Since Henry VIII's Dissolution the manor house of Bisham has been known as Bisham Abbey. History has also told us that it was not even part of the monastic buildings that surrounded it. The manor house was actually based around an ancient area built on by the Knights Templar who owned the manor in the 13th century. The Hall within the building dates from around 1260, and In 1307 King Edward II seized it from the Knights to be used as a jail for such notable names and the wife of Robert de Bruce and Queen Elizabeth of the Scots who was imprisoned here in 1310. In 1335 the property was granted to the Montacute Barons who became the Earls of Salisbury and it became the family residence for around 200 years. The Hoby family took up residence in the early 16th century and in 1557 Sir Philip Hoby built the great dining hall and a suite of rooms. Queen Elizabeth I spent a number of years imprisoned here during Bloody Mary's reign. One of the more active paranormal residents of Bisham Abbey is in fact believed to be that of Lady Elizabeth Hoby, who in a tragic accident is said to have killed her son William. Her phantom has been seen since the early 1600's wandering the grounds, moaning and wringing her hands of the what appears to be blood, a symbol of her wicked actions in the death of her son.

This was my first visit to Bisham, and even though the building is now used for conferences and accommodation, it has certainly not lost any of its grand splendour and atmosphere. Our base camp for the night was the Elizabethan Room where we were joined by our mediums for the night Kim Webb & Ron Lynsley. After an interesting ghost walk revealing some of the impressive history of the building we embarked on our first vigil which took place in the Margaret Dickinson room. With just myself and 3 members of the group things immediately became interesting when after only 18 seconds of recording I picked up a light anomaly which upon further inspection was most likely an insect or dust particle. Following a quick review of the image we decided to join energies and ask out for a more discernable sign of activity. A short period of time passed when all of us began to feel an icy cold breeze moving in and around us. The room had become significantly colder, while Mark suggested that he felt a presence come close to him. There was one significant response to our questioning when asking for a knock, as we all clearly heard something resembling a knock on the table nearby, however further attempts to repeat the phenomena were unsuccessful. We then decided to sit down at one of the small tables to attempt some glass divination where we got some slight movements, however the most significant moment was when I seemed to witness a white shape pass across the left archway which leads into the other section of the room. With low light conditions this could easily have been a result of sensory deprivation and merely a trick of the light, however Mark also suggested that he saw something very similar at exactly the same time. As the vigil came to end we were glad to return to the warmth of our base camp, as the room had started to become icy cold - whether this was paranormal, or simply because the cold night was drawing in, we will never know.

My next vigil was with a team investigating the Vansitaart Room on the second floor. Here we had set up a Glass Divination experiment, and although great patience was shown by the team throughout unfortunately they only received very slight twisting movements from the glass. There were also a couple of streaking lights witnessed moving across the ceiling and some light anomalies on video camera, however all in all it was a relatively quiet session.

The penultimate vigil took place in the Donnington Room where a Planchette had been set up so that the team could attempt automatic writing. Initially I asked just Christine and Graham to try the experiment, however they were unable to get any movements from the pen. At this point I asked Kirsty and Philip to take over and they on the other hand managed to get some slight movements. At this point Kirsty decided to attempt automatic writing on her own, with incredible responses. The planchette began to move freely across the paper, and initially drew a perfect 180 degree arc. At this point Kirsty asked for the pen to move back to the centre of the paper, at which point the planchette took the identical route back along the paper retracing the line of the arc in perfect geometric fashion. I then checked to ensure that there were no circular grooves on the underlying table to be certain that the pen had not simply got caught in something, and thankfully confirmed that the table was perfectly flush. On 2 additional occasions the Planchette drew arcs across the table, and responded to requests to move, stop and return to the centre of the paper. This was indeed an extremely strange experience, and there is certainly no doubting that at points Kirsty only had the slightest touch of a finger nail on the planchette. The drawing of the geometric arcs could be explained by the fact that the Planchette is set upon 2 circular balls which move freely at the front, and if one corner were to remain in place while the pen was moving it is possible that the shape being drawn would simply be determined by the planchette rotating around the ball which is stationary.

My final vigil took place in the Henry VIII Room with fellow Paranormal Tours regulars Jim, Liz and Kev where we tried for one last attempt at a positive Glass Divination experiment. After about 20 minutes there had been no movement however at that point the glass started circling the table. Jim started to feel very cold all down his right side believing the spirit of William had come close to him. He also sensed that Elizabeth was also present in the room standing across the table from William, although there was never any objective phenomena to confirm his impressions. As the session continued answers from the glass appeared to reveal that both energies were angry and when we requested the glass to be tipped off the table incredibly it did so on four separate occasions, moving rapidly to one edge and banging against the rim before toppling over. Of course there is no guarantee that this was not simply unconscious finger movements, however that could not explain Jim beginning to experience the sensation of being strangled or gagged Click Here to Download Clip. It had been an intriguing end to the investigation.