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Location: Newark Castle
Address: Newark Castle
Castlegate
Newark
Nottinghamshire
NG24 1BG
Aprox. year Built: 1100’s
The History -in Newark, in the English county of Nottinghamshire was founded in the mid 12th century by Alexander Bishop of Lincoln. Originally a timber castle, it was rebuilt in stone towards the end of the century. Dismantled in the 17th century after the English Civil War, the castle was restored in the 19th century, first by Anthony Salvin in the 1840s and then by the corporation of Newark who bought the site in 1889. The Gilstrap Heritage Centre is a free-admission museum in the castle grounds about the history of the town of Newark.
In a charter generally thought to date to 1135, King Henry I granted the Bishop of Lincoln permission to build a castle.[1] The charter reads. Henry, King of England to all the Barons and to the Sheriffs and to his ministers and faithful men of Nottinghamshire, Greeting. Know ye, that I have granted to Alexander, Bishop of Lincoln, that he may make a ditch and rampart of his fishpond of Newerk upon the Fosseway and he may divert the Fosseway through the same town as he shall wish. Alexander also established a mint at the castle. This early castle was most likely of timber construction, and was rebuilt in stone towards the end of the century. King John died after a feast at this castle on the night of 18 October 1216 from dysentery. The castle was slighted in 1648 and left derelict. Between 1845 and 1848 architect Anthony Salvin restored the castle, and in 1889 the corporation of Newark purchased the building and carried out further restoration work.
Once the main hold in Newark the castle is now just mostly in ruins with only a few rooms left standing. How ever it is still a scary place to be on a dark cold wet night which is what we had for our investigation. Below are floor plans showing what left at the site.
Firstly I would like to set the scene of the evening. On what you would think would be a nice clear evening in June turned out to be wet and cold. The rain did not stop all day and throughout the night. As we arrived at the castle we all meet in one of the underground rooms by the keep.
This room had big archways and later in the evening was the location of activity that did scare some of the other investigators there that evening. After the initial briefing about the night and the location we all went on a walk around to see the location and which parts of the location we would be using for the nights investigation. While on the walk round was also did some very quite vigils in two for the rooms which did not provide us with any evidence but did set the energy levels for the evening.
Vigil One -This was held in the Queens or Ladies room. On the vigil there were 7 ladies and only 3 men. We started with a watch and wait. For this we asked questions and waited to see if we got any responses. This was a very interesting vigil as we had lights and shadows appearing on the wall that was too high for it to be made by anyone in the room. We spent some time trying to debunk these which we think was due to lights through the window from cars and a slight breeze that was moving a large poster that was dangling from the ceiling in the centre of the room.
While calling out we did get some tapping but again this seemed to be random and we would not like to say that this was paranormal.
Vigil Two -was conducted in the Kings room, here I felt there was a different atmosphere compared to when we first visited the room on our walk round. We started with a Ouija board but there did not seem to be any movement on this. We then called out and asked for taps or knocks to answer our questions but again this did not really give us any responses that we could say were paranormal.
Vigil Three -This was free time and our group headed back the the ladies room as this was felt the more active of the locations we had been in. It started with four of the ladies on the Ouija board. As we were not in the room I can only go on what they have said. The y had a female spirit come through who was from the 15th century and an aid to the king at the time. She did not like the men being in the room and this could be linked to the time when she lived that the men were not allowed in the ladies chambers. As we entered the room there was three men and as soon as we went in the board said bye and would not move. We tried to call out with no joy. The three men then left the room and as soon as we did the lady came through on the board again. We then reentered and while she was not as active as when we left the room she still spoke through the board. At this point we asked the spirit to throw something, as we asked two ladies that had been in the room below and were just on there way up the stairs have a stone thrown at then that made the jump through the door to the room. This in turn made all the other ladies in the room jump.
Vigil Four -This was in the catacombs. At Newark Castle what left is just two rooms. Both go under the grounds and the only way in and out is through a hole in the roof. In the 15th century these would have been used to either store food like wheat and grain or used as prison cells with a death sentence. The poor people would have been through in and left to rot with the old corpses with no food or water supplied. It was a death sentence that was given out for small crimes like stealing food. It would have been a slow and painful death with the smell of death all round you.
Surprisingly I found both these rooms to be carm and peaceful. Others in the group did not feel the same way but as we had no activity I can only put this feeling down the trapped feeling as the only way out was a ladder and a small opening.
Vigil Five -This was held in the meeting room we first went to when we arrived at the start of the night. This to me was the darkest room (with the feeling I got) in the castle grounds. The room felt massive but it was no more than 10 meters long by 3 meters wide. We started with an energy circle and called out to any spirits that were there to show themselves. At first we picked up on nothing so decide to move to the other end of the room. Here is when the action started. People seeing shadows on the walls (no windows and no lights on at this point so not possible to create a shadow), Tapping which we later thought could have been water dripping at the end of the room. We heard a dragging sound as well as foot steps that were in the room and coming towards us.
The best evidence captured in this room was the torch that had been places on a table that came on when asked. We then had the light coming on and off at request.
Summary -We had a great night at Newark castle and after our experiences there would have to say it is haunted. With most of the investigations that we have done there is no bad spirits that showed themselves to us on the night and the spirits we did manage to communicate with were pleasant and polite as we were to them. Another great night with Spooky Nights.
