Coalhouse Fort, rather the area that it was built on, has had over 600 years of military history. The current fort was completed in 1874 defending the Thames and ultimately London. It is one of the Palmerston forts, built from a recommendation of the Royal Commission in 1860 for protection, mainly from the French. Continuing it's defensive role through the World Wars it was eventually sold by the MOD to Thurrock Council in 1962. The council have leased out the fort since 1983 to the Coalhouse Fort Project, a charity with the ultimate aim of restoring it to it's former glory as a military garrison. Many of the volunteers that work at the fort have been witness to paranormal and unexplained occurrences, including replay's of a wartime poker game, footsteps. heavy dragging noises, strange smells and voices. A variety of apparitions have been supposedly witnessed throughout the fort, while there are reports of cold spots and batteries draining for no apparent reason.

Coalhouse Fort is known for its oppressive and dark atmosphere, most notably in the tunnel system where on our last visit the team had experienced footsteps, dark shadows, temperature fluctuations and the sensations of being touched. Anticipation was high amongst the group as we setup the equipment for the night ahead, including a first for Paranormal Tours as Jamie constructed a live video link from a locked off camera in the tunnels. This was achieved by feeding a wire from the Kitchen base camp down one of the many chutes in the floor and connecting the feed to a television set. This meant that not only could we monitor streaming footage from the tunnels, but also record the entire night's work on a video recorder.

After setting up the various experiments and locked off cameras, and having completed the walk around with our medium Stewart, I embarked upon the opening vigil of the night taking a team to Rooms 14 and 16. We kicked things off in Room 14 which housed a round wooden table, and while standing around this we linked by all placing our hands on the surface of the table with our fingers touching. Both myself and Dee asked out for any signs of spirit presence and it was clear that Dee was sensing a male presence. She also felt that he was in some way holding back other possible energies from entering the room. It was believed this was the energy of a former officer named George who Stewart had referred to as a dark and controlling energy during his earlier ghost-walk. It was felt that this male spirit was trying to discourage any activity of note so I decided to split the group by leaving Dee with the females Room 14 while I took the rest of the team into an adjacent room, hoping that between the two groups we could encourage some activity. I stood with my team in the centre of the room attempting to connect with any energies that wished to make themselves known, hoping to attract the supposed spirit of George towards us so that other presences could connect with the other team. A short while later we heard Dee's voice on the radio saying that their group had requested to leave - apparently they had made some sort of contact in the room but felt that the energy was too oppressive to stay.

Our second vigil of the night took place outside in the Quadrangle. an area currently under renovation. Upon first entering this small enclosure surrounded on 3 sides by buildings a number of the team believed they could smell something resembling antiseptic - indeed this area was once used as a military hospital during the war. The vigil as a whole was relatively uneventful, as we initially sat in a circle on the floor linking hands asking out for signs of any presence. There was the occasional knock and thud from the building surrounding us, one of which we were aware housed a number of owls. At one point Kate believed that she had seen a flash of light coming from one of the overlooking windows, while nearing the end of the vigil we all clearly heard a loud but distant female shout or scream. It was revealed however when questioning the other teams later in the night that Stewart had brought his team out into the courtyard at roughly the same point in the vigil when the noise was heard by our group.

For the 3rd Vigil of the night I took Team 4 to the upper half of the tunnel system (the 20's) where activity started to become more pronounced. This was also the time of night when Matt had suggested most activity tends to take place, so I was interested to see how this might manifest itself. I was joined by Sue, Mark, Gary, Mark and the guys from the Coalhouse Fort Staff (Kev, Matt and Roy). Initially we all linked hands in a circle and apart from a number of noticeable temperature fluctuations and the odd light anomaly being witnessed by some of the group things were fairly quiet. Mark and Sue did however express that they felt a male presence moving amongst us who was not ready to reveal his identity. At this point we relocated to another room and again attempted to link in with the supposed spirit energies around us and at this point it was felt by some of the team that whatever energy was present, there was an element of the 'practical joker' about them. Some of the male team members felt inclined to smile or laugh for no apparent reason, at which point Sue addressed the individual by asking why the connection was with the men and not the women in the room. At this point Kev expressed that he had been overwhelmed with the sensation of wanting to lurch forwards towards Sue. He described the feeling as if he was being accused of being homosexual, and that was his natural reaction, although Sue has directed the question at the supposed spirit energy in the room. It had earlier been suggested that this energy had attached itself in some way to Kev, which may explain why he reacted in some way on its behalf. It then became clear to myself and a number of the team that a distinct smell of excrement was circling the group, which again made some of us laugh out loud, possibly a reaction which was intended from the phenomena, but I certainly could not explain where this smell was coming from. And as quickly as it had arrived, it left the group. As the vigil came to an end and we made our way towards the courtyard a number of the group expressed seeing a clear misty phenomena near the exit, and we could all clearly smell what could only be described as gunpowder. It was only when we had exited the tunnels that we all heard a loud crash as if a large stone had been thrown at one of the military vehicles on display in the courtyard.

The final vigil of the night to me and my team to Rooms 6, 7 and 10. For the most part our time was uneventful as the dawn light began to break through. While in one of the rooms our team linked in with a possible victim of hanging where an iron hook could be seen embedded in the ceiling, and Matt had also felt previously that somebody had either hung themselves or had been hung in this room. As the time approached 4.30am we were just about to wrap up for the night when we became aware of a disturbance from along the tunnel where Team 4 had been investigating with Stewart. It was apparent that somebody was having an aggressive episode as shouting and raised voices could be heard. Matt and I decided to get our team out of the tunnels as things appeared a little uncomfortable. What I was unaware of at that point was that a little earlier Team 4 had joined Stewart and Dee linking in a circle around the table in Room 14, with all hands on the surface and the torch light on. Apparently they had witnessed the Planchette moving completely by itself, and at one point it had written the letter 'E'. The team were apparently connecting with a benevolent energy at which point Stewart sensed a more aggressive spirit make its presence known. At this point Stewart became overcome with the energy of this spirit, and it was suggested that this was the angry, controlling officer named George who had been contacted earlier. As I entered Room 14, a little after Stewart had begun experiencing this episode, I recognised the voice of the aggressor as being Stewart, as I could see him looking distinctly uncomfortable, having to be physically restrained while Dee, Mark and Sue desperately tried to bring him forward. I can only describe the look on Stewart's face, and for those of you who have worked with him and know his pleasant, genuine nature, this was by no means the face of the friend that I had come to know well. Even as a relative sceptic this was the sort of thing that makes your hairs stand on end. My heart was racing by this point, and I could then hear Stewart's comments from earlier in the night ringing in my ears as he warned me that he was distinctly nervous about what might lay ahead. Well, the most important thing is that the situation was controlled, thanks to the sterling efforts of Dee, Mark and Sue among others, and Stewart was well on the way to recovery a short while later as he was taken out of the tunnels to get some well deserved fresh air. There was however a final twist to this episode because as I arrived at Room 14 I heard the beam barrier being triggered 3 doors further along the tunnel outside Room 17. I had assumed that one of Team 4 had rushed out of the room in that direction and accidentally triggered the barrier. It was only after questioning all the teams in the tunnels that we discovered that nobody had ventured past the barrier at any point. We can now only hope that Jamie will have captured it all on the TV-Link Up Camera which we had placed by the beam barriers.