Whitworth Hall
22nd June 2007
The History
Whitworth Hall is a building with a fascinating history that goes back to Norman England. Thomas de Acle is recorded in the earliest records as holder of the estate, and in the 14th Century he assumed the local name Whyte-worth.
At one time the three-story mansion was considered to be one of the best examples of a family mansion in the county, though sadly it was mostly destroyed by fire in 1876. The Hall remained in ruins until 1891 when Whitworth Hall was rebuilt as a two-story building. The Library Restaurant remains the oldest, surviving part of Whitworth Hall.
The Whitworth estate was sold in the 1980s by Robert Edward Duncombe Shafto and remained a private dwelling until 1997. The Grade II listed Hall was then converted into the Hotel we see today.
The Shafto family resided here for three hundred years. The most famous family member was Robert Shafto, a man with a taste for fashion and M.P. for County Durham. He died in 1797. Many people may know him by his nickname, Bobbie Shafto. Yes, the man in the famous ballad:
Bobbie Shafto went to sea
Silver Buckles on his knee
He'll come back and marry me
Bonny Bobbie Shafto.
The Investigation
As part of the Northern Ghost Investigations team, I visited Whitworth Hall on June 22nd to undertake a paranormal investigation. Some of the employees had talked to the pre-investigation team a few days earlier about the activity that they believed some people had experienced at Whitworth Hall. I hoped that we would experience some activity for ourselves tonight.
Some of the staff from Whitworth Hall was interested in what we do and were invited to join our investigation. We split up into four small teams, and each team took a couple of the staff with them. We had access to a variety of areas in the building that we numbered from one to five. Each team would begin their investigation at one of the locations then after half an hour the teams would rotate so eventually we’d all spend time in each location.
The areas we had access to were Room 6, Main Bar and Entrance, Whitworth Suite, Library Restaurant, Linen Cupboard, the Vault and outside area. All of the teams took time to orientate themselves and perform the usual base line checks. My checks revealed nothing unusual except that in the Whitworth Suite, a wall at the back of the dance floor emitted high levels of EMF’s. A member of staff could not explain why as on other side of the wall there is nothing of an electrical nature. As the wall sounded hollow, I could not disregard the potential for power cables or something similar running through the cavity of the wall.
My baseline check also left me frustrated. I didn’t sense anything at all, just lots of quiet rooms. The Library Restaurant felt different to the rest of the building but I found it hard to interpret what that feeling was. I wanted to sense something more – anything tangible. I went outside. The atmosphere changed again. It was near the old water mill and vault, while I took photographs and readings, that something, I’m not sure what, heightened my awareness. Maybe it would be good here after all! Unfortunately, the vault was last on our rota of locations so I’d have to wait before we could investigate there.
The Linen Cupboard
My team, Pat, Bruce and two Whitworth Hall staff began our investigation in the ‘haunted’ linen cupboard and got absolutely nothing other than hot and claustrophobic!
A Whitworth Hall staff member in Kris and Dave’s team had a feeling of being ‘a wash with grief’ and some had headaches.
Andrea and Sue’s team had nothing to report.
A few people in Jay’s team sensed the feeling of ‘someone was walking over their grave’. Jay’s team also reported the sensation of ‘something’ walking through the wall towards Jay then over to where Mikey sat. Communication attempts remained unanswered.
Room 6
My team didn’t really get anything in here and nothing registered on my equipment. Pam said she could sense a male presence in the room but nothing else.
Andrea and Sue’s team had more luck when Sue used her crystal pendulum and said she got a female who was in her 60's and apparently died of unnatural causes. Sue did not get a name to verify this.
Kris and Dave’s team said they had light anomalies, including a red one by the four-poster bed. One of the guests visualized a woman wearing a ‘mop hat’. She was unable to see her face but went on to say the woman’s name was Ellen or Eleanor.
Jay’s team didn’t have much luck either except the experience of aches and pains and a guest whose legs gave way when leaving the room after claiming he hated it!
Whitworth Room
All the teams tried communication experiments in here, from table tipping to divination and calling. Little in the way paranormal activity was experienced in this room. Shadows cast by the external lights caused some people to think they saw shapes moving inside. But they were just that – shadows!
Jay’s team however, said that they experienced a strange indefinable breeze, the sound of footsteps and the sensation of being followed. They tried to replicate the breeze but were unable to.
Library Restaurant
This splendid book-lined room was a visual feast but as far as paranormal activity was concerned, I experienced nothing. The atmosphere felt ‘different’ in here than in the rest of the Hall, but that could be down the size and décor of the room. We tried a séance to contact a male spirit that is said to haunt this room and during the séance a candle flickered slightly on the table, but nothing I would consider paranormal occurred.
Jay’s team experienced a few cold spots and the same flickering candles. But as with my team there was nothing of note.
However, in Andrea and Sue’s team they had a noticeable temperature drop of 10 degrees. Knocks and creaks were heard from the bookshelves. A member of staff said that books had occasionally fallen from the shelves but sadly not tonight. Andrea put the noises down to settling.
Kris and Dave shared our disappointment with nothing of note to report.
The Vault
So far the investigation had been a disappointment, especially after I’d heard about the activity various staff had experienced over the years. My team had tried to coax activity through various communication methods such as calling out, table tipping, séance, and divination – all with a heavy dose of patience and all fruitless. I wanted to go to the vault, as Whitworth Hall, for me, ‘felt’ empty. This feeling trickled through the team as I sought out their views.
After what seemed like ages it was finally time for my team to visit the vault! Before going into the vault I had another look around outside. I loved the sound of the night wind as it rustled through the old, tall trees and the fox calls, their screams lost in the darkness. An old derelict water mill was near by, so I had a quick look in there. The shallow river, a mere trickle of its former self was no longer powerful enough to drive the large rusted water wheel that had not turned the seized-up cogs inside the small, dark building for many years. I felt quite sad to see this little hidden treasure that had become lost in the undergrowth. After I’d taken a few photographs I headed down the steps into the single roomed, underground vault that lay only a few metres away.
The temperature inside was mild. Water slowly dripped from the roof and splashed onto the damp floor with an irregular drip, drip drip. Two fluorescent lights brightly flooded the vault while the team settled into place. At one end of the vault, a staircase rose up into the darkness and, after a dozen steps, was sealed off by the courtyard above. Presumably these stairs would have led up into a building from long ago, possibly the original Hall.
I set my camcorder up in the far corner of the vault while the rest of the team stood quietly and took in the atmosphere. I could hear nervous chatter while I prepared myself for this location. For the first time tonight, I finally found my senses, and for the first time on an investigation, I felt on edge. I stood at the bottom of the dark staircase and hoped that this location would make up for the lack of activity we’d endured so far. When the bright lights were extinguished, darkness rushed in and swallowed us.
Pam, the team sensitive, called out for a spirit to come forth. She suggested that it could come down the stairs and touch one of us or show itself. In the darkness of the vault, I looked at the even darker void of the staircase beside me and suddenly, I felt very unwelcome. A sense of foreboding pierced me from the cold, damp staircase. It was as if something had come down the stairs to find intruders in the room and it’s anger emanated from the dark like a wave of fury. It was just as I sensed this and about to speak, that Pam looked as though she was pushed. She grabbed fellow team member Bruce to steady herself. It happened again and Pam asked whatever might be there to stop pushing her. Bruce spoke calmly and explained why we were in the vault. Seconds ticked slowly by. I could see Pam, Bruce and the two guests dimly picked out in the emergency light, huddled close together. A feeling of anger hung in the air.
The sceptic in me searched for a reason. Autosuggestion, imagination, whatever caused this feeling was quite powerful as everyone in the room appeared on edge. So I reached my hand into the dark void of the stairwell and asked for whatever may be there, to take it. The atmosphere appeared to change from one of anger to one of silent contemplation. I had hoped that something would grab my hand but at the same time wondered what I’d do if something did. The atmosphere continued to lighten but the darkness did not relinquish any secrets and after a few minutes the team decided to call an end to this location, much to the guests’ relief. We had only spent a total of 15 minutes in the vault, but for me it was the best part of the night. The lights chased away the darkness ready for the next team and we continued to our final location, a revisit of Room 6.
Personally, the vault was only place where I felt I had got something that questioned my scepticism. The other locations gave me nothing, but that’s not to say that other people on other occasions don’t get anything. Like a lot of things when it comes to the paranormal, it is a personal experience.
The NGI team felt that a number of unusual things occurred during the night between the various small teams and locations, but the spirits were not playing with us on this night. Was my experience real? I don’t know. It felt real, but as always when you look back, and time blurs the memory, you try to rationalise it, which in turn makes the experience feel less real and ‘did it actually happen?’
So we left Whitworth Hall at around 4am. A large hare decided to race my car down the long, dark, tree-lined winding lane; it jumped back and forth in front of my car like a kamikaze pilot. Eventually, the hare decided my car was too fast. It jumped into a driveway and watched us drive off into the dark as we all headed home.
If you’d like to read the full NGI investigation report on Whitworth Hall, which includes the perspective of all the teams, visit: www.northern-ghost-investigations.com.
If you’d like to see more photographs of the Whitworth Hall investigation then Click Here.
If you’d like to learn more about Whitworth Hall, visit their website: www.whitworthhall.co.uk.