Investigation Report From 30 East Drive

Full Investigation Report

On the 22nd of May 2015, Abandoned Investigated along with members of Team PRISM and HPG, visited Pontefract. A Historic Market town based in West Yorkshire and home to one of the UK's most haunted buildings. The home they visited, once owned by the Pritchard family in the 70's, 30 East Drive, Pontefract, has been feared by many. The family was haunted by what is believed to be the most violent poltergeist in Europe, and was later to become known as the 'Black Monk'.

What Abandoned Investigated experienced that night is spine shivering, toe curling, and utterly terrifying.

Upon Arrival, Ben and Laura found their car would not lock. After checking all possible technical faults, they could not explain why they could not lock the vehicle. And as the night began to draw in, they wondered if this was a small part of what the haunted building had in store for them.

When setting up cameras, the team were apprehensive about the evening ahead. They made notes on items in the master bedroom, taking in what was there and where it was placed. There were two marbles resting on the centre of the bed when the team left the room to take photos of other parts of the house. When returning later to the master bedroom, both marbles had been placed on the floor. No members of the team had entered the room since leaving to take photos. Was this the work of the famous ‘Black Monk?'

The first walk around

While stood at the bottom of the staircase, Ben had a 'strong feeling' of someone falling and drowning, and as if many others had experienced the same thing. As these feelings grew stronger, a spirit man became present and Ben sensed he was underground. To Ben's left, it felt cold by a nearby table, meanwhile the thermometer was measuring at 16 degrees.

Amongst other feelings, Ben began to feel that the drowning was related to being down a well, and questioned as to whether there may be a well on site that his feeling may have related to.

This sense of falling was later confirmed when medium Kris entered the building and,in particular, felt the exact same sense of wanting to ‘face plant’ in the downstairs hallway.

Upon Leaving the Hallway to the Kitchen

Laura instantly heard tapping of metal, as if someone were close by, and knocking something around. On further investigation to find where the noise was coming from, Ben began to tap various items and concluded that the noise sounded as if someone was tapping there finger nails on a radiator. With no other members of the team yet present at the house, and the central heating system being turned off, their only conclusion to the noises being copied by Ben was that of a spirit nature.

Wells and Gallows

Ben was drawn once again to the staircase, with the feeling that was were he needed to be. After a time, Laura spoke of gallows, wells, and some of the history the old building held. While talking out loud about the history, Ben heard a loud shout, of somebody shouting “Gallows”, followed by shape shooting pains through-out his stomach. The lights on the EMF detector then began to light up, but only while it was beside the picture of Thomas More at the bottom of the landing.

Further Investigation around the house – All members of the team

As the team took their investigation into the second bedroom, Karen sensed something wanted to get at her vocal chords, pushing her to shout at another member of the team (Kris) “Shut up you!” while he was talking about the team being in the house and whether or not the spirits liked them being there. Alison had a strong feeling that there was something nasty inside the cupboard where Karen had difficulties with her vocal chords before hand. The team then began to wonder if the spirits they were dealing with were perhaps of a darker nature, and if the history in the house was more dark, and held more secrets than they first anticipated.

The pains in Ben's stomach then began again, while Karen smelt the strong scent of sulphur and needed to get out of the room.

Kris was becoming increasingly agitated and wanted to shout at everyone to get out, and suggested that whatever was in this room was of a demonic nature. Through-out the investigation around the house, Kris wanted to stay out of the corners, as he felt there was something dark lurking in them.

The Small Child's Bedroom

Karen suffered agonising back pain in the child's room. She was doubled over with unexplained pain, with no medical history of any back issues. Alison then performed Reiki to remove the pain, which was thought to have been caused by a spirit, or a demonic presence in the bedroom.

The Lounge

Alison sensed the feeling of a woman, and strong perming solution. While Kris sensed a man called Michael who he thinks died of a heart attack in the house.

This was followed by medium, Kris, seeing a large black dog stood with Ben and Laura who was there to protect them, which was likely to have been Ben's late Great Dane, Louis.

The Coal Room

While Ben spent some time alone in the coal room, he felt stroking on the back of his neck for a few seconds.

As the evening continued, it became increasingly obvious to the Abandoned Investigated team that there were many spirits in this house, including a secretive demonic presence. As the energy built and the history of the house began to tell its story through the deaths of women and men from years gone by, the team decided to begin their Lone Vigils...

Lone Vigils

While Tom was alone in the lounge, he heard loud tapping noises and large knocks coming from the windowsill. Meanwhile, Kris and Ben were upstairs, and Tom appeared to be getting the responses to their questions downstairs.

Kris was stood on the landing, and Ben in the bathroom. Ben experienced loud banging all around his feet in response to Kris asking the spirits to copy his noises he was making by knocking the walls.

While the men were getting some good responses during their lone vigils, Karen, Alison and Jess were in the second bedroom, where earlier on in the investigation they experienced some negative energy. There were two moments on the EMF detector were the lights flashed to orange, but no response to their questions being asked, or noises. Alison asked at this point if Laura had researched the history as she felt like a lot of death and oppressions tied in with the gallows mentioned earlier in the evening.

Kris and Ben then came in to join the other team members and the knocking and noises followed them in. The sound of a rubber ball hitting the floor could be heard in response to Kris' threats of moving in and redecorating, which led them to believe that the spirits wouldn't like that, giving them a reaction. It then appeared to sound like someone was stood between Ben and Kris. When they then shifted their weight from either side, they could not re-create the noise they'd heard.

Steve and Ema were doing a vigil in the small room of the house, whilst Kris was in the main room, asking whether the spirit would like him to move into the house. Ema said “hate” and Ben got bangs on the floor in the bathroom. Ema then felt like she was going to have a fit, and had to go downstairs.

While Kris and Laura were screen monitoring, they noticed orbs in the bathroom, and sent Tom in to stand inside the bathroom, facing the mirror. While Tom was in there, Ben stayed in the small room. Tom heard noises coming from the bath and blue lights to his right, at the same time as Laura watched a large bright orb come down from the ceiling on Toms right, onto the bath. Toms eyes then began to change in the mirror which Ben picked up on in the small room. Tom and Ben then swapped, and Ben experienced the same banging noises on the bath and Tom felt there is something behind the door to the small room.

Meanwhile, on the stairs, Alison feels like her legs were being stroked on the inside of her thighs.

Glass Divination

Whilst setting up the cameras for the glass divination session, an orb is seen dropping around Laura's head on the chair. Kris then sat alone in the same chair and heard tapping. The glass divination then began, while the team sat in the main lounge.

Karen saw orbs in the beginning of the session, circling around the teams head's.

As the energy began to build, a gentleman named Michael became present. His spirit suggested that there were three spirits in a row. Two guarding the one in the middle which Kris thought was the one he was unable to identify. One of the guards that came through suggested the team should be wary of the other one as he wanted to cause harm. When asked who the spirit wanted to harm, the glass moved towards Kris, Tom and finally Karen. Kris' spirit guide warned him that the middle figure was demonic during the glass divination.

As the night Abandoned Investigated had spent in Pontefract drew to a close, the evidence and experience they had gathered throughout the night left no doubt in their minds that the local legend of the 'Black Monk' was certainly more than a scary bedtime story.

After witnessing noises, experiencing physical pain and sensing more than four spirits throughout their long and haunting night, they can safely say this old building is one of the most haunted locations to date.

Written by Rach Green - Ai Case Study Writer