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Email: Tim.watson@forgottenparanormal.co.uk

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Location: Peterborough Museum

Address: Priestgate,

 Peterborough,

 Cambridgeshire

 PE1 1LF

Aprox. year Built: 1500

The History - This street dates back to the twelfth century when the current town plan was set down by the monks of Peterborough Abbey. The origins of the name are unclear, but are medievals and likely to have been connected to the dwelling place of the parish priest, coupled with ‘gaeta’, the Anglo-Danish word for street.

1500s - The first recorded house on the Museum site was in the 16th century, when a grand mansion was built there for the Orme family, who were given land in the area by King Henry VIII in 1536. This house, called Neville Place, is marked on a 1611 map of Peterborough and can be seen in a 1731 drawing of the city. The Orme family were MPs and magistrates for the city and were chiefly responsible for building the Guildhall in Cathedral Square which still stands today. Some stonework still survives from this original house in the cellars under the Museum, and there is likely to be more elsewhere in the building.

1800s - The central core of the current building dates from 1816, when it was a grand Georgian house for the local magistrate, Thomas Cooke and his first wife Judith. She died shortly after the building had been renovated and Thomas would marry twice more over the intevening years, until his death in 1854.

In 1856, the Priestgate mansion was sold to the 3rd Earl Fitzwilliam, who allowed it to be used as the city’s first hospital, the Peterborough infirmary from 1857 until 1928. The building was altered after a fire in 1884, with wings being added on the side and an extension to the rear. The infirmary, run by a charitable trust, continued to outgrow the building, leading to the construction of a new hospital as a memorial to Peterborians killed in the First World War. Upon completion in 1928, the hospital was moved to this building, until recently part of the Peterborough District Hospital.

1900s -The Peterborough Natural History Society and Field Club was founded in 1871 to promote interest in local natural history. Members included the surgeon at the hospital, Dr Walker, and local chemist Mr Bodger. Within a decade, the Society had widened its interest and laid the foundation of a museum and a library. It became the Natural History, Scientific and Archaeological Society and in 1947 took its modern title of the Peterborough Museum Society. When the Society began assembling the museum collections, the first collection was kept in a cardboard box under a member’s bed! Various buildings have housed the collection during its history, including a house on Park Road and a former chapel in the Cathedral Precincts.

The former Infirmary building was acquired by Percy Malcolm Stewart, Chair of the London Brick Company, who donated it to the Museum Society. It was opened as a museum in 1931, with the art gallery added in 1939.

Today - The Museum and its collections have been owned by the Council since 1968, when the Museum Society gave them to the city. In May 2010, management of the building and its collections was taken over by Vivacity. Many of the original Georgian features can still be seen today, as can traces of its use as a hospital – we still have the old operating theatre, which can be seen by visitors in the upper floors.

The Museum also has a darker side to its past, and is said to be the most haunted building in the city.

What a great building!! The first think that strikes you is the fact that it is in the middle of the town and quite well hidden. The fact that this started as a home or residence for some one is really unbelievable. Our night started with a history and ghost tour from the museum historian who pointed out what type of things had happened and where. This was very interesting and informative but some things think this put seeds in the bran to what might happen later. However it was good to have him available as he was able to confirm names etc that were picked up through out the night.

After the History tour we had the medium walk about. This through up some names and other information that we were able to confirm and some that we weren’t. For the investigation and the medium tour we started on the main stairs, These are grand stairs that go up the centre of the museum. The medium picked up on the spirit of a WW1 soldier Thomas that is know and been seen on occasions on the stairs.  He also picked up on a lady in white that he felt was a nurse from the time that the museum was a hospital. I personally could feel a chill every once an a while on the stairs as if someone was rushing passed me.

On the first floor we went into the Geology Gallery, Here we had some activity on the K2 and the medium could pick up the presents of an old man that seemed to be in a night shirt and was acting crazy. He thought he was from the late 1800’s at which point the museum was a hospital but we were told that there was never a mental wing at the hospital. This spirit could have been earlier when the house was a private residence or a patient that had not been diagnosed with mental illness that should have been.

We moved on to the operating theatre, This seemed to effect half the group who felt uncomfortable in this room. The medium picked up on a doctor in here but said it was quite resent as there seemed to be lots of drugs and operating equipment with the spirit.

We than moved to the top floor and the back corridor. This is not open to the public and contains offices and the door to the back stairs. In the back stairs the medium picked up a few female spirits but he just got the feeling that these were nurses that seemed to be in a rush down the stairs as if they were fleeing a fire. Trying to rush people out the building. (Records show that there was a fire while the building was a hospital and while no one was injured the building was evacuated.)

Lastly we went to the cellar, Here he was picking up two spirits that didn’t seem to like people in the cellar. They seem to want to scare people away. While we did not feel much in here there was cool breezes felt by members of the group. Normally for a cellar that would just be normal but here the temperature as kept warm due to artefacts kept in there. There was also lots of electrical cables that while the reading for EMR (Electro Magnetic Radiation) were not high they were still picking up it up. This could affect K2’s later in he evening.

Vigil One First Floor - Our first vigil took place on the first floor board room and the Geology Gallery. We started with some glass work on a smaller table in the room. The glass did not move at all in here but after reviewing the video this could be because of the was the group had arms flat on the table. This could make it very hard for the glass to move any where. We did however have some activity on the K2 that was left on the main table. This was random and did not go off in direct response to any questions.

As we had a lack of activity that we could see we decided to move to the Geology Gallery. As you will see from the video below we did have loads of activity in the board room with light anomalies and one big red light that we did not see with our naked eyes.

In the Geology Gallery we started with some Florissant balls. These need to be charged with light to start so they were placed on the table with a touch on them. As we waited we did some calling and wait. We noticed that one of the torches would flicker, so we started to use this to communicate with the spirit. The torch would flicker on request and would also go brighter on request. While this was happening a noise like a growl was heard by more than half the group at the other end of the Gallery. We sent half the team to investigate but they could not find any reason or thing that could have made the sound. The balls never moved!!!

We then decided to use the PS2 Spirit Box to try and get some more information about the spirit that was using the torch. This gave us the name Isobel and Philip. We also thing that the age given for Isobel was 14. Watch the video below and decide for yourself. On reviewing the video I also heard a bang and directly after the spirit box said “Peddle”. Some of he group at the time thought it said “Nevel” but again I will let you decide. Personally I think it is saying peddle as it has just dropped or thrown one that we did not hear at the time.

Vigil Two Back Stairs -  For me this was the best and most active area on the night. This vigil was done with the Medium Ian. We had people located on the stairs as well as at the bottom of the stairs. We had two spirits here the first was called Anne who seemed to be a servant in the days when this was a private residence, she seemed to be quite a quite spirit and was just seeing what we was doing. She could also have been aware of the other spirit call Margaret. Margaret seed to be a stern figure who ran the house hold at the same time Anne was there. We are not sure if she was the lady of the house or just the house keeper. She seemed to be very sad and from the responses that we had she was married but her Husband had died before she did. When pushing and asking about her husband she did not seem to want to reply and it was if she was hiding some thing and was getting agitated. We had members of the group seeing lights flash around other members but we could not find any reason or recreate these lights. Some members of the group also heard a growl at the bottom of the stairs but again we could not find what could be making the sound. It was also not heard by all the people in the area.We returned to the stairs for Vigil four see below as this was a lot more activate. See the video below and you will see the light anomalies that the video picked up that we did not see at the time.

Vigil Three Cellar - After the medium walk round this is the one area I was really looking forward to investigating. As soon as we all walked into the end room or the cellar we had multiple K2’s all going mad. This however seemed to be a patten and they would do this every so often. While I would love to say this was paranormal I think it had more to do with the Electrical cabling rather than the supernatural.  In the cellar I went to the first room to do a lone vigil. The room felt quite peaceful and carm. I called out and waited for a response. Nothing heard. In the room with me I had the video camera, K2, Digital Recorder and IR still camera. There was no extra or strange voices on the recorder or the still camera. See photo’s below. The video does show that there was something else in the room with me as you can see Light anomalies that fly around. This is not dust or bugs as you can tell by the way they move. I spend 20 mins alone in the room before joining the others in the tricycle room.

We asked for any spirits to make themselves know by knocking, touching or saying something to one of us. Nothing happened. We did have some more activity on the K2 that was being held by a member of the group but again this could be electrical current that it was picking up.

Vigil Four The Back Stairs - For the final vigil of the night we split into two groups, One group went back to the cellar and the other group to the back stairs. Again we had people on the stairs and at the bottom of the stairs next to the door. In one of the earlier vigils on the stairs that we were not part of they had hear foot steps and talking from the other side of the door at the bottom o the stairs. On the other side of the door is a locked office that no one had access to. They even had it unlocked so that they could check there was no one there.

On this last vigil again with the medium he picked up two spirits, Margaret was with us again and a new spirit called Edward. We started talking to Margaret but she was not to forthcoming with answers so we turn our attentions to Edward. Gunner Edward King (Artillery) was part of 1DIv in the first World War. Is all that we could get out of him. It also seems that he was not killed in the war, but was injured and sent back to Peterborough when it was a Hospital. He seemed to just pop in and visit from time to time as he had some good friends there.

Some of the investigators that were towards the top of the stairs heard foot steps coming from the other side of the door that leads to the office corridor on the top floor. On investigation they could not find anyone in the area that could have made them and as the rest of the group where down in the cellar and we could account for the location of everyone we would have to put these down as paranormal as we have no explanation to what made them.

Towards the end of the vigil with Gunner King being quite rude toward myself as I was also a serving soldier with a higher rank he did not like that but seemed to want to play. We had placed a K2 meter on the end of the banister. It was logged in and not able to slip off the banister without help. The K2 suddenly went flying across the room, no one was touching the banister or was close to the K2 when it flew off. We replaced the K2 to where it had been and tried to get it to do it again by shaking the banister. It did not move. A few minutes later some one heard voices in the room behind the door again. I had already placed a digital recorder in the floor at the bottom of the door, Click sound click below to hear recording. Myself and another investigator both put our ears to the door to see if we too could hear the voices on the other side. We heard no voices but there was a big knock on the door like it had been hit by a hand with a ring on. Both of us said a few rude words as this made us both jump. I think it also make everyone else jump too. This was a great end to the night.

Summary - What a night, loads of light anomalies and some knocks and things being thrown. This was a great location that we have no hesitation in saying is HAUNTED. Also on the night we ran our camera film experiment but nothing happened. We also had a coin set up as a trigger object but this never moved.

If you get the chance I would recommend doing an investigation at the Peterborough Museum, we join Fright Nights Cambs on this investigation and it was a very well run and organised event. Check them out as we will be using them again. We have more video evidence from this investigation that we will post here as soon as we have edited it done from the three and half hours that it currently is.