In 2018, CCTV footage emerged in local newspapers in the North East of England apparently showing a glass smashing by itself while placed on the bar of a snooker club - that article can be viewed HERE.
Kayleigh (who appears in shot of the CCTV video) is a friend of mine and is very interested in the paranormal. It seemed that there was a lot more to this club once you get chatting to locals.
I made a couple of visits in early 2020 and spoke to people who had experienced "paranormal|" things inside this club. Sightings, sounds, poltergeist activity and EVPs have all be experienced inside here, but obody knows who or what could be haunting the place. There have been no deaths inside the actual snooker club, but the building was once a nightclub in the 1950s/60s and there is a theory that something may have happened around this time. Sadly I have not been able to find any records of this.
While science may be able to offer an explanation for a glass shattering, nothing can explain how a member of staff heard snooker balls clinking together despite the fact that the area around the tables was in darkness and there was nobody was in. Another member of staff heard somebody clearing their throat at her while she was opening up and empty building. Finally, a member of the club saw a full dark figure standing beside table 9, and when he asked if he could get past, it simply faded away.
Its also worth noting that many of our followers are American and are maybe not familiar with snooker. It is a British sport that is played largely in the UK, select parts of Europe, Australia and China.
Visit Whitley Lodge Snooker Club
Address:
26 Claremont Crescent,
Whitley Bay, NE26 3HL
Whitley Lodge is a suburb to the north of of Whitley Bay, which is on the coast of North Tyneside (around 10 miles east of Newcastle).
Ripon Workhouse Workhouses, or sometimes referred to as the Poorhouse, were instituted setup in Britain to provide work and accommodation for the poor. Although these types of places have been around since the 14th century, it was in 1832 that the government introduced The Poor Law - to give the poor a place to live in exchange for doing work. Over 500 of these places were built in just one decade. The idea - to get the poor off the streets. The present workhouse in Ripon opened in January 1855, although another has workhouse existed on the site since 1776. In Ripon, many people who could not afford to live, would apply to be admitted in the entrance block (now used as the Ripon Workhouse Museum). Paupers would appear before the Guardians who would decide the fate. They’d be made to strip and take a bath - with the water being changed once a day. Clothes would be cleaned before entering. Nobody wanted to be one of the last people in that day as the water would be cold and dirty. Many homeless people would be given short term access to the workhouse too. Known as the 'Tramp's cells', someone could spend up to 2 nights in here in exchange for 2 days worth work. Those who would stay permanently were kept in the main block, with the men and women separated into wings on either side. Daily work would include crushing stones, chopping wood, while women would work in the kitchen and children educated in classrooms. Many families would be forced into the workhouse if the household father committed a crime and was sent to prison meaning the wife and children would be evicted from their homes. The youngest person to enter the workhouse was 2 weeks old, with the oldest recorded death being over 80 years old. One story tells of a woman and child who tried to enter Ripon Workhouse. She was poor and had nowhere to stay with her baby. She’d drank alcohol earlier that evening and was deemed to drunk by the guardians to stay, so she slept outside in the cold. The next morning she was sober enough to go inside, but her baby had died. Staff who work at the museum claim that the doorbell at the front of the building will ring, despite CCTV showing that nobody is there. Could this be the spirit of someone trying to get to their last resort? On the 28th November 1855, a 61 year old lady called Harriet Rodwell realised she would never escape the workhouse and decided death was the only way for her to get out. She fastened a shawl around her neck, and attached it to a door handle whilst in a sitting position, and then slid down the stairs, killing herself. The stairs whre she took her own life were recently rediscovered behind a wall after renovation work, and her spirit has been seen in this area in the daytime by terrified office workers who now work in this converted part of the workhouse. Another story claims a drunk Margaret Clark was dragged to these stairs and had cold water thrown on her in an attempt to subdue and rape her by a sinister Master. In total, 72 deaths were registered between these walls in just 62 years. That is not including a Workhouse that was on this exact site before this one was built. One woman lost her child, believed to have been taken from her by the authorities, and she is believed to have been seen mainly in the workhouse garden, but also inside the building, looking for her child.
The doors in the tramp’s cells have been known to slam shut on their own, and banging has been heard in this area. One couple visiting the museum claimed to see a man pushing a penny farthing through from the master’s house despite being the only people in the museum at the time. Many children were inmates here and the sounds of children playing and laughing has been heard. One child in particular has made his presence known to multiple mediums - 5 year old Henry, who records show was in here with his mother. A figure has been captured on camera in the clothing store, which is currently in the archives of the museum.
Visit Ripon Workhouse
Address:
Allhallowgate,
Ripon,
HG4 1LE
Email: info@riponmuseums.co.uk
Ripon is a cathedral city located in North Yorkshire, but it feels more like a town. It is located just a few minutes from the A1 motorway, which is the best way to travel here. Parking can be tricky - there is a short term carpark in the centre, but you only get 1 hour to stay here, so its quite pointless for tourists visiting. This carpark is also closed on Thursdays, and is used for a market place. A longstay carpark is located about a minutes walk from the workhouse.
If driving is not an option, the number 36 bus from Leeds city centre via Harrogate passes every 20 minutes.
Ripon Museums cover 3 different museums - The Workhouse Museum, The Prison and Police museum and Ripon Courthouse museum. I would advise visiting all of these places, but if time is of the essence, prioritise the workhouse. Entry to the workhouse is £9 for adults, although for £16.50 you can buy a pass to have access to all 3 museums, valid for a year. Under 15s pay £6.50 for the workhouse, or £9.50 for a year long pass for all 3. The museums are ran by volunteers, and the money raised goes towards maintaining the buildings.
Ripon Workhouse currently has 2 buildings that you can enter. The Museum Block is full of props and rooms decorated to look original. The Main Block sadly has been converted into offices and learning space. There are a few areas that have been kept how they were.
UK TV show Most Haunted were given access to film in the museum block, as the main block was not open for ghost hunting at the time. We have an exclusive! The Museum block is highlighted in red, and the old Main Block is highlighted in yellow.
Kielder is a very small and remote village in the far north of England. It sits just 2km from the Scottish border and lies just inside the county of Northumberland, with Cumbria being not to far to the west. It is also known to be the darkest part of Europe, and the 4th darkest area in the world - not because of its ghostly legends, but because it has a protected status from the Dark Skies Association due to its lack of light pollution. Because of its remote location, at night, you can experience a true dark night sky.
To put this into perspective, 85% of the UK population have never experienced a true dark night sky. And for this reason alone, our night vision cameras were important in the night. It is also the reason why Kielder Observatory is one of the best places in the Northern hemisphere to star gaze. A real contrast to when we were filming in Iceland and we started our ghost hunt at the Hvitarnes hut under the midnight sun.
According to the 2011 UK census, 218 people live around Kielder, a small settlement that has built up since the castle was built in 1775. There is evidence of ancient settlements, believed to be the Votadini, who lived in this area up until the time of the Roman invasion of Britain. There are ancient burial sites deep in the Kielder valley to prove this.
The castle at Kielder was built for the Duke of Northumberland as a hunting lodge. One thing to note however is that Kielder was a completely different place to what it is now. There was no forest back then, as this was only started in the early 20th Century to become Europe’s largest man made forest. Before then, this area was largely baron moors. Kielder Water was also only built in the 1970s, at the expense of a few small villages that were lost during its construction. Despite popular legend, there are no lost villages still at the bottom of the lake.
When the castle opened, it became a popular hangout for the Duke and many of his rich and wealthy friends. You can only imagine what kind of parties and social gatherings would have taken place in this very Male dominant environment.
So who haunts the castle? There are several disturbing legends that have been told over the years, starting with that of Sir Hugh Percy, the 3rd Duke of Northumberland who inherited the estate. He is said to have insisted that any servant who ever fell pregnant while living at the castle must be sacked immediately. However one young servant by the name of Marie was having a secret relationship with one of the Duke’s footmen, and soon fell pregnant. If she lost her job, she would be penniless and without a place to live, and a baby to look after. She decided to confess her secret to Lady Charlotte Clive, the mistress of the Duke, and together they decided to hide all evidence of Marie’s pregnancy. She would wear clothing that would hide her ever growing bump and the Duke suspected nothing.
However, the baby was stillborn and Marie was destroyed by this, but it was important to hide all evidence that this pregnancy occurred. It is said that Lady Charlotte removed the dead baby and one night, placed it into the fire of the great hall, cremating it until it was just a pile of bones, which she crushed into ash. The next morning, Marie cleaned out the fire, unaware that she was actually sweeping away the remains of the child she thought she would one day raise. A rumour even goes as far as saying that the baby was not stillborn, but born as a healthy baby, only to be killed in order to hide the secret.
Several people have experienced paranormal occurrences in this area of the castle. A ball of light has been reported around the fireplace, as well as the sound of a baby’s cry. Sadly this part of the castle is now part of the cafe, and not available during paranormal investigations. The ghost of Lady Charlotte has also been seen all around the castle, despite dying in London and being buried in Westminster Abbey.
And this isn’t the only tragic story of a servant living in the castle. The servants living quarters are said to be haunted by the ghost of a maid called Emma, who committed suicide by jumping into the castle’s well and drowning herself. She was left broken hearted after hearing that her lover was lost during the Boer War. It is her ghost that is seen at the window of an upstairs bedroom, as well as stood beside the well that she killed herself in.
A senior groundsman called Edward Ball had a room at the top of the castle in Attic 2 so that he could see the full area that he was in charge of. He was a strict man and feared by everyone that worked here. Other stories swirled around that he would also abuse young boys at the castle. He was found dead one day in bed, with his official cause of death being natural circumstances, but it is also said that a group of boys sneaked into his room at night and smothered him to death - something that no coroner would be able to notice back in the 19th Century. Many mediums have picked up on a man by the name of Edward, and he is also said to push people who enter what was once his former living quarters.
Tragedy struck a guest staying here in the early 1800s. Anthony Green was lodging at Kielder Castle, and on a hunting trip one day, he aimed his flintlock rifle at a stag, only for his gun to malfunction and it exploded in his face, taking half of his skull off. A man with “half a face” has been seen many times in the local area outside of the castle, and is a popular legend in the village of Kielder itself.
Another ghost picked up here is said to be a man on a horse, who is seen in the area outside the front of the building. Could this be the ghost of ‘Brewery Jack’, a smuggler who used to sell smuggled goods around Northumberland, only to be caught and hanged from a tree directly in front of Kielder Castle alongside 5 of his associates?
There are also some former stables here, with paranormal activity reported inside. Today they serve as a cinema/projector room for school visits, but a dark figure has been seen standing in the doorway, and the strong smell of horse manure usually gets sensed coming from the far corner of the room, and is usually experienced shortly before paranormal activity occurs.
Staff working at the castle have experienced all kinds of paranormal activity. From full apparitions, shrieks and ghostly voices, it’s no wonder that the old attic living quarters is a place nobody wants to be on their own.
After years of being derelict, Kielder Castle was sold to the Forestry Commission in 1932, and with the growth of Kielder Forest, the landscape is now completely different to how this place once would have looked. The building has been restored and well maintained so that it can be used for education visits. Rooms have been modified for learning, and the building no longer feels like the old castle it once was. But that’s not to say that the ghosts of those strongly linked to this place don’t continue to appear.
As of early 2020, plans for future paranormal investigations are unclear. Much of the upstairs areas have been stripped out for renovation later in the year as the castle prepares to move into its next chapter of its history. Whether this means the end of ghost hunting here, that is unclear. But for now, pull the duvet covers up, switch the lights off and enjoy the the last ghost hunt at Kielder Castle (hopefully not forever).
Visit Kielder Castle
Address:
Kielder Castle
Kielder
Northumberland
NE48 1ER
Phone: 01434 250209
Visiting Kielder is best done by car. The road leading to the village is known as The Border Forests Road? And is very scenic in the daytime as it meanders past Kielder Water. It is well worth stopping and taking in some of the views.
Kielder lies just over an hours drive from Newcastle, and the same distance in the other direction from Carlisle.
If you enjoy nature treks, this will be an area of the world that is ideal for you. There are plenty of trails through the forests nearby, and for the really fit, Kielder has its own marathon which takes in a full lap of the lake.
Every April, Kielder also hosts rallying, and has been a round in the British Rally Championship until 2019.
Kielder Castle is open on apart from Tuesdays and Wednesdays in the most of the year from 11am - 4pm. Visitors can access the cafe and have a small wander of the rooms around the building, although please note that the former living quarters that we filmed in are private and not accessible to the public. Entry is free.
There is free WiFi at the castle, but do bite that the area around Kielder gets no mobile phone reception at all, so when driving home, it’s best to set your phone’s satnav while still in a WiFi zone!
