This grade II listed picturesque Tudor farmhouse holds many spectral residents and visitors. Guests, family and friends have reported various sightings over the years, including an apparition of a lady in Victorian dress, music from a phantom band and paranormal smells from certain rooms as well as outside of the cottage. The images of a Spectral man has also been seen looking out of one of the out-buildings, while there are numerous reports of unexplained electrical problems as well as a further apparition of a Grey Lady, said to be a housekeeper of days gone by.

As we drove along the lane and approached this remote farmhouse my thoughts turned to the hope that all of our guests would manage to find the location. Thankfully all were present and correct for the start of the night, where we were joined by medium Marlene Woolgar who had earlier revealed a number of interesting connections with the farm before arriving that day (as always, our medium was unaware of the location prior to arrival). She correctly predicted a farm, and a link to a 'common' (or the word 'common'), and also that the building was part stone built and had been part white washed and that there was a well on the site. Of most interest was the fact that Marlene connected with the significance of the name Thomas, as the house once belonged to Thomas Meloney in the late 19th century. She also correctly identified that the location dated back to the 15th or 16th Century and the building did indeed originate from the Tudor period.

Marlene conducted the pre-investigation psychic workshop centred upon the forms of psychic art and inspired writing, in an attempt to encourage our investigators to channel their latent psychic abilities in mind for the investigation ahead. Of most interest was information revealed by one of our guests Ken who connected with the name 'Easton Hall' which he linked to a drawing of an imposing looking arched front door. After researching this following the event he hit upon the exact location in Easton, Southern Maryland, which looked virtually identical to his drawing. Not only was Ken stunned by this, but he was unaware of links that Common Leys has with the USA. Owner Allie Jones revealed to me during the evening information about an American lady and former resident at the farm who had recently visited her. The lady had left Allie with a picture of the farm and the family back then, and the intriguing part is that one of the individuals in the photograph (possibly her son although I cannot recall exactly) had passed over. A short while later Allie had looked out of the window of the farmhouse dining area only to see the exact image of this young man dressed exactly as the person in the photograph. Apparently he was also in a band and used to practice at the farm, and it has also been reported that the music can be heard from time to time.

Once we had completed our walk around of the location we embarked upon our first vigil of the night, as I took a team to the studio adjoining the main cottage. Here we had setup a number of experiments including trigger objects using wooden animal carvings from the cottage and a broken wine glass which has been thrown across the kitchen at one time. Attached to the paper was a Negative Ion Detector, while I had also placed our Stealth Cam at the far end of the room in the hope of capturing an image of something passing the infra-red motion sensor. We began with a glass divination experiment, where it was recorded that the temperature of the glass dropped by 2 degrees while the team were asking out. We tried to link in with the energy of Sophie, a young child associated to the building, in the hope that she would respond to the team if a game was played or a song was sung – so we started to sing ‘Ring a Ring a Roses’. At almost exactly the same time, Team 1 felt the urge to sing the same song in the adjoining building (the main Cottage) but it was not possible for either of our teams to have heard each other. Sally meanwhile experienced a brushing sensation across her leg once the song was finished, something typically associated to the activity of spirit children, while many of the group experienced cold breezes while attempting to link in with the energies. Finally we had placed a torch on a nearby table which had begun to flicker intermittently when the team asked out for spirit energy (specifically the former housekeeper Cynthia) to affect it. Once we had finished the vigil the torch no longer showed these anomalous effects.

For Vigil 2 I took a team consisting of Richard, Vanessa, Bernie and Kiara to the main farmhouse dining area. While linking hands around the table we experienced strong vibrations and felt that we had connected with the energy of a woman named Sarah who this group had earlier connected with in the cottage. Bernie started to experience tingling sensations and was eventually overcome with emotion to the point of tears when attempting to link in with Sarah. Kiara meanwhile said that she felt drained for no apparent reason, and experienced the sensation of wanting to make herself small by curling up on the table. Bernie was clearly uncomfortable, and the team felt that Sarah had followed them to the farmhouse and was channelling her energies through Bernie. As the vigil drew to a close we attempted to link in with the spirit of the Colonel, a well know dominant male spirit, and on at least 2 occasions when asking out it appeared as if strange light anomalies flickered past the video camera.

The final vigil involved the remaining team members in the main cottage, where the activity was not quite so pronounced. On one occasion the temperature on the stairs began to fall when asking out for Cynthia to show herself. Towards the end of the vigil the Motion Sensors which we had set up in the doorway to the bathroom were triggered a number of times although we were unsure as to whether they were picking up the lateral movement of the team members, who insisted that they had not moved. All in all the night had been a relatively quiet one. We even attempted some group table tipping with the help of Marlene in the cottage as the daylight hours approached, but unfortunately the energies of both the group and the supposed spirits around us were starting to fade.