The Greyhound Inn(Surrey) 18/09/2004

Lingfield is surprisingly, still classified as a village and although it has no picturesque corners there is no coherent centre. This is possibly because the old village grew around a quadrilateral of lanes.

Sir Reginald Cobham largely rebuilt the church of St. Peter and St. Paul when he founded a college here in 1431. Interestingly, the style could loosely be described as “Kentish” (four- and five-light windows), this is however not surprising when you consider that the county of Kent borders this part of Surrey.

Possibly the best corner of Lingfield is at the south end of the churchyard where the road sweeps away to the east leaving a picturesque funnel of buildings leading up to the church, focusing on the south aisle, and forming a tiny square.

An unusual building in the village centre right next to its pretty duck pond is St. Peter’s Cross and Cage. It was built around 1473 to designate the boundaries of Puttenden and Billeshurst Manors. The cage was added in 1773 for the detention of petty offenders. It has not been used since 1882 when it was used to detain poachers.

The Cobhams were an influential local family who lived in Starborough Castle, about a mile east of the village. Very little remains of the castle apart from the ruined bases of its once four grand towers and the moat. The castle was destroyed during the Civil War in the 17th Century. A Victorian country house was built next to the ruins in about 1880.

Sir Reginald Cobham’s college has also gone. Henry VIII closed it during the dissolution of the Monasteries in 1544 and the main buildings were destroyed around the 18th Century.

Other historic buildings in the village include some delightful tile-hung and timber-framed cottages dating from the 15th – 16th century, many of them in the main street. This includes the Greyhound Inn, an old coaching inn originating from the 1500’s. The inn was much altered in the 17th century and again in 1900, but some original features remain such as the fireplace in the restaurant area complete with priest hole, and evidence of the great doors that once lead to the coaching entrance outside is still visible in the brickwork on the side of the inn.

(Sources: “Welcome to Surrey” 2004/5 edition & “The Lingfield Trail”)

The inn itself has had several reports of paranormal activity over the years. In 1976, a visitor claimed to have seen the figure of a young boy in what used to be the area of the skittle’s room. There was secret room at that end which was big enough to house 2 or 3 people at a time, and was allegedly used for covert meetings by smugglers. This also ties up with claims that there is a secret tunnel that runs from the inn’s cellar to the church area, although now bricked up. There still remains an archway in the wall of the cellar where this tunnel supposedly begins.

We arrived about 10pm, so the bar was still open and full of customers. I took this opportunity to introduce us to Paul, the manager, and have a chat with Emma, who has worked at the inn for about a year now and has experienced some of the strange activities.

At this point, only Ray and myself were privy to the information regarding the history and paranormal occurrences of the inn.

Emma told us that she had sensed the presence of someone, possibly female, by the fireplace to the right of the bar (when looking at the bar head on) on several occasions. It is on this side of the inn that the TV is located, above the bar, and about 4 – 5 weeks ago, Emma recalled that she had been in the bar with one other person, when after switching the TV off, it suddenly switched back on again by itself.

Approximately 4 or 5 months ago, Emma had been in the bar alone after closing. As she was tidying up she heard the sound of barrels being moved from the cellar below. The steps down to the main bottle cellar lead directly from the behind the bar on the right hand side as you face the bar itself. The barrel cellar is through a doorway to the left of the main bottle cellar at the base of the steps, which would be approximately under the restaurant seating area. When Emma went downstairs to check, nothing had actually moved, so she was perplexed as to what the sound may have been caused by.

Emma also told us that prior to the rear patio doors being put in, this area was just a window, and the former manager’s dog always barked at this area for no apparent reason (i.e. nobody was outside in the garden area for the dog to bark at). Current manager, Paul, also told us that his dog refuses to go anywhere near the steps leading to the cellar.

I also happened to get chatting to a former bar employee from 16 years ago, named Brenda. She told me that many customers had asked to be re-seated away from the fireplace, due to a strange cold spot felt there, and that sightings of a little girl had been reported around the fireplace area of the restaurant (the one with the priest hole inside). This little girl had apparently been burnt in the fireplace, but how long ago isn’t known. Brenda also told me that about 8 – 10 years ago, during renovation work, some old “documents” had been found bricked up in one of the walls. Although she couldn’t recall the nature of the documents, she did give me the name of a former resident of the village who wrote a history of Lingfield and recorded this event in his book. I will make inquiries at a later date to try and obtain a copy of this book.

(UK Paranormal) Ray Matthews(Nardi) Phillip Dobson(Dobbo) Jo Holness (The Inn's Personnel & Guest's ) Paul – Greyhound Inn manager Sharon – Paul’s partner Emma – Greyhound Inn employee Ronni Westby – UK Paranormal guest

Digital Video Cameras (NightShot) Digital Still Cameras Dictaphones EMF Meter Trigger Objects Thermometer

Team 1:
• Philip “Dobbo” Dobson – UK Paranormal
• Paul – Greyhound Inn manager

Team 2:
• Jo Holness– UK Paranormal
• Ronni Westby – UK Paranormal guest

Team 3:
• Ray “Nardi” Matthews – UK Paranormal
• Sharon – Paul’s partner

Present in bar area throughout the night:
• Emma – Greyhound Inn employee

Visited  18th September 2004
After the last of the customers had left, we brought in the equipment from the car. The first thing Ray and myself did was take control shots of the bar area, restaurant and the 2 cellar rooms, as well as digital temperature readings and EMF reading with a gauss meter. Paul kindly switched off the ice maker and beer cooler in the cellar for us to take readings and also at various times during the investigation.

At 12.15am, I took Dobbo and Ronni around the cellar separately to allow them to get a feel for the area and to see if they could pick up on any initial impressions. Dobbo didn’t get anything specific but he did get the feeling of either anxiety or excitement. He described it as akin to the adrenaline rush someone gets after running and getting out of breath. Ronni’s immediate feeling when she entered the cellar was an intense dislike of the corner where the barrel drop was. She said it felt “dark”, as if something “happened” here, someone was dragged involuntarily – either up or down or both – along the steps behind the runners. She felt that 3 people were involved and one was “waiting outside”. Ronni began to feel clammy and sick and her face felt hot. She got a sense that the person being dragged wasn’t very large and the people doing the “dragging” were wearing dark clothing, possibly long cloaks. Ronni felt extremely uncomfortable in this part of the cellar.

In the opposite corner of the same room, Ronni stood with her back to the bricked up chute in the wall, next to the archway where the alleged secret tunnel is, and got a sense of being pulled back towards the wall. Her back and arms “felt” cold, although in reality they weren’t cold at all.

In the adjacent barrel room, Ronni felt the cold sensation in her back getting stronger. She was drawn to the far right corner (as you stand in the door way), but wasn’t sure why. She got the words “sore”, “pain” and “hurt”. At 12.35am we returned upstairs to join the rest of the team.

We decided there were 3 main areas of interest for us – the main cellar, the adjoining barrel room and the restaurant/bar area – so we formed 3 teams (see above) to conduct 15 minutes silent vigils in each area, rotating teams about each area after each allotted time.

Team 1 began in the cellar, team 2 in the restaurant/bar and team 3 in the barrel room. First vigils began at 12.47am. Emma remained upstairs in the bar to turn lights off throughout each vigil.

Vigil 1
12.47am – 1.02am

Team 1 – cellar: Paul felt shivery for several minutes at the start and at around 12.50am got a tingling sensation on the back of his head At this time Dobbo got the impression that he was on a big ship of some kind and a minute later Dobbo got the feeling of a fire happening. Dobbo also sensed the presence of a man in a tri-corner hat rocking back and forth. Five minutes later Paul then “saw” what he described as a “purple mist” and at 12.56am he got the sensation of being “hugged” across his chest. He also got the impression that someone was close to him (and it’s not Dobbo!). Also at 12.56am Dobbo heard a noise coming from the archway area. At the end of this vigil Dobbo felt a cold sensation down his back.

Team 2 – restaurant/bar: 3 minutes into the vigil, Jo sensed a movement by the wall near the front door area. She got a feeling of “being watched”, possibly by a male figure. She also got an impression that there were several “presences” in that area and one seemed to have “peered” around then darted back behind the wall that protrudes out from the door area. Jo sensed the figure of a young blonde girl, possibly around 14 or 15 years old, standing in front of the picture that hangs on the protruding wall. The name of “Marcus” popped into Jo’s head a moment later as a cool breeze wafted on the right hand side of her face. At approximately 12.55am, Ronni heard a rustling coming from the fireplace in the restaurant and then 2 minutes later saw movement in the reflection of the picture (where Jo had sensed the girl). She also got a strong smell of hops, or beery breath.

Team 3 – barrel room: At 12.48am Sharon feels a sense of “sorrow” and burning. In the far corner (where Ronni initially got the words “pain”, “hurt” and “sore”), Sharon sensed a little boy sitting there. Several minutes later she began to feel very hot and again at 1am she sensed the child again in the same corner. At this exact same time, Ray saw a shadow behind where Sharon sat.

Vigil 2
1.05am – 1.20am

Team 1 – barrel room: 3 minutes after the start Dobbo got the impression of an army in red and white uniform marching along the road. This was followed at 1.15am by the impression of workmen in the barrel room moving stuff around. At 1.19am Dobbo saw a white light in the far corner of the room on the side of the wall where the door is located, but the other end, then at 1.20am Paul saw a shadow cut across one of the lights that emits from the cooling equipment in the room in that same area. There are no external windows in this room so we are unable to discern what may have caused the break in the light stream.

Team 2 – cellar: 5 minutes into the vigil, Jo felt her left hand go icy cold and got the impression that someone or something was watching them from the steps that lead to the bar. She got a wave of sickness and almost a “panicky” feeling. At the same time, Ronni got the impression of a dog by the same steps and felt extremely cold. At 1.13am Ronni’s chest felt really tight and she found it hard to breath (the same hugging sensation Paul felt earlier in this room) and 2 minutes later Jo heard the sound of something falling, like pebbles clattering, from the bricked up chute area next to the archway. At 1.17am Ronni began to feel very cold down her right side and sensed a tall man, about 6 feet in height, dressed in a black cloak but with a white collar in the cellar with them. Jo felt extremely uncomfortable and very agitated in this room throughout the vigil but didn’t know why.

Team 3 – restaurant/bar: At 1.10am Sharon felt very “floaty” and “sleepy” and then got the word “suicide”. One minute later, Ray saw a pinpoint of white light by the fireplace near the dartboard end of the bar (not the priest hole fireplace) and at the exact same time Sharon saw a dark-haired female figure at the same place. This is followed a minute on by Ray seeing something “dashing” from right to left at the far end of the bar. Ray heard “metallic” bangs but thought they came from outside the building rather than inside. At 1.14am he saw another shape dashing across the room again. Sharon saw someone standing or sitting by the bench situated near the same fireplace at 1.20am and she felt as though her left shoulder was being touched.

Vigil 3
1.24am – 1.35am (vigil cut short)

Team 1 – restaurant/bar: Paul again felt shivery at the start of this vigil. Dobbo heard a noise from a corner of the room and sensed a white Labrador dog in the bar area. At 1.28am he also sensed a maid in an old black dress with a white apron. At 1.34am the trip switch flicked off for no apparent reason (switch box is located by the front door).

Team 2 – barrel room: Ronni began choking and coughing almost immediately upon entering this room. She found it incredibly hard to breath in here. Jo heard a noise coming from the small wine alcove to her left at 1.28am.

Team 3 – cellar: At 1.31am Sharon thought she heard crying from another room and a minute later she felt a touch on her left knee. At 1.33am Sharon got the sense that someone had been abused. Ray heard a bang at approx 1.34am by the chute area, which would probably correspond to the trip switch going as it is directly above this area. However, due to Sharon becoming increasingly upset by the feelings she was sensing of someone having been abused there and Ronni’s breathing difficulties in the barrel room, we called this vigil to a halt early and gathered upstairs to compare notes and take a short break. It is interesting to note that as soon as Ronni left the barrel room her breathing was fine again and she stopped coughing.

It was only at this point that notes from all three vigils were compared. Prior to this, the teams changed rooms with no note comparing and very little interaction other than via walkie-talkies to let everyone know when we were in place and ready to begin the next vigil. It is also important to add that none of the team members claim to be psychic or have any mediumistic skills.

Vigil 4
2.36am – 3.16am

After our break, we set up some trigger objects and the camcorders. In the cellar, we placed a small toy bus on a floured board and set Dobbo’s digital camcorder to film it. Upstairs we placed 2 crucifixes on paper on the table nearest the protruding wall by the front door and drew around them, and we also suspended a bell from the ceiling beam in front of this table. Also, we placed a piece of blank paper and a pencil in each of two plastic tubs and sealed both tubs with tape. One tub was put in the cellar with the toy bus and the other was placed on the same table as the crucifixes. This experiment was set up to see if any presence would be able to draw or write on the paper inside the tub under sealed conditions to eliminate any “living” person interfering with them. The trigger objects in the bar were filmed by my analogue camcorder. Filming started at 2.36am and all members present, including Emma, sat at the restaurant end of the bar.

The temperature at the start was 19 deg C. During the Q & A session that began shortly after, the temperature dropped to 17 deg C at 2.52am and by 3.10am it was down to 16 deg C.

At 2.45am Jo sensed a shadow moving at table level by the trigger object table – possibly a dog. Ronni began getting a choking sensation – although she wasn’t coughing as she was earlier in the barrel room – and she also got an impression of blood being spilled and a sense of rhythmic drum beating, like a marching noise. She began to shiver and felt extremely cold and unexplainably weepy. On taking the temperature around her, it was interesting to note that her right side was about 6 deg C lower than her left for regular periods within the space of about 30 minutes.

Sharon also sensed a dog in the bar area and also at 3.04am she saw a man standing by the fruit machine (same wall as the fireplace and dartboard) with a woman seated beside him. Ray saw a movement to the right at this time too. The final event of note is at 3.09am Sharon “heard” a yell and Paul felt a touch on the back of his hand.

We called time on the vigil at 3.16am and began to clear our equipment up.

Conclusion:

All members that night certainly felt that “something” unusual was present at The Greyhound Inn, and we all got the impression that whatever it was wanted us to know it was there, but was very good at eluding or hiding itself, only giving us small teasing glimpses. Several of the team picked up of feelings of fear and anxiety, so perhaps whatever is there was too frightened to show itself fully. Several team members also seemed to be homing in on similar things independently of each other (remember, Dobbo and Ronni had no idea what to expect there beforehand, and in fact, we didn’t actually tell them anything that Ray and I had discovered until the journey home!). We all felt it would be a good idea to return to the inn at a later date with a medium to see if we could determine more about what or who this elusive presence was. Paul has kindly offered to have us back again in the future to conduct another investigation.

On behalf of UK Paranormal, I would like to extend a heartfelt thank you to Paul, Sharon and Emma for an enjoyable evening allowing us to investigate The Greyhound Inn. I would also like to extend out gratitude for their hospitality and all the help and information they gave us.

NO EVP AT THIS TIME

 

- The Greyhound Inn -

- Greyhound Bar Area -

- Fireplace -

- Barrel Alcove -

- Barrel Drop Chute-

- Cellar -

- Cellar Steps -

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