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The plan is to stay 30 minutes in each area investigating whilst underground. Start time was approximately 19:00 p.m. until 21:40 p.m.
Whereas with most places investigated, once the lights are out your eyes usually adjust to the surroundings, this is not the case here. It is absolutely pitch black and nothing can be seen!
There was a pebble thrown but it was impossible to identify where it had come from but it was somewhere between Sara, Andy and myself in terms of the way the sound appeared to travel in i.e. in terms of direction. However, in terms of identifying such direction and location, due to the darkness I would have to disregard this piece of evidence solely because of this reason.
Temperature is registering at 7.3-7.5˚.
I am experiencing a tugging on the lower part of my trouser leg.
Sara threw a stone and asked that it be thrown back as a form of communication. Nothing happened in response to this.
Andy relates a story…
One Sunday morning Andy and a colleague went down the mine, another colleague was late. On walking back, after about 2½ miles, Andy asked for his colleague to come down the mine. When he reached the surface he thought his colleague had already gone. When getting back above ground he found out that his colleague had not even been down the mine as he hadn’t been able to get his car started to get to work. He said he wouldn’t go on his own again…
Whilst the group were generally talking, we witnessed lights coming from the direction we had come into the mine from. Thinking it was another group moving around we asked out whom it was but no reply was forthcoming. Andy and Sara went to the area the lights were seen in but no-one was there…
Temperature reading is 7.3˚ in the area walking up the slope by the boy/miner and horse.
Sara
Explosives area – with Sara
10.7-9˚
Most of the group are now in the process of holding a circle.
The circle appear to be experiencing breezes and noises being of a tapping nature which seemed to come from behind the group. I should point out that the area we were stood in did have what seemed to be a natural draft emanating from somewhere. They identify by asking out (using the human pendulum format) that the first initial of the “presence” they are allegedly in contact with is H. I advised that I was picking up the name of Hubert and Hugh (is the latter a short version of the former name?) The question is proposed and a yes response is received to the name of Hugh (I believe).
Andy was particularly interested with this as he mentioned there was a specific mining term known as a hewer and he wondered whether this was in fact what was trying to be communicated.
The question was asked if the “presence” was a hewer. The answer was yes.
I asked Andy what a hewer was as I am not familiar with mining terminology. A correct description (as researched after the event) of this term is as follows:
“A hewer is a man who cuts or works the coal removing it from the coal face. His was normally one of the most dangerous jobs in coal mines, because in addition to the usual dangers, coal would fall from the face and sometimes the roof would fall in. Normal procedure for hewers was to cut a slot in the base of the coal seam, so that coal would drop or be coerced into dropping down under gravity. The roof immediately above the coal was also liable to fall. Hewers being in the vicinity of this activity were often killed by accidental falls of coal or stone. Hewers death certificates frequently record this as the cause of death. In fact, it became such a common place accident that the inspector of mines in Britain generally recorded it with little investigation, since there was little they could do about it. Hewing was hard work and mining culture in many places records the strength and bravery of the hewer”.
The temperature is registering at 8.2-8.7˚.
I ask if there is a little boy here with us at the moment, as this is what I am picking up on specifically at low level? Was this possibly an ex-miner crawling along the ground as opposed to a child? Was it actually a child (as they had apparently been used in the mines?) Andy advised that the current area we were in had not been as it had been back in its day. We were able to stand fully upright in this area and apparently this would not have been the case in its day…
Temperature reading is now 9.1-3˚.
General pictures of the area as a whole
Button Man tunnel area – with Sara
Temperature reading is 12.4˚.
We were then taken into a tunnel area off the main run which was extremely warm and had very little air, it is the type of feeling that you may experience is you were to have breathing difficulties, because of the heat i.e. compressing feel. I guess you would not have been able to stay in that area for any given time as a miner due to such conditions. We were only in there for a short while and I think the group, as a whole, were relieved to exit the same into cooler confines.
I hear a very distinct bell sound, as if someone had clanged against it – almost shipping like. I asked Andy if anything like that had been used down here. Yes it had. Unfortunately the distance between myself and Andy was too great to record his answer.
Mock scene piece made up area – with Sara
Nothing as not in area long before moved to next area. We did not have our 30 minutes here to establish anything or confirm nothing at that moment in time.
Grotto/Cave area with Phil
Glasswork – I did not participate on this occasion. Not an awful lot happening, slight movement, nothing specific. They got the initials A and then B for a Christian name, but on asking if it was Abigail or Abbie no responses were obtained.
The group then went onto form a circle and continued asking out questions which resulted in them obtaining the name of Emma which Andy confirmed had been involved with the mines, father passed responsibility over to her or something like that.
Q. Did you own the mine in 1846? Yes.
Q. Is your father's name Harold? Brian? George? No, No, Yes.
Q. Is your sister called Edith? Yes.
Q. Did you own the Prince of Wales colliery? Yes.
Note: Emma Lister Kaye = possibly owned mines in the days.
I picked up the name of Edith and asked Andy if this name had any relevance to the mine. He confirmed that she was a sister of Emma Lister-Lister Kaye.
More general pictures of the area as a whole
Initials of Emma Lister Kaye?
All the following vigils took place with Sara, above ground.
Vigil 1: Pithead Baths – 22:15-22:30 p.m.
Glass movement, some happening.
This area is basically set out with a separate shower area, lockers, medical facility and display (although the latter section was not open to our investigations, only viewable through the glass window) at the end of the corridor.
Establishing the name of Jacob via the glass work.
Vigil 2: Boiler Room – 22:35-23:00 p.m.
Hearing a lot of bangs and clangs in this area when the group were in a circle asking out. I personally thought this was logically due to the vast amounts of equipment in this area. I am not too sure whether the said equipment is still in working order or not, but would relate the sounds to the same if they were.
One thing which was unexplainable by any means was that of a shuffle sound which the whole group heard. The only way I can describe this is as follows – imagine a horse scuffing its hoof on the floor. This could have been explained away by the stables next to the boiler room, only the fact was, the horses in question were actually all out in the fields away from where we were. The sound was not identified to any particular source, equipment etc within the area we were investigating. Sara heard a clang sound on the pipes next to her, as did some of the group. I did not personally witness/hear this sound unfortunately.
On various occasions both myself and Sara banged on things close to us, specifically metallic objects and asked for the sound to be replicated, however not a lot happened other than what had been heard previously. It seemed that anything we heard happened when questions were being asked out via the circle or when we were talking generally. Were the sounds we were hearing the result to equipment perhaps being on some kind of timer? I feel that could perhaps be one explanation to consider, however it did not explain the dragging sound!
Vigil 3: Steam Winder Room – 23.00-23:30 p.m.
Nothing happening in this area.
Vigil 4: Control Room – 23.35-23:55 a.m.
Nothing happening in this area.
General Information
One of the other groups experienced something apparently quite interesting. Apparently the majority of the group witnessed a corridor type area which lit up from some unknown source and a head (shadow) appeared as if it were looking round to see something. On investigation into that area there were no doorways (in the present time) or anywhere that this shape could physically have materialised from and it had not been anyone from the group… (Please note I was not in this group so did not witness this event!)…
Nothing specific on Dictaphone to report throughout the evening events.
EMF not used.
