church yards.
However, the fact that Laura
felt the strong need to kneel pray and then uncover a concealed item beneath what
we now know would have been the chapel floor provides an interesting line of
research for us.
4.That
the location is used, both historically and currently by people for occult
purposes
Whilst we are not in
possession of any supporting evidence whatsoever for this, the relative
seclusion and remoteness of the location would not appear to exclude this.
Interestingly, Laura has felt that a particular person could have visited this
location and, in a completely unrelated conversation recently, another person
suggested something that could support this.
This is one aspect that we’ll
maintain a watching brief upon.
5.The
man, possibly a curate, that watched from high, who lived in the church
As mentioned in point 1. above, a recent discussion
with a local historian revealed that he believed that historically, there used
to be a second chamber within the church that was where the priest used to live
or was used as a school room (possibly both), who produced an historical plan
of the church, a few hundred years old, to illustrate his point.
When asked why would the
priest live inside the church and not elsewhere, the historian explained that
during Henry VIII’s Dissolution of the Monasteries, from 1536 to 1541, the
priest in residence was ejected from the neighbouring Manor House when it was
seized by Henry's men and he therefore took residence in the church itself.
This would support what Laura had picked up,
but how does this explain the ‘watching from above’ element?
The area of the Nave from which Laura has always felt that we were being watched, from above.
This part was clarified by another
historian, who advised that in the past, there was a former upper floor gallery
at the rear of the Nave, as was popular in churches at the time, which would
clearly have provided the platform ‘from above’ that would allow the man to
observe visitors.
6.The
gentleman, unflatteringly referred to as ‘Pigman’
It probably goes without
saying that Laura’s vision of the ‘pigman’ was the most difficult to
understand.
We initially thought that we
needed to interpret this at a symbolic level, especially in light of the symbols
that she received and drew, the following morning after the vision.
We thought that we arrived at
a plausible interpretation for the vision and symbols, when taking into account
other things that were occurring with Laura at the time. However, subsequent
events led us to dismiss his interpretation.
A few weeks later I met an
historian at the church who, whilst discussing the development of the building
over the centuries, mentioned the upper gallery at the rear of the Nave, as
discussed in point 5. above.
As I’d tentatively touched
upon the reason for enquiring about the gallery during our conversation and
hadn’t been rebuffed, I pressed on and, after providing a lengthy introduction
as to what I was going to say, explained what Laura had seen and threw myself
at the historian’s mercy.
To my surprise, the response
was not what I was expecting.
The historian explained that
the grave immediately outside the ‘new’ entrance, in the Tudor Bell Tower, was
that of a gentleman, an ex-serviceman, who served the church and, was in the
habit of standing at the corner of the building, directing people around to the
North Porch entrance. Being ex-military, he had a certain way about him and the
historian could imagine him standing there, asking, of any stragglers, are they
coming in?
Although the gentleman was of
a different age, the historian knew that he had a certain reputation locally,
of being a ‘pig’........
Another possible explanation
provided by the historian was the locality’s connection to pigs, dating back to
Anglo Saxon times, if not earlier. Was the vision a link to this?
Either way, had we finally
found our ‘pigman’?
The future?
It must be said that we both found this very difficult to
write.
Not only was there so much that we could have written
(there is a lot that we’ve simply left for another time), but things that have
been moving at such a rate, we have had to constantly re-write, add or remove
elements.
Indeed, we started
writing this over 15 months ago and even now were in two minds as to whether or
not to publish what we had written.
Unlike most if the other pieces that we’ve written about
here, there is no conclusion to our research and we simply, at this stage, do
not know where it is going, so it’s fair to say that we will be issuing further
updates, from times to time.
However, what we are certain about is that this location
has many secrets to reveal, which we both feel we are on the cusp of discovering.
In some ways, our
journey with this location has most definitely only just begun.
Landguard Fort, Suffolk, location of the last seaborne
invasion of England (2nd July 1667), is a place that has gained
popularity for organised ghost hunt events over the past ten years or so, although
it’s yet to reach the dizzy heights of paranormal folklore that haunts such as Fort
Amherst or Dover Castle enjoy.
However, from an historical perspective, the location is quite
significant, the current fort being the last in line of three military
buildings guarding the entry point to the Stour and Orwell estuary and, onwards
to the important ports of Harwich and Ipswich.
None of the three buildings had been built on the same
location, although the current Fort (dating from 1716) has one small corner, the
Holland Bastion, that overlay’s the site of the previous building.
The Dutch invasion of 1667 is recognised as the first
ever engagement of the Royal Marines, so overall, a very notable location.
It was due to the Fort’s popularity as the venue for paranormal
events, that we'd never really been interested in making a visit.
At the same time, we'd always avoided reading any reports
or reviews from these events, or indeed the alleged paranormal history of the
location, as not to taint any future visit that we could have possibly made, especially
from Laura’s perspective.
Nevertheless, we eventually succumbed and finally paid a
visit, on what turned out to be the final opening day of the 2017 season.
Subsequent research has revealed the reasons and
motivations behind the Fort having a secondary role as a paranormal event venue
and we’ve listed the alleged haunting and ghosts present at the location in the
footnote following this blog.
Arrival
After parking up outside the Fort, in the small car park,
adjacent to the entrance, we found ourselves in front of an impressive 18th
Century gatehouse, not too dissimilar to some of the medieval castles that we
had visited in the past.
Crossing the stone causeway, which replaced the original
wooden drawbridge in the 1930’s, across the moat, we paid for our entry, deciding to skip the free audio tour
option and explore the Fort in relative ignorance, so to speak.
Taking the wrong turning once again.....
The Wash Suite
Leaving the gatehouse, we found ourselves in a curved,
narrow area, which formed an outer courtyard. This had originally been part of
a larger parade ground that had been divided into two as part of the
re-modelling of the Fort between 1871 and 1875, resulting in an inner and outer
courtyard that we now see today.
As we looked back towards the gatehouse, we saw a series
of adjoining rooms lined up against the outer wall of the Fort.
Deciding that this was as good a spot as any to begin our
exploration, we entered the nearest doorway and found ourselves in a shower
room, Victorian or later in appearance, which we subsequently learned formed part
of a wash suite, with baths and an old boiler being located in adjoining rooms.
Almost immediately, Laura began to relay information to
me – in the past, the room had been a make-shift prison, where people had been
kept chained.
Something had happened to a person in here. This person
was very scared, a man.
I noticed that Laura appeared to be greatly affected by what
she was sensing, going on to tell me that there was one person here, who had
their...... At this point she found herself locking her hands together and
telling me that her hands were held together with such strength that the blood
was beginning to drain from them.
Laura described that it felt as if someone was wringing
their hands really tight, or if their hands were bound, locked together.
Laura, clasped hands, in the wash suite
Turning to face me, she exclaimed that her hands were
clasped together so tightly that she could feel them ‘pulsing’ strongly.
Laura felt herself compelled to keep her hands in this
position, which she did so for the entire duration that we were in the wash
suite.
With no further information and, having completed our
inspection of the adjoining rooms, we left the wash suite, returning back out
to the main court yard.
It was at this point we subsequently discovered that we’d
recorded our first EVP, although unfortunately indistinct, of our visit.
Deciding to continue our tour in an anti-clockwise
direction, we soon found ourselves in front of a concrete staircase to the upper
level.
Laura, at the point on the stairs where she saw the ghost of a young girl, walking down towards us.
At this point, Laura grabbed my arm tightly and exclaimed
that she could see a young child, a girl of around three or four years of age, three
quarters of the way down the staircase, on the lower steps, walking down
towards us.
With my camera already out, I took some photographs as
quickly as I could, in the hope of capturing that ever elusive picture of a
ghost on film, but sadly, not to any surprise, nothing of interest came out in any
of the images that I took.
The Sally Port
Immediately to the right of the stairway, was the
entrance tunnel into the bowls of the Fort, the Sally Port.
The tunnel ran through the outer defensive walls
and allowing access to the casemates and powder rooms, a crucial component of
the 18th Century fortification.
Again, within a minute of us entering the sally port, I
noticed that something was up - Laura was clutching her leg and walking stiffly,
with a limp.
Laura, indicating where the pain in her
leg was located.
Any questions that were beginning to form in my head were
answered by Laura, who told me that she was experiencing a severe pain in
Laura’s right groin, affecting her ability to walk normally.
With Laura attempting to walk the pain off, we made our
way to the magazines. As we approached the entry barrier, Laura raised her hand
to her left shoulder and neck and grimaced, she was feeling a sharp pain from
what she thought was a wound, a wound to the left shoulder.
A couple minutes later, we later found that we’d recorded
our second EVP, a chid asking “What’s down there?”, swiftly followed by a
third, a couple of minutes later, answering Laura’s (general) question with “Yeah”
After completing our exploration of the lower level, we
re-entered the courtyard and decided to walk through the secondary gateway, to
the inner courtyard, where we found ourselves within an enclosed muster yard,
or parade ground, with a two story crescent of what we assumed to be Victorian
living quarters and related facilities now immediately behind us.
In the lower level of rooms, we spotted a shop and
cafeteria, but finding the attendant preoccupied with customers, we took the
nearest staircase to the upper level and explored each room, one by one.
The Upper Level
We found the rooms, as expected, to be very small, some
with additional rooms, that could best be described as walk in cupboards.
The first room we visited was F7, which was nearest to
the stairs that we’d just climbed up.
Hardly left impressed after being
told to "fuck off".....
This room which, along with F6, formed part of pair of
rooms used as Fire Officers Quarters, had an adjoining bathroom. Entering the
bathroom, Laura was immediately told to ‘Fuck off’ loudly by a male. She also
picked up a symbol, possibly a badge (military), that we’ve yet to identify.
Moving onto the next room, F6, which could be entered by
a short connecting passage, Laura picked up ‘Kirkaldy’, which she took to be a
place. I assumed that this referred to Kirkcaldy, a coastal town in Scotland,
which Laura had not heard of before. They’ll be dancing in the streets of Raith
tonight......
We could only assume that this possibly related to an
unknown serviceman, but with no further information forthcoming, we had no way
of knowing.
Have you seen this badge before?
As we continued along the upper levels, we found
ourselves on the opposite side of the inner keep, in what could be described as
more functional rooms, related to World War 2, including an Operations Room,
that was only rediscovered relatively recently, in August 1995, complete with
large oval table, that had been sealed up when the Army vacated the Fort almost
40 years earlier (3).
In a gun bastion, occupied by a replica, 12 ½ inch,
38-ton cannon, reported feeling ‘heady’, perhaps an echo from the past,
replicating the experience of a former WW2 gunner suffering from the fumes that
emitted from the original gun.
In room 10, the radio room, inexplicably, Laura was given
the phrase ‘Duke of Canterbury’ – a nonsensical name we knew, but could it have
related to a code name used at the location in WW2? Subsequent research has
revealed nothing unfortunately.
The Radio Room - no sign of the Duke of Canterbury here.
With the Sun getting lower we decided that it would be
time to depart, but not before we’d visited the upper level above the
gatehouse.
As we made our way along the battlements, towards Chapel
Bastion, the breeze from the North Sea finally began to bite and the chill sunk
in. It was at this point began to pick up some more information – “Rook”,
“Lathwaite”, with the name “Daniel” possibly connected to the name Lathwaite.
Again, I’ve found no reference to these names since but, with the number of
people passing through the Fort other the centuries, information like this can
be like searching for the proverbial needle in a haystack.
Just before we got to the Bastion, Laura asked to be left
alone as someone had been trying to get her attention and she felt compelled to
immediately sit down, so I left her sitting on a set of robust concrete steps
that allowed you to look over the battlements.
It was here that Laura picked up the image of a man,
together with the name “Toby Jarvis”, but no other information came through and
Laura eventually rejoined me back down in the outer courtyard, where we made
our way back to the car.
Laura, in the distance, sat alone to the right of Chapel Bastion, making notes of her impressions and, a sketch of 'Toby Jarvis'
Summary
Both Laura and I were pleasantly surprised by the
condition of the Fort and could thoroughly recommend it to anyone who was
looking for somewhere historical to visit for a day out at little cost.
From a paranormal perspective, Laura felt that there was
more that she could tap into under more favourable conditions and that it would
be a different proposition at night.
For myself, subsequent research revealed how significant to
british history this location was and, how undervalued it was by the public,
which I thought was a shame but, at the same time, I was looking forward to our
next visit.
However, the question remains, what did ‘Toby Jarvis’
want? Will we ever find out?
Toby Jarvis
Footnote: The
alleged ghosts of Landguard Fort
Over the last 15 years or so, with the ever growing popularity
of paranormal groups sprouting up at a drop of a hat, complete with an army of
mediums, the haunted history of the Fort has become very muddy indeed,
resulting in what Laura and I generally refer to as two distinct categories of hauntings,
namely ‘traditional’ - historically documented cases of hauntings and,
‘contemporary’ – those that have originated since the advent of the internet
and social media.
Here follows therefore, a selection of hauntings at the
Fort, for both categories:
1.Traditional
Hauntings
a.Ghostly Footsteps
b.The ghost of Nathaniel Darell, Governor of the
Fort during the Dutch invasion; and
c.The ghost of the Earl of Holland, first Governor
of the original Landguard Fort, riding a white horse.
2.Contemporary
Hauntings
a.The ghost of John Lowes, a clergyman, tried and
executed for an act of alleged witchcraft at the Fort by Matthew Hopkins (the
so-called Witch finder Genera), in the Holland Bastion.
b.The ghost of a musketeer, the sole English casualty
(at the Fort itself) of the 1667 engagement with the Dutch, patrolling the
upper battlements in the area of the Holland Bastion.
c.The ghost of a Portuguese lady, Maria, wife of a
paymaster sergeant serving at the Fort, who threw herself from the battlements
following the unjust execution of her husband, who allegedly haunts the areas
of the Chapel Bastian from where she jumped.
d.The spirit of a plague victim, in the ground
floor of the Chapel Bastion, where he had been kept, in isolation, until his eventual
death
e.The spirit of a drowning victim, accidental or
otherwise, in the wash suite
f.The ghost of a suicide, full of remorse due to
his involvement in the drowning in the wash suite, in the magazine corridor
g.The ghost of a horse, witnessed in the area
outside the Fort, during World War Two. It’s unclear if this horse in linked to
the traditional ghost listed in 3. of ‘Traditional Hauntings’ above
h.The sound of marching troops approaching the
Fort, again reported by a guard during the Second World War; and
i.The sound of workmen, accompanied by a possible
time slip, in the 1960’s, after the Fort had been abandoned.
Sources:
1.‘Suffolk Invasion’ – Frank Hussey (pub. 1983)
2.‘An Update on Landguard Fort’ – Doreen Rayner (pub.
1995)
3.‘Things that go bump in the Fort’ – Richard Bradshaw
(pub. 2009)
More than a few months have passed since the remote viewing exercise that we undertook back in July and we suspect that many may be curious as to how (if at all) this has developed in the ensuing months.
Just your ordinary memorial....
Our original article relating to the remote viewing exercise can be found HERE
In truth, since we last updated the blog, things
continue to tick along and, along with other projects that we’re working on, we
were able to get an update on the situation regarding one particular piece of
information that Laura picked up upon, which had intrigued everyone involved at
the time – the symbol that was suggested to be found on the back of a stone
memorial in the grounds of the location.
The visit
A couple of months after the exercise, Jason, who had kindly provided the images for
the remote viewing session, was able to return and visit the location for the
first time since July and was keen to examine the memorial, a Celtic Cross, to
establish whether there was anything etched onto the reverse of the memorial.
The Celtic Cross
Upon entering the grounds, Jason advised that he approached
the area of the church yard where the Celtic Cross was located and went straight to the cross.
He examined the reverse of the Cross carefully, but could find nothing of interest. Jason found that the reverse of the Cross was textured and appeared unsuitable for any symbol to be left there, etched or otherwise.
The symbol
Casting the net further afield, Jason approached the gravestone immediately behind the Cross and examined its reverse.
The reverse of the memorial immediately behind the |Celtic Cross
Beneath the moss he could make out a faint symbol
scratched into the stonework. Scraping the accumulated moss and lichen away
revealed a circle, intersected by two lines.
Interesting.
Whilst there appeared to be a connection with what Laura
had originally picked up remotely, it was not a ‘direct’ hit – there was indeed
a symbol, but it wasn't on the gravestone that had originally indicated by
Laura.
A close up of the reverse of the cross, showing the symbol.
Nevertheless, Jason found himself face to face with a symbol, found as a direct result of the suggestion made by Laura as part of the remote viewing experiment.
This also begged the question as to what the symbol meant?
Jason informed us that he felt that the symbol had actually
been there for quite some time and was not a recent addition – he had to remove
the moss and lichen to view the symbol fully and for him to be able to
photograph it adequately.
Apart from this, there were no other clues as to its
origin.
What does the
symbol represent?
To be brutally honest, at the time of writing, we have absolutely
no idea – our research and that of several contacts with knowledge of the
Occult that we have been in touch with regarding the symbol, have found no
reference to this design, nor had anyone encountered anything like it previously.
The location does have a history of occult use, with some unsavory incidents being noted in the past that may still continue to occur to this present day. However we believe that the symbol relates to the historic use of the location, not that of more contemporary times.
So let us take a closer look at the symbol itself.
The circle, also referred to as a sun disc, sacred hoop or indeed a ring, is a widely recognised symbol within the Occult world, representing ‘Protection’. However, it does hold other meanings, not all good, such as a serpent (forming a circle as it eats its own tail) or as a representation of the Fire element.
However, with our symbol, this has clearly been modified slightly by the addition of two lines. Furthermore, it then looks like a couple of further rough lines have been added, in an effort to strike the symbol else – either by the originator of the symbol or, someone else who had encountered it afterwards.
The Red lines represent what we feel was the original etching, whilst the lines in Blue is an attempt to strike out the symbol.
Of course, we do have a couple of theories relating to its meaning
but, until we have something more concrete to present, we will leave it at
that, unsatisfactory as it is.
Its important to stress that we would welcome any
information or suggestions as to what the symbol represents, so feel free to
leave any comments or thoughts that you may have below.
We will obviously post updates to this development as and when they occur.
