Back in September 2010 Paranormal United began discussions with Valley FM, the Bridgnorth Community Radio, to conduct a paranormal investigation of a historic building.

The name that came up was one of the oldest buildings in Bridgnorth, Bishop Percy’s House, built in 1580 it’s last inhabitants were the Bridgnorth Boys Club in 2003 and to our knowledge never investigated despite its reputation as one of Bridgnorth’s most haunted buildings.

The timber framed building was built in 1580 by Richard Forester, a local haulage contractor who wanted a commercial property and home next to the River Severn at the base of the Cartway in Bridgnorth.

The property is now called Bishop Percy’s House because Thomas Percy was born there on 13th April 1729. Percy went on to be the chaplain to the Duke and Duchess of Northumberland and later to become Bishop of Dromore in Ireland. One of the lesser known historical facts of the property is it is built around a Stone Stair Tower that dates back to the 1400′s and has one of the oldest elaborate fireplaces of this period still in place.

Using various contacts including local planning consultant Mike Harris and local author Simon Golding we finally got permission to investigate the building, and a date was set of Saturday 15th October 2010. With such a opportunity we were quick to call in the assistance of our friend and mentor Phil Whyman and the rest of the Dead Haunted Nights teamleaders.

The investigation turned out to reveal some interesting results including unexplained dark shadows, red light anomolies or orbs visible with the naked eye, unexplained EMF readings and information from our medium Kevin Crowe that would have been difficult to research in advance.

Here is the first two installments of the footage taken by Valley FM.

Our thanks go out to Clive, Nikki and the techo magician John from Valley FM, Simon and Mike all their help and information and to Jamie who allowed us access to this amazing property.

To Phil Whyman, Sara Whyman and all the Dead Haunted team cheers guys and gals

Want to join Phil & the DHN team for a Paranormal Investigation ? Visit Phil Whymans Dead Haunted Nights for a list of public investigations.

Listen to Phil Whyman’s Podcast relating to this investigation

It’s those hidden extras that separate Wymering Manor from the rest of the property market.

After all, how many homes can boast a ghostly choir of nuns who scuttle across the hall, and a host of unseen hands which reach out to touch those passing by?

The manor, said to be one of Britain’s most haunted houses, is up for auction this month and is expected to fetch around £375,000. Prospective buyers should be aware that they will need to spend at least £150,000 to restore it to its former glory. Nerves of steel would also be an advantage.

The eerie Grade II* listed building in Portsmouth is featured in the 1086 Domesday Book and was once home to Edward the Confessor. Its current structure dates back to the 16th century when it was used as a vicarage and monastery.

The building still has two ‘priest holes’ where Catholics hid to escape persecution. Investigators of the paranormal claim to have sensed the presence of between 20 to 30 spirits in the home, including those of children laughing and whispering.

The building has gained a reputation among ghost hunters for high levels of paranormal activity, including sudden drops in temperature and strange apparitions. A former resident, David Scanlan, found the living and the dead got along fine.
He said the spirits ‘seem to be quite nice and quite friendly and it’s almost like we get on with them and they tolerate us’.

The house has proved a draw for numerous groups keen to examine the veracity of paranormal activity
Jeremy Lamb, chartered surveyor at Andrews and Robertson, said: ‘This is a property of some renown for being haunted, so there is a fair chance a future owner may use it as a guest house because of the novelty factor attached to it.

‘It’s certainly a unique selling point and not often that we offer a haunted house. ‘When I surveyed it the security guards told me they feel there is something fairly spooky going on in the house.

‘Although they patrol it on a 24-hour basis because it attracts lots of people who are intrigued by its levels of paranormal activity, they refuse to work alone there at night.’

The manor was bought in the 1960s by Portsmouth City Council, which leased it to the Youth Hostel Association until 2006. It was then sold to a private organisation after the cost of the upkeep became too much for the council.

The purchasers intended to restore the manor and turn it into a hotel and function rooms, trading on the historic and paranormal links after a visit by the Most Haunted Live television programme in May 2006.

However, the development never took place and it was returned to the council. The building will go up for auction at the Grand Connaught Rooms in London on September 21 with a minimum guide price of £350,000.
The manor, which needs major structural work and restoration, boasts being the oldest house in Portsmouth, Hampshire and was mentioned in the Domesday Book in 1086. In previous incarnations it has been a 17th century former vicarage, monastery and youth hostel.
Investigators of the paranormal claim to have sensed the presence of 20 spirits including those of children laughing and whispering

The building has gained a reputation among ghost hunters for having high levels of paranormal activity, including sudden drops in temperature and strange apparitions, and has appeared on TV’s Most Haunted.
It has also become a popular hit on YouTube with amateur documentary makers testing one another’s wits against the ghouls.

Tony Nicholas, head of asset management at Portsmouth City Council, says the money from its sale will be reinvested into services for Portsmouth people.
In 2007 Wymering Manor was granted permission for use as a hotel. The successful bidder will need listed building consent in addition to planning permission for any alterations, extensions or demolition works to its interior or exterior.

It will be offered by Andrews & Robertson at auction at London’s Grand Connaught Rooms on September 21.

Paranormal United acted as team leaders on an investigation of  Wymering Manor on 1st August 2008 with Phil Whyman & David Wells ( See Photo Album )

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1310763/Wymering-Manor-Britains-haunted-manor-house-auction.html#ixzz11fCwEdDl

On the 10th of September 2010, Living announced a new show that is to replace Most Haunted. Paranormal Investigation: Live .

This announcement brings to a close the series of Most Haunted on Living.

Paranormal Investigations Live on Facebook Statement

This Halloween, be part of a brand new kind of TV paranormal investigation with the sole aim of uncovering hard evidence of paranormal activity. Two teams of experienced investigators, using very different approaches and equipment, will be sent into one of the UK’s scariest locations to uncover the paranormal. But will the evidence they gather stand up to the scrutiny of our in-house scientific and historical experts? Will they be able to explain incidents that are seemingly beyond the range of normal? Or will they, along with you the viewer, observe experiences that lie outside of rational explanation? Join us LIVE on 30th & 31st October, exclusively on LIVING. If you dare.

Psychic News The last Issue by Roy Stemman – 21st July 2010 

As predicted in my two previous posts, Psychic News has published its final issue. The online version became available earlier today and the printed papers will reach newsagents or fall through the letterboxes of its subscribers for the very last time in a day or two.

The final issue is an astonishing piece of journalism, packed with tributes from former editorial staff, contributors and readers, as well as a very moving front-page statement from its last editor, Sue Farrow, who says she writes it “with a heart so heavy with sadness that I have no words to describe it”.

Sue also reveals that “for the first time in its proud 78-year history of editorial independence Psychic News has been subjected to censorship.” She explains that immediately after the Spiritualists’ National Union’s AGM in Blackpool she received an e-mail “informing me that everything printed in this, the last ever issue, was to be submitted” for approval.

That said, its columns show little sign of the editor or contributors being muzzled.

Tony Ortzen, a former editor, suggests that observing these events from the next world the newspaper’s founder, Maurice Barbanell, and those associated with it from the start, “will be beside themselves with anguish and despair that a once proud Spiritualist newspaper has been consigned to the scrapheap of publishing history”.

Physical medium Stewart Alexander laments the fact that “at a stroke, the Spiritualists’ National Union (SNU) have done what the movement’s critics have been unable to achieve for over 80 years. They have silenced the only informed, unifying, independent ‘voice of Spiritualism’.”

Psychic News contributor Graham Jennings said, “This is truly terrible news, surely the worst in the history of Spiritualism.” Two other contributors, Lis and Jim Warwood, declared: “The closure of Psychic News is a tragedy, the enormity of which is almost beyond words.”

There are many more, in a similar vein, praising the efforts of the editor and her team, questioning the judgment and motives of the SNU in closing it down, and expressing the hope that it could somehow arise phoenix-like and continue in some form.

The most powerful criticism of the SNU came from Geoff Griffiths who attended its AGM and summed up “the sorry spectacle” of its assassination of Psychic News in a three-letter word: MAD! After suggesting what actions they should have taken, instead of closing it, Griffiths asserts: “They have made a huge mistake”.

During my eight years of working with Barbanell, we were never allowed to write that someone had died. People never died in Psychic News, they either passed on or – better still – were promoted (though I felt one or two may have experienced a demotion).

Unfortunately, promotion is not a word we can use to describe the death of Psychic News.

Astonishingly, Maurice Barbanell (right) edited the newspaper right up to the end of his life, at the age of 79, in 1981.  Which means he outlived his creation by one year. The difference, of course, is that whereas Barbanell passed after a short illness, Psychic News’ death is premature and far from natural.

The SNU has snatched away its life support, while the patient was alive and kicking, and without seeking the help of specialists who could help it get back on its feet. In other words, it has been murdered.

Source : http://www.paranormalreview.com/articles/20100721

On Sunday 12th September 2010 Paranormal United are proud to welcome back to Bridgnorth renowned paranormal investigator Phil Whyman from Living TV’s Scream Team, Most Haunted and Most Haunted Live. Phil and members of his Dead Haunted Nights Team will lead 24 members of the public through an overnight paranormal investigation of the Woodberry Down, Bridgnorth.

There have many disturbances and strange activity reported at Woodberry over the years, particularly recently as the refurbishment has been ongoing. So they hope for a very interesting night.

Phil last visited Bridgnorth in 2008 when he ran a paranormal investigation of ‘The Theatre On The Steps’ as the finale to the Bridgnorth Music Festival.  Phil has most recently been involved with the ‘The Great Unexplained Debate’ – alongside Karl Beattie, Most Haunted Live at Morecambe Winter Gardens and runs Dead Haunted Nights taking the public on Paranormal Investigations in some of the most haunted locations in the UK.

Tickets are available to take part in this event via the Woodberry Down Website  but there are very limited numbers available and with the chance to take part in the investigation with such a renowned paranormal investigator they are expected to sell out very quickly.

A mysterious moving pint glass has been captured on CCTV at the New Inn in Gloucester, which has a reputation for hauntings.

A catalogue of unexplained activity at a Gloucester pub has prompted the Gloucester Active Paranormal Society to investigate.

It’s claimed that a series of unexplained happenings have occurred at The New Inn in the space of a week, including the sound of ghostly footsteps, rattling doors and even a pint of beer mysteriously lifting itself off a table and on to the floor.

The building in Northgate Street is a bar and hotel, and dates back to the 14th Century.

It was originally built to house pilgrims visiting the shrine of King Edward II at nearby Gloucester Cathedral, and is described as having the finest example of a medieval gallery in Britain.

Lyn Cinderey from the Gloucester Active Paranormal Society (GAPS) was in the bar at the time of the ‘moving pint’ incident, taking part in a pub quiz.

“The quiz night was absolutely amazing,” she said.

“There were a few people in the bar, and four people saw this glass – a full pint – just lift up and fall on the floor. The glass didn’t even break.

“The rest of us looked around and heard the thud. We just couldn’t believe it. It was right there in the middle of the quiz.

“I’ve been investigating this [reputedly haunted] building for a long time and I’ve never known it so active.

“Activity has risen since 1 February when new managers, Mark and Samantha, arrived. Their daughter has been talking to a young girl – there is reputedly a young spirit girl there.”

Lyn claims other strange happenings have happened recently.

“One of the bar staff has heard footsteps in the cellar when he’s been clearing up with nobody else there, and staff have also heard the exit door rattle in the restaurant.

“Another of the bar staff claims that when he’s been clearing up he’s felt a cold spot and he’s been chilled all over. It’s absolutely fantastic,” said Lyn.

On another occasion the pub managers’ pet has even been spooked.

“Samantha’s dog was eating his food in his bowl the other night and the bowl just turned itself over.

“The dog ran over to the other side of the room and just stared at his bowl and wouldn’t go near it the rest of the night.

“My friend also stayed there and she was watching TV when it suddenly went off.

“She went to look and the plug was half way out of the socket and yet it was firmly in before.”

There have also been reports of keys going missing.

Lyn Cinderey is now planning to do an overnight investigation, with a team of people from GAPS.

They will carry out temperature readings, use dictaphones to do EVP (Electronic Voice Phenomena) recordings, record anything that might be there with camcorders, and take pictures.

“We’ll hopefully get to the bottom of what exactly is going on,” said Lyn.

By David Bailey
BBC Gloucestershire

The first teaser trailer for the sequel to last October’s surprise low-budget blockbuster, Paranormal Activity, was released at screenings of The Twilight Saga: Eclipse.

Shot in a similar style, this footage features the same security camera footage catching spooky images when no one is looking.

The budget is bigger this go-round since the original film, which cost only $15,000 to make, earned $193 million worldwide.

The storyline for the follow-up remains a secret and this eerie one-minute trailer gives no specific information about the plot of this supernatural tale. It shows objects moving on their own, a vanishing babe, and flying body. Apparently actors who originally played the haunted couple, Katie Featherston and Micah Sloat, will return.

Complaints that the Paranormal Activity 2 trailer is too scary for young kids prompted the Cinemark theater chain in Texas to pull it, according to trade publication Variety. Some have suggested there are hidden voices and imagery. No doubt, this has increased views of the trailer online.

Supposedly tremendous word-of-mouth on the internet triggered the campaign, demanding that the first Paranormal Activity open in cities throughout the US, when it was originally scheduled for a select release.

The sequel hits North American theaters on October 22, 2010.

Trailer: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=07XbSk7Rjt4

Source : The Observer

On the 25th June 2010 Yvette Fielding announced on the Antix Productions website that she was leaving Living TV’s Most Haunted, to move on to other projects.

Here at Paranormal United we wish her all the best in her future endeavours, it’s been a fun 10 years and we look forward to seeing her at Morecambe Winter Gardens on 24th July 2010. At the time of writing tickets are still available for this exclusive event at Morecambe.

Please feel free to leave your thoughts and comments.

History Of The Feathers Ludlow

This hotel in the small town of Ludlow is re-known worldwide for its beautiful Jacobean architecture and medieval heritage. Built in 1619 during the reign of King James I the name of the hotel originates from the motifs of ostrich feathers forming part of the timber framed façade which were traditionally the badge of the Prince of Wales who at the time was the future King Charles I and can still be seen today. The small town of Ludlow was popular with the Royals as it remained loyal throughout the English Civil War and this hotel was even thought to be used for the Royalist soldiers. Indeed it was the Captain in the King’s Army who converted it into an inn in around 1670.

Paranormal Activity

With its extensive history much paranormal activity has been recorded over the years. A ghost of an unknown lady haunts room 211 and is known to be picky of who sleeps in the room, often preferring gentlemen guests to women guests. One couple awoke one night to find the female guest’s hair being pulled so violently that she was dragged from her bed whilst her male partner felt an unseen hand gently stroke his face. The female guest returned to her bed but awoke the next morning to find her clothes and sheets soaked with water but the sheets surroundings completely dry. Other reports have included a man in Victorian dress accompanied by a dog walking through room 232 into room 233.

The writing room is home to another male spirit who is searching for someone called Richard and seems to be from the period of James I. In 1974 a Mr. Ainsley was visiting the hotel for a meeting and rushing to meet his appointment he hastily parked his car opposite the hotel and soon realised he had forgotten some papers. Turning back to his car the man was stunned to see a young girl running and passing straight through his vehicle and vanishing but as he entered the hotel to relay his story the barman, he was informed that he was not the first to have seen the young girl. Some believe it was a girl that died in a road accident who was hurrying along to meet or do whatever that once fateful that day.

Source: xmoto.com