TOTALLY HAUNTED

West Park has been closed since 2003 and has become very derelict over the years. Although some of the hospital remains still in operation the majority of it is closed. That was good for us as it gave us the chance to do our investigation.

We entered the hospital in what can only be described as an old store room. This was home to loads of old disused hospital beds. There was an adjoining room which was full of old chairs stacked up and lots of other random things. It was in this room we decided to call out first. But other than a few little bangs and taps nothing much was going on in there.

We then decided to explore some more and see what else we could find.

We found ourselves in a corridor with several rooms coming off from it. We started to explore the individual rooms to see what was inside. It was then we heard footsteps coming from the direction that we had just come from. But after about two minutes we could not hear any more footsteps. We decided the best thing was just to move on.

The next thing we came to was a tunnel like building, which our research had shown us was the tunnels that joined all the buildings together. There was an old wheelchair sat at the entrance to this walkway which made it feel really surreal.

The walkway was long and dark and seemed to go on for ever. As we were walking down the walkway Helen and myself could hear faint footsteps behind us. We shone the torch back down the walkway but could see nothing. We continued walking but with the feeling like we were being followed.

When we finally reached the end of the walkway it had led us to one of the wards. We climbed some stairs and found ourselves in a long corridor with individual rooms. The paint was peeling from the walls and the ceilings. We went into one of the rooms and started to call out. But after about ten minutes of trying we had no luck. But the more we stayed there the more we were feeling like we were being watched. The whole atmosphere in the place was not a good one.

We continued exploring this block and climbed some more stairs to the second floor. Again we entered a small corridor mirroring the one downstairs. This corridor was badly smoke damaged and the feeling of being followed seemed to get even stronger. We chose a room to start to call out and began the investigation of this floor. Straight away, on asking for some paranormal activity we saw several light anomalies. We continued to call out and we could hear faint footsteps far down the corridor. I was filming with the video camera so I walked out into the corridor to see if I could see anything. I turned around filming the corridor slowly listening for the footsteps but they had stopped. Helen had followed me out into the hallway and as we stood there looking around we heard a low sounding moan coming from the end of the corridor. Unfortunately it was too faint to pick up on the recording equipment. Wayne had not heard the moan so he decided to walk down in the direction we had heard it to investigate but he could see or hear nothing. After about thirty minutes we decided to go and investigate the rest of the hospital as we knew there was so much more to see.

We carried on exploring walking down the maze of walkways into many different wards and buildings. Most of the buildings were mirror images of each other with the exception of a couple. We called out in each building but the only thing we managed to capture on camera were more light anomalies, which we are unconvinced are paranormal. But we did experience some knocking sounds when we called out and those footsteps again. At one point when we were packing up the equipment we did hear what could only really have been a woman’s voice.

Helen had seen while researching the hospital, that there were some padded cells within the hospital and she really wanted to go and find them. But unsure of where the ward was that we were looking for we just kept looking. Walking down the walkways and through more derelict rooms.

The whole time the feeling of being followed was still there but it was growing. The footsteps were accruing more often and the atmosphere was really beginning to feel really horrible.

We finally got to the place where we thought that the ward we were looking for might be. We were just about to go into the hallway leading to the ward when we heard footsteps coming from one of the rooms above. This was then followed by a muffled woman’s voice like we had heard in one of the other wards. But it was what we heard next which made us turn around and quickly hurry off in the direction we came from. There was a really deep evil sounding groan. But unlike the footsteps and woman’s voice which seems to be some way from us this was right next to us. This had really shocked us and most annoyingly had happened while the camera was away. For safety reasons we tend not to have the camera out while moving in the dark to each different location. But this might have to change as we were gutted it was not caught on camera!

Deciding to try another part of the hospital we left the main part and walked up to some buildings that were separate and on their own. Being back outside again we felt so much better as the feelings we had inside the hospital had gone. But that was not to last for long.

The first of the separate buildings we came to we entered and started to find a place to start our next investigation. This building was totally ruined by water damage. The floor was really unsafe and we could hear the sound of dripping water. We decided to make our way upstairs as the floors upstairs seemed to be in better condition. We started calling out  again but it was more the feeling the place was giving us that was bothering us. It had such a horrible oppressive atmosphere. I have been investigating with Wayne for a lot of years now but I have never seen him look so worried. He could not explain why he was feeling this way. We continued the investigation asking for activity to happen but nothing did, except the way we were all feeling. We were all beginning to feel physically sick to the point that we had to leave. When we left it took us about ten minutes before we could continue as we felt so bad.

Once we had recovered we decided to go back into the main hospital and find the padded cells. Knowing that there was a map of the layout of the hospital in the grounds we found that, and we knew then exactly where we needed to go and it was back to where we had heard the evil groan.

This was the hardest part to get to as it was in this building that the floors were at their worst. Every footstep we took we could hear them cracking under us. There were parts that we could see had already gone through and it was some drop down. But we did eventually find the ward with the cells. We were disappointed to find that there was only one padded cell but we were glad to find that in one piece.

When we started calling out we were a bit apprehensive as we really didn't not want to hear the groan again even though that’s why we were there, but we found nothing.  But yet again, once we had packed up the equipment we heard the footsteps this time very close. We waited to see if they were going to get closer but they just stopped.

We decided to call it a night then and headed back out of the hospital. But that was after getting lost in the maze of tunnels and corridors. We did eventually find our way out and it felt good to be back outside.

West Park is a strange place. There was so much personal stuff left lying around the place. One room we found was totally full of what I imagine to be patients clothes and other belongings. They had all just been left to rot away. Its as if everyone just left in a big hurry.

And as for paranormal activity I do believe there is something there. What though is the question!

Find the Return investigation of West park