Brewery Shades, Crawley West Sussex 21/10/06

Duration: 23.30-04.45

Weather: Cool & Damp

Members: 11

Guests: 0

After a long wait it was finally time to embark upon the Brewery Shades in Crawley, West Sussex. The group met outside the pub around 19.00. We nipped inside the establishment after all were accounted for to warm up quickly, introduced ourselves to the landlady Nicky and the bar staff. it was then time for a quick bite to eat before starting to haul our equipment through the now busy bar area without arousing too much suspicion. Not easy. Nicky had informed us that within the last week things had been betting progressively worse around the place. Doors slamming, the children in the pub had seen a lady upstairs going about her everyday business, this is not known whether this is the same lady who is reported to run past the bar area and fly up the stairs in search of her husband. One of the children in particular claims to have seen and spoken to a man with a disfigured face down one side! It wasn't too recently that Nicky herself had awoken to see this same figure at the end of her bed! Nicky had also informed us that barrels and crates had been tossed around randomly in the cellar. Sounds "fun" Ok a brief history lesson now, apparently on the site where the Shades now stands used to operate  a 14thC Gaol and magistrates. Any naughty folk would more often than not be tried, found guilty and strung up on the gallows outside the George pub on the high street. Of course you'll remember that SPRG visited the George in December of 2005. So it is believed that spirits now inhabit the Shades as if it were still operating as the Gaol. The Pub which now stands today was first operational around the late 1600's it's believed that the name Shades is derived from the huge Oak tree that still stands outside in the high street today, and that the pub stands in the "shade" of this tree.

It had been recently established that Nicky's bedroom upstairs used to be the old death cell, where inmates would usually spend their final days before making that trip to the gallows. Naturally Nicky wanted some answers and if this apparition that she was seeing had any connection to her room. Unfortunately there were one or two drawbacks on this night. Turns out that the pub does not kick out until around 2 am, so we were in for a long wait if we wanted any quiet time. Also many rooms were off limits. For now we were given Nicky's room and a connecting room that was the pubs store room or attic. Straight away many members felt uneasy in the store room, this is where the children had seen a lady in here. At first a few members noticed an old piano in there, yep you guessed it, it makes one brilliant trigger object! Angie and Hayley felt especially uncomfortable in this room, and cold spots were noticed around the room in several areas. Clint S bought the EMF meter into play in this room, it went off the scale and the needle nearly flew off the dial. Unusually when it was aimed an actual power source it calmed down somewhat and gave a reading as to what you would expect. Again once pulled away and held in the centre of the room about 5ft off the ground in went crazy again. Interesting.

As Craig and Clint D set up our cameras, 2 in the store room where Shane and Clint D both heard a clicking or fidgeting noise very close to Clint D, April then walked in the room and felt as if she was being closely followed. This was certainly an active room, even though it looks empty it just feels as if your intruding when you go in, not a nice feel. Unfortunately one problem  was that our wireless camera didn't have enough range to reach the monitor upstairs, and we were told we couldn't come down there in the night. Shame as a lot happens down there, but they have a business to protect so fair enough. Instead the wireless camera was pointing down the hall upstairs where the man with the burnt face is seen. In Nicky's room she had an empty walk in wardrobe. It was here that we decided to set up our monitors and VCR'S a bit like a security room. Craig decided throughout the night we would take it in turns to have two people in a room to watch the monitors thus eliminating the painful video watching after the investigation which normally runs for weeks. Clever stuff. Craig setup a digital thermometer in the store room and another in the camera room this would give us an equal reading at the start but then hopefully a differentiation throughout the night. This was setup at 23.35pm both reading 20.5 degrees C. Just fifteen minutes later there was a 6 degree temperature difference the store room had considerably dropped in temperature. April then felt her head being touched, game on! As we were limited on space and location we decided not to stick to a vigil plan, but just make a start and see how things went. Hayley stayed in the main bedroom whilst Craig and Mick had the camera room. With the pub pounding away below us Angie came up trumps, she filtered out the noise and provided us with some brilliant information. She began to pick up on a man named Jack, who was hanged in Crawley in the early 14thC. the year 1380 seemed to be very prominent with Angie. She described him a very rugged, long hair a beard and seemed to have thing for swords. Also she seemed to think Jack was a ladies man as he kept repeating to Angie, "ladies, ladies, lovely ladies" Angie then felt as if her hands were painfully and tightly fastened behind her. Jack then told Angie that he passed away so quickly. Angie then went on to say that he came from around the Faygate or Colgate area and he came from a peasant background, the name "Annie" seemed to be a factor with this Jack character too. Angie then went on to say that although Jack was executed, it was because he stole to support his family, and was actually a nice man, although you wouldn't mess with him! Angie could then see a crest presented to her by Jack, 3 feathers, and a huge crown. Perhaps the crest of the magistrates at the time? It was still quite loud downstairs, so we adjourned for a coffee break.

It was during the break around 00.25am that a very loud dragging noise was heard from the storeroom by ALL the group, sadly we were all in the main bedroom next door. However it was heard, and sounded much like that of a wooden chair. Hopefully a review of the tapes at a later date will reveal more. After our refreshments and a listen to a recording of Hayley's radio interview from the other day (coming soon to the site) we swapped around and most members went back into the storeroom. Craig took up the post of monitor watcher again this time with Franco. The pub was beginning to quieten down at this point. A few cracks of light were seen by members in the room this time. There were several noise coming from a corner of the room that is know to be very active, this was near April this time. The room did seem to feel colder also. At 01.45am some excitement! about 98% of the team in the room all seemed to hear a very spooky sounding voice make itself known, Craig noticed our excitement on camera and radioed through to see what the fuss was all about. We told him what we had heard, hen then explained that moments before we got all excited he'd seen an orb fly past Angies face on the screen. Bingo! It's very hard to decipher what the voice said, to our ears it sounded like "mum-ra" as in the fictional bad ass from the cult 1980's cartoon Thundercats. Quite what a 14thC spirit would have in common with a fictional super villain in very unclear! However whatever it said, it was said twice! Of course the closest things to what it sounded like could have been "momma, or mummy" again perhaps a review of video tapes will give us a clearer picture. Very exciting stuff though! Around this time another orb was seen by Craig, around Angie again. Angie feels as if someone is close by.

At 02.20 a brief break and then a rotation of people, saw both Clint's take the camera room. Liz, Adel and Shane take Nicky's room. The rest take the storeroom again as Angie had good feelings about the room. Again considerable temperature drop was noted in the room as it seemed that Hayley looked to be having a rough time in the room. Clint D spoke to Craig via walkie talkie and Craig revealed that Angie feels "Jack" was moving between her and Hayley and Jack was holding back. Angie then had a vision of a small boy named James. Angie revealed that this was Jacks son. Jack had been wandering, lost just struggling to pass over. She then managed to help Jack move over, she saw him take James by the hand and walk off into the light, Jack was emotional and appeared to thank her said Angie, this had an emotional effect of a few group members. Suddenly the mood lifted in the room and it felt more pleasant. Angie along with Hayley had managed to move Jack on. A happy ending there at least. At this point several names seemed to be coming through to Angie and ages, But just in case any other groups investigate here. We wont reveal them here as to not spoil their fun. Another man was coming through, Angie said she saw a man with a burnt face down one side, he died from his injuries. But the man who burnt him with a torch, ouch, was hung at the George. But the man with the burnt face would explain what the Children and Nicky had been seeing. Another good night for our sensitives. Sadly necessary tasks were being carried out in the pub downstairs all night which prohibited us from doing anything downstairs.  So around 04.15am we decided we had done all we could and called it a day. At least we help one lost soul find happiness, and learn some vital information as to what is haunting this very old building.

We would like to thank Nicky and all the staff at The Brewery Shades, for having us along. We hope we were of some use to you and you are a bit clearer on what has happened there. A thank you also to "Jack" you're at peace now. And to our other astrals who popped by to say hi. Until next time. SPRG

SPRG 2007