The port of Newhaven was always a tempting landing place for an invader and the defensive history of the area dates back to the Bronze age. A Roman fort was also situated at this location. In 1588 the Spanish Armada threatened the English coast by sailing through the Channel, strategically out of cannon-shot range. Construction of the fort started in 1864 and is the largest defence work to ever be constructed in Sussex. It stood fast through the two World Wars and was a real shame that it was abandoned suffering many years of neglect until a group of volunteers got together with the local council to bring it back to its former glory and is now an award winning tourist attraction. It was designed 22-year old Lieutenant John Charles Ardagh who used innovative concepts and design. He was the first to use concrete in a military structure and was blended in to the contours of the land and drawbridge. Reports of the supernatural are all over the fort, with many sightings seen in the caponier, a tunnel leading to the beach. Staff and visitors have have been in this area feeling a presence close by. The sounds of soldiers boots are said to be heard marching through the corridors and various rooms and even air-raid sirens have been heard. Tales of a ghostly drummer boy haunt the coastline and one mystery around the fort is that of Lord Lucan. From his disappearance in November 1974 his car was found abandoned at Newhaven. The police made a search of the fort and the tunnels, he has never been found dead or alive.

We arrived at Newhaven on a cold and windy afternoon, which was all the more appropriate to suit the exposed nature of the location. Compared to some of the other forts we had visited Newhaven was compact, tidy and certainly offered a little more comfort to our guests for the evening. After completing the workshops we embarked upon the walk around, where our medium John Crowdey revealed some specific and accurate information about the history of the Fort, most notably referring to a man named John (Ardagh) who he felt was involved in the construction and who he also felt was a military man. He visualised him as a young man during the time that the Fort was built, but then accurately described him in a more senior position as well as linking in with his facial description (seeing him with a thin, curly moustache). The vigil areas were large, and with the lights out it offered some of the darkest locations we had visited to date, specifically the tunnels towards the front of the fort under the old moat (which are out of bounds to the public).

For my opening vigil I took a team down a flight of 70 stairs to the Caponier, which is the main set of tunnels towards the cliff-side of the Fort. Accompanied by our medium John we initially conducted a séance where a few of the team experienced some strange phenomena such as light touches on the top of the head and the occasional shadow, however all of this was fairly unconvincing. John made a connection with a female, which our location guide Ed (who had joined us on the vigil) felt had been standing near to him. He even described the method with which she was playing with her hair. I have to admit that on one occasion I did think Ed had moved to stand much closer to my right, and I was surprised for a moment when it was revealed he was standing at least 8 feet away from me. It was one of those moments that you just assumed somebody was standing next to you. As the séance came to a quiet end I split the team into smaller groups and stayed with three of the team to conduct a smaller séance in the same room. When John and the other team members joined us those who were watching us suggested visualizing the image of a woman. Of more significance was that all the team witnessed the faint light coming through a couple of small, square port-holes in the wall at the end of the room being blocked out from the inside. Either the light from outside was fading (there were suggestions of a light-house in the area) or something inside the room had blocked the hole in the wall. Either way this was witnessed by all, so for that reason this gains a little more credibility as possible phenomena, although certainly inconclusive.

My second vigil took a team to the Grand Magazine which was a short walk up the hill. We had setup a table and chairs with a planchette on a large sheet of paper in the hope of being able to communicate though automatic writing, while we also had a glass on standby to attempt some divination. Upon beginning the experiment with the planchette there were initial movements, mainly jerky, writing zigzag lines across the paper indicating that we were making possible contact with a spirit energy. Meanwhile the team did experience a noise which sounded like a whine or wail or a woman, which was faint but loud enough for everyone to hear it. Of course, being in such an exposed location without doors to the magazine, it must be considered that this was coming from somebody outside, especially as a small group of youths were spotted later in the evening outside the Fort. We had also heard some faint shuffling sounds from the corridor outside so we setup a Dictaphone on the floor in the hope of recording something more tangible. The experiment with the planchette continued in earnest, where the letters M, I and what could have been an R seemed to appear on the paper after a requests for the initials of the supposed energy with us. During this I had moved out into the corridor and room next door to see if the shuffling noises would continue, and I then overheard Jo saying the name Miriam, as it was her grandmothers middle name. I immediately exclaimed that the same name had come to me a little earlier in the night, however as we had already had the letters M and I it is most likely that by chance this was an obvious choice and purely coincidental. By this time Jo had determined that in fact her grandmother had come through to the team and was attempting to convey some sort of message. It was deduced from our questioning that the message could be given later in the investigation by our Medium John, so this was a useful test for me to see if John would in fact deliver. I did mention to John after the vigil that one of the team (I wanted to ensure not to identify Jo or her grandmother) would be expecting a message from somebody tonight, and almost immediately John pointed out Jo as the recipient. In fact, on the final vigil of the night, John did indeed relay a message, from Jo's Grandmother, which certainly gave me reason to consider that this was indeed of paranormal significance as I had not revealed who the message was from or who it would be for.

The penultimate vigil took us to the depths of the tunnels beneath the old moat at the front of the Fort, again down a huge flight of nearly 70 steps. This small secluded tunnel area can play tricks on your senses, as not only is there no light source of any kind, but the sound from the corridor at the top of the stairs can travel down into the tunnel creating various acoustic anomalies. Aware of these environmental issues we grouped together at the end of the short tunnel which leads up a second flight of wooden stairs to a gallery. Joined once more by staff member Ed we began with a short linked séance in the pitch black and asked for any spirit energies to make themselves known to us. Apart from the occasional tap or drip from near the wooden stairs, and suggestions of cold breezes around us, there was nothing conclusive. I even attempted to draw on the fears of the team members by asking them to stand with their backs to the centre of the circle so that they were facing outwards into the dark, but again all remained quiet. I then split the group into 2 smaller teams, asking some to stand on the main stairs about halfway up to asses if some of the noises we had also been hearing (steps or shuffles) were the result of the acoustic properties of the area and were actually coming from 2 team members at the top of the stairs. Meanwhile the rest of us remained in the tunnel and attempted to make contact by throwing small stones along the corridor and asking for them to be returned. Unfortunately this was without success, although on a couple of occasions slight noises similar to a small object landing on the floor were heard, but no such objects could be seen or retrieved. The vigil as a whole was more interesting from an psychological perspective when dealing with the environmental issues in the tunnel as opposed to providing any evidence of the paranormal.

The final vigil of the night took place in the East Magazine, where most of the activity within the other groups had occurred, so expectations (and suggestions) were already high. The East Magazine consisted of a long corridor above the Caponier area, with small rooms leading off and a long sloping lighting tunnel behind (not the place for claustrophobics). Highlights from previous vigils had included some team members all witnessing a figure of a female in the corridor, movement from outside such as footsteps and talking, sounds of stones being thrown and clear knocking directly in response to questions. A table has been setup in one of the larger room around which I gathered the team for a glass divination experiment. Usually this can take some time to get the energy flowing, and often the glass can remain motionless for the entire vigil, but within seconds of the 4 team members touching it began to move quickly across the table. During the next 15 minutes we seemed to establish contact with a group of children who may have lived in the family quarters at one time. The glass movement was gradual but consistently smooth throughout this period until such time as there seemed to be a marked change in both the atmosphere and the movement of the glass. Whereas previously it would move in response to our questions, the glass started to rotate the table in a quick and almost aggressive manor. Questioning regarding the children brought no responses as before, and the feeling of a more dominant energy became overwhelming. We were also not aware that a similar experience had been encountered by another group using the glass in an earlier vigil.

Out investigation had finally come to an end, and as the dawn light began to break the other teams regaled us with their various experiences of the night. This was the first time that an investigation of this magnitude by a company such as Paranormal Tours had been conducted at Newhaven Fort, so we may just have raised a little more interest from the resident spirits into how we operate. So who knows what will be in store for the investigation team at our next Newhaven Fort event in October.