Walton Hall has stood on the land since the mid-1800s. However, the land is much older; records show a grand hall standing on the land as far back as Elizabeth the First. All that remains of the earliest building today is the cellars. The current building was built by Sir Charles Mordaunt. Later in the 1800s, the hall and land were sold to the Greenall family, who were brewers. It remained in their family until 1941, when the Warrington Borough Council bought the estate and opened it to the public, turning some of the land into a zoo and golf course after WW2. Not much is known about the spirits that reside there from the land’s long history, so tonight would be a true night of discovery.
The investigation began with a large group vigil on the top floors. Standing around the outside of the room in a circle, we placed cat balls, TADS, REM PODS, EDIs, and K2s in the middle. We began to investigate by calling out to the spirits to see if there was any response with the equipment. At first, the activity was still, however, unawares to anyone else in the room, there were a couple of people stood quietly on the other side of the room who were very sensitive to the energy and had been seeing with their minds eye other people moving around the room. One of these people had been described as having had a nasty accident on their face and was cupping their hand over their face to catch the blood. Unfortunately, we didn’t get any further information on the people they were seeing. The general feeling in the room was quite heavy, and a few were feeling a little nauseous. I noticed this feeling throughout the night, coming and going through much of the house. In this one particular room, earlier, while walking around the building, I had been drawn to the far right-hand corner. Standing in that corner, I felt pressure on my ears and a splitting headache running like a halo around my forehead. Although I wasn’t currently standing in that corner, I kept glancing towards it to see if any activity stemmed from there or if anyone standing there was feeling what I had.
As we called out again, we all heard a very sharp whistle break the room’s silence, which was soon followed by what some described as footsteps in a different part of the house. Unfortunately, I can only go on what others had heard, as I did not hear the bang/footsteps. We eventually got some activity on the equipment when suddenly one of the cat balls lit up, and the vibration sensors on the EDIs flashed. The cat balls flashed a few more times, but nothing else happened.
We headed downstairs and conducted a table tipping session in the entrance hall. Had we known we were about to see the most incredible evidence, we certainly would have filmed it. It started after we had just called out to the spirits to move the table. We heard two loud creaks coming from our right. As we all turned to look in that direction, we saw the ten-foot, solid oak door slowly open till it was wide open. The door stopped in that position for a few seconds and then closed promptly. We immediately tested the door for how easily it moved to see if a breeze could have caused it to open and close, even though we could not feel any breeze blowing through any part of the building. The door was weighty and was not easy to move. We are confident in our findings that it was not a breeze and was, in fact, a spirit opening the door. The way it opened and closed was like someone opening the door because they could hear us and wanted to see what was going on. Later on, the same door was caught on camera opening and closing. Unfortunately, I don’t have access to the video footage, but I did see the video before the end of the investigation. I can confirm that the door moved precisely as we had seen with our own eyes.
We turned our attention back to the table, focussing our energy on the table to help the spirits tip the table. At most, the table was wobbling slightly. So, we moved the table to see if we could find a hotspot. We moved the table to the middle landing on the stairs. Our prominence on the stairs clearly worked, as without much energy, the table tipped onto two legs and started to spin on one leg precariously close to the edge of the stairs. Then, it walked the length of the landing and stopped when my back was pressed against the wall. The energy seemed to dissipate after this.
After a short break, we headed back upstairs for some copper square divination. The copper square was an idea inspired by copper dowsing rods. It has been known for decades the power of dowsing rods to find water and other materials, including spirits. Copper is an excellent conductor of energy. Before we had even begun, I was drawn towards both of the doors into the room we were present in as what looked like a thin mist was floating in front of both. I don’t know what it was, and I certainly couldn’t think of any explanation. I just remained aware of it as we began the divination.
The copper square slid across the table when I called out to the spirits. I then asked if the spirit was from the current hall or previous buildings on this land. The square moved to the no answer on the board. When asked if they were connected to someone around the table, the square slid to Nic. We asked if Nic knew who they were. The copper square moved to yes. However, with the following few questions, we found out they were born in 1944, and the first letter of their first name began with Q. After every answer, we confirmed with Nic if this rang any bells. None of the responses we got seem to jump out at Nic. After a while, the energy seemed to go, and a few minutes later, it would return. After this, none of the answers we recieved made sense, so we closed this current session.
I and the rest of the Phantom Echoes team split from the rest of the group to investigate the corner of the room in the previous room where me and Nic had been drawn, and both had had a pounding headache and pressure around the ears. The first thing we all noticed was that that spot did not feel uncomfortable at all like it had earlier; none of the symptoms we had returned. We set up a watch-and-wait experiment circling us in that corner. We sat with our backs to the wall on the floor, looking out into the rest of the room. We greeted the spirits and introduced ourselves. After a while, one of the cat balls flashed. As we were on very creaky floorboards, we weren’t sure if the floor was moving under our weight that triggered it. We continued to call out, sitting as still as possible to see if it would happen again. It did happen again, and to try and debunk it, I thumped the floor hard to see if I could trigger it. I could not trigger it, making it more likely to be a spirit interaction. The only other bit of interest in the equipment, which I and then Josh saw, was a few of the green dots in the beam from my laser pen disappearing and reappearing. As it was only a couple of dots at maximum, It was tough to say whether it was paranormal.
With no more activity from the equipment, we tried automatic writing to try and connect with the spirit or energy residing in this corner earlier. We had movement on the planchette straight away. However, the movement of the planchette was very similar to the movement of the copper square and the table tipping. I asked the planchette to move to the person the spirit was connected to. It went straight to Nic. It seemed like the spirit was following us and did not want anyone else to speak to us. The planchette stopped moving soon after it moved to Nic. I decided that we should relocate. We continued with the automatic writing in a different room. I focused my intention on trying to get a spirit to come through from the current building or what stood on the land before. It was the same spirit again; that was very clear when it came through. I do not believe they were who they were claiming to be. I switched to the Ouija board to try and get some information out of the spirit. This did not work, as all we were receiving were jumbled letters. As we plunged deeper with our questions to try and break down who they were and what they were trying to say, the planchette spelt the first complete word. It spelt, “Smile.” I believe in my gut that the spirit meant lighten up by the message smile because we asked many serious questions. Unfortunately, it was the only point of that Ouija board session that had any meaning. We closed it down shortly after this.
Going into the last session, I had hoped we would finally make contact with someone else from the current or previous buildings. We set up an Ouija board in the only room we hadn’t investigated yet. However, when we called out, the planchette moved with the same energy as it had before. Like before, it moved to Nic, still saying it was connected to her. Again, the letters were sporadic until I had an idea to try and break down who they were. I asked them to spell the place where they used to live. They spelt Aberdeen. Perhaps this was the explanation for the seemingly random letters: it was trying to spell in Gaelic. I asked if the spirit knew how to spell in the modern English language, and he said he did. I sighed in relief, thinking we would finally get answers we understood. Yet again, the following few questions were answered with sporadic letters that weren’t in English. I had had enough of this, so I asked firmly are you just messing with us. He responded yes. Are you actually connected to Nic? This is the question I asked next. He responded no. After this, I closed the Ouija board and brought the investigation to a close.
Walton Hall is such a beautiful location; it’s just a shame that the spirits from the building didn’t come through on any of the experiments. I feel strongly that the same spirit had latched to us and followed us around all night. I don’t know why it chose Nic and probably will never fully understand. It could be the fact that she is a woman and he liked the look of her. All I can do is guess, though. For this reason, I intend to revisit this location. I want to try to break through to the spirits who lived on the land. It would also allow me to feel the consistency of the spirit energy that flows through the property.
Phantom Echoes Paranormal 
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