Ghosts at Christmas (12 page)

Ralph and Paul had a little success in their vigil on the top floor. A few taps and bumps were heard throughout the vigil and one or two strange lights were filmed on video camera. Ralph had a little more to say in regards to his psychic impressions. He came downstairs and told us that he thought there was an old ‘walkway’ or alleyway that once led from the front of the shop in The Shambles to the rear of the building. He suggested that the alley may have been where the store cupboard was in the café area. In regards to the café section (or side) of the building, Ralph claims this may have been built later than the original building. He felt that where the café is now, was an area where people would gather or collaborate, only then it would have been outside.

This may link with the experience of Chantelle and her sister, who, if you recall, saw a man venture into this area and seemed to disappear where Ralph thinks the alley once was. Perhaps it was the shade of a man strolling around in his day, who decided to venture up an alleyway that, of course, isn’t there anymore … it’s an interesting thought.

Drew and Fiona had an interesting time in their vigil too, with some very odd K2 EMF readings in the cellar and tunnels. I grabbed Fiona during our first break and this is what she told me:

So, not a bad start. After the break at 1.30 a.m., Ralph, Paul, and guest Barry paid the cellars a visit in number 22, while Mark and I investigated the top floor. Drew, Fiona and Simon staked out the café area. Disappointingly, not a thing was documented or experienced during the course of our vigil, but that’s what happens when you are ghost hunting – more often that not you don’t hear or see a thing. Mark and I did hear one loud tap during our vigil, but put it down to natural causes. A floorboard contracting or the wooden beams in the ceiling settling down; nothing paranormal. EVP experiments were carried out with no results worth noting.

When Ralph and Paul returned from the cellars I asked Ralph about what (if anything) had occurred. Ralph told me:

At 2.30 a.m. I ventured outside alone to smoke a cigarette and by now thick, white snowflakes had begun to fall. The Shambles was completely deserted, and, as I gazed down the ancient cobbled lane, I could see the Christmas lights and festive decorations flashing. The two old crooked buildings that almost touch in the centre of The Shambles made the scene and for a moment I was transported back to Dickensian England. I half expected to see a Victorian gentleman with top hat and tails scurry round the corner blowing into his hands to keep them warm, or perhaps hear an old horse and cart making its way up the old cobbled lane. Brief moments like that are for me what it’s all about, it was a moment I will never forget. It is also one of the reasons why I love ghost hunting so much.

After leaving the underground tunnels in shop 22 earlier on in the night (after taking a pre-investigation peek in there), paranormal investigator Mark decided to leave his EVP machine recording. By the time he left the shop, thirty minutes or so had already been recorded (while we were all in there) and by the time the first of the investigators arrived, another sixty minutes had passed, making the total time of the recording ninety minutes. The last sixty minutes of this recording is the most interesting as we know for a fact the premises was completely empty!

It starts twenty-seven minutes and thirteen seconds in with the voice of someone saying ‘Help’. Now, we were all in the cellar at that time and no one – as far as any of us can remember – said the word ‘help’. Granted, it could have been one of the investigators so we can’t be 100 per cent sure. What we can be sure of is that
the rest of the ‘anomalous’ sounds are totally unexplained – as the last sixty minutes of the recording no one was in shop 22 at all. Thirty-five minutes and fourteen seconds into the recording you can hear footfalls, and lots of them! Some close to the machine, indicating they are inside the cellar area, and some far away, suggesting that perhaps someone was walking overhead along the road above. It’s more than likely the case that some of these footsteps do indeed have a natural cause, but it’s just as likely (after hearing them) that some of them are truly anomalous. They are just too close to the recording device. A minute or so later (at thirty-six minutes and fifty-seven seconds), you can hear another eight footsteps, again very close to the microphone. At fifty-three minutes and nine seconds, three more footfalls are heard. Nine minutes later (at one hour two minutes and twelve seconds in), you can hear a voice saying ‘Hello’. One hour and fourteen minutes and eleven seconds in another gruff voice is heard saying either ‘Mary’ or ‘Nearly’. I personally think the voice sounds like it is saying ‘Mary’, but this is open to interpretation. Two minutes later (at one hour sixteen minutes and eleven seconds), a distinct and harrowing growl is heard – chillingly similar to the howl that is so often reported in shop 44. Finally, at one hour twenty-two minutes and thirty-five seconds, you can hear the last voice of this recording, and it simply says, ‘Dead’.

They were harrowing recordings to say the least and I make no judgement or claims regarding them. They are what they are … eerie recordings made in an alleged haunted property. Hearing them sends chills down the spine and, for me, it seems that they add to the evidence that is forever building of the existence of the supernatural.

Time was getting on now, and it was decided that we should pack up our gear and head off home. The fact that we were all beginning to tire was another reason for calling it a night. Tiredness can have a detrimental effect upon investigators and any anecdotal evidence of any kind, such as feelings of sickness or being touched, and seeing or hearing things, can be seriously flawed.

To spend a night on York’s Shambles searching for its ghosts at Christmas time is something that no one to this day has ever done, not in a scientific sense anyway. It was an honour and a privilege to be part of a unit that can now lay claim to being the first people in history to investigate not only two properties on York’s oldest street, but the tunnels and cellars underneath it.

Christmas comes but once a year,

The Yuletide spirit permeates the air.

The birth of Christ we celebrate;

A spiritual time, to contemplate.

Christmas is a time for living,

A time for gifts and joyous giving.

A time for peace, goodwill and love,

A time for prayer, to the lord above.

The festive season has more than this:

Snow and ice – and family bliss.

Sitting up late, till past midnight,

Telling ghost tales, by candle light.

Spectres abound, they roam the land

As Christmas Day becomes close to hand.

A fright or a warning, is their unearthly mission,

There walks through a wall, a gaunt apparition.

You tremble with fear, can’t believe your eyes,

This wasn’t expected, it was a surprise!

Have you just glimpsed the walking dead?

Or was it all, merely in your head?

You stop and think, you take a breath,

Does this alter your perception of death?

Seasonal greetings, to the guests you host

And Christmas wishes, to your resident Ghost.

Darren W. Ritson

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Haunted Berwick

Haunted Durham

Haunted Newcastle

The South Shields Poltergeist: One Family’s Fight Against an Invisible

Intruder
(with Michael J. Hallowell)

First published in 2010

The History Press

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This ebook edition first published in 2011

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