HAMBROOK GROVE – Mar 2008

Investigation Site

Hambrook Grove
Hambrook
Bristol

History of the Site

The Hambrook Grove is a listed building that has been standing since the 18th Century. It is located at the top of Hambrook hill and very close to The White Horse public house (this has been one of our previous investigations (Click here to view)). The building is located in a rural area on the northern fringes of Bristol. It is set alongside the Ham Brook just to the west of the River Frome and is surrounded by the M4 and M32 Motorways and the Avon Ring Road. Hambrook, Originally a Domsday settlement, today comprises a mix of small cottages, farmsteads and larger houses mostly dating from the 17th and 18th centuries. The Hambrook Grove is currently being used as a hotel and is a lovely place to stay.

Investigating Team

The members of the team present for this investigation:
Marlene
Sandra
Sue
Pete
With Guests:
Ami
Sarah
Dawn & Kim(Owners)
Alisha (Their Daughter)

Paranormal Activity Eyewitness Reports

As you can imagine with most houses of this age and with such a grand appearance, it is full of a character all of its own. On a few occasions, there has been a presence felt on the stairs, and a door at the top of the stairs has been known to open and shut. The owners have called out, but there has never been anyone around. They believe it could be the ghost of Barbara (Kim's mother) as she lived in the house and would always get up around half six every morning, come down the stairs and put the kettle on for the workers that would be arriving.

In one of the rooms (which actually used to belong to Kim's mum), an ornament that is sat on top of the TV has caused some confusion as it has appeared to turn and face a different direction through the night.

Although Kim's mum passed away 3 years ago, she would ways tell them of the voices she could hear in her room on an evening, even though there was never anyone there...........

Investigation Report

The team arrived at the hotel at around 10.30 and were instantly met by Dawn, Kim and their family. When they entered the house, all the team members were taken back by the lovely hallway with the 2 large pillars and the grand stairway, giving it the real feeling of a house that belonged to the 18th century.

Once everyone was inside and all the introductions had been carried out, the team placed all of the equipment into the dinning room, and then performed their "Protection" procedure. With this complete, the team were given a tour around the building by the owners, including around to the west wing where there are a further 3 rooms (Room 3 is Kim's mums room, Rooms 5 & 6 used to form the chapel, and still have the original window in place).

Upon returning to the main house building, the team were led upstairs and shown around the remainder of the building. They worked out that there was 15 rooms in total with several long corridors, giving some real understanding to just how grand this house had been when it was first built, and also giving the team some real excitement of just how much could be discovered!!

The team got started on the baseline tests, checking the temperatures in various locations, as well as using the EMFS. The results are listed below:

Dinning Room
TEMP: 12.5 degrees
EMFS: 8.5 (this was high due to the amount of electrical equipment in the room)

Stairs
TEMP: 16.9 degrees
EMFS: 2.4

West wing Bedroom 3
TEMP: 10.3 degrees
EMFS: 7.6

Toilet
TEMP: 9.3 degrees
EMFS: 2.4

Chapel Room
TEMP: 6.9 degrees
EMFS: 2.3
Chapel Room Toilet and Kitchen area
TEMP: 7.3 degrees
EMFS: 2.3

Lounge
TEMP: 14.6 degrees
EMFS: 8 (this was high due to the amount of electrical equipment in the room)

Long Hallway
TEMP: 7.8 degrees
EMFS: 0

Bedroom 10
TEMP: 7.8 degrees
EMFS: 0

The next item on the agenda was to setup some of the equipment. They started by setting up a "Lock off" wireless camera in room 3 of the West wing, facing the previously mentioned ornament on top of the television. The second camera was setup in the hallway in the main house. The team then ensured that all the remaining cameras where ready and working before starting the main investigation.

Marlene, Sue and Pete started their investigation in room 9, which was a warm room (Temp: 11.3 degrees). They all sat down and allowed the room to settle down for the first 15 minutes or so. Marlene the asked out if there was a William in the room and straight away she caught a light anomaly on her digital night vision camera. With this, she asked for the person to show themselves again and like before there was another light within the room. This encouraged the team that the investigation was going to be interesting.

After another 10 minutes of being in the room, Sue asked if any of the team had stood up, as due to them all sitting in complete darkness, it was difficult to see each other and she believed she had seen a black shadow near the window. Marlene and Pete both said that they had not moved. Sue tried to catch the shadow on camera but by the time she was able to, it had gone. Using the digital voice recorder, the team asked out again for William or any other spirits to communicate with them.

This group then moved to another room on the same floor and performed a séance using a Ouija board (with the owners permission beforehand), again the name Elizabeth came to Marlene so they started to ask out to her. The pointer seemed to hover just as if it was about to move, but never actually did. The team continued with the seance for another hour but never had any response so decided to end it.

All the members of the team then met back up for a short tea break and discussed what they all experienced so far. Sandra, Sarah, Amy and Dawn had gone over to the West Wing for their first vigil. Upon entering the room, the team found it very cold an where surprised as it was used as a bed-sit. To start their investigation, they sat on the floor and called out for any spirits to come forward for about 30 minutes. Sandra caught 2 small floating orbs on the video camera, but this was the most the team seemed to have experienced, besides the room being extremely cold.

Moving to their next location, the team decided to enter the Lounge. The temperature in the main part of the room had dropped slightly to 14.2 degrees, but the team found that near to where a chair belonging to Kim's mum, the temperature had increased to 17.4 degrees, which the team found interesting. There seemed to be nothing else occurring within the room, and they had no responses from and calls.

The team then went to the top of the corridor in the main house, near to where one of the video camera's where recording. Sarah bravely volunteered to sit on the stairs in front of the camera, whilst the rest of the team watched from her on the screen in another room. With the team calling out for any spirits to come forward, they were able to capture some wonderful orbs and light anomalies around Sarah.

Once the tea break was over the whole group returned to the room that had belonged to Kim's mum. They performed a séance with Marlene and Pete filming. Sandra asked out to the spirits, and Alisha, who was sitting next to Sandra, started to feel really cold which Sandra also experienced, but the rest seemed not to feel it. Alisha started to feel worse, at which point Marlene called out three times for whatever it was to leave her alone. Within seconds of this, Alisha said that she could no longer feel any chill in the room!! With this experience causing a little distress, the team decided to end their investigation at around 4.45am.

Conclusion

Upon leaving the Hambrook Grove, the team all commented on what an exciting night it had been. From the grand appearance of the pillars, through to the paranormal activity.

The team are sure that the spirit of Kim's mum is still present within the building and was the reason for the temperature dropping when they performed the séance with Alisha in the last location

Marlene, Sue and Pete where really excited about the light anomalies that they managed to capture in room 9. With regards to the names, William was one of two names that Marlene had picked up, the other being Elizabeth. As yet they have not found any connection to the Hambrook Grove, but intend to investigate further.

The motion camera recorded 43 movements, so this is going to take some time to go through and investigate the findings.

Looking through the pictures that were taken on the digital camera's, Sandra was able to capture another two orbs floating in the room that belonged to Kim's mum.

The owners where really impressed with the investigation and were happy with the results as they were convinced of a paranormal presence. We are planning to revisit the Hambrook Grove in a few weeks to perform another vigil, as there are still so many more rooms left to be investigated. This may also bring forward more activity......

***We would like to thank Dawn, Kim and their family for letting us into the Hambrook Grove, and cannot wait for our return.***

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