Southwick Hall Ghost Hunt: We visited one of the most haunted houses near Peterborough – and here’s what we found

"Are you a believer?” I was asked by psychic and co-owner of Haunted Heritage, Gill Hibbert, as I arrived at the medieval Southwick Hall, near Oundle.

Gill and fellow founder of Haunted Heritage, Mich Smith, run guided ghost walks and paranormal investigations at venues across The Midlands.

The pair say they are both passionate about, and deeply in touch with, the supernatural.

I’ve never been a believer myself. I know that it can sometimes be passed through the generations of families, and I’ve been told that my great grandmother was a superstitious woman – she wouldn’t cross on the stairs, walk under ladders, or leave a building through a different door to the one in which she entered.

She even once threw away a pair of new shoes after my grandmother placed them on the table because of the supposed bad luck it could bring.

But, having never had an experience with the paranormal myself, I’ve always subscribed to the mantra of ‘seeing is believing’.

Gill and Mich posed the same question to my colleague David Lowndes – a photographer at the Peterborough Telegraph for over 50 years, who’s ‘seen it all’ – and he gave the same answer.

So, despite my pre-existing beliefs, I tried to keep an open mind going into the tour of the 14th Century house as I stood armed with a dowsing rod in each hand trying to detect the presence of the paranormal.

‘Sense of unease’

However, I don’t mind admitting that I both questioned my beliefs and felt a sense of unease as we entered the servants chamber of the 700-year-old hall...

“Spirits need energy and – because energy can’t be created or destroyed – they pull it from people and the environment,” Mich said, as we entered the room.

She said “spirits can manipulate words” and proceeded to pull out an electronic device, known as ‘Alice’, which ghost hunters and investigators use as a passage of communication from the supernatural.

The device is programmed with words spelt backwards and is said to pick up interferences in the magnetic field to spell out words from spirits.

The light on the device flashed and an alarm sounded – a detection of activity.

Remaining sceptical, I looked at Mich, who was fixed on the device awaiting the findings.

She averted her focus from the device and looked to me with a shocked expression. She presented the screen to me, to which there was only one four letter word, my name: ‘ADAM’.

"There are always going to be sceptics,” Gill said. “Spirits are always around us – your loved ones who have passed on never leave you.

"They use opportunities to communicate when they know there is someone present to pass messages to you.”

‘Busy with spirits’

The pair described Southwick Hall as a building “busy with spirits, paranormal activity and energy”.

At the last Haunted Heritage event at the house, Mich said the 24 budding ghost hunters on the tour witnessed a wooden table in the crypt be “manipulated by spirits”, “moving and almost dancing, spinning on one leg and walking away as if it was trying to take them somewhere”.

Other tales include sightings of silhouettes of dark figures in the corner of rooms, shadows in the death of night, and even the old wooden door – which can only be locked using a key stored in a box outside – mysteriously locking behind the house’s heritage manager, who had to call for help.

If, like me, you think seeing is believing, see it for yourself at Haunted Heritage’s next Ghost Hunt event at Southwick Hall on January 14. For more information, click here.