Investigation Report for 16th Century Private Residence, Cambridge
28th Jan 2003
Preliminary Investigation
C.P.S Members present
- Martin Waldock
- Dave Fuller
- Elaine O'Regan
- Anglea Bloom
Brief History of House
The earliest part of the house dates from the late C16. And may have been built for Thomas Wendy ii and was most likely used as a farmhouse. The Property was part of a settlement made when his son married the daughter of Sir Henry Conningsby in 1601. By 1656 the property had changed ownership to the Butler Family and by 1678 the house was of some obvious prestige and was used by the Butler family on many occasions to entertain the Mayor and other dignitaries. The property changed hands again in 1763 to the Pantom family of Newmarket trainers of the king's horses. During the late C18 and early C19 the house was tenanted. Repairs and alterations were carried out and a stone floor was laid on the ground floor and some panelling imported which is said to have been from Jesus College or possibly Fen Ditton Hall the home of the Panton family. The property was the sold to the Geldarts and leased to George Pryme until 1847 and then the property appears to have been divided into three. The middle class families tended to occupy the grand C16 part of the house with the artisans occupying the other parts.
The major part of the estate was sold to Joseph Sturton in 1886 who resold the house to Rev.Steeten who subsequently sold the house to Thomas Askham in 1899. For a time it was the registered office of his carriage works though he never lived in the house although his son did from 1922 until 1945. The property continued to be let as three units to tenants. Leased by the Danckwerts in 1964. The Folk Museum handed the freehold to the City Council in 1973.
Folklore
Reported historical accounts of Haunting in the HouseThe house began its haunted reputation around the 1860s although the most reported activity seems to have occurred around the early 1900s when a professor Lawson moved into the house, presumably as a tenant, and began to document the paranormal activities of the house. Mrs Lawson apparently kept notes of the haunting as they occurred and both the professor and his wife; it is said gave interviews to the paranormal investigators of the day. On their first night in the house an unexplainable event occurred outside the maids room. Around midnight they were disturbed by a loud banging at the door of their room which they said started at the top of the doors and worked its way down to the bottom. When cautiously they looked out no one was to be seen. There were many strange sounds to follow over the following months. Both the professor and his wife where often woken during the night by the sound of footsteps on the stairway outside their bedroom. Sometimes they heard footsteps in the spare bedroom next to theirs but they never saw anyone on investigating. The Lawson family also reported the appearance of a nun. Both Mr a Mrs Lawson stated that they observed the nun many times, walking across the master bedroom from the door to the foot of the bed. After a few moments the nun would walk to the window and vanish. The Lawsons young daughter also described how something came in at the door a looked over the crib starring at her. Neighbours had also heard rumours that the house was haunted by nun prior to the Lawson taking up residence. Legend indicates that there was once a tunnel leading from the house to a nearby priory. The nun, as legend tells us fell in love with a young monk and that they would secretly meet in the tunnel. When the forbidden romance was discovered she was placed inside the tunnel and the openings where bricked up. (The origins of this tale are unknown)
Another strange report made by the Lawsons was of a strange looking animal, which nicknamed 'wolfie'by the Lawson children. It was described as like a large rabbit like creature but with small ears and was always seen standing on its hind legs and heard shuffling around. This ghostly creature was first reported by the Lawsons son John aged three at the time during early 1904. Shortly after the first sighting Mr and Mrs Lawson along with their daughter also saw the creature. Reports say that one of the original owner's squire butler had trained a small dog to walk around on its hind legs. (The origins of this tale are unknown) It is a possibility that 'wolfie' could have been the ghost of the squire's dog.
The Lawsons moved out of the house in 1911. Other occupants over the coming years reported activity in the house. In 1920 the two year old daughter of the owner reported seeing the strange animal like creature on at least two occasions while her mother saw nothing and in 1947 a two year old boy saw 'wolfie' and described it as a small dog also the nun was occasionally seen over the years after the Lawsons left the house. From 1963 to 1980 no further reports where made and the Danckwerts reported to investigators that no one in their family had ever seen anything.
Preliminary Investigation by Cambridge Paranormal Society
The C.P.S was fortunate to be able to follow up these stories; the purpose was to find out if any type of activity had recurred in the house since the 1980s. Our investigation was based on a preliminary interview with some construction workers in the house who where renovating the property for the new owners. They often stayed at the house overnight while they worked there. For the purpose of anonymity we will call the people that where interviewed at the time worker 1,2 etc.
Worker 1 reported that he had not seen anything in the house but that he often felt a strange feeling that would make his flesh crawl when visiting the bathroom in the early hours this seemed to occur along the corridor leading to the bathroom. He also reported that he often woke in the mornings with a headache. Worker 2 reported that he often heard noises but with it being an old house he would put it down to pipes creaking i.e. natural causes. Worker 3 reported that he heard music in the house one night when he was in the house on his own. The music, classical type, was distant and in the air but he could not locate the source anywhere even though he searched the house for any radios that might have been left on. The music eventually faded away. This occurred in the early hours of a Sunday morning. In the early hours of one morning he was woken by a noise. On looking he noticed that the portable TV that he had in his room was making a noise. There was no picture but a pyramidal shape was on screen. The whole thing was very phosphorous and it moved to a bright point (He drew picture for the team). There was not enough power for a picture but there was a sound like a broadcast. The TV was on standby so he got up and turned it off at the mains. They have had several power surges in the house. He has also heard noises but believes that they are more than likely just the wind as there is a lot of draughts in the house. Worker 4 went through a period of two to three weeks were when ever he went to turn off a lamp the bulb would blow or on one occasion even shatter. Nothing has happened since that time. The C.P.S team was then given the opportunity for a small tour around the house. Permission was granted for photographs to be taken. The house was undergoing extensive renovation at the time and the only lighting in some of the rooms was by torch light.
Photographs where taken by digital camera in nearly all the rooms. Orbs (note 2) were picked up in one or two of the rooms but interestingly mainly in the rooms with dark timber panelled walls. This room was the one that some of the workers felt uneasy about when walking through at night. The room's atmosphere was slightly dusty but nearly every room was, so this does not account for why we did not pick up orbs in every room. Martin's camera stopped working the moment he entered this room although no indication was shown on the camera that battery power was low. A new set of batteries was inserted in the camera but it still failed to function. A further set of batteries was inserted after leaving the room and the camera was back to normal. The second set of new batteries has refused to work since. Elaine's digital camera worked fine in this room. During the walk through of the house Dave had been using the EMF (note 2) meter but nothing unusual had been indicated.
In the attic area of the house Dave tested the EMF meter against a meter box to make sure it was working OK. The EMF meter was immediately triggered off as we would expect but would not stop again from detecting high EMF readings until we left the house. We put this down to as surge from the meter box causing a malfunction of the EMF meter but we have since found out that the meter box was in fact not working at the time and was in fact not live.
Conclusions of preliminary investigation
Although this investigation was purely to find out if anything had happened since the last reports made up to 1960s we were pleased to have the opportunity to take a look around this interesting old house. None of the reports by the people working on the house gave any indication that anything specifically paranormal was occurring in the house at this time although we are interested in the power surges that seem to occur. Light bulbs blowing, EMF meter malfunctions, TV malfunctions these all occurred in approx. the same area of the house. Every one in the house reported that the house had a pleasant feel to its atmosphere and the workers where generally happy to stay there during the renovations.
It was reported to us latter, after our visit to the site, that one of the workers while working in the panelled room, where the orbs where caught on photo, saw out the corner of his eye a bright light about the height of a person, when he looked to see what it was nothing was to be seen.
The power surges may have a natural explanation as could the orb photos and the camera malfunction. Our preliminary investigation is inconclusive at his time until a more in depth investigation can be undertaken.
The C.P.S is currently trying to see if we can track down the original reports by Mr Lawson in the early 1900s.
{Note 1}
Orbs are small round shapes of light that vary in size and brightness and are nearly always caught on digital cameras. They are very rarely caught on SLR cameras or seen with the naked eye. There is currently much debate and research going on at this time to determine what these small round orbs of light, captured on digital cameras, actually are. There are those that believe that these images are nothing more than particles of dust, moisture in the air or simply air borne pollen while others believe that the orbs are the basic and early manifestation of spirit energy. At the moment our own research indicates that many of these orbs can be attributed to moisture or air borne particles although there is the few that are not so easily to explain away with this theory.(Note 2)
EMF meter (electromagnetic field detector) used for testing for electromagnetic field fluctuations often associated with paranormal phenomena. Fluctuations of 2.0 to 7.0 would indicate possible spirit presence anything higher or lower normally indicates a natural source.
Orbs anomalies in the panelled room. Note there was airborne dust in this room at time photos taken. Further investigation would be required to justify these anomalies.
Orbs above investigating team member's head. Photo taken in attic. This is where the EMF meter started to malfunction and is an area in part of the house area where most of the power type surges activity takes place.
Our Quest for the Truth Continues
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