Private investigation in Crewe

PRIVATE INVESTIGATION IN CREWE

This is a private investigation which I have been running now for a couple of years.
I cannot give any details of the owners and address of the property.

PRIVATE HOUSE, BRADFORD

13th OCTOBER 2012

PRUK


BRIEF HISTORY OF BRADFORD

Originaly known as Broad Ford. Bradford was first settled by the Saxons. Around the time of the Domesday Book of 1086, its population was approx 400. The Manor of Bradford was first held by the De Lacy Family until 1311 and then by the Earls of Lincoln, John Gaunt and then to the Crown. It then passed into private hands in 1620.

After the Norman conquest around 1070, Bradford was a waste land. But it grew slowly. By the Medieval era, it was given the title of a town and a weekly market was held. By the Middle Ages, a wool and leather tanning industry was growing. In 1461, it was granted the right to hold 2 fairs a year.

PRIVATE HOUSE, HALIFAX

PRIVATE INVESTIGATION
HALIFAX

FRIDAY 8th JUNE 2012


PRUK


BRIEF HISTORY OF CALDERDALE

After the Battle of Hastings in 1066, William the Conqueror gave his Knights estates and manors over the country. Most of the area of Calderdale was given to the Earl of Warrene, the first Lord of the Manor of Wakefield.

Much of this area, at this time, was woodland and moorland. Settlers began to live here between 1100 and the 1340's. Small area's of land were cleared for farming. This farming land became in short supply and most families combined farming with weaving woollen cloth.

By the late 1290's, one of the first fulling mills in the country was built in Calderdale. Fulling was a way of making woollen cloth strong. Other mills soon followed. This was now turning into big business and turned these little settlements into separate villages.

By 1475, this area becames the largest producer of Kersey cloth (a cheap but hardwearing cloth). And by the early 1500's, Calderdale cloth was exported all over the world.

During the English Civil War, Halifax and its surrounding areas, such as Calderdale survived much better than its neighbours like Leeds or Bradford with the fighting and the damage caused. Its commercial centre and busy market towns continued to grow.

HALLOWEEN AT HANKELOW HALL

Hankelow Hall
Nr Nantwich
Cheshire

31st October 2011

PRUK


This Halloween, I wanted to return here. Since our last visit, things have moved around, voices and footsteps heard.. Our first visit was taken up with the legend of the George Thomas Bellyse Cooper. With the research that we carried out after our investigation, we needed to investigate this building with fresh eyes.

This investigation was not going to take all night, we were only here for a few hours but we didnt want to miss this oppunity to come back to this fantastic building
.
The weather was cold and windy.

We started just after 8pm with a walkround, just so we could plan our investigation and to remind us of the layout of the building. We had been joined by two other people from the house. As we walked round, we heard footsteps, voices, music, a cupboard door opening and stones were thrown by us.

We started to set up our equipment just before 9pm. Phil has brought with him a new experiment. This was sent up on the 2nd floor and faced down the corridor. This experiment was to see if a spirit walked through this corridor, the light image would change. In a way, we would be able to see the shape of the spirit. This was recorded at all times on Phil's camcorder. We left this running as we headed into the cellar.

We stood in the cellar, asking out. We thought that we heard something coming from the other part of the cellar, so I went and stood in that area on my own. As the others were asking out, I got the feeling that we were being watched but nothing happened and the feeling that I was getting could have just been my imagination due, in part to the weather. We deceided to have a sceance with the ouija board. Nothing happened.

We headed up to the 2nd floor, into the room behind our light experiment. We set up a sceance. As we were asking questions, we heard a few bangs. These bangs could have come from the windy conditions outside and we couldnt count out that the wind was causing these bangs.

We headed down to the 1st floor. It was still windy outside but the house had gone very quite.
Me and Nicola stayed in this room, Phil had gone into another room down the corridor and the two other guys had moved into the room next door to us. We heard heard a stone landing on the floor. We couldnt tell if it had fell from somewhere or it had been thrown.

We moved nearer to Phil. Me and our two brave guests stayed in one room and Nicola went into the room next door. We all heard another stone in the corridor. We started to ask out again but nothing happened.

By now, our two brave guys had left us on our own. We headed back up to the 2nd floor. We were asking ou but by now the weather was getting worse. It had started to rain and the wind was getting very bad. Any noice, by now, could not be put down to the weather and this ment that if anything moved or any noice was probably due to the weather and not spirits. We had to finish and so we stopped about 12.45am.


It had been such a shame that due to the weather, we couldnt finish the investigation. We hadnt planned to stay all night but a couple more hours would have been nice.
We did heard music, footsteps and voices. And we couldnt deciede if the stone had been thrown or just fell from perhapes the ceiling. But what was weird was the house. Even though the weather was bad outside, the inside of the house was too quite.

GHOST VOICES MAG

I have written three articles for this mag and I hope to have included many more in the future. Here are the ones I have had published so far ..............


JUNE/JULY 2009

This article was written about an office in my own home town of Crewe.











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OCT/NOV 2009
This article was written showing the areas of possible haunting. It includes such areas as Churches, Prisons and places of violent or untimely deaths.










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FEB/MARCH 2010
This article was written about one of my favourite places, of course, its Denbigh.

HANKELOW HALL

Hankelow Hall
Hankelow, Nr Nantwich
cheshire

PRUK

This building has never been involved in a paranormal

investigation before. It was such an honour to be the first group allowed to investigate such a wonderful building.

This whole area, including this family home is full of history and so many interesting tales and legends.

HISTORY OF HANKELOW

Hankelow is situated within the township of Audlem. At the time of the Domesday Book, this area was part of the Barony of Wich Malbank (now Nantwich) and it was owned by Richard de Vernon. During the reign of Edward 1st, this side of the Vernon family took the name HUNELOWE. There have been many spellings of Hankelow, inc HUNKELOWE, HUNKYLOWE and HONKYLOWE, so this is why the spelling in my report will change.

During the reign's of Richard II and Henry IV, William, son of Richard of Hunkelowe was the Bailiff to the Hundred of Nantwich. But between both of the King's reign, Richard Hunkelowe spent time imprisoned in Chester Castle as a debtor. Either through marriage or from the sale from Richard Hunkelowe, but during the reign of Edward III, the Hassall family gained considerable land and powerl. Through the Hunkelowe and Hassall family line, the marriage took place which brought them together into the Wettenhall family.

The Wettenhall family who stayed in Hankelow until the 18th century. Then the whole estate passed to the Bayley family and then to the Greaves family. Various families and people now own their own part of the area like with every village, town or city.


CIVIL WAR AROUND THIS AREA












During part of the civil war, Hankelow was ravaged as the two forces met. It was on the 19th May 1644, when Prince Rupert's army engaged the Parliamentarian army at Moss Hall Fields, Hankelow.

Prince Rupert had stayed around this area before. In May 1642, he had reputed to have stayed at Highfields in Audlem with his army of 10,000 (mostly horsemen and dragoons). They were on their way north to the siege of Stockport.

During 1643, the Royalist forces occupied most of the areas around Nantwich, including Audlem, Brindley, Buerton, Hankelow, Hatherton, Hurleston, Stoke and Wrenbury.

In 1644, Prince Rupert's army were camped in fields in Audlem near Highfields. The Parliamentarians were in control of Nantwich. And the skirmish took place.


HANKELOW HALL










Timeline of the Hall and Owners

- Domesday - Richard de Vernon owned the estate.

- Edward I (1272-1307) - de Hunkelowe family (part of the de Vernon family).

- 1374-1585 - Richard Hunkelowe either sold the estate or it passed through marriage to the
Hassall family.
In 1447, Robert de Hassal and his wife Cecily accuired the lands of Hankilow. The Hall became the principal Hassal residence until 1585, when Ralph Hassal inherited Hassall Manor (near Sandbach) and William (his step brother) was given Hankelow.

- late 1500's - through marriage, the hall passed into the Wettenhall family.

- early 1700's - the present house dates from the early 18th century. It was built for Gabriel
Wettenhall. It was altered for his son, Nathaniel and remodelled in 1755.

- late 1700's - Edward Wettenhall sold the hall to the Richardson family.

- 1817 - sold to Thomas Cooper.

- 1873 - the estate passed to George Thomas Bellyse Cooper.

- 1893 - the hall passed through many hands including a wine and spirit merchant and a cotton
manufacturer,

- 1929 - the hall was bought by Commander Claude Alexander Codrington.

- 1954 - the hall was bought by Peter Glover Nicholas of Fields Farm, Nantwich.

- 1959 - the hall was bought by John Henry Vernon of Moss Hall, Audlem.

- 1961 - the hall was converted into flats but by the 1970's, the building had fallen into disrepair. By 1978, it had been condemned by the local authority. But it was saved.

- 1989 - Mr Victor Vernon sold it to its present owner, Mr Kirk Shenton Homes Ltd.




There is a legend at the hall that a young man haunts the front door. It is said that he shot himself just before his wedding because he had killed his family on the lake in the hall's grounds.

The truth behind this tradedy is a little different. The gentleman in question, didnt live at the Hall and his family died in a accident many miles away.


THE BUILDING



This Grade II listed building is built of red brick. It is of early Geogian style.





Not long after work started on this building, evidence was found of an earlier house, including wattle and daub, remains of a timber framed building and window frames that have been dated to the 17th century.

This long building used to be the Hot House. It was built on an older building.








This building at the back of the hall, use to be the Engine room. It is said that a spirt has been seen here.








This photo shows the roof space at the top of the house. This area use to be the living quarters for the servants and during the summer/autumn, the fruit pickers.







These stairs are narrow and a lot smaller than the main stairs. They were only used by the servants.

This photo shows a large wooden fireplace situated in a wooden panelled room. This had been the libuary. It suits the room but this fireplace is not from the hall, but it came from Newcastle Hospital a few years ago.

INVESTIGATION

We started our investigation at 10pm. The group included us and a few guests (invited by the owner).We walked to the cellar. Geoff told us that he had picked up a man called John from the 13th century. So, as we were all together in the cellar, we decieded to do some table tilting. There was some slight movement and we all heard the sound of a bell, like the bell on a cats collar. We also heard the sound of a small stone being thrown but no one saw it.

By 10.30pm, we had moved up to the second floor. Geoff was picking up on the Quakers. He also picked up on a battlefield. Geoff also told us that a man had come forward, named John (a different Man from the John he had picked up earlier). This John had the surname of Derbyshire or came from Derbyshire and he had been shot by Thomas in 1643.

We thought it would be a good idea if we tried glass divertaion with the ouii board, as we had picked up on someone present. We picked up on some names .....
HYWEY WRNEP ... he had been born in 1665 and he was 12years when he died.VAZ was spelt when we asked how he died. Reasearch has shown that Hywey is a Welsh name, for example Hywey Dda (880-950) King of Dyfed, Powys and Gwynedd.
TNANP or TNANQ ... poss female and from the year(possibly when she was born) 1917 or 1907. She died in 1987, at the age of 39years. Born in Hankelow. Of course, no research has to be done to show she would have been older than 39 when she died or did she get her dated wrong on the board.
FLJK ... also lived here but when we asked how they died, LIVE was spelt out. So did they still think they are still alive. But when we asked for a message, it spelt IGEFIVJFHGHDHDIEWDWIFJEEF. We asked where they stood and it pointed over into a corner.
RLNN ... was spelt when we asked if anyone else was with us. He was a male nurse. No other information.
NOZ ... was also spelt out when we asked if anybody else was there but no other information.

By 11.40pm, a few of the group thought they heard noices coming from the next floor, so I went up on my own and the group stayed and asked for something to happen to me. I heard footsteps on the staircase. At the same time downstairs, Phil and Nicola heard a voice and footsteps.

At Midnight, there was just the three of us, me, Phil and Nicola. We were trying to debunk the voices and footsteps we had heard. Nicola and Phil heard the same voices. So I went down back to the second floor. Nothing happened. So we all sat upstairs in the loft. Nicola and Phil heard a loud breath and I heard whistling. As we were the only people left in the building, we couldnt debunk the sounds.

By 1.30am, we deceided to go back downstairs and headed into the Libuary. The last member of the vistors came to join us. So the four of us stood in the Libuary, asking out. We could still hear voices and noices above us, so Phil stayed in the Libuary and we went back upstairs. By now nothing could be heard upstairs but Phil was hearing noices by him. It was as though, these noices were moving away from us. So we went back into the Libuary with Phil. We heard nothing else and we all moved into the next room.

We stood in the room next to the Libuary and we started to ask out. About 2am, we all heard a loud noice (sounded like a bang). Then we started hearing very weird noices ... sound of bat wings fluttering ( this building does not suffer from bats), dragging sounds and voices again.

We finished around 3am, by spending a short amount of time around the front door. This after all was the scene of the suicide, according to the legend.


During my research after our investigation, I found two following pieces of information.
... Geoff had told us that he had picked up on a battle in 1643. My research showed that during this year, the Royalist army occupied most of the area around Nantwich with the Parliamentarians controlling the town of Nantwich.
... The legend about a suicide is not true. George Thomas Bellyse Cooper didnt kill his family and then kill himself out of guilt. It was a boating accident when he was only a baby, on Lake Windermere. He did die, years later, he accidentally shot himself whilst living in Tenby. I cant find any records to show he had married or was due to be married.

So did we pick up on voices from the past? And did we hear them walking around? All I can say at this moment in time, I love this place and I didnt feel that there is anything negative about this building. I would love to have the honnor to visit here again and conduct a second investigation.