Derby Gaol 24-09-2005

This Orb was photographed by Lee Buchanan at Derby Gaol on Saturday 24th September

On Saturday 24th September we were looking after another fairly local group who came from Ilkeston and were holding a joint hen and stag party. Sadly, due to a double booking their night at the gaol had to be brought forward by several weeks but hopefully they had a night that they will not only remember not only on their wedding night but for the rest of their lives.

Every now and then we like to try something a little bit different so we decided to test our guests psychic abilities with a little bit of psychometery. An artefact was passed around the group giving them the opportunity to sense its history and then a set of ten questions were asked to which they had to write down the answer of either ‘Yes’ or ‘No’. We used an artefact that we had only purchased ourselves a few hours earlier at an antiques fair and we ourselves were only sure of two of the answers we were asking. We had however used our own skills earlier in the day to try and resolve the answers to the ten questions we would be asking. This of course means that there were in most cases no provable right or wrong answers. One of the participants however agreed with us on 8 out of 10 of the answers. As yet we have not had chance to analyse the rest of the data but will let you know in due course.

We seem to be developing yet another pattern during séances, having had the same occurrence during the first session of the night on all three occasions we have worked at the gaol as the (K)nights of Fear, which has led to the séance having to be closed briefly after a very short period. Sadly, as this would lead to auto suggestion we are unwilling to divulge further details at this early stage. Once again though, during the second séance the poltergeist activity struck again.

Sometimes, we find ourselves wondering what to do next as divination sessions using spirit boards, glasses and tables as communication devices can be very short lived but on this occasion some sessions were lasting well over an hour an friends and loved ones of the participants appeared to come through with messages. Once again however, the (K)nights of Fear only supervised the sessions and took no active part and by the end of the night we had only used a small portion of our repertoire.

Derby Gaol 16-09-2005

Friday 16th September saw a group of nine from Nottingham attending the overnight stay at Derby Gaol. Apart from the poltergeist activity in the séances which resulted in this occasion with some of the participants being pinned to the floor the rest of the night’s results were the exact opposite of the previous week’s group. All attempts to move glasses, tables or planchettes yielded little or no result but the rocking spirit board answered a few questions that had arisen during an overnight stay several weeks back.

During this earlier visit we were using the board in the same location (the museum) when we were interrupted by a cry for help from the other side of the wall. Although this would have been a part of the gaol unfortunately, it is not leased by the Derby Heritage Centre and therefore we have no access to investigate exactly where the female voice emanated from. As we try to vary our routine from week to week this was the first time since then that the rocking spirit board had been used in that location again.

Sadly, we were unable to establish a name for this person and as it was during the time when the two sections of the gaol were used as a nightclub it would probably not be ethical for us to do so anyway as it would easily have been within living memory. We did establish however that it was a female aged 21, the initials C. L. and that she died by her own hand, although it was an accident. The whole session was carried out in total darkness with one of the guests using his own night vision camera to relay the results back to the rest of the group. We will of course be following this up using the rocking spirit board in the museum at the first available opportunity.

Derby Gaol 09-09-2005

Eleanor and Paul and I took charge of our first group at the old gaol in Friargate Derby under the name of the (K)nights of Fear. In the past as paranormal investigators members of the investigation team to whom we belong, have carried out numerous vigils at this location. During the last 7 months Eleanor, Paul and I have been supplying our services at the gaol during which time many of the participants at the ‘sleepovers’ have experienced the ‘other side’ for themselves and for some this has come as quite a surprise.

During the last four months up until the creation of the (K)nights of Fear, during séance conditions, 14 of the guests have seen and positively identified the same spirit despite the fact that the team have been very careful not to disclose any details beforehand so as not to influence anyone. Once again we weren’t disappointed as we ha yet another positive identification. There have been numerous occasions since the middle of May where poltergeist activity has occurred, but not to inanimate objects but instead to the people who are attending. This is happening more or less on a weekly basis and during three of the five séances held during the night the poltergeist activity was once against in abundance.

For the first time we tried a couple of new ideas one of which involved half of the guests using dowsing rods in the grounds of the gaol in an attempt to locate any of the poor unfortunates who had been executed and buried there. Our intention was to send the second half of the guests out to see if they achieved similar results but sadly we were beaten by the weather. As an alternative an ESP experiment was carried out in the day room where the guests had to predict whether the next playing card drawn by Paul was higher or lower than the last and also if the card was a red one or a black one. However, to make the experiment even more interesting, the card drawn was not revealed to the participants. Amazingly, one person managed to predict a fantastic 8 out of 10 correctly.

During the night, various other divination methods were used and unusually all the results obtained seemed to point to either friends or relatives of the guests and not to any of the usual residents of the gaol.

I Know for us, the (K)nights of Fear, this was a truly amazing night and I only hope that our guests enjoyed themselves as much as we did.

This picture shown above and explanation was sent to us by Christine Sharman:
“This was the picture we showed you at the end of the night...what interested me about this was that I took it just after we saw a shadow head into that cell. Robb was smoking at the time, but he was stood back by the museum room”

NOTE: All photographs remain the copyright of the original photographer unless otherwise stated

For several years now we have been investigating the paranormal in the UK and over the past year have slowly evolved into the field of paranormal entertainment. Many of our investigations have attracted guests from the locations and we discovered that because of the way we carried out our work the vast majority of them could not wait for us to return for further visits.

Our efforts have now attracted the attention of the Derby Heritage Centre which is owned by Richard Felix of Most haunted fame and several members of our Derwent Paranormal team have now been employed to work on a regular basis at both the Heritage Centre and Derby Gaol, supplying our talents for guests who have booked to send the night at these haunted locations.

We soon realised that serious paranormal investigation teams would not act too kindly to another investigation team seemingly being in attendance during their stay and total novices, who had no previous experience, could find that the people who were there to serve them their meals and drinks were not adequately trained to alleviate their fears of these haunted properties. To combat both of these possible extremes we decided to call ourselves the (K)nights of Fear who would be capable of hosting private and public events in whatever capacity we were required.