Wymering Manor is the oldest house in Portsmouth and is claimed to have a staggering amount of recorded ghosts and spirit energies. The manor has been in the hands of the Youth Hostel Association since 1960, however the land where the manor stands has had an establishment placed there for over 2000 years. King Edward the Confessor owned the land on which the house now stands in 1042 before it passed over to King Harald Godwinson. King Harald died at the Battle of Hastings in 1066 against William I - Duke of Normandy, also known as William the Conqueror. The Manor is recorded in the Doomsday Book as "5 teams, 4 villeins, 4 bondmen with 1/2 teams, 4 slaves, a fishery and woods with room for 5 hogs". There have been many private owners of the Manor, three of which had it for long periods, Le Botiller Family from 1283-1388, the Wayte Family from 1391-1561 and the Bruning Family from 1562-1707. Fifteen more owners occupied the house until the Y.H.A. in 1960. Over the years there have been various type of paranormal activity recorded, from apparition appearances to whispers in the ear.

This was my 3rd visit to Wymering but my first since it had come under the ownership of the local council. The building was still partly under renovation while all the furniture had now been returned to give it a more welcoming feel. Our medium for the night was Jannine Muirhead, and this would be the first time I had worked with Jannine so I was eagerly anticipating the information she would be able to come up with. Our night began as always with the ghost walk as Jannine revealed some interesting and accurate information about the Manor's illustrious past connecting with Monks, a Priest Hole and a former scullery maid named Beth (all picked up on previous investigations).

My first vigil of the night took place between Room 4 and the Kitchen, where apart from the odd creak and tapping sound (most probably the building settling down) there was little to report. I then took a team to Rooms 6 and 7 where we initially attempted to link in with any supposed energies around us, without success, so I decided to split the team across the 2 locations - this also included the attic area in a corridor behind the 2 rooms. I spent the most part alone sat on a ledge leading into the attic, and for me there were no experiences of any kind worth considering. I then rejoined the rest of the team and decided on a short discussion session while lying on the floor as I have often felt that activity might not necessarily require quiet reflection and asking out, but simply for us to act normally and chat amongst ourselves. This appeared to pay dividends. A short while after talking together we became aware that the door had suddenly shaken on its hinges. It had not startled anyone, but had rather confused us as the door had to be left ajar because it would not close properly. I instantly assumed this must have been a breeze, or vibrations from another door slamming elsewhere in the building. On reflection however there appeared to be no accompanying sounds either outside the door or within other parts of the building (that we were aware of) while attempts to replicate the vibration of the door failed by simply pushing it as if affected by a breeze. The only way we were able to replicate the vibration was when I physically took hold of the door on both sides and shook it on its hinges. This experience had certainly left us with more questions than answers.

For my third vigil I took a team to the Lounge area where we conducted glass divination experiment as well as some table tipping. For the most part there was little notable activity, and at this point I was beginning to think we had another quiet night ahead of us. Shortly before the end of the vigil however I received a call from Steven who was leading another vigil up in the attic room (a location never before investigated by Paranormal Tours). His voice expressed concern, as he was calling for Jannine to make her way upstairs to assist his team, where something unfortunate was taking place. I made my way upstairs and entered the Attic room only to be faced with one of Steven's team sat on the floor of the room in a distinct amount of distress. During an attempt to link in with the energies in the room some of the team described experiencing the sensation of their bottom lip becoming numb. Shortly after Sharon suddenly became overcome with a sensation of hatred. It appeared to all observers as if Sharon was not able to respond directly to questioning, as if in some way absorbed by another spirit energy. The team described the transfiguration of her face, and the left hand side became distorted and disfigured, taking on a hateful appearance. Sharon’s face sneered and twitched at me as other members of the investigation team attempted to bring her round, with Jannine eventually arriving in the room to assist us by helping to pull Sharon forward and release the negative energy which appeared to have impressed itself upon her. I can only say from getting to know Sharon that the episode was most definitely out of character, and in no way appeared to be falsified. Indeed this could have been an intense psychological reaction, while equally the question of some unseen paranormal energy imposing its presence upon her can not be discounted. After a short while Sharon was able to talk about the experience, and described how she could hear our voices calling out to her but it was as if we were very distant, as if she was hearing us while under water. She also described the image which had appeared in her head of a withered old man, who she felt had abused young children during his time at the Manor, although no documentary evidence exists of such events. Jannine had instructed us to leave the room, suggesting she had sealed the negative energy within a storage space just off the side of the room - an area where we had earlier set up a motion sensor experiment.

My next vigil involved taking Sharon's team down into the cellars, again an area which I had not investigated during my previous visits to the Manor. It was a small, cramped space and we took up refuge in the farthest end away from a noisy generator which could be found in the first part of the room. As we attempted to link in with the energies in the cellar Sharon again became aware of a presence close by, after which she failed to respond to questions. After turning on one of the torches it appeared as if an energy had again impressed itself upon Sharon, and it appeared thereafter that she was able to communicate in the form of a young boy named Peter. Her mannerisms and voice changed to that of a young child, and she communicated that apparently Peter was confused as to who we were, and was desperate to find his sister Elizabeth. When questioned about Beth, Peter (Sharon) replied that only his mother was allowed to call her by that name. This was indeed another mildly disturbing incident involving Sharon, who had appeared to have either a conduit for the spirits or was suffering sever psychological reactions to the investigation. Nevertheless we managed to bring Sharon round and she was happy to continue with the vigil. We continued asking out for signs of a presence and on various occasion heard a number of banging sounds coming from the rear of the cellar, as if someone the other side was knocking on the wall (this coincided at times with requests for responses to our questions). Other teams also reported the same sounds being heard from the back of the cellar, and a logical explanation such as sounds from other teams reverberating from the main building should be considered. As we neared the end of the vigil Sharon was again prominent as she believed that the image of a male face suddenly lurched down towards her and the team from the ceiling, as if coming down and through the stone. She later described the form of the face as resembling something translucent, similar to water, although none of the other team members managed to witness this.

My final vigil of the night took place upstairs in the infamous Attic Bedroom where Sharon had earlier experienced the sensation of a dark energy overwhelming her. Unfortunately (or fortunately depending on your viewpoint) the room had lost its sense of foreboding, and as the morning drew closer and dawn light began to break through the window our investigation had came to a quiet end. The night had certainly offered its share of strange experiences for everyone, although I still remained unconvinced that anything had been truly paranormal. None of our experiments setup earlier in the night had born fruit, however it did appear that something evidential was captured on one of the teams tape recorders while I was with Sharon's group investigating the cellars. It appeared that the dictaphone had picked up an anomalous noise during the early stages of he séance which unfortunately occurred just seconds before I had turned on my locked of camera (as is more often the case for some strange reason). Nevertheless it is intriguing, although in no way proof of paranormal activity, but it is interesting that shortly after this Sharon was affected by the supposed energies of a young child. Wymering is certainly a favourite 'haunt' of many paranormal groups in the South, although it is not certain whether Paranormal Tours will be returning. If this was indeed our last investigation there, it was certainly one to remember.