Delapre Abbey Investigation

After an initial briefing, members of the public attending the investigation were split into different teams, each being led by a member of ParaScience. Each team spent time in three different parts of the abbey throughout the night. Each team member had a floor plan of the ground floor of the abbey and was asked to record their position during each investigation session as well as the location and nature of any noteworthy events. The ParaScience team had also set up video cameras throughout the building covering areas where previous anomalous activity had been reported. Ambient temperature, sound and electromagnetic field measurements were also taken throughout the night.

Room 2, Room 3 Butler’s Pantry, Room 4 Small Beer Cellar

Very little activity was reported in this area.

Room 11 Old Kitchen

A team member, who had reported experiencing presences elsewhere in the abbey grounds, claimed that they felt the presence of a 3-4 year old child called Nicholas playing on the floor and came into the kitchen looking for the cook. This child was apparently wearing shorts and a knitted sleeveless top and a shirt. Another team member felt a cold draught on their face and had a cold nose at one point. They also reported hearing the windows rattle occasionally but this could have been caused by the wind outside. Another team member heard a sigh and a grunt or groan on a couple of occasions. There is no record of any other team member reporting this at that time and, given the number of other of people present in the room at the time, it might have been another team member making this sound.

The Walled Garden

Near the tables and chairs, one team member reported experiencing the presence of an elderly lady who asked why they were wandering over her burial place. This team member also claimed that “the delineation point between the soldiers’ area & the nuns’ is about 3’ uphill from the table & chair path.” This same team member also reported a presence of a 14-year old lad near the slaughterhouse: “He wears goldy colours. He is a foot soldier. He died fighting & following his lord. Name Joe or Jethro or similar. He says he fights for the house of York.” Another team member felt icy cold at the slaughterhouse and smelt blood. At this point in time we have not been able to check the veracity of this information.

Other phenomena

Two team members reported a circle of light about the size of a tennis ball appearing and disappearing in an area near the wine cellar. This might have been a reflection of torch beams or other light sources but without further information it is difficult to rule this out. Strong cigarette smoke was smelt in the corridor near rooms 2-4 at one point. Whilst the abbey is a no smoking building, we cannot rule out the possibility that this was caused by one of the abbey residents living on the first floor of the building and, unfortunately, we do not have records of which residents were in or at what times of the evening. In a particularly dark area of the building, one team member felt that someone had walked up to them and was standing in front of them when there was no-one there. One possibility is that this might have been caused by a temporary disorientation of their own body position in relation to their environment caused by the darkness and an uneven floor surface.

Conclusion

Whilst there were some unusual incidents reported by some team members, the activity level, in terms of anomalous phenomena, was generally rather low. However, only a relatively small number of team members returned written reports of their experiences at the end of the night. Unfortunately, there was no strong evidence obtained to suggest definite paranormal phenomena on this occasion, though given the purpose of this event there were some compromises that had to be made in terms of the usual investigative protocols.