TOTALLY HAUNTED

 

THE CROWN HOTEL

EVERLEIGH

 The Crown hotel in Everleigh is a lovely 17th century building. Built between 1605 - 1608 as a coaching house on the main stretch of road to London.

The coaching house was also used as a courthouse and trials were held there by the infamous Judge Jeffries during the Bloody Assizes. It was also home for the Judge while the trials were being held there. Jeffries was a harsh Judge and would hang people for the smallest of crimes. The prisoners would be held in the mansion house which was used as a prison and was across the road from the then courthouse. The prisoners would be led from the prison to the courthouse through an underground passageway which linked the two buildings together. They were then held in a small underground room at the end of the passage until it was their turn to face the Judge. Once they had been found guilty they would then be led outside to the front of the courthouse and hanged. There are still gallows where they would have stood today which hold the Hotel's sign.

Today The Crown is run by Tracie and Simon who have put their own stamp on the Hotel with a south African theme. The hotel has a warm and friendly atmosphere. And the freshly cooked food is of a very high standard and very tasty.

 Wayne, Mike, Rachael and myself Lorraine conducted this investigation.

Our investigation of the Crown Hotel took place in October 2009.

We arrived at the hotel at about 8.30pm when we ordered a meal and waited for the pub to close. While we sat waiting the landlady Tracie came in and told us the history of the Hotel. We had asked her not to tell us too much about any paranormal activity as we did not want any power of suggestion to effect our investigation. Wayne who had arranged the investigation had been told of the activity, but would not disclose any of this until after the investigation was over.

Once the pub had emptied Tracie took us down to the old tunnels. The place has a horrible oppressive atmosphere and was completely pitch black. The tunnel is only small as it has been blocked off at the end. Water was dripping down from the roof. You could imagine how awful it would have been for the prisoners while they were waiting for their trial.

                   

We started calling out but we didn’t get any activity down there at all.

Next we followed Tracie upstairs to the bedrooms. She showed us round the bedrooms then gave me the keys and told us that she was going, and to make sure we locked up behind us.

We were now on our own.

One thing we were told was that people had refused to sleep in room number 7 so I decided that we should start there. Rach and myself decided that we would stay in that room while the boys went downstairs to investigate.

Room number 7 is an attic room. It has lots of character with old beams and a really old fireplace.

                       

We started calling out and after about 10 minutes we heard a bang coming from the adjacent room. We first thought that it was one of the boys but when we went out to see there was nobody there. The boys were two floors down on the other side of the Hotel so we could discount it being them. We continued calling out in room 7 and in response we heard two more bangs. We decided to set up a trigger object on the old fireplace in room 7 and we went to investigate the adjacent room. We called out asking if they could make the bang again but we heard nothing.

We went back downstairs and met up with Mike and Wayne who had said that they had heard footsteps above them while we were in room 7. We worked out that it could not have been us walking around at that time. Wayne had been filming at that moment and had picked up the footsteps on video.

Wayne decided that he would go off on his own to investigate room 7 and the adjoining room. Mike, Rach and myself made our way to the back bar and restaurant area.

                   

This room was still decorated for Halloween which gave it a bit of a spooky feel. We sat down in one of the corners and started calling out. Straight away we got a faint banging sound. At first we could not find where it was coming from until I felt it from under my feet. The floors in this room were the same as every other room, beautiful old uneven solid wooden floorboards. The knocking continued for over five minutes, really faint but seemed really close and it did seem to respond to our questions. After half an hour Wayne rejoined us with nothing to report. So we decided to move on somewhere else.

We then decided we should all stay together and make our way to the old court room which is now a dining area.

                             

We called out for any of the prisoners which once stood in this room in front of Judge Jeffries. Anybody who had been found guilty and taken outside and hanged. We got no response and after continuing to call out for a while we decided that we would come back to this room later.

We split up again and Rachael and myself went back upstairs to room 7 to check the trigger object. Unfortunately it was still unmoved from where we had left it. After checking the object we decided to go back downstairs to meet up with the other two.

As I was walking down the spiral stairs which lead down from the attic room, I heard what I thought was a child laughing. It seemed to be coming from down the stairs just in front of me.

 

I looked back but could not see Rachael she was some way back still up the stairs. I waited for her to come into sight and asked her if she had heard that. She said “No” and asked what I had heard. I told her as we carried on walking down the stairs. Unfortunately I did not have the video running at the time as we were walking down. As I got to the bottom of the stairs I saw Wayne and told him what I had just heard and a big smile came across his face. He told me that was one of the things people have reported hearing. I was glad that I had not known that before I heard it. It was amazing evidence but unfortunately not recorded. It has made us realise that even when we are not filming we should always have the voice recorder running.

Next we went to investigate the other rooms. Wayne, Mike and Rach all went off in to a room and I stayed out by myself on the stairs and hallway.

                   

Walking between the hallway and a couple of the other bedrooms I started calling out. The floorboards were creaking so I discounted that and carried on calling out. As I walked down the hallway towards the group of rooms I heard footsteps behind me. At first I thought it was the floorboards but it was definitely footsteps. Thinking it was Rachael who was just down the hall in one of the rooms, I turned around but there was no one there. I walked back out into the main hallway calling for Rach to see if she was out there. But when I got to the hallway she wasn’t there. I called her again and I saw her come out of the end room she had been in all the time. We all meet back up together and decided to stay around that area to continue calling out. Wayne and myself went in to the safari room and called out.

The room had a warm atmosphere and didn’t feel in any way spooky. As we stood getting ready to call out I felt a breath on the right side of my face. It freaked me out somewhat and I screeched and hurried to the other side of the room holding my face. Wayne almost jumped out of his seat at my reaction to what had happened. I told him what I had felt on my face and with that Rach and Mike came running into the room after hearing my screech. I told them what I had felt and Rach stood where I had stood and we asked for it to happen to her but nothing happened. We continued to call out but after a while we decided to move on.

We went back down to the dining room which once was the court room. We sat around the table and placed our hands on top of the table.

                   

Other than a very faint tap we heard nothing. But a couple of us did start feeling a bit weird. Mike said that he felt his arm start to shake and he started to feel a bit sick. The table had started to shake because his arms were shaking. As it appeared that something was effecting him I asked for it to effect me in some way; to either touch me or to try and effect me like Mike was being effected. Then after a while I started to feel a bit sick and had to keep taking deep breaths. Then after about five minutes these feelings subsided and I felt fine again. After about half an hour we decided to call it a night.

Our visit to The Crown was very interesting. We came to the conclusion that the building with all its history definitely has a presence. And with further investigation we hope to find out what.