Hoober Stand is a stand situated in a woodland area in Wentworth, Rotherham. It was designed in the 18th century by Henry Flitcroft, situated on the highest ridge in the Wentworth area.
The Stand itself was built in 1747-8 to commemorate defeat of the Jacobite rebellion in 1745, when the 1st Marquis (then plain Thomas Watson Wentworth) fought on the side of King George II. In recognition of his contribution, the King elevated Wentworth to Marquis, and the new Marquis decided to build the 30 metre tower to show his gratitude.
The inscription above the doorway reads:-
This pyramidall building was erected by his Majestys most dutiful subject Thomas Marquess of Rockingham in grateful respect to the preserver of our religious laws and libertys King George the Second who, by the blessing of God having subdued a most unnatural rebellion in Britain anno 1746 maintains the balance of power and settles a just and honourable peace in Europe 1748
The tower is built-in the shape of a tapering pyramid topped with a hexagonal lantern. The design creates the illusion that the building is toppling over and the lantern at the top seems to move depending on where you view it from.
It also features in the film ‘GET SANTA’ where it was used in the film to represent a huge postbox to send letters to santa.
The Reports of witchcraft!
If you google witchcraft at Hoober stand today…the reports will come back to……to me and my writing I did for an investigator I once worked with on what he and paranormal hauntings team members Phil and John experienced here.
Since then, I have come to learn…..
Phil and John state it wasn’t Hoober Stand that they saw white cloaked figures in nor did they find a crow here. It was, in fact, it was in another area which isn’t to far away but it was not Hoober stand.
However, another investigator in later years claimed to have found a pinned crow upon a tree here.
The Alters
2 years ago in September 2016, myself and another found 1 alter and Phil and John found another later on that night.
Project paranormal had found this earlier on in the year and I’ve just recently found out that Team Member Simon Wilson had found this too in July. At this point however it did seem to be nothing more than a memorial bench for a John, which the Wentworth estate has contacted many paranormal teams to say.
I have to say pictures of the first altar below, do tend to look as though it could be an alter of some kind
Second Alter or Memorial?
The second alter, I am not sure about now, it would seem that once it was a memorial for a ‘John’ but has the months past, it did seem to have more an alter characteristic of some kind, more was added and it had completley changed has you can see in the pictures below.
If there wasn’t witchcraft practiced here before, I have to say I think it has now and if it had before it was more hidden then I once thought.
I have personally been followed around Hoober stand as well as Phil and John before now and I have had my car blocked in so I couldn’t pass when trying to go a few times. What that is about I am not sure, But all of these did occur when I found the first alter.
Part of me wants to think that maybe it was just the Wentworth Estate protecting their land and sussing up who was visiting during this time or there was more to it!
Now the alters have now been stripped, hardly anything remains of them at all.
I don’t know why but when we had found the alters, the energy level at the location seemed to be on a much more higher level then it has ever felt before. I can remember visiting one night shortly after discovering them and actually running back to the car! which if you know me you will know it is not like me.
If there was energy here, it seems much less now then it did that night.
Over the past 9 months, I have continued to visit along with Phil and John and we have been monitoring what we think may be a ‘NEW-AGE’ stone circle but we will continue to monitor that and see what pops up.
Ghost Sightings
If you google search Hoober stand and haunted, it takes you straight to TripAdvisor, where some visitors to the location have reported feeling very strange.
My dad and I went ghost hunting at night, after hearing stories about it being haunted. After me being terrified that we would actually find something, I decided to not turn our SB-7 spirit box. Something moved in the bushes, the emf detector went off and we legged it.
The general sightings here are of
- A monk
- 3 witches
- lights in the far distance
- Beams of lights which shine on the stand which light it up
- A watcher who guards the stand
- A dog
- Hearing voices
- Hearing footsteps and people circling
Here is a live we did here, we seem to get hoober come on the afterlight app twice which was interesting to say the least.
For those of you who did watch, you will recall we got pig like sounds coming across. Going further back in history I have come to learn the land was actually farmland, where farm animals were kept.
Another response we got was Pendle, now is there a link to Hoober stand and Pendle Hill?, that information is for another blog to come for you to decide…….
The cave ( Hoober Grotto)
The cave like area is now filled in at Hoober, John was once informed that it used to be a tea room of some kind by a local who remembered it has one.
Information on what it was actually used for is vague and ranges from it being the start of a tunnel to the Wentworth estate to it being a place where they kept prisoners !
I did find some information, which was quite interesting in a forum by a Matthew who works for the churches conservation trust of the Wentworth Old Church, who seems to have done his research on the spot.
He states
With regard to the cave (or hoober grotto as it is sometimes called) behind hoober stand, there are many theories as what it is, and what it was used for.
The most common is that it was/is the entrance to a tunnel leading to wentworth woodhouse, however, it does seem a little to high on a hill to be for this.
Another theory is that when hoober stand was used as a ‘ladies viewing platform’ the foxhunt, it was a meeting place for the huntsmen and hounds, however others will tell you that it was actually a toilet, but there is nothing to support this.
Finally, during the 1940s (and possibly before that date) it was known locally by the youngesters as ‘King Dick’s Cave’, but quite who king dick was i have no idea, common belief was that it may have been a form of prison too.
There us possibly some element of truth in the meeting place theory, as the hunt did take place up there; and also with the prison.
Hoober, in its own right could have at one time (even though there are no records of this being the case)been a place of its own which wasnt related to wentworth as it had a pub (which is now sundial farm), a chapel, (which has now been demolished) and a large house (hoober house), which at one time doubled as a form of school, this is owned by a business, with this is mind, the cave could have also been a storage place or even ice house, it could have been a mine shaft, , but again it seems a little to high for this.Matthew-
Holy Trinity (Old) Church, Wentworth.