Ghost Encounters: EVP captured during stay at historic English pub

American historian Warren Gray recounts a series of paranormal encounters he experienced during a trip to the United Kingdom. Equipped with his trusty ghost hunting kit, Warren captured Electronic Voice Phenomena during his stay at a historic site dating back to the mid-1700s.

My wife and I first visited England in March 2013, initially staying at the Bell Hotel (Bell Inn) in Thetford, which had a reputation for being haunted since the violent death of innkeeper Betty Radcliffe in 1750, repeatedly stabbed to death by her boyfriend in the present-day Room 29.

We emailed the Bell Hotel Staff on 21 March 2013, stating that, “We thought you might be interested in knowing what happened in Room 29 during our very recent visit. My wife and I brought some ghost hunting equipment; a K-2 meter (which measures electromagnetic fields), an Olympus digital voice recorder (DVR), and a small, Mini-Maglite torch or flashlight with us, after hearing about the hotel’s history.

Upon arriving in the room on 19 March 2013 at about 4:30 PM, my wife lay on the bed, reading certain paragraphs of your ‘Bell Hotel Haunted History’ aloud while I turned on the K-2 meter and DVR and set them down beside her.

The K-2 has five lights, ranging from green (baseline), to light green, then yellow, then orange, and finally red, as the electromagnetic field (EMF) increases. Most rooms have very little EMF normally, and will only register on the green light at the low end of the scale. I had just covered all of Room 29 with the K-2 meter, and got nothing more than the ordinary, green light.

But as soon as my wife began reading about Betty Radcliffe, the innkeeper from 1750 who was murdered, the light-green light on the K-2 meter came on, but only from bed level to about one foot above the bed as I moved it, like some energy source was literally lying on the bed beside my wife.

I immediately asked out loud if Betty was with us, and could she light up the K-2 even more. Almost immediately, the yellow light came on, then the orange light flickered briefly. This NEVER happens under normal circumstances, when there is a known, electrical current nearby, and it only happened in direct response to my question.

My wife was not looking at the K-2 during the power spike, however, and only I saw it. So I asked Betty aloud to twist the head on the torch for my wife’s benefit so we would know it was really her. The torch illuminated within the next second, then all the power was drained from the AAA batteries, and it soon went out.

Not quite believing what we were seeing, we stopped the DVR and replayed it, and immediately after I told my wife on the voice recorder, ‘You’re not going to believe what the K-2 just did,’ there was a loud, high-pitched, screeching sound, almost like a nearby, human scream, that neither of us heard at the time that we were talking, so it was an electronic voice phenomenon, or EVP.

Still no absolute explanation for any of this, but we had three separate, electronic devices responding at the same time as we asked Betty questions, so that’s about as scientific as it gets. Something odd was definitely happening in that room.

But that wasn’t the end of our experiences. My wife and I were napping at about 7:30 PM, three hours later, and the only light in the room was the nightstand lamp on her side of the bed. I was abruptly awakened by a female voice, sounding similar to my wife’s voice, and clearly saying, ‘Turn that thing off!’ The sound came from about five feet above floor level, and about halfway between the bed and the front door. I rolled over to find my wife sound asleep beside me with her lamp still on, and I woke her to ask if she’d just said to ‘Turn that thing off!’ But it wasn’t her who had said it.

At approximately 10:15 PM, my wife was sitting in the chair and watching the television, and she turned her head just in time to see two small flashes of light, each about the size of a two-pound coin, above the couch against the wall, about six feet above the floor. We went to sleep soon afterward, and had no scary, nighttime events.

On the morning of 20 March, at about 10:40 AM, my wife heard the metal latch of an old door just like our WC door open and close, but the sound came from the same area where the flashes of light were seen the previous night, not from our WC door, which was most unusual.

Finally, as were we about to check out at 10:55 AM, we did one final room sweep with the K-2, green baseline all the way, until we cheerfully said, ‘Goodbye, Betty. Thanks for letting us stay in your room,’ and then the light green light came on, flickered for two seconds, and went out.  That never happens under any kind of normal circumstances.

We just can’t explain these odd occurrences, but honestly and objectively, they really happened. There really IS something strange going on in Room 29, and despite that, we had a great time, and thoroughly enjoyed the inn and your fine hospitality!

We returned to England on 21 April 2017, staying at the George and Dragon Inn in Wolverton, where we had fantastic, steak-and-ale pies for dinner that evening in front of the warm fireplace, but only after an unnerving, ghost-hunting experience in Room 9.

At about five o’clock PM, we used a digital voice recorder (DVR) and K-2 meter in Room 9, an ordinary, hotel room, verified by Audacity 2.1.3 audio-analysis software as actually occurring, and made K-2 contact with a disembodied woman who apparently lived and died on a farm at the current pub site.

The pub area had, in fact, once hosted a farm, and our room was located exactly where part of a large, neighbourhood meeting room had once stood. We recorded the following conversation:

Me: “I think it’s the Wi-Fi.”
My wife: “Yeah.”
EVP:  “I don’t know why nobody hears me.” (Audible whisper.)
Me: “Make another light come on.”
EVP: “What?” (Very faint whisper.)

Later, on 25 April 2017, we were staying at the beautiful and historic, Langrish House hotel in Petersfield, in Room 20 upstairs, where we recorded the following EVP conversations:

Me: “Did anyone live in this house?”
EVP: “Yes, yes.”
EVP: “Once again.”
Me: “How long have you been looking at that view? A long time?”
EVP: “Why on Earth?”
EVP: “Right here.”
Me: “Can you see us?”
EVP: “Yes.”

Then, on 26 April 2017:

Me: “Is there anyone here with us?”
EVP: “Yes.”
Me: “Let us know if you’re here.”
EVP: “Yes.”
Me: “Did you die here?”
EVP: “Yes, yes.”
Me: “Tell us your name.”
EVP: “Sirgun, anywhere.”

Obviously, these were very startling and unexpected experiences, but well-documented and undeniable. The results were certainly unusual, with odd replies to direct questions, but the paranormal is like that. You just never know what type of response you will receive.

With England’s rich history, some type of ghost-hunting experience is a certainty, and we thought we’d share the events that transpired in these three locations, for some sense of what to expect during paranormal investigations.