After a long and winding journey we came across, almost by accident, this isolated but welcoming sight in the form
of the Red Lion, nestled deep in the north Wiltshire countryside. All inside was warm and welcoming, as we set up
in the famous Well Bar for what we hoped to be an exiting night ahead. We later set up a number of experiments
throughout the building, with trigger objects in the lower bar area (dusted in flour), a locked off camera pointing
towards the corner of the restaurant where shapes and shadows have been seen, and finally a Stealth Camera and a
dictaphone in the infamous Private Room, which is now just a cluttered storage space.
After the walkaround with medium John Crowdey, we embarked upon the first of our nights vigils. I took a team up
to the Private and Avenue Rooms, 2 of the more renowned haunted locations at the Inn. We started in the Avenue Room,
where a television sat in the corner inviting us to try an experiment. I turned on the television and tuned it to
a channel with nothing but static - we sat and waited, reminiscent of 'that' scene in Poltergeist, mesmerised by
the hiss of static and snowy white light in the corner of the room. While diving with rods one of the team
appeared to connect with something, as her right rod continually followed 'something' around the room. We asked out
for any spirit presence to move towards the light being emitted by the television, in some desperate attempt to see
if we could get some interference or maybe have the light switched off. Incredibly as if on perfect command the TV
switched itself off - we sat for a moment in silence, after which we discussed the length of time that it had been
on, knowing that some televisions have an automatic timer to switch off when they are not tuned in. We all agreed it
had been roughly 5 minutes, so we turned on the TV and waited, most of us hoping that after 5 minutes had passed that
the box would still be lighting up the room. It ended up to be a perfect hunch, as 5 minutes to the very second
the television switched off again - we were all a little disappointed to say the least, but I think every one of us
expected it. I then decided to split the team off into pairs to spend short vigils in the Private Room. Each of the
mini-vigils brought about certain sensations of coldness from the team, however the room is the only one in the
building not be heated, and a large window did fill much of the wall opposite the door, so this was to be expected.
The room certainly had an air of foreboding, much because of the combination of inhospitable clutter and biting cold,
not to mention the rumours of people running from the room in sheer terror. The remainder of the vigil was generally
quite, although one of the team had to leave the Private Room after only a short while because of severe nausea,
possibly brought on by anxiety. The night had started quietly.
Our second vigil took place in the Lower Bar where we had set up a glass divination experiment. Early signs were not
encouraging as we waited for almost half an hour for any kind of response, and the glass remained still. In order to
try and raise the energies I asked the team to link in a séance around the table and visualise a circle of light
hoping that we could attract some kind of presence. During this a number of the team members felt an uneasy
presence near to the window, which appeared to be confirmed through rod divination as the rods continually directed
themselves to this area. We decided to return to the glass, and sure enough we began to get some movement. A
connection had apparently been made with a male energy, who when questioned appeared to reveal that they had taken
the lives of a number of people, possible his wife, her unborn child and her lover. This seemed to coincide with
the story of Flori, who had been murdered by her husband and thrown down the well, but we have to consider the
obvious likelihood that our questioning was heavily influenced by this local legend, while the glass movement could be
attributed to unconscious movements of the group. Towards the end of the session we asked if the supposed energy
could tip the glass over, and although it did tip slightly it was noticed that it had become stuck on a groove in
the table. An interesting, but not wholly convincing vigil had come to an end.
Our third vigil took another team into the main Restaurant, where again we had set up a glass divination experiment.
I asked one of the team, Pete, to sit in an armchair in the corner of the room, which legend suggested had some
paranormal significance, and we started divination. A number of the team sensed cold breezes during the session,
while a few of the team believed they had heard the word 'No' coming from the corner of the room where Pete was
sitting, although he confirmed that it was not him. Pete then began to feel a tingling sensation as we made a
connection with a supposed male energy, and similar to the divination in the Lower Bar we extracted information that
he was a killer of some kind. We also felt that a second possible energy, maybe that belonging to his victim,
had made themselves known, but again the movement could simply have been the result of unconscious finger movements
on the glass.
Our final vigil of the night took us to the Keller and Somerset Rooms, and we started with the whole group in the
Keller Room, asking out for some sign of activity. Roy believed that he had captured a couple of light anomalies
in front of the television, but apart from that all remained quiet. I then took two of the team to investigate the
Somerset Room, which upon first entry appeared much darker than any of the other rooms because there was less
light coming in from outside the window. Here I also captured a number of light anomalies on camera, although they
could possibly have been dust of insects. We gathered the remainder of the group to join us, and decided to sit down
on the floor and have a final linked séance to try and attract a spirit of some kind. Apart from a few of the team
experiencing cramps (there was not a lot of room on the floor) the most interesting occurrence was when Andy checked
his PDA only to find that it had turned itself off. He insisted that this had never happened before, and was even
not possible unless he did it manually. There was also an incident with Sam, who while sat in the séance began to
feel particularly light headed, but apart from that the final vigil was for the most part uneventful.
Once the vigils had been completed we gathered in the Well Bar to discuss our experiences from the night,
and most of us were initially oblivious to what we eventually realised were heavy footsteps and movement from upstairs.
When we finally confirmed that nobody was on the upper floors we discovered to our surprise that the door to the
Private Room was wide open, and we had several witnesses who admitted seeing it pulled so it was only slightly ajar
when the vigil was over. The door is not easily opened, and is not on a bracket that would cause it to open on its
own without a push. We then returned downstairs only for the noises and movement above us to begin all over again.
For a night that was in the most part fairly uneventful, this was a genuinely strange end to proceedings. It was
also revealed during out discussions that one of the team members from another vigil in the Private Room had been
pushed against the wall by something unseen, while a second member of team suggested that a similar thing had
approached them, although they had managed to fend this presence off. The Private Room had certainly lived up to
its billing as the most haunted room at the Inn.
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