Day 2: The Grail Court Hotel - In 1839 the railways arrived in Burton and local entrepreneurs built hotels where they thought the railway would stop. The Grail Court was one of these hotels. Although the hotel has been here since 1839 other buildings where here prior to this being in the centre of town. There has been paranormal activity reported at the hotel for years. Security cameras are fitted throughout the building and at night when the hotel is closed, orbs of white light have been clearly seen on the monitors although the staircase is in darkness. Members of staff have also heard footsteps on the landings and on investigating find nobody there. Cold spots are also felt in these locations but no draughts can be found.

The 2nd night saw us investigating the hotel in which we were staying, and for some it was an opportunity to find out a little about the activity which was said to take place in their very own bedrooms. This was also the night that we were joined by Phil Whyman and his colleague Nick, who I have to say were both exceptional company and a great addition to the night's events. We embarked upon our first set of vigils with Kelly and I taking a group including Phil and Nick to Room 12, where activity had included glass bottles being thrown off the bedside tables. We took 4 empty bottles along with us and set up an experiment by placing them on various tables in the room, hoping for some repeat of this phenomena. Unfortunately the team encountered little more than the occasional cold breeze on the middle bed, although spirits were high as we were all regaled by some of Phil and Nick's more amusing stories.

Our 2nd vigil took place in Room 21, where the spirit of a little girl is said to not only have been seen, but also photographed. Previous activity had included scraping noises coming from the bathroom after which guests have discovered scribbling in red crayon all over the inside of the bath. Here we attempted to make contact by singing nursery rhymes in the hope that we could encourage some activity. All remained quiet, and we began a scrying experiment with Kelly volunteering to stare into the large mirror on the wall while the team observed her face. At this point, encouraging the girl to show herself in the mirror, we all heard what could only be described as a xylophone being played up and down 3 times. I initially attributed this to either a mobile phone or some other device in the hallway outside, however attempts to find any source for this failed as none of our guests had a mobile phone turned on, let alone with such a ring tone. One of the team also experienced some coldness on her legs, as if something was sat on her lap, while I had felt a cold breeze on the back of my neck.

The 3rd and most significant vigil of the night saw us investigate the Camelot Function room, which was once a group of 17th century alms cottages. An apparition of a coffin has been recorded in this room, and it is believed it had once served as a resting place. For the most part we decided to sit in a circle at the end of the room and share stories and generally relax, raising some positive energy in the group. I then decided to bring over a square table to attempt some glass divination, although I would not participate. It was not long until we got some responses to our questions as the glass began to move purposely around the table. At one point when asking for the glass to move round the table, it surprisingly moved directly outwards and travelled around the very edge of the square table as opposed to going in a circle as typically expected. We had established that any suggested spirit energy was agitated with our presence in the room, at which point I chose to antagonise a response by asking for something more impressive that simply moving a glass around the table. At this point the glass began to circle the centre of the table at speed, so much so that eventually only a few of the team could keep their fingers in place. Then it suddenly appeared that there was an explosion of energy, as both myself and the 2 team members either side of me jumped backwards as if being affected by a massive discharge from some unseen force. I can only describe the sensation as being very similar to experiencing an electric shock, with a sudden jolt to my chest followed by a feeling of extreme nausea and shaking, as if I were in shock. This lasted on briefly, but this same phenomenon had clearly affected more than one team member, as we described similar sensations, while one of the girls was also clearly shaken and very tearful. We decided to honour our promise to leave this spirit in peace in the event that they would make themselves known, and we made a welcome retreat to the comparative safety of the pavement outside to reflect on this experience.

I still cannot easily understand the phenomena we encountered, be it spiritual or some kind of discharge of group psycho kinetic energy, however I can only say that it is the first experience that I cannot comprehensively explain. Kelly, Nick and myself returned to the function room shortly after in an attempt to make further contact, however the energy appeared to have dissipated and we encountered only minor movements of the glass and little else. The final vigil of the night took place with two teams in the hotel cellars, where unfortunately nothing of any interest occurred, and by this time the excursions of the 2 days were finally catching up on the teams. In truth it had been a fantastic weekend, with an interesting array of phenomena recorded by all the different teams that took part on the numerous vigils. Our return to Burton on Trent for the Halloween weekend is one that cannot come soon enough.