22nd September 2008
The History
Over the years many stories have circulated around Hereford City about the ghosts of JD's, many workers and people that have lived in the pub have said about its ghosts and stories. Many paranormal experiences have taken place in the pub and even on the top floor flat upstairs. In the flat the lights regularly get disturbed and people claim there is an uneasy feeling in this part of the building, a feeling as if you are being watched. One time an unknown apparition was actually caught on CCTV walking into the upstairs kitchen, no one was in this part of the pub at the time of recording. On many occasions when ladies have used the toilet they have heard someone in the cubicle next door when no one has been in there. A worker one day was working in the kitchen and ran out of the pub scared and shaken up, he experienced something whilst working, and no one knows what unfortunately. There are many other stories about JD's.
Why it was investigated
Over the years many stories have circulated around Hereford City about the ghosts of JD's, many workers and people that have lived in the pub have said about its ghosts and stories. Many paranormal experiences have taken place in the pub and even on the top floor flat upstairs. In the flat the lights regularly get disturbed and people claim there is an uneasy feeling in this part of the building, a feeling as if you are being watched. One time an unknown apparition was actually caught on CCTV walking into the upstairs kitchen, no one was in this part of the pub at the time of recording. On many occasions when ladies have used the toilet they have heard someone in the cubicle next door when no one has been in there. A worker one day was working in the kitchen and ran out of the pub scared and shaken up, he experienced something whilst working, and no one knows what unfortunately. There are many other stories about JD's.
The Investigation
On the morning of the investigation, regular checks and tests were made to the building, nothing unusual was found. On the night we started around 11.30 pm, there were members of the public that also came along to this investigation. We started by doing a walk around of the building, the guest psychic for the night was Adrian Pengelly. We started in the top flat and worked our way down. Adrian picked up on an unpleasant spirit on the back stair area, a rape involving two men and one woman in the main bar area and a spirit of a man in the cellar area, Adrian picked up on at least 30 active spirits in the building. On the walk around batteries were depleting constantly, even brand new batteries.
After the walk around we decided to split into two groups, one group was in the cellar and the other group was upstairs. Many light anomalies and a breath was caught in the cellar and again new batteries were depleting with no logical explanation. Upstairs the group moved from the downstairs part of the bar to the middle floor and tried Glass Divination, a dowsing crystal was also used and a flour experiment was set up in the corner of the room. After about 20 minutes the glass started moving, the spirit seem to be giving Annette plenty of attention, Annette is the landlord's partner.
The reason for this was because the spirit that came through on the glass seemed to be Annette's sister that died 4 years ago. We started to ask the spirit if she could make any noises in the room and we got a response, a knocking noise came from the kitchen, this noise was caught on camera; no one else was in this part of the building at the time. We asked again for another noise and again there was a response, a thump was heard behind us, we then asked if the spirit could make an impression in the flour, 20 minutes after this we found that 2 fingerprints were shown in the flour.
A scrying experiment was also set up on the night, we done this in the back area. Unfortunately this gave us no results on the night. The upstairs flat was investigated by a small group of three people, nothing was found up there.
So another group done Glass Divination, second time round this gave good results, a spirit of a female from the 1600s seemed to be communicating with them, at this point a group of three were in the cellar and a group of three were on the back stair area. After this I decided that given the choice people could do lone vigils in the cellar, myself went first.
I went in there on my own with a camera, as I walked in it was very quiet and felt very eerie, after walking in a extremely loud noise came from the left of me, the only way I can describe it was the sound of someone kicking a barrel very hard, it was very frightening and of course natural instinct is to run and I admit I did! After this I was mad enough to go back down there with my friend OJ, after a few minutes of being down there he saw something at the back of the cellar, he described it as a white mist that looked like a figure. The landlord also went down but didn’t stay down there long , he even admitted that it felt different. Overall it was a fantastic night.
A VIDEO OF THE INVESTIGATION IS AVAILABLE TO WATCH ON THE VIDEO PAGE. TO SEE A SLIDE SHOW OF THE INVESTIGATION PICTURES PLEASE CLICK ON THE VIDEO BELOW.