The Kings House is a Grade I listed building whose history stretches back to the early 13th Century. In 1220, following a meeting in a flat meadow, the Abbot of Sherborne wandered over to the plot of land that had been allocated to him for his new house, right in front of the currently under construction cathedral. He, and his successors set about to build and over time rebuild what was named, Sherborne Place. After the Dissolution in 1539, the Dean and Chapter were eventually granted the freehold and the house itself was occupied by a series of tennants. It was deemed to be fit for a king, when King Charles visited and stayed here on two occasions in 1610 and 1613. One of the rooms in the house still bears his coat of arms in memory of these events. It was from this time that the current name of 'The Kings House' came and was changed in 1780 in memory of these royal visits. Throughout most of the 18th century the house was owned by members of the Beach family however mostly sub-let to numerous tennants. One memorable tennant is that of a Mrs Voysey who ran a school for young ladies until 1799. The Godolphin School moved into Kings House until 1848 and from 1851 to 1978 the teaching them continued when it was home to the Diocesan Training College for School-mistresses, latterly the College of Sarum St. Michael. After the closure of the college the Salisbury & South Wiltshire Museum bought a 125-year lease on the building and from 1981 the King's House opened its doors to the general public. The museum itself houses many wonderful and historic artefacts from Wiltshires prestigious past including that of items and a burial from Stonehenge, the famouse Amesbury Archer, early Beaker People items and hundreds of lost pieces found onwards from 1854. As befits and historic house, the King's House has its own share of ghosts and legends. There is said to be a 'Grey Lady' haunting the north staircase area and that of a horseman who rides across the rear lawn. This horseman also coincides with a similar report from The Wardrobe Rifles Museum only a few buildings down on the same stretch of land. Blasts of ice-cold air, strange knockings and strange temperature fluctuations have been experienced by members of the museums staff.

Our first night of the Salisbury Weekender began at the impressive Kings House Museum. For the first vigil I took a team to the Old Sarum exhibition where I started proceedings with a short séance and some simple calling out. Sharon linked in with a man who she suggested had gained acclaim from the work of others but could not put any more details to this information. I then decided to take the team into an adjoining room where at one stage we all believed we could hear faint padded footsteps (on two separate occasions) accompanied by some strange noises. It was at end of the vigil where the more significant activity took place where a couple of loud breathing sounds were heard by all.

My second vigil of the night took place in the James I Bedroom, Dining Room and Stairwell. Wendy, our medium for the night, suggested sensing a young girl in the bedroom after which we undertook a linked séance, however there was no activity to speak of. We then moved onto the third vigil which took us to the Stone Henge and Pitt Rivers exhibitions. Here we started by attempting automatic writing with the help of a planchette. There were only a few small movements when the males in the group took over but nothing significant to speak of. We then headed off to the old kitchen area towards the back where the bones of the arrow man are on display. I left the team to attempt some glass divination while Kevin and I walked alone in the Pitt Rivers exhibition. Unfortunately things were very quiet and the night appeared to be tailing off. I brought the rest of the group into the Pitt Rivers are where all of a sudden it became apparent that there was some noticeable movement from behind the seats. One of the girls in the group was then startled when something sounded like it had moved across the leather seating. Unfortunately this was not witnessed by any other members of the team, and could easily be put down to the heightened levels of apprehension following the sounds behind the seats.

Finally we embarked up our last vigil of the night in the Library. We attempted some more glass divination without success and even tried our hand at some table tipping but unfortunately our night appeared to be crawling to a quiet end. Our first night had brought about a few interesting moments but certainly nothing conclusive.