TOTALLY HAUNTED

  


 



 


 PEVENSEY CASTLE 


*** NEW ***

Full investigation video now available


The remains of Pevensey Castle were built on the site of a former roman fort. The Roman fort of Anderitum was built during the 3rd century to protect the southern coastline of Roman Britain from the Saxon raiders.

Then in 1042 there is evidence of a permanent strong hold improving fortifications by digging ditches within the walls of the Roman fort. The Anglo Saxon Earl of Wessex Harold Godwin, later to be King Harold II, had established this strong hold and the English army remained at the fort during the summer of 1066 before abandoning it to invade further south. When Duke William the Conqueror of Normandy invaded Sussex in September 1066, there were no defences at Pevensey or anywhere else on the south coast. And the ensuing Battle of Hastings on Senlac Hill, Saw Duke William defeat the combined English armies led by King Harold II. Shortly after the Norman conquest Pevensey was granted to Robert, Count of Mortain half brother to William the Conqueror.

During the century after the Conquest a full-scale Norman castle was built within one corner of the fort. In the 1250s the towered bailey wall was constructed, and soon put to the test during the great siege of 1264. Later still the castle was strengthened to face the threat of the Spanish Armada in 1588.

During later times the ancient castle nearly did not survive. Queen Elizabeth I ordered the castle to be demolished but this was ignored. During the period of interegnum under Oliver Cromwell efforts were again made to destroy it but luckily only a few stones were removed.

During World War II the castle was used by the home guard and as a military camp for anti-aircraft troops. As late as 1942 small additions were made to the castle in case of German invasion across the Channel. A number of Pillbox defences were built into the fabric of the castle.

The castle is reported to be haunted by a figure of a Grey Lady wandering the castle ruins. She is said to be Lady Joan Pelham who lived there in the 14th century. While her husband Sir John Pelham was away fighting, the castle was left unprotected and was over run by the army of Richard II. She is said to wander the castle waiting for her husband to return to protect her. Other reports say that an army can be seen and heard around the outside of the castle walls. Also an apparition of a Roman soldier and a monk dressed in black robes.

 

We visited Pevensey Castle in March 2010

It was a really cold night and very cloudy. Investigating the castle was Wayne, Rachael and myself - Lorraine.

We concentrated most of our investigations in and around the North tower. Access to the lower part of the castle, the dungeon area was off limits as it was flooded.

We made our way to the lower part of the north tower and got our video cameras out. Wayne started recording with his and straight away the low battery indicator light started flashing. The battery was a 3 hour battery which was fully charged before we left. But after just a few minutes the battery went completely dead. Wayne changed batteries and that one was fine. The battery has been tested since and holds a full charge and is fine.

Next we decided to set up an experiment while we were in the lower part of the tower. We left the voice recorder with a radio playing static noise. We decided to leave it recording and move on to the top of the tower.

We climbed the wooden stairs up to the top level of the tower. About a third of the way up we decided to put our beam barrier alarm across the stairs. This would tell us if anything came up the stairs. As we were setting up the equipment I heard what I thought was a glass bottle rolling across the floor in front of me. Turning my torch on so I could pick up the bottle so it did not effect our investigation, I could find nothing on the floor. We shone our torches around the whole of the room but there was no bottle or anything that could have made that noise.

We carried on setting up the equipment and we all heard what we thought was a woman’s voice followed by a faint whistle. We hurried and finished setting up and started calling out.

                  

Next we heard a big thudding sound as if something had hit the wall below us. We hoped that what ever it was would be picked up on the voice recorder which was still recording in the lower part of the tower. We continued calling out and we heard a few faint whistling sounds but not much else. Wayne decided that he would leave Rachael and myself in the room while he went outside onto the balcony. Almost as soon as Wayne had left we had stones thrown. Rachael had asked if there was anybody who used the chapel which is within the grounds of the castle. And almost as soon as she had asked a stone hit the ground. These seemed to be only small stones as the sound they made was rather faint. So faint we were not able to pick them up on video. After a few minutes Wayne came back in with us. We told him what had happened. He had nothing while out on the balcony.

We continued calling out but we got nothing. It seemed since Wayne had been back in the room there was no activity. So I decided to ask if they wanted the man we were with to leave the room. No sooner had I said that a big stone landed right next to Wayne. We decided that Wayne should go back outside for a while. Another few stones were thrown but too faint to be picked up on video again, and also we heard footsteps. I asked if we could hear the footsteps again but this time we got what was either a large stone thrown and bouncing or two separate stones.

              

We decided after about another 30 minutes to call it a day as it was a freezing cold night. We went back down to the lower part of the tower where the radio had stopped playing static noise. The radio we use is a wind up radio which we wound for about a minute and it will last for a good 15 mins. So we knew that it would have run down by the time we got back to it. But when we listened to it back on the voice recorder it had run down the minute we had left. It had only lasted for less then a minute. We have used this on several investigations and it has never run down that quick before. And on testing it has no problem running for about 15 mins on a minute's winding. So was there something there which was effecting the radio and the video camera battery.

We would like to do another investigation of the castle when the dungeons are accessible.


We have since been back to Pevensey Castle Check out our 

 

 



Here myself and Rachael are alone and we capture what was either a stone bouncing as it hits the floor or maybe two different stones. We had just heard faint footsteps and we asked if we could hear them again. But instead of footsteps there was a stone thrown.


 

 



After myself and Rachael had experienced something thrown into the room we were in, we call Wayne back from outside. We then ask if they wanted Wayne to leave the room again and a stone was thrown towards him. This clip shows this happening from both Wayne's camera and my own camera.   


 




After the second stone had been thrown towards Wayne we asked him to leave the room again. Racheal and myself continued to call out and we had another stone thrown into the room.  

 

These next clips are taken from the voice recorder. We had left the voice recorder in the bottom of the North Tower while we went up to the top part of the tower. We captured these and a few other noises while it was left alone. There are faint traffic sounds in the background as we were fairly close to a road.

 

 

 



This sounds like a small stone being thrown.


 

 




This clip you hear a thudding sound followed by a knock


 





Here you can hear a woman's voice which we think was somebody going passed the castle. The voice is followed by a knock which sounds like someone knocking on wood. 


 

 



In this clip you can hear a knock which was followed 30 seconds later by a sound of something in the gravel near the voice recorder. You can also hear the sound of wind on the microphone. This was the only time any wind was picked up on the microphone the whole time it was there. We made sure it was sheltered from the wind before we started recording. 

 


More photos of the castle



 

 

 

 

 











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