Ghost Report from Derby Gaol

 Derby Gaol is one of those places that makes you want to go and investigate it.

There have been so many paranormal groups through that I would be hard to top any of them unless we spotted a full bodied apparition, sat down to have an interview and then it vanished during our recording.

So we knew that we were going to just have to enjoy it for ourselves as trying to impress was jut not going to happen. Also, our track run on ghostly phenomena at haunted locations was not up to scratch, we were just not getting the demons nor possessions than all the other groups were becoming You Tube famous for.

God, how do they do it? Or do they???????

The photo above shows you the gate to the back entrance of the Gaol which no longer is accessible as we found out on our arrival!

It now is barred up as the council is building a three story high apartment block in front of it.

Now, even though we had the address for the front entrance, from our view point we did not see a thing telling us that there was a front way into the Gaol. We were only assisted due to the help of the kind lady who saw us loitering and came out of her shop and asked whether we were looking for the Gaol.

When she showed us the entrance, it became clear why we could not see it. It had scaffolding covering it up and was UNDER the street level and obscured by the fence in front.

At the point Richard Felix, the owner of the Gaol came out and offered his apologies and we ours, as we were about 20 minutes late and he took us down into the depths of the building.

The first sentiments I can think of are 'WOW'.

This place has loads of atmosphere! 

If you think you have head of Richard Felix, he was part of the team of Most Haunted back in the day when Yvette still  screamed at every shadow and noise and Derek Acorah was part of the show.

Richard has a passion for this place of his. It's understandable as he has put his heart and soul and money into converting it from a dodgy nightclub back to the Gaol it was.

Of course, it used to be a lot bigger he tells us spreading across into adjoining buildings. Now all that remains are the few cells and rooms left that harken back to the days of the Bloody Code and public hangings.

Richard took us for a VERY detailed tour of the Gaol and regaled us with some stories (all awesome) as well as telling us some stories from his Most Haunted days. Its hard to imagine that Most Haunted premiered 25th May 2002! No matter what you might think, that show started a paranormal frenzy.

After being shown how to lock the place down on departure Richard left us to enjoy our ghost hunt.

We had a few cells to choose from and we started in the hallway the length of the area we had to play in. We set out a TRASER LIGHT WIRE, a new gadget from GHOSTSTOP which is like a long strip of lights that will light up if something passes close to it. We also had a REMPOD and cat balls and we set ourselves up to look down the hallway and wait for activity. After about 40 minutes all we got was one tweak on the REM POD. It was so quiet, and it was to remain quiet for the rest of the evening.

We did lone vigils in the condemned man's cell and the Debtor's cell. During these sessions we recorded on voice recorders so we are hoping that something does turn up on those when we get time to review them.

We sat in the space that now looks like a Cafe, with tables and chairs and we did some more calling out and moved our equipment into places of interest around the seats and tables. There was a huge amount of noise coming from the street about, lads walking past singing, lots of cars and couples having a public row. 

Try as we might we really got nothing other than high EMF readings which we could not explain. These were not random enough to be ghostly, it was definitely man made interference.

The time passed really quickly but we knew that we were not going to make it to 6am, so we went to what Richard calls, the Murder Room and did a live on YouTube and to our Patreon supporters, achieving one reaction flicker from the cat balls in there.

Last but not least we went into the Solitary Confinement cell where men were put into chains and made to sit in one spot for days on end in darkness.

This spot possibly gave us the best reactivity, as we started to get a line of conversation using the Spirit Talker App, Tracer light and my psychic connections to a lady called Victoria who was seemingly trapped in the Gaol having been violated by another inmate and found herself pregnant. I am not sure if we were getting the story 100% right as we were relying on the Tracer showing us her "YES" answers as it would flash if we asked a question.

She asked for help a number of times during this session and we told her that she could walk out with us as were leaving and she would never have to come back again. What is a real connection with a spirit? Not sure. There seamed to be a good stream of banter that felt real. 

I hope that it was.

We left the building at 3pm disappointed that our full bodied apparition never turned up and we couldn't have the interview we wanted to be recognised at the world's best paranormal investigators and then get a syndicated show on Discovery Channel, damn... but Derby Gail was a most fascinating night and I am so glad that we can mark that off the bucket list.

Richard Felix is to be admired for his dedication to the history of Derby and to his continued passion for the retention of the Gaol as a history site that should be given, as far as we are concerned, some financial help as it is a treasure of historic information.

If you are there in the area and are a ghost hunter, go and check it out.