There isn’t many paranormal investigations that I can say creep me out but this one somewhat did.
Myself and Spiritus Santus, Simon Wilson, set out to investigate the Chalk works located on Wharram Percy in Yorkshire Wolds in the UK.
The location itself if known to many for its historical background.
Wharram Percy site is a English Hertiage site and is the most thoroughly studied deserted medieval village in Britain.
The area was first occupied in the Bronze Age, though there is evidence of civilization at Wharram Percy as early as the Neolithic period. By the Iron Age at least two farms were established here, and by the mid Roman period this had grown to five. Finds of Roman material suggests the presence of a villa nearby. The village grew through the Anglo-Saxon and Viking period, and by the 9th century there was corn mill followed by a small chapel.
During the early medieval period there were two manors at Wharram, one held by the Chamberlain family, the other by the powerful Percy’s, lords of Northumberland. It was this final connection that gave the village its name, Wharram Percy (the ‘Wharram’ part of the name refers to the bends of the valley site).
Many believe that the village was deserted due to the devastating Black death which occurred here in the mid 14th century but this is not the case and the lord of manor did die from the plague in 1347 but the village was still growing.
The community came to a halt when the Hilton family purchased the manor in 1403. The Hiltons began to convert the estate from farming to sheep pasture. By 1458 the population had shrunk to 16 households, and in 1500 the final four families were evicted and their houses pulled down. A solitary farm continued in operation near the church, and the estate passed through a number of absentee landlords over the following centuries. Finally in the late 18th century Sir Charles Buck built a new farmhouse and new outbuildings which can be seen today, but apart from the ruined church they are all that remains of the village.
Life at the Village?
A scientific study published in 2004 of human skeletal remains from the deserted village reveals details of disease, diet and death in a rural medieval community.
The medieval remains of a mother and daughter found in North Yorkshire shows signs of an attempted Caesarean operation, scientists revealed. The 900-year-old grave at Wharram Percy held the remains of a woman aged between 25 and 30 with a baby. A study of the remains by English Heritage showed the woman died during her pregnancy and the baby was cut free from the womb in a bid to save it. Nearly 700 skeletons have been found within this site, out of all the graves, 15% contained the remains of children under the age of one.
Hauntings
There is actually no listed sightings in this area, all what exists is what mediums have felt when they have walked around.
I find it interesting that when I first looked at the pictures of the chalk works located here I felt a little girl haunted the area, as we walked down the rail track we heard what seem to sound like someone being gagged, my thought was that a child may have been drowned in the river nearby by someone and I sensed a male presence who I didn’t feel was too nice.
Interestingly, I came back home to look at the reports of the location and found a lady had more or less had picked up on the same. Not within the area of the Chalk works but in the area within Wharram Percy where the church was.
Here is their account.
http://www.abbeyghosthunters.co.uk/wharrampercy.htm
I know myself that i didnt research this prior to visiting so it was confirmation to me that I had maybe ‘sensed’ something that others had sense too.
What Happened?
We had heard what seem like gags coming from the river, this is what made us stop and conduct a ITC session on the old railway track. The replies we seem to get was about whispering to us and at one point we did get reference to ‘Burning’ which is something that used to happen to those who died from the black death, there bodies would have been burnt.
We got three names come through on the ITC which was Veronica, Jon and Fay.
We decided to head towards the Chalk works to see what happened there.
History of the Chalk Works
It is said that the quarry was operated by Casebourne & Co. in 1916, who had cement factories in Leeds and at Durham. The quarry was closed in the 1930’s but reopened shortly after at a reduced capacity. It is unclear for the reasons why but it soon closed again for good in the 1940’s but It was attached to the Wharram Station and the railway line closed on the 20th October 1958.
Chalk was quarried here and crushed ready for use in cement, it was also used in making lime, with lime kilns on site and as a flux in the iron and steel works in Teeside.
I can not see any reported deaths here to cummulate a haunting but we are not the only ones to this location who has said it has somewhat spooked them out. Many urban explorers who have visited this site have said it has gave them the creeps.
While we was here I did sense the male in this area, I didn’t feel he was very nice and the whole atmosphere seemed tensed, you didn’t quite know what to expect or see, it felt very edgy at times.
Simon did ask to be touched and we did hearing a clinking noise twice, Simon debunked this by him catching his arm on the latch located on the side of the door way but at the time he did ask to be touched or for a noise and I didn’t see his hand go near that area.
The most creepiest thing for me was i felt like i had been touched inappropriately and Simon had asked if something was around to run around the building so we could hear it, minutes later i was taken temperature checks when we heard something run from the window i was sat next to, pass the entrance and pass the other building Simon was stood it. Soon as it seemed to get to Simon it just stopped. You couldn’t hear it anymore, yet if it had been wildlife surely we would have heard it to continue to run, at this point I already had the thermal device in my hand so had got up to scan the area to debunk it as wildlife but there was no heat source what so ever within the brushes producing one.
It was so loud that at one point I had thought somebody had been watching us, the footsteps from the running was so heavy but there is noway anyone would have made it out the area without us seeing them as the whole area is so overgrown.
Below is the footage, admittedly the ‘running’ is not has loud as it was in real life, but here is the audio from the EVP recorder.
*Warning there is some swearing in the footage, only because the area itself did seem to have us on edge*
Omg how did I miss it out .