This impressive estate was built in the first half of Henry VIII's reign, the creation of Henry, 1st Lord Marney. Lord Marney died in 1523 and his son continued his fathers dream. Sadly John died two years later leaving no male heirs to continue the family line or to continue with the construction. After the 2nd Lord Marney's death the estate passed into the hands of Sir Brian Tuke who was Treasurer to the Royal Household and Governor of the Kings Posts, and his daughter-in-law entertained Queen Elizabeth here in 1579. From Sir Tuke and through the centuries the house has passed into many different hands. The buildings suffered considerable damage from the Great Earthquake of 1884, after which repairs were begun. The next owner was Walter de Zoete who carried on and expanded the work, enlarging the gardens, building a folly known as the Tea House and converting the stables into a Long Gallery. The house is currently occupied by the Carrington family, while reports over the years of supernatural activity include a haunting by an author of ghost books, a phantom gardener, and graves of small children have also been uncovered.

This was my second visit to this impressive Tudor Palace hidden in the Essex countryside, and there was eager anticipation of another successful investigation. We were joined for the evening by medium Stewart Keeys, for whom as usual this was his first visit to the location. On the journey to Layer Marney, Stewart typically attempts to link in with the location he is due to visit by scribing psychic images of the building or specific prominent features which come through to him via mental imagery. On the journey I witnessed Stewart begin to draw a Tower with 2 turrets, something which looked like a church and a Billiard or Snooker room which he felt could be found at our location. Indeed both the tower and the church were incredibly accurate, however I had not seen a games room of any kind in the building during our last visit so I was keen to hear what the owner Sheila had to say. Sure enough, when she looked at Stewart's drawing she confirmed that one of the areas which we were not permitted access to included such a room. An impressive start to the investigation.

The next prominent event of the evening was to occur before the vigils had even begun. During Stewarts Ghost Walk it had been reported that 3 of our investigators mentioned seeing the small figure similar to that of a young boy following me along the corridor towards the Corsellis room while Richard and I were setting up the experiments. The team were situated outside in the main car park with Stewart when one of them spotted me walking along past the windows, only to be followed by someone who was described as a 'young man' probably no more than 8 or 9 years old - the height of the figure was easy to compare to me as they could see most of my upper body but could only see the head of the figure behind. Later after this was mentioned by the team member, 2 other people in the group admitted to seeing exactly the same thing, but were unsure what to say at the time. I can verify that Richard was at that moment still downstairs while the rest of the team were on the walk around, and there was certainly nobody that small on the investigation. In order to try and verify that it was not Richard we experimented with the same witnesses standing outside looking up at the window from the same vantage point while Richard walked along the corridor, deliberately hugging the far side so as to minimise the amount of his body that could be seen. Even then however it was obvious that he could not have been the figure that was seen, as most of his upper body could still be clearly seen through the window. The most interesting and frustrating thing for me is wondering what I might have seen had I just turned around at that very moment.

My opening vigil began with one of our teams investigating the Map and Linen Room along the corridor from the Corsellis room. Initially we attempted divination and automatic writing using the Planchette in the map room where certain team members did experience some slight movement suggesting some kind of male energy, but unfortunately there was little actual written evidence of anything with intelligence trying to communicate. We then moved next door to the Linen Room where a glass divination experiment had been set up for the team. As always I remained an observer during the divination, witnessing some movement this time responding to questions related to a female energy who the team felt connected to the name Catherine, who was either a child or had a child with her. After a linked séance to help raise the energy the team returned to the glass where the movement became more pronounced and we asked for this presence to make themselves known to me while I stood alone in the corridor outside. Unfortunately I personally experienced no phenomena, although the rest of the team felt that something has communicated with them.

My second vigil took another of our teams to investigate the Long Gallery, a location not previously investigated during prior events at Layer Marney. The room was an impressive hall with wooden floors and a 16 foot high fireplace empty of any furniture except wooden window seats distributed along 2 sides of the room. I began by splitting the team up to cover the entire room and external stairways to try and capture any kind of phenomena. Unfortunately all remained perfectly quiet with the exception of a some chattering teeth, as the temperature was well below freezing in the gallery due to there being no heating in this section of the palace. I decided to sit the team down in the centre of the room to attempt a linked séance where apart from the odd creak which could be explained by wood expanding and contracting, as well as the wind outside, we experienced nothing. A few light anomalies were picked up on camera and video while one of the more sensitive members of the team suggested a connection with the name John Marney, but all in all it was a quiet hour and we gladly returned to the warmth of the main building to prepare for the next vigil.

Our third vigil took place in the Dining Room, where on our previous investigation we had so much success with Glass Divination, so this time I decided as we had a group of 7 that it would be an interesting twist to attempt 2 consecutive experiments on the same table with 2 glasses. My theory was that surely if a spirit energy was moving the glass that they would be able to move both simultaneously, so I began by asking out while the 2 smaller groups waited for a response. Interestingly during the experiment only one of the glasses actually showed any movement, and this happened to be the glass with the most number of people touching it, while the glass that failed to move also had the most sceptical members of the team focused on it. This is by no means a definitive answer to whether glass divination is purely the result of unconscious finger movements and pure belief in the spirits presence in the room, but it is certainly for me an interesting outcome which was not wholly unsurprising. The team that did get the glass to move sensed the energies of a female with blonde hair who they believed to be a playful spirit who when alive would have manipulated men and "played the field" so to speak. Other than the glass movement there was no other phenomena to speak of.

The final vigil of the night took place in the freezing cold Cinema room, again where there was no heating even though it was located just above the Corsellis room. As is often the case the final vigil of the night was generally uneventful, as the team had grown tired and the low temperatures were a little of a distraction. We did experience the occasional odd sound, but nothing unnatural to those sounds of a building settling and the wind blowing outside. Our night had come to an end. After such eager anticipation with the experiences earlier on in the night, investigation had come to a quiet completion, with little activity experienced by any of the other groups. During our wrap-up we did notice that the lights began to flicker and dim, which is something that Sheila had mentioned was a regular occurrence even though they have had the electrical wiring checked a number of times. None of our varied experiments throughout the building had shown any signs of activity, and dawn began to break we reflected on what might have been - especially had I turned around in the corridor a little earlier in the evening.