Investigation Report for Peterborough Museum
8th August 2003
Brief History of Museum
The Georgian building which is currently Peterborough museum dates from 1816 and was the town house of Thomas and Charlotte Cooke until 1856. The mansion was then sold to the 3rd Earl Fitzwilliam, who gave his permission for it to be used as the city's first hospital, the Peterborough infirmary from 1857 until 1928. This impressive Preistgate Georgian building became the museum in 1931.
Reported historical accounts of Haunting in the Museum
When it was first opened in 1931 it was rather different from today - the art gallery had not been built on the back, the top floor was rented out as office space (the income from which helped pay for the running of the museum), and the only full time staff was the caretaker, Mr. Yarrow and his wife and two children.
The Yarrow family lived on the premises, in a flat on the first floor in today what is part of the Geology gallery. In September 1931 Mr. Yarrow went out for the afternoon taking his sons with him. Mrs Yarrow was left alone in the building to deal with the last few visitors and lock up at the end of the day. This she duly did, then went back up to the flat in order to start preparing the evening meal ready for the family's return.
After about half an hour, she heard a noise out on the main staircase, which she assumed was her family returning and went out to greet them. When she got to the stair doors she instead could see a young man coming up the stairs.
The man was described as being about 30 years of age, brown haired, and wearing a green or grey coloured suit. Mrs Yarrow assumed he was a visitor she'd locked in by mistake.
It was then she realised something was wrong...
His footsteps were unnaturally loud - very odd as she then realised he was in fact floating up the stairs! He reached the landing in front of her, walked through the doors right next to her - without opening them - and down the corridor, suddenly vanishing into thin air at the end. Mrs Yarrow left the building as fast as possible...
The Ghost is thought to be that of a First World War Australian Soldier, Sergeant Thomas Hunter. Hunter was born in Newcastle, UK in 1880, but as a young man emigrated to Australia, where he worked as a coal miner in New South Wales. In 1914, at the outbreak of the war, he enlisted with the Australian army, the ANZACs, and served at Gallipoli and on the Western Front. He was seriously wounded in June 1916, then treated in a field hospital. It was decided he needed treatment in a more specialised hospital in Britain, so was shipped back, then put on a train north. Medical staff found that his condition was worsening, so the train was stopped at a convenient station - Peterborough. He was taken to the nearest hospital, what is now the Museum, but by then it was too late. He died in the building on July 31st 1916. To this day he is buried in the Broadway Cemetery in Peterborough. It is said our ghost is that of Sergeant Hunter, the lonely ANZAC who died far away from home...
He hasn't been seen since the 1970s, but a cold atmosphere may descend over certain parts of the building with no warning... people have felt the touch of an ice-cold pair of hands... and furniture is regularly found moved around mysteriously overnight...
Stuart Orme http://www.peterboroughheritage.org.uk/Ghostwalk.html
Investigation conducted Friday 8th August 2003
C.P.S team members and Associates present
- Group A....Martin...Rob...Julie
- Group B....Dave...Elaine...Giles
- Group C....Paul...Angela...Stuart
It was decided that the members would be separated into three groups with the intention of having one hour observation posts on the ground, first and second floors. After a walk through the building to get our bearings, base line readings where taken for Air pressure, humidity, temperature and EMF. Trigger objects set 1936 penny in the lecture room. 1899 penny and cross in the sentry box.(social history) Ring and half penny by the kitchen area ( social history) CCTV infra red cameras where placed in the meeting room, with recording station in the office. IR cameras with motion sensors also placed on the 1st floor stair landing. Locked of restoration room and 1st floor corridor with recording station on first floor corridor.
Ground floor
Base readings Time 10.22 pm
Air pressure (AP)818
Temperature (T)25 c
Humidity (H)59%
EMF NilTeam A observations:
Lecture room.... Martin walks in to the room to find Rob and is hit by an overwhelming sense of emotion and feeling of confusion. So much so that he has to walk out to compose himself. On re-entering the room after a short while nothing is felt.No activity noted in any of the other rooms
Team B observations:
Temporary exhibition area.... Dave has the mental image of a young girl, long hair dancing around the room, laughing, which he keeps to himself. He asks Giles if he picked up anything, Giles tells Dave he thought he could see a young girl laughing. Lecture room.... Dave watching the monitor in the adjacent office heard a noise on the monitor coming from the lecture room. No one was in the room at the time. While observing the monitor he noticed a spherical light flashing slowly on then off moving slowly across the screen. On entering the lecture room nothing was evident that would have caused the light or sound.Team C observations
Lecture room.... EVP conducted (no recorded evidence) Stuart sensed that something was moving around the edge of the room. Angela was aware of a dark shadow in the corner of the room. Paul had the image of a hand with a lot of keys jangling.No activity noted in any of the other rooms
Data
No abnormal fluctuations noted in AP, T, H or EMF
First floor
Base readings Time 10.30 pm
Air pressure (AP)795
Temperature (T)27 c
Humidity (H)51%
EMF NilTeam A observations:
Martin has the feeling of a presence along the back corridor towards the shop areaTeam B observations:
Nothing notedTeam C observations:
Geology area 11.45-12.23:.... EVP conducted. (No record evidence) Angela and Stuart feel a presence, feeling that it was a child. Tow more trigger object placed a coin and some tablets (as it was once a hospital ward)
Archaeology area 12.35- 12.45.... EVP conducted at 12.40 (there was an unknown noise on the tape which is unclear). The word cavalier came to Angela. Stuart pointed out that the building was not standing at that time although it is believed that there were stables at the site at the time of the civil war.
Shop Section12.45-1.00am.... Stuart felt as if his hand had been touched. The entire group felt a presence prior to this. Paul felt as if there was footsteps walking around. At 12.55 a bang was noted from downstairs. (Group A would have been downstairs at this point but had not reported any noticeable sound) At 1.00 am the trigger objects in the geology section had moved significantly.
Data
No abnormal fluctuations noted in AP, T, H or EMF
Second Floor
Base readings Time 10.40 pm
Air pressure (AP)795
Temperature (T)27 c
Humidity (H)42%
EMF NilTeam A observations:
Nothing notedTeam B observations:
Office corridor: 24.00.... Giles thought he saw a shadow move across the end of the hall (opposite end to stairs). Dave thought the red security sensor light had been triggered top right corner. On investigation there was not a light in this position
Social History Area:.... Elaine has to rewind video camera, as the tape seemed to finish before it should have done.Team C observations:
Near Norman cross-gallery: 1.20am.... Angela heard a male voice by the doorway of the room, this was not heard by the rest of the group.
End of office corridor near stair well. 1.50.... Stuart had the feeling that something was walking up the stairs. EVP conducted (no record evidence) Stuart asked the presence if they were linked to the stairs. Angela asked if they was pushed. Angela had the image of a pregnant female with a white garment on like an apron. Angela was sitting upright by the door and had the feeling that she was being pushed back and forth and was unable to stop the movement. The movement was slight but obviousData
No abnormal fluctuations noted in AP, T, H or EMF
Regroup and debrief
At around 3.10 we all meet back downstairs for a debrief of events. Most of us were aware of the events reported in the haunted folklore of the museum, but Stuart had other information about recent and past activity not was not common knowledge. (Held on record future investigations) And we were able to come up with one or two interesting parallels to events that had occurred that night.
At 4.00 a.m. we decided to hold one last vigil in the geology department on the first floor as one group. As we entered the room and made our selves comfortable on the floor Martin and Paul thought that someone else was on the landing about to come in. Puzzled that no one did they both did a quick head count to see who was missing no one was. Martin, Dave and Paul immediately ran on to the corridor and checked all rooms on the first floor as they where sure someone was there. No one was. It was at his point that Dave pointed out that when we had all been going up the stairs towards the corridor, Dave had been at the front and thought that one of us was in front of him and had already gone into the Geology area as he thought he had just caught a glimpse of some one going through the door ahead of us. We are as sure as we can be that no one else had been in the building at this time.
Conclusions of first investigation
Although we had nothing of interest on the night in the way of video footage, photographic evidence, EVP recordings or no noticeable changes in data recording. It was a very interesting night in terms that of most of the team had picked up on unusual feelings around the building and all off us had felt at some point as if we were not alone. To summarise the most active areas appeared to be the 1st floor stairs and corridor landing. The lecture room and the end of the corridor towards the area associated with the servant's stairs.
With the museum housing many social and ancient artefacts, with its occupation as a house and hospital there is a plethora of connections to possible spirit activity within the building and a good deal of further research will be required to uncover many of the hidden truths that lay buried within its ethereal fabric.
Our Quest for the Truth Continues
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