Built on an area known as Bunbury Hill, Alton Towers started its life as an Iron Age fort until around 700AD when it became a fort for Ceolred, Saxon King of Mercia. The land passed through many hands until around the 12th Century that it was given to a crusader called Bertram de Verdun for his efforts in the Holy Land Wars. Eventually it was passed into the hands of the Talbot family. John Talbot, the first Earl of shrews bury fought alongside King Henry V for most of his life and were very close to him. Throughout the decades the house was used as a summer lodge by the subsequent Earls of Shrewsbury until Charles, the 15th Earl took a major interest and began to extend it in 1800. In previous years the house was known as Alveton Lodge, then Alton Lodge until 1811 Charles renamed it to Alton Abbey. He had a great vision for his home and building continued until his death in 1827. This vision was carried on by his nephew, John, until 1852. The house that is seen today is the work of Pugin, who worked for the Earl from 1839. After John's death there was a huge family feud as to who had the right to the house and after an expensive legal case, Henry Chetwynd Talbot won. However the legal costs were so high he had to sell the contents of the house. It was in the early 1890's that the 20th Earl, Charles Henry Talbot, decided to develop the estate as a tourist attraction. Organised fetes, firework displays, balloon festivals and even exhibitions of instruments of torture were held. The estate was eventually sold off in 1924 to a group of local businessmen. In WW2, the house was requisitioned by the British Army and used as a cadet training centre, however as no building repairs were done it fell into a bad condition. After the war, the whole house was abandoned until 1980 when John Broome started one of the UK's premier attractions. Over the years paranormal activity has been reported on a regular basis. This has included the apparition of a maid seen walking down stairs, unexplained activity around the restaurant toilets, strange occurrences around the 'HEX' attraction and dragging noises heard coming from office areas.

Our investigation of Alton Towers started in a unique way with a ride on the Hex attraction situated within the Towers - this was certainly something to set the mood for the night ahead. The imposing silhouette of the building loomed over us as we made our way up to the castle for the ghost walk, where our medium for the night John Crowdey revealed some interesting details about the supposed sprits and history surrounding this gothic ruin. We were also joined by two official Alton Towers historians, who mostly verified all of the information communicated by John. Of interest was that during the walk around of the 1st floor a number of the team expressed that they could smell a strong fragrance of lavender, which was verified by the historians as activity which had been noted before, while there is no natural explanation for the smell in that part of the building.

My opening vigil of the night saw me taking Team 1 to the Chapel, an area adjacent to the main building which offered an impressive and imposing location with a giant refurbished stain glass window and ceilings seemingly 100 feet high. We were joined by John for this vigil, and after conducting some baseline tests with the equipment we settled down at the table in the centre of the room, lit some candles, and began a linked séance. Both John and I began asking out for spirit energies to come forward, at which point John gave the impression that we had been joined by a male religious figure, believing that he was intrigued by what we were up to but reluctant to come forward. We encourage this supposed energy to make their presence known to us and a few of the team felt a cold breeze move around the circle. After a short while where we had received the occasional subtle response which we were unable to verify as genuinely paranormal, I asked whether this energy could make themselves known to a specific individual around the table. Only a moment had passed when one of the male members of our team suddenly jerked forward and turned around in his chair, clearly shaken by something. When questioned he revealed that he had just experienced the clear sensation of someone moving their fingers across his back, and his reaction was so indisputable that you could not help but believe that something a little odd had just taken place. He mentioned that he was relatively sceptical although he did also feel that he may have some psychic tendencies, which could explain why he had been targeted. Nevertheless we soldiered on in an attempt to get some more obvious activity, with mild success. There was the odd noise from the back of the Chapel, however these could be attributed to dripping, falling masonry or even a more natural explanation as the Chapel was home to a number of pigeons and even some bats. There were however 2 instances where we clearly heard what sounded like dragging or rustling coming from this area, which could have been the pigeons flapping their wings, however the sounds appeared to come from the floor as opposed to the rafters. There was also another member of the team who suggested feeling some form of physical contact during the séance, so activity as a whole was relatively pronounced. We finished the vigil with an attempt at automatic writing using the planchette, where a small amount of movement was recorded and this was believed to be attributed to a child as opposed to this religious figure we had apparently connected with earlier.

For our second vigil I took Team 2 to the top floor Pugin Rooms which consisted of 2 large open rooms separated by 2 archways, with one room at right angles to the other. I began by getting the team to sit on the floor in the 2nd room where we asked out for signs of activity and unfortunately we were unable to get any kind of response. I then moved the team to the first room where a table had been set up with candles in the centre, and we sat around again asking for signs of activity - again all remained quiet. At this point I split the team up to investigate both rooms with individuals placed in different sections to ensure that we covered the entire location. At one point one of the team who was stood in the doorway to the first room believed he had seen a flash of green light move across the wall opposite, behind the table, however none of the other investigators in the room witnessed this. Attempts to encourage a repeat of this activity were unsuccessful. Meanwhile in a small room adjoined to the second Pugin Room another member of the team sensed an energy wishing to enter via an open window, and she suggested at one point seeing some kind of grey mist before the window socket became black. Again this was not witnessed by any other team members, and nothing was captured on video.

For Vigil 3 I took Team 3 to the ground floor, where we began in the Kitchen and Butlers Pantry. We started by sitting in a circle on the floor asking out for signs of activity, and as with the previous vigil all remained quiet. At this point we moved to the adjacent room where I asked the team to stand in the corner and concentrate on any possible energies that may want to come forward. I asked out for the spirit of a young boy to make himself known to us, as a boys figure had been seen numerous times in the tunnel directly outside the back door of the ground floor. At first a number of the team suggested seeing small sparks of light within the circle, after which I can confirm that I too saw a small bright pin-prick of light. We checked the possibility of this being a mobile phone or other piece of electrical equipment, and indeed one member of the team did have their phone in their pocket, however this did not coincide with the direction of the light I had seen. Further asking out brought little additional activity, so I decided to split the group into pairs to investigate all the lower sections of the building. 2 of the team made their way up the spiral stairwell along the main corridor, however just seconds later there were piercing screams and confusion as it became clear to the rest of us that something was not right. As both investigators came stumbling down the stairwell clearly in something of a panic, I made my way up to where they had been positioned only to be met by fellow investigator Kev standing in the open doorway to the 1st floor. It appeared that the 2 members of my team sat on the stairs had witnessed Kev wandering around on the 1st floor, and unsurprisingly mistaken him for something more ethereal, and as is often the case panic set in. As much as anything this was the perfect example of fear and its infectious nature in these kind of circumstances, and how your state of mind can be affected when placed in a supposedly haunted location where darkness and sensory deprivation can take a hold of you. At the very least this little episode had raised 'spirits' (no pun intended) and we decided to end the vigil with a short excursion to the aforementioned tunnel where I placed each of the team members along the full length of the passageway, attempting to encourage the spirit of the young boy to come forward. Unfortunately both time and the looming light of dawn were getting the better of us and we left the tunnel shortly afterwards with little for our efforts, and made our way to the final vigil location of the night.

As the morning light began to break through we embarked on our final vigil of the night as I joined Team 4 in the Banqueting Hall. We set up with the team sat around the table as I began to ask for any spirit energies to make themselves known - in truth it may have been the fact that the darkness had receded, or possibly tiredness setting in after such a long day, but by this time things generally seemed pretty dead. This in itself is testimony to fact that darkness and sensory deprivation, as well as the lucidity of the team and the adrenaline pumping through each of us at the beginning of the investigation probably have much to do with the success of a paranormal investigation. It was clear that we were all drained and energy levels were low, however we still managed to create a certain level of activity. This was thanks not only to the sterling efforts of Dan and his dowsing rods, but also to the laughter generated after Roy had intervened with his own personal rendition of 'The Charge of the Light Brigade'. Angie persevered with glass divination, with mild movements, while Kev helped keep the teams spirits high by precariously navigating the room in an effort to avoid the 'movements' of the many birds and bats who made their home in the rafters. The investigation had come to an end, and as we made the long walk back to the Marquee where we had set up base camp I took one final look back at the building which had been our home for much of the night. With the morning finally here and the early mists rolling across the lake, Alton Tower didn't look quite so imposing anymore. Nevertheless it had been a thoroughly enjoyable and memorable experience.