It always gives you a realisation of what exactly we are searching for when you see a face of a person who is rumoured to haunt a location.
When Gina Marshall sent me the picture of Ian Wilson, the person who is said to haunt St Mary’s Church in Rotherham, it was a reminder that It isn’t just a Phenomenon we as paranormal investigators are looking for and it definitely shouldn’t be for cheap thrills for entertainment, it is infact a person / people who have lost their lives, often too young and in very trumanic circumstances.
Ian Wilsons Story
Ian Wilson lost his life in a plane crash in 1959. Ian was only 19 years old at the time and he was on a routine training flight in the area, when it is believed, his aircraft, a DH Vampire Jet trainer, developed engine problems. It appears from Newspaper reports at the time that Ian feared hitting the church and he managed to head for the fields below the graveyard but unfortunately crashed which killed him instantly.
It is said that during the crash, St Mary’s Church was currently having a service, witnesses reported that the church door flung open in Walked a dishevelled pilot. Before anyone could ask if he needed help or was ok he disappeared into thin air. The congregation was left stunned and silenced buy the silence was broken when a young alter boy came in and informed them that there was a burning plane wreck at the bottom of the graveyard. The congregation rushed to the scene but sadly the Ian had perished on impact.
Many people over the years have reported seeing a man fitting the same description of Ian walking up the old cobbled path before disappearing at the church doorway.
A memorial was laid in the field where Ian died but this was moved to a new memorial area in 2010.
Other ghostly reports…
Alot of the reports of paranormal activities assiocated to St Mary’s Church comes from paranormal teams investigating the graveyard rather than just walkers etc.
So what do they report:
- A male who doesn’t like women and tries to strangle them
- witches, a lady who many have felt was a witch who could possibly be a crone.
- Miners (Miners would have walked this path through the graveyard on their way to stubbin pit)
It is said by teams that a tree located at the back of the graveyard once was a hanging tree, however there is no historical evidence of this.
The graveyard is often known as the devils graveyard, that is simply because a paranormal entertainer claimed to see the devil himself at the church door some years ago, however this particular investigator reported seeing demons at every graveyard he visited on a weekly basis so take from that as you will.
There as been no suicides at the graveyard, nor is there any murderer buried here. A murderer did live nearby on Green Lane, but they are not buried here nor are their victims.
Our investigation
Chrissie did pick up on a witch connection, she also did mention a hanging tree as we walked through.
I don’t feel we got any communication with Ian.
I decided to try the este method on Simon, which is a spirit box session where Simon is blind folded and has head phones on while listening to a spirit box, Simon can’t hear us at the time and we try to ask questions to see if spirit can use Simon as a vessel to aid the spirit box session. The aim is for Simon to say the words he hears coming through the spirit box which he feels could be a response and for the responses to tally with the questions we have just asked. We are looking for intelligence that is the key aim.
I ask for a name and Simon responds with ‘Richard’, I then ask for a surname and Simon responds with ‘Rodgers’. At the time people watching on our live was feeling a lady was around Simon and a child. We also question Simon to reveal Richards Job, he doesn’t but there is responses that could have tallied to life as a miner.
Gina looked to see if a Richard Rodgers is buried at the graveyard and she found that there was. Richard was two months old when he died and his mum Elizabeth along with his father, who are also buried at the graveyard lost many children. Richards father was a Miner.
How can a 2 month year old communicate? Well that depends on what your belief is on what happens to a child when they die. Many people believe when a baby or child die they do still continue to grow in the afterlife.
We ventured to the back of the graveyard in the woodland area where chrissie felt a lady was who may have been a crone. We did capture a very good RT EVP reply, which can be viewed here.
We do not believe we encountered Ian Wilson during our investigation.
You can watch our full investigation on the video below
Written by Charlene Kemp