WEST YORKSHIRE PARANORMAL GROUP

RING O'BELLS, HALIFAX

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A private team investigation took place here on Sunday, 26th April, 2009.  The request came from landlady Angie, and friends Sue and Darrel after something perculiar had been picked up on a mobile phone belonging to Sue and Darrel's daughter.  See clip below, and please turn sound up.

As you can see this clip is but a few seconds long and shows a pair of legs, in what appears to be cropped trousers with some kind of unusual looking footwear on the feet.  What it should show is a three minute clip of someone performing on a kakoke!  Also, there is no music detected on the sound, just the voice of someone with a broad Yorkshire accent, saying 'Aye love', and something else we can't make out.  The voice, it would seem, did not belong to anyone in the pub that night.  Present in the pub at the time were six people, all wearing jeans and casual clothes, definitely nobody dressed like the person in the picture, and at the time all the doors were locked.
So, as you can imagine, we were all very excited and honoured to be asked to do an investigation at this venue.

I must mention here that there are some things missing from this report that are normally included - photographs with orbs on.  That's because we didn't get any!  However, this is more than made up for in the fact we have lots of moving light anomolies.
 
The investigation began around midnight, when the pub was still quite warm, initially showing a temperature of 23 degrees in the main bar area.  It was decided that this is where should begin our investigation, as this is where the pillar is, where the photo was taken.
As we were completing a period of protection there was an unusual noise from the bar area, but there was no repeat on request.  With us, in spirit, was a man and a little girl.  We asked if the man was Walter, a spirit who has been there before, and we did get a small light in response.  The little girl was reluctant to communicate, so we just left her alone, for the time being.
As we began setting up for a table tipping session we caught a light on camera - see clip below.

Clip 1

We got an immediate response from Walter, who began verifying his name by turning the table around so quickly, and with such force, that the table top had actually twisted off!!  This quite impressed Dave, who had assembled the table.  He informed everyone that it had been vigourously tightened as much as possible using hand strength.  So that was an impressive start.
We gained quite a lot of information about Walter.  He hailed from an area of Halifax called Boothtown, and during the war he worked on the railway because, being aged 48 years old at the beginning of the war, he was too old to be called for active service.  He enjoyed being in the pub and when Angie claimed she wanted board, we got a huge tilt in reponse!  When asked if he was one of the men in the large photograph that Angie has on the wall in the rear bar we received a yes in answer, and through elimination determined he was the second on the left.  Lila thought he may have suffered some injury to his right hand, to which we also got a positive reply.

Promising to return later, ( and he really didn't want us to go!), we moved to a small area off the back bar, where Sue had once witnessed a man's legs disappearing towards the front door.  We had a couple of small lights straight away, emanating from a cold spot, a cold column of cold air rising from the floor.  This was witnessed by everyone, including the sceptics, and no logical reason could be found to explain it.
A man in a tail coat was making himself known, and as this happened we did capture a small light across Sue, so we thought a glass divination session may be in order.  The glass began moving straight away and it was not long before we had a light in response to a question.  See clip below.

Clip 2

The man apparently worked for the church in a round about way, in as much as he was an undertaker, and his style of dress would certainly give us that impresssion.  At this point the glass was moving very quickly in reponse, and suddenly Sue and Lila became quite troubled.   Sue complained of a tight chest and being unable to breathe, and Lila was aware of a very musty smell, which both Angie and Sue both said they had smelt before on numerous occasions.
We were able to establish that he was an undertaker in the era when they used horses, and he had used five.  He had first lived there in 1871, when it used to be a cottage.  Below are two clips from this time, showing lights, first up Sue's back, then up Angie's.

Clip 3

Clip 4

At the same time, these lights were caught on the other camera.  It seems strage how all the lights are emanating from the same area.

Clip 5

Clip 6

Clip 7

All this acivity began as the conversation took a serious turn.  We were questioning as to why this spirit, who refused to give his name, was still in this place.  It transpires that he had strangled a servant girl, and  had never been caught, but the guilt had eaten away at him until he finally comitted suicide by hanging himself.

After a quick break we moved into the large rear bar area, while a lock off camera was placed in the cellar.  Emma decided she would like to do a solo vigil down here and, although she complained that it was cold, she experienced very little else.  Nothing of any note was caught on the video recorder either, at this point.

The back room session was quite disappointing as the beginning was so promising.  A male spirit giving his name as, what I thought to be, Raynard Collis, made his presence known - and at that point, Julie's camera died, (although I have to say, not the most reliable!).  Then we captured the following clip on video.

Clip 8

At this point Lila was convinced that she could see picture frames associated with the spirit, and that this was somehow linked up with the Piece Hall, a local attraction, quite close to the pub.  As she was speaking, we captured this light - see clip below.

Clip 9

It was at this point we decided to use the glass to see if we could find any further facts.  Despite repeated questions and different lines of enquiry we could only obtain contradictory information about his place of birth, employment, and his association (or not!), with the Parish Church across the road, so we thought it was time to try elsewhere.

The cellar had all the attributes of a pub's beer cellar - cold and noisy!  However, that did not detract from some interesting things that were both seen and felt down there.  We decided to group at the far end of the cellar, in a different area to where the lock-off camera had been.  Initially, many people were complaining about how cold thier feet felt, but, it is a cellar, so we have to take this into consideration.  However, you would have thought it would have taken time for the cold to seep through trainer soles and socks, but these comments were made almost immediately.

Evident down there were a group of four spirits, one woman and three men.  As I asked to speak to the woman, who was presenting herself covered in weeping sores, I became really hot and a small light appeared on screen.  As I carried on speaking words of encouragement to her, the three men began circling, as though they didn't want her to give any information.  This was followed suddenly by a very strange smell and a small light.  It was at this point that Angie felt as though she had to leave the area, and as she made a move to do so there was some quite loud banging coming from a door somewhere in the cellar.  Then, this was caught on video.  See clip below.

Clip 10

From what little information we did glean, it would seem that the lady in question belonged to a group of prostitutes using one of the cottages above, and the cellar was used, (by way of a tunnel, that did exist), for the men of the church across the road to gain clandestine access.  This woman had perished in the tunnel, how and why was not clear, although foul play was supected.
As an added bonus on the way out, I popped into an area of the cellar where a child's gravesone can be found and began asking out for the little girl to show herself as a light.  This what we got on video.  See below.

Clip 11

As a general roundup for the night we visited a few of the ground floor locations again and although no more definite information was gained, we did come across one or two other things.

As we were having a conversation about the cellar in the back room this whistle was caught on video.

At the very end of the night after everyone had had a fit of the giggles in the bar area, we captured these two lights on video.  So perhaps laughter is the best policy!

Clip 13

Clip 14

On a personal note, I was a little disappointed that sometime during the night I could not entice the little girl to come and converse with us, because certainly, she was present most of the time on the ground floor.

I must add a very big thank you to Angie, Sue and Darrel for an excellent night at a very exciting location, they were the perfect hosts.  I do hope this will not be the last time we investigate the Ring O Bells because I think we have only just peeled away the top layer of the onion!

Pat Adams-Wright for WYPG.

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