Bishton Hall is a superb memorial to the Georgian architects; the large stone columns and vast rectangular windows with the neatly painted white sills a highlight of Georgian building. But as lovely as the facade of the house is and the manicured lawns are resplendent as you sweep up the long drive, the truth behind the walls speaks of the hardness of living costs, evident for a great multitude of years. The ceilings crumble, the plaster peels, the carpets are musty with damp, and the cause stains upon the walls, the bare floorboards bouncing underfoot. The house that stands today began its life in 1750, but the land is far older. As far back as the Domesday Book of 1086, there is a reference to a settlement on the land belonging to King Harold II, of Hastings fame.
Born in 1786, Miss Charlotte Sparrow called the hall her home all her life. She never lived anywhere else and died when she was 90 years old, in 1876. At the time of Charlotte’s birth, the hall was owned by three former High Sheriffs of Staffordshire—John Sneyd, Cecil Stafford Northcote, and Charlotte’s father, John Sparrow. The latter, a lawyer, purchased the hall around 1776. In 1827, Charlotte Sparrow founded the Colwich School out of love for education.
After Charlotte’s death, the hall passed into the hands of Prebendary Edward Harland, the vicar of Colwich. In 1827, it changed hands again, this time coming under the ownership of Major Charles Wood, who resided there until 1945. The Northcote family of Stafford then acquired the hall in 1946, transforming it into a home for ST Bede Preparatory School. The school remained there until 2018, when it was purchased by Hansons Auctioneers.
The investigation began with a tour of all accessible areas, highlighting where it was safe to go. Unfortunately, for a great deal of years, it is evident that aging hasn’t been kind to these walls. It is quite surprising that it was still occupied by the ST Bede Preparatory School until 2018, with the condition of some of the areas. I can only guess that they were using a small part of the hall. It was evident that the cellars had a great use for the school; the far rooms have been fitted as changing rooms and showers, and on the other side of the cellar, there was an old tuck shop. An odd place for a tuck shop, I thought. It was the tuck shop where we conducted our first group vigil. Around the room, we placed K2 metres, flashing cat balls, and a music box just out in the corridor. Although fairly quiet, there were some fascinating responses to our questioning. The first thing we noticed was the K2 metre on the end of the counter lighting up and remaining constant. However, on later evaluation, I believe this could have been caused by an electrical current, for it is extremely rare for a K2 to remain a constant reading for an entire vigil. However, it was not all a loss as the other two K2 metres did trigger at different times from each other and were placed very close together. This happened towards the end of the vigil. I moved my K2 metre around, looking to see if the reading spiked when I moved it closer to an item. I could not find an explainable source. This would suggest an energy that could move, which is what we are looking for. It could indicate that a spirit was present at that moment, standing next to the K2 metres.
Noting no other activity in the tuck shop, we split into three teams so we could cover the large house. My team went to the other side of the cellar into the far changing room. In the changing room, we conducted a watch-and-wait experiment combined with an estes method. We hadn’t known this at the time, but we were about to experience a small piece of evidence that would have strong ties with the rest of the investigation and previous teams that had investigated the hall. The trigger objects, as hard as we tried to get a response, remained still and silent. The first thing to capture our attention was the plummeting temperature within the room. I could feel a source of ice-cold air directly behind me that I could not explain. This was accompanied by a headache, and others reported feeling a bit nauseous only within this room. That normally indicates a strong energy presence. To try and document this, I placed a new piece of kit called a MEL REM on the floor. I hoped its extreme sensitivity to touch, temperature changes, and EMF would back up what I was feeling. The EMF and touch sensors remained silent; however, the temperature sensor signalled a negative five-degree drop in temperature, which could have been an indication of what I was feeling. There didn’t seem to be a draft blowing in from the corridor, and with no vents in the walls, it did seem to be a curious anomaly.
Noting the activity on my MEL REM as perhaps a spirit presence, we began our Estes session. For those of you who are unfamiliar with this research method, I will enlighten you. The Estes method is a very old form of EVP recording. It is believed that the earliest EVPs were heard through radio waves, and since then, dictaphones have been created with the sole purpose of recording high and low frequencies without radio interference. A person who undertakes this method wears headphones and a blindfold to isolate themselves from hearing and seeing anyone asking questions. It is the job of the person wearing the headphones to listen to the rapidly sweeping radio waves to see if an answer is heard. If they happen to hear anything, then they shout it out. Although small bits of radio stations may be picked up, it has proven in the past to have delivered some very accurate responses to questions that have then been later confirmed in the history books. As we began our Estes method, asking questions, hoping for a response, we eventually did get a response after many questions. It didn’t really answer any of our questions for names, ages, and dates, but the response we got was, “Lost.” We refocused our task on the word lost to see if anything further would come up, but unfortunately, it didn’t.
Having covered the cellar, we headed up into the upper quarters of the house to the bedrooms used by St Bede’s Preparatory School. In these rooms, the students/pupils would have slept. For our experiment in these rooms, we conducted an Ouija board. As well as this, we placed a few K2s, cat balls, and a REM POD around the bedroom in the hope of picking up anything that communicates with us through the board. I started to call out, and the movement began not too long after. The planchette glided across the table, twisting and turning slightly as it went. I introduced ourselves to the spirit or spirits and started to ask our questions. This is one of my favourite Ouija board sessions I have done in a long time, for the responses were sharp, consistent, and clear. It is quite rare to receive responses like that. The planchette kept moving, and as we asked for the spirit’s name, it moved to spell, “George Shepardson.” Then, in response to further questions, we learnt he was seven years old and he had been a pupil of the school in 1869 for four years. It had taken a while to determine that information from him, and trying to think of what to ask was becoming harder. I changed the approach, and I asked about why George had come to talk to us. The response that came was eye-opening as he spelt, “Lost!” Our minds were cast back to the cellar with curiosity, wondering if George had been the one who spoke through the radio, telling us he was lost. We asked why are you lost, and a word came to my mind, but I did not convey it with anyone as the planchette was moving and it spelt out, “Killed!” As kindly as I could, I tried to discover what exactly had happened to George, but it would seem he didn’t want to talk about it, as the planchette stopped moving immediately. We tried to get it to move again, but no response came.
With still a little time left of this vigil, we sought to contact another spirit through the board. The planchette did move again, and much faster than it did before, indicating it was indeed a different spirit. However, the responses now were a lot less certain. What we did discern was that it was a five-year-old here in 1957 who had possibly come from abroad. Their name they gave us was, “Aka.” In the background, we had an Alice Box running, and it said at that moment, “Little girl running around you.” With curiosity, I asked my next question on the board, asking if the spirit we were talking to was a male. The planchette slid to the no answer. To be honest, normally, I only take the words emitted through the Alice Box lightly, but for once, I was impressed.
The temperature in the room started to drop, and a headache came over me. I tested the temperature with my MEL REM, and the red light indicated that there was a rapid five-degree rise in temperature. That would suggest that the temperature drop was centred right around the table. The activity on the board continued, and we carried the Ouija board session on into the beginning of the next vigil. Though it now felt as if there was a mix of energies moving the planchette, the planchette shifted between sharp, clear responses and the responses we had been receiving. I wondered if it was the spirit of George come back again with renewed energy. The planchette confirmed it was indeed George upon asking. With a chance to find out what exactly happened to him, I went in search of answers. I did not find out any hard proof, but we were told through the Ouija board to go to the changing rooms in the cellar.
The changing rooms were just as cold as they had been earlier. We placed trigger objects around the room and started to call out. I stood between the shower curtains and felt a similar cold spot to what I could feel earlier in this room. However, as hard as we tried to follow up on why we had been told to go to the changing rooms again, we received no responses to any of our equipment and heard nothing of note. My only thought was that we were being shown where it had happened. We pressed for an answer for the rest of the vigil in the changing room, but received no activity.
We re-joined as one large group for the next vigil and headed over to the temple in the gardens. We placed our equipment around the perimeter and inside the temple, and we waited and listened. It didn’t take long for the music box on the steps up to the temple to start alarming. It was impossible that we were causing it to go off, as the sensor was facing away from us, looking down the garden path. There were no bats to be seen flying about that could have triggered it. It is possible a moth might have mass enough to trigger it if it flew close enough, but it would be very rare in such a wide-open space, as the device emits no light to attract them. This was all the activity that was witnessed at the temple, and it would be the end of our investigation, for our last vigil in Charlotte’s bedroom was met with no activity.
The investigation had been quite a quiet one, but sometimes that is just how they are. I spoke with one of the Haunted Happenings staff after the investigation to compare notes. Although he hadn’t got a surname, he had, in previous investigations, made contact with a child called George who had been sadly killed. Having this consistency across multiple investigations has really built a strong, credible paranormal case that is worth investigating further. For that reason, I intend to return to Bishton Hall to discover the full story of George and help bring closure to whatever tragedy happened. If I do find out more about George, I shall take it further with Ancestry.
Phantom Echoes Paranormal 
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