The George Hotel, Crawley West Sussex 03/12/05

Duration: 19.30-05.30

members:8

guests:0

weather: Damp & icy

The George Hotel sits on Crawley high street as a timeless building steep in history, placed along what was one of the original roads form London to Brighton The George has stood since 1615, many travellers would have used the hotels facilities such as Merchants, Smugglers, Highwaymen, Miscreants and the more wealthy well known folk of the land. Also Prince Regent, was a regular visitor where he would change horses en route to and from his famous beloved Royal Pavilion in Brighton.

This would prove to be a difficult investigation for us as the George is a very busy hotel, it features over 80 rooms, a huge conference room as well as a number of smaller such rooms, the remains of the old stable block and a large car park at the rear
On the night a company were having their Christmas event for 180 people this was happening in the main function room and all of the hotels available Guest rooms were all taken, with the exception of two rooms, they were ours.

Once the site walks and triggers had been set and equipment primed, the pub started to quieten down so around 23:00 it was time to get underway. We split into two groups one containing three sceptics the other containing two sensitive's, a believer and and another sceptic. The sensitive group conducted a vigil on the known "active" landing area, whilst three sceptics tried their luck in the now very dark and ancient bar area.

 The Sceptics had no luck, but were later joined by Ange who was able to paint a picture of the bar being a Court from which cold justice was dealt out to it's unlucky victims. Several names were mentioned, but none could be traced at the time. Several of the names mentioned were murderers, robbers and also a highwayman. All men were found guilty, two of whom continue to protest their innocence, Of course these men met the same fate, they were hung on the gallows post outside the George, which still eerily remains on the wall outside the hotel to this day.

New guests will be glad to hear that although some of the haunted areas were once used as Guest rooms, they are not used for "paying!" Guest's anymore.
We asked if we could hold vigils in some of the unoccupied former Guest rooms, which we were generously allowed to do thanks again to the staff at the George for that one.
We were very fortunate to be allowed to inspect these out of bounds areas, all of which have a very uneasy & odd feel to them, even when lit. However we've decided not to publish full results of this investigation so that other teams may have the chance to visit and enjoy their own investigations in the haunted old guest rooms.

These days visitors to the hotel are guaranteed a peaceful nights sleep in their guest rooms in the more modern and rear part of the building.
All in all a very interesting building and interesting happenings.

At this point we would like to express our gratitude to all at The George Hotel in Crawley who made our very enjoyable visit possible. We are very grateful for the hospitality and assistance given to us and the trust of all concerned in giving us a free run of the hotel and access to some of the most haunted areas for the evening.
Special thanks from SPRG to David Mallinson (Night Porter) for taking the time to show us some of the haunted locations and telling us the stories behind them and behind the George, of which he clearly takes a lot of pride in.
Last but not least thanks to the spirits that love The George Hotel so much that they just cant leave and without whose continued presence we would not have had so much fun.
Many thanks from all of the SPRG Team and members, you did us proud.

Click here for pics

sprg 2007