Old Cottage Tavern - Burton on Trent

22nd July 2005

Synopsis

The Old Cottage Tavern is situated on Berkley Street near the Town Hall which is one of the oldest parts of the town.

The ESSIVE team for the night’s investigation were Sue, Paul, Karl, Chris, Eleanor, Emma. There were also 15 guests comprising of 5 females and 10 males.

The weather was dry and warm.

The team arrived at 22:39 and a strange almost hostile atmosphere was noted by several of the team. Who or whatever gave off the feeling appeared to have left with one of the customers as the air seemed to have cleared when we started the baseline tests.

No abnormal or unexpected E.M.F. (Electro Magnetic Fields) were noted, all over the building, the temperature stayed constant at around 19.5 - 20 degrees with a drop to 17.5 at the base of the door in the restaurant and the back of the bar temperature 21.5-24.

Glass Divination in the Back Bar

Standing Vigil Upstairs in the Pool Room

This séance was held in the Pool Room situated on the top floor of the building starting at 1:30 and ending at 2:30. There seemed to be a lot of strange noises heard by all concerned during this séance, several of the sitters reported being touched and a few light anomalies were seem. There are pictures on the walls around the pool table and during the séance two of them appeared to move, one of them in particular moved quite a considerable amount. Several members of the circle felt their arms lifting into the air, however they were adamant that they were not doing it themselves. At one point both of Karl’s arms were straight out in front of him and Emma said she felt as if her arm was being supported from underneath. One of the participants complained of being cold and was in fact shivering, several others also noted drops in temperature around them. Both Karl and Eleanor picked up the name Lillian as being a female spirit who seems to visit the location on a regular basis.

On returning to the ground floor it was noted that the door to the cellar was open, however Karl was certain that he had closed it on his way up to the séance. We closed it again and tried to push it open but as the door has a latch it would not open without the latch being physically lifted.

The temperature was 17.5 when the session started at 02:58; Paul was controlling the table with 5 people participating. Paul started by asking the spirits to move the glass if their answer was yes and to leave the glass still for no. There was only a very slight movement at first but it stopped almost immediately. A noise was heard outside and we closed the table to enable us to go and investigate but found nothing.

The vigil started rather slowly with nothing happening for the first fifteen minutes then both Karl and Emma saw several lights around the room. After further investigation one of the lights was found to be a motion sensor which kept coming on for no apparent reason. Karl felt a cold draught on his face and at the same time the motion sensor was seen to flash by both participants. Both Emma and Karl tried to activate the sensor while remaining seated where they were, but were unsuccessful. They then decided to move to the other end of the room where all the activity appeared to be happening and as they stood by a radiator they both felt severe shivers down their backs. Paul later confirmed that the guests who had been standing there during the séance had informed him of the same sensation.

Although it appeared we were in contact with several spirits the most definitive seemed to be what we believe to be Scottish gentleman called Henry Firth. He was disgruntled by the fact we were there disturbing his visit to an establishment he loved in life and still visited regularly. From the answers given, it would appear that he was a regular customer at the establishment when it first opened but we have been unable to validate this information.

This séance also started out fairly quiet and although already cold some strange draughts were felt along with several presences. There were also lots of unexplained noises heard, one of them sounding like a person shuffling their feet. Shadows witnessed in the room to the rear of the circle by several of the participants, this made the group decide to move location to the other half of the cellar. Several members of the circle were shivering but as it was so cold down there this cannot be counted as paranormal.

Séance vigil upstairs in the pool room

The team decided to try a séance around the pool table where the temperature anomalies were reported earlier. A few people complained of coldness on their arms and Emma felt as though she was being pushed down on her shoulders. A few noises were heard which seemed to be emanating from the other end of the room, all then went quiet and no other events were witnessed. At this time the séance was ended and the team packed the equipment away.

Although we captured no concrete evidence during the investigation, with the sensations felt by several of the team and guests, we feel this is a very interesting location and is certainly worth further investigation.

We would like to thank the management of the premises for allowing us to carry out the investigation at this property as well as their customers for participating and hope that the all enjoyed the night as much as we did.