An unfinished mansion of the second half of the 19th century, located in Woodchester, England, in Gloucestershire, is not only a large-scale neo-Gothic structure attractive to tourists, but also an object of interest for researchers of the paranormal. Robert Snow, the former general secretary of the London Ghost Club, especially for the Ufokom Project, shared his impressions of what he personally, as an eyewitness, had a chance to meet in this place.
Robert Snow.
On Friday, September 7, 2001, two colleagues and I took part in the filming of the American television program "The World's Most Fabulous Places" at the Woodchester mansion. We arrived at the site at about 7 pm and went to inspect the building in order to familiarize ourselves with the area where it is located before dark. The tour guide was David Price, CEO of Woodchester Mansion Trust.
Woodchester Mansion is a Gothic building in the form of a quadrangle with a central courtyard, built of stone quarried in the vicinity of the Cotswolds. It began to be erected in 1852, but for some reason it was never completed, and no one seems to know the reason for this. Construction work stopped in 1868. It seems that the builders have just left, leaving their tools in the building and in the yard. I suspect that the real reason could be that the customer ran out of money. The fact is that the quality of the masonry here is very high, without any flaws, and in the house all the floors have ribbed stone vaulted ceilings with an abundance of finely carved images.
Some of the timber scaffolding is still in place, supporting some of the completed arches and vaults. Underneath are the construction tools left behind by the workers. All this, combined with the privacy of the building, seems to add a sense of abandonment to the melancholic atmosphere that surrounds it. A sense of timeless peace permeates the house and the valley in which it is located … The Woodchester Mansion is located a kilometer away from the main road, in a deep valley, the slopes of which are covered with dense forest.
After completing our inspection of the house, we moved into the living room - the only room in the house that was fully completed and finished.
At 20:55 we decided to go for a walk in the valley, in which there was a series of ponds. According to legend, twenty American soldiers drowned there during the last war (the house was then temporarily set up as a military barracks for the US military). During the walk, we walked about a mile in each direction. The reason for this was rumors that local residents also periodically encounter incomprehensible phenomena in the desert valley. And we wanted to check if there was any paranormal activity. We returned to the mansion at 10.00 and sat in the living room, discussing our impressions.
At about 10:15 am, Dennis Moyes and I began placing control objects at various locations within the house, at all levels from the top floor to the basement. These objects were sheets of white paper, on which we placed a couple of coins. The contours of the coins were outlined with a pencil so that it was immediately possible to detect the involuntary displacement of these marks.
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This operation was completed at approximately 22:30. Then Denis and I joined the rest of our colleagues in the living room to have a cup of coffee and cookies and discuss future plans.
At 11 pm we decided to start our observations and turned off all the lights in the living room. We sat in silence for about an hour and a half, but nothing happened. In complete darkness, we discussed episodes of the construction of the building in which we were, and also shared our thoughts and impressions of this mystical place.
It wasn't until 2:30 AM that we all heard a soft metallic knock coming from the right side of the fireplace; everyone was looking in that direction, as it was very amazing. After a couple of minutes, the sound gradually grew louder and reached a crescendo; now the sounds are deafening. When we looked at the wall, we saw letters that appeared there, as if drawn by an invisible brush. The plaster on the wall was originally a light mustard color, and the inscription that appeared was of the same shade, however, much darker. The letters "SWSB" measured about twelve inches in width and height. These signs were roughly drawn and seemed to be hand-painted.
I must mention that Dennis, Archie and I regularly checked all control objects (sheets of paper with coins) at intervals of one hour during the night. During the first inspection, one control object (in the kitchen) appeared to have disappeared. As we later joked, that is why the "ghosts" now owe me two pence … In all other places, the control objects did not move at all throughout the night.
In my initial opinion, this was some form of deception or gimmick orchestrated by the film company. I think that you will agree with the high probability of this. I went out into the corridor to see if there was anyone there who could make a sound, but the corridor was empty. All this time the knocking continued, and it seemed they were moving upstairs. I called Dennis Moyes, a member of the Ghost Club, on my cell phone, and Archie Laurie, who, incidentally, is the Secretary General of the Scottish Society for Psychical Research, and offered to come upstairs with me. We decided to check the room in which strange sounds sounded.
As we climbed the main staircase, the sound became very loud and the intensity increased all the time. We all turned on the powerful lights, but as we rounded the corner the strange noise suddenly stopped. We went up to a room where sounds seemed to be coming from, but there was no one there. We all carefully examined this room together to try to establish the cause of the sound, but could not find any rational explanation for the mystical noise. If there was a technical device installed by a person, it could not disappear without traces. We would have noticed it.
I must mention that at all levels the floors were stone and dusty. In some places it was just loose rubble, since no floor was completely paved. In any case, we examined the floors in all the rooms connected with this corridor, but still could not find an explanation for the sounds we heard. We returned to the living room and voiced our findings to the rest of the investigation. I suggested (and the others agreed) that it would be advisable to go to the corridor where the sound was supposedly coming from, and spend some time there in complete darkness. And so we did. There were four people left in the living room who did not want to accompany us too much.
We spent about ten minutes in the hallway when suddenly the noise started again. I shone my flashlight in the direction of the sound, but could not see anything that would explain its appearance. The knocking continued incessantly. I turned off the flashlight and the sound stopped. Five minutes later, we all heard a faint noise from the other end of the corridor. I can describe it as a combination of the sounds of a heavy wooden box being dragged, jet engines running, and the noise of a passing train.
The sound, it seemed to us, moved down the corridor and approached us. It grew louder and louder until it was completely deafening. All this lasted for about three minutes. I shone my lantern in all directions and again saw nothing to explain the mysterious sounds. It should be mentioned that during this entire shocking incident, I stood leaning against a wall that vibrated with great amplitude. The same thing happened with the corridor floor. Everyone present felt a strong vibration. We carried out a thorough inspection of all the nearby premises, but again could not find anything to explain such loud sounds.
After a vain search, we returned to the living room to discuss this phenomenon. The people who stayed here were extremely intrigued. They wondered what was happening upstairs. At first they thought we were trying to play them. But then again there was a loud sound, we all jumped out into the corridor and headed for the main staircase. I went upstairs and went out into the corridor, from where this cacophony was heard.
Dennis and Archie accompanied me for the fifth time to the upper corridor from where the sound was coming from. Just as before, when climbing the main staircase, there was a loud tapping sound that seemed to come from the stone vault above the staircase. We stopped to listen. The rest of our colleagues came up with the film crew. We all stood on the stairs and listened. Suddenly there was a sound, as if a huge amount of masonry began to fall from a great height. My first impression is that the stone vault above the stairs is crumbling right on us …
The sound was deafening. That night we witnessed many cases of loud "metal" knocking. But I have only mentioned the main incidents here.
I carefully analyzed all the information we received and could not find any rational explanations for the paradoxical sounds described above. Therefore, I am one hundred percent sure that this loud metallic knock must be of paranormal origin.
Drawn letters, however, are a different matter that could possibly have been a hoax. However, considering other factors, I believe that their appearance may also be of a paranormal nature. Also I must mention that there was no wind or rain that night and the night sky was quite clear with a thin cloud layer.
When I first visited the Woodchester Mansion, I fell in love with the place and have now joined the Friends of the Woodchester Mansion. Here I got a chance to personally participate in the preservation of this unique home.
And, of course, Woodchester has value not only as a historical monument, but also as one of the epicenters of unexplained phenomena of interest for scientific study. I admit that the account of my first visit to Woodchester will seem fictitious to some, but I can assure the reader that it is not. This is one hundred percent true in every detail, without embellishment.
Representatives of various paranormal research organizations regularly spend nights in the house. A representative from The Woodchester Mansion Trust must always be present. Often I am that person. During my many nocturnal visits to the Woodchester home, I have seen many phenomena that I cannot explain with ordinary causes. For example, I heard the sounds of stones falling in the basement when no one else was in the building. Moreover, this happened even in daylight. One day I was sitting in front of a fire in the living room, and a group of researchers that was in Woodchester that evening decided to go outside and go down to the ponds near the house. Soon after they left, I heard a man and a woman talking in the hall, and someone was walking over the rubble of stones that covered the floor.
I went to see who was talking there, but there was no one in the hall. This happened three or four times, and every time I approached the hall, the sounds stopped. Then I decided to lock the door and searched the house from the top floor to the basement, but I still couldn't find anyone or anything to explain the sounds. I unlocked the door and returned to the living room. I again heard those voices and the sound of feet on the rubble in the hall.
This time I didn’t go to catch the "invisible", because I knew that I would not find or see anything. I was never afraid of these unexplained phenomena, but I must admit that one day something happened that made me feel very uncomfortable.
One Saturday night, when I needed to accompany the research team, I decided to come to the strange house early to light the fire in the living room before the guests arrived. I went through the north entrance and headed towards the living room. As I approached the chapel, I heard heavy footsteps behind me. I stopped - the sound of footsteps also stopped a couple of seconds after I stopped. I shone my flashlight around, but I couldn't see anyone behind. As soon as I continued to move, steps began to follow me again. And again, when I stopped, they died down again after two seconds. I decided to go back and look around the corridor with the lantern. But the footsteps continued to follow me, and again - no one in sight. This happened repeatedly in different parts of the building. I was very worried about this escort of the "invisible".
These are just a few of the incidents I've witnessed at the Woodchester Mansion … In my opinion, Woodchester Mansion is probably the most paranormal place in the country. I believe that about 90 percent of so-called supernatural events can only be rationally explained through careful research. However, what is happening in and around the Woodchester mansion is mostly within the ten percent that seems to challenge all researchers of the extraordinary.
Robert Snow
Translated from English by Viktor Fefelov