NGI

The Central Public Middlesbrough Library was officially opened in 1912 by Alderman Amos Hinton. Built on two plots of land, one donated by Sir Hugh Bell, the other by Alderman Amos Hinton, the foundation stone was laid in 1910 and the building, sometimes known as the Carnegie Library, was officially opened on 8th May, 1912.

... Head over to Haunted UK for a review of the general history and haunted history of Middlesbrough Library. Alternatively, use the table of contents to view the reports for each location.

... Head over to Haunted UK for a review of the general history and haunted history of the Middlesbrough Library. Alternatively, use the table of contents to view the reports for each location.

Records Room

This room was an extension to the main reference library and was once used as a patents room when the library first opened. Today it was a periodicals room and small computer suite.

The room contained a few desks, chairs and computers with the walls surrounded with shelving for various books. In the right hand corner was a staircase which led up to a gallery which overlooked the room on one of the long and one of the short walls. Again, various bookcases backed up against the walls along the gallery.

Group 1 Report : Jay Claire Bekki Mark Dell Bob Christine

While Jay was being interviewed in the main reference library the team investigation was already going on in the records room with Dell calling out and guests reporting seeing shadows, Dell saying they had some taps in response perhaps to them calling out and there was a odd low temperature readings in an area on the gallery. Claire stood near the swing doors for a 2-3 minutes before going up the stairs to the gallery.

Claire stood at the top to the right next to the first pillar you come to on the right. She sensed a 'thickening' in the atmosphere up here but it was not as strong as on her previous 2 visits during the day. Bekki came up and stood near and Christine came up and went on the small section of gallery under the window and Mark was also joined us.

Claire walked down to the corner and then around onto the opposite end of the gallery to Christine. As Claire stood here she was looking about half listening to what others were doing and saying and half being aware of herself and her senses etc. Claire was looking directly opposite when suddenly the whole area under the window began to 'warp and bend'. It was not the whole wall just the area under the window. This lasted approx 2 -3 seconds and she could not recreate this with her eyes or also recreate the 'pull' 'tuning in' feeling she had with it. She didn't say anything and made her way further along the gallery towards this area. She stood on the other long gallery looking down but couldn't sense anything. She was asked to call out at some point which she did but there was no noticeable response.

Downstairs below the gallery both Dell and one of the guests both reported almost simultaneously that the area which Claire had seen 'warp' had suddenly darkened as though a large shadow had passed in front of the bookshelves. Upon investigating, it was decided that nothing could have obviously created this shadow.

Near to where this shadow was spotted, Christine began to comment on how her right hand side had suddenly gone cold. She was squatted down low at the time and could feel as though a breeze was blowing against her. Behind her was only a bookshelf with a sold brick wall yet the breeze seemed to be coming from the bookshelf. Dell checked the temperatures in this area and noted a difference in temperature on her right side compared to her left.

We investigated the area and commented that Christine was crouched below a window - but the window was high up on the wall and even standing up someone would still be some 6 feet below the bottom of the window and besides, we detected no noticeable breeze flowing down from the window.

Jay and Bob had come into the room and Jay had began to call out to try and make contact with any spirit that might have been present but without much success although Dell did continue to record various temperature fluctuations throughout the room as Jay was speaking.

Claire went back to her original place on the long side with the shelves and alcoves. She felt a big pressure on the back of her neck which was so strong she had to really concentrate to be able to lift her head up. Bekki was picking up on a magnetic field here so Claire set up an iron filing experiment.

Claire then moved further along and was stood facing the shelves on the wall (approx the middle of this gallery) when suddenly she saw them 'warp' and go all 'moleculey' and felt as though she was going to 'fall' through them. She felt dizzy and disorientated and her head went thick for a bit like it does when you've been making yourself go cross eyed but her eyes didn't hurt like they do when you have been doing the cross eyed thing.

She went over and touched and felt all around this area and could feel several warm and cold spots. Claire asked Bekki to come over and see what she sensed. Bekki said it may have been Claires eyes causing this as all the books were in straight lines which may have caused an optical illusion but almost just after saying this Bekki said she got the same thing and felt a magnetic field in that exact area.

At this point Michele said she thought she had seen something/someone move in this area but an area where no one was actually in, she'd presumed it was Claire or Bekki but when she looked she realised there was nothing in that area. Mark came over and took readings and Claire asked for the medium to come up. The medium said when she got to the top of the stairs she felt dizzy and disorientated and even more so in the area where Claire saw the books 'warp'.

Mark was taking readings and Bob came up and was asking what people had experienced for his show - the EMF meter that Mark had in his hands suddenly started to go off as it had done earlier in this area but it was ascertained that the radio equipment Bob carried with him was adding to the interference so nothing was drawn from this.

Claire went and stood down in the floor and deliberately opened herself up. She got the fleeting image in her head of a smallish man older man with a flat cap on hiding/skulking down at the far end of the gallery and going into the shelves to hide behind them. She felt he had a long coat on but was not totally sure of this.

As she was stood here for a bit she started to feel a bit claustrophobic and hemmed in and a bit angry. The irritation and slight anger was growing and she felt she wanted to get out of here because there were too many people in here and it was just stupid what everyone were doing. This wasn't how Claire was personally feeling, it seemed to be coming from someone however she thinks it was someone in the room rather than anything else but can?t say who or be sure exactly on this.

... Head over to Haunted UK for a review of the general history and haunted history of the Middlesbrough Library. Alternatively, use the table of contents to view the reports for each location.

Upper Storeroom

The upper storeroom was high up in the library on the top floor and the area where most activity in the building had been reported by members of staff - particularly an extra store room tagged onto the side of it.

Both the rooms were very claustrophobic with ceiling high shelves hemming anybody present into very narrow walkways and giving the feeling that the shelves were towering over you as you walked between them.

Large windows at one end allowed the streetlights below to cast an eerie light into the room although this ambient light was only able to brighten one area of the storeroom while the other end of the room was almost in pitched darkness.

A ladder, pretty much central to the near wall walkway, led up into an empty attic which could be accessed via a gaping hole and although seemingly an obvious way for any cold breezes to blow into the storeroom - we later detected nothing notable despite strange temperature fluctuations around this area.

Group 1 Report : Jay Claire Bekki Mark Dell Bob Christine

As Claire opened the door to the storeroom 2 library staff were just coming out. They said they'd opened the swing doors as they were not aware of the experiment which had been set up. They asked if Claire knew the stories about the cupboard. Claire asked which stories in particular and they made their way down to the cupboard. Claire went in, Pat stood in the doorway to the right (Claires right of the door as she looked at it from inside the cupboard) and the other lady stood behind Pat against the shelving to the left of her and slightly behind her.

They were talking and Claire was listening but Claire got distracted as the area over Pat darkened until she couldn't see Pat at all. This happened several times with Pat and the whole door area fading out sometimes. At one point she could see where Pat had been there was what looked like a man in blue boiler suit with white short hair. One time when Pat faded but Claire could still see Pats hands yet they looked twice the size of Pats hands. Another time Pat faded and' looked' to be a younger man wearing a black suit with a black silk lapel and a bow tie. He seemed to have dark but not black slicked down hair but Claire couldn't see this totally. This could have maybe been my eyes/brain 'adding things' as Pat did not fade completely when Claire saw the younger man in the suit jacket and bow tie. All this Claire saw with her 'eyes'.

Claire said to Pat what she could see and started to call out and ask whatever energy was about to come nearer and give us a bit more. Claire felt as though she was getting pushed backwards and getting smaller and smaller although this was not a physical push it was like some kind of energetic/magnetic 'pull' or 'attraction?. It was like she was getting gently sucked backwards down a long tunnel and that the room what shaped like a cone and was getting pulled to the very end of the cone and was getting smaller/or the room was getting larger towards the door and smaller in the end she was getting pulled towards. Claire was physically slowly moving backwards. At one point Claire felt a pain in her left jaw along the length of it.

Claire asked Pat what she was experiencing and Pat said that when Claire was talking/calling out she felt as though she (Pat) had been given an anaesthetic and had to hold on to the door frame to steady herself. She said this was only when Claire was talking/calling out. Things Claire asked for wheen calling out was for the energy to come forward even more, reassuring it that they meant no harm and were only interested in finding out what its connection to this place was. Claire asked if it was a man who worked here, or visited here a lot etc.

Claire sensed the energy change a little as if it had gone down the left side of the cupboard. Claire asked for it to make a noise we could all hear or for it to give her an emotion or for it to show itself in whatever way it could. Claire closed her eyes and after a few minutes she noticed her eyes were full of water and that she felt a slight sadness which seemed to be increasing but it was a 'detached' sadness.

All throughout this Claire had the name Alan in her head, although this could have been linked to her getting this name up here before. Then the rest of the team entered the storeroom and things changed.

Bekki came in the cupboard and was picking up on several things namely a man in white cricket clothing and linked to Middlesbrough F.C and the year 1853 but at one point she had a pain in her left jaw. Claire felt energy in here and it was still down towards the far end where Claire sensed it before just as the others came up. Claire noticed her heart was beating very fast and she could find no cause for this.

Bob came in and Jay said they would be doing some kind of seance and Claire was to call out so she came out of the cupboard. Claire noticed that for the last 2 minutes prior to this she had a constant dull 'pain' in her solar plexus. She had not had this feeling before and couldn't find a cause for it. It seemed to last for 5 minutes before it went. It seemed linked to her heart beating harder and faster however the sensation was definitely local to her solar plexus not chest, as Pat and Bekki both felt a tightness in their chests.

Claire decided that seeing as Pat had had something going on before she would try and recreate that during the s?ance as she didn?t feel anything else especially. She stood in the cupboard where she had before with Bob and the medium (so they could clearly see Pats face) and the others held hands in the doorway and began to pass the twitch around.

Claire called out as she did before and she could see the energy on Pat again but this time it was very fast, it didn't 'fade' she just went black all of a sudden. Pat felt a bit dizzy and the medium said she could see her chin grow longer. Bob couldn?t see anything. Claire carried on calling out and remembered Bekki was sensing some energy but to her the energy had left Pat. Just then Bob said he'd seen a shadow or something go across Pat and his right side went all tingly for a moment. He said he had really seen and felt this although he wasn't sure whether it was a trick of the light.

Christine also noted a change in Pats face as the shadows seemed to dance across it. Again, she described a mans face that became visible and the speed of its arrival upon Pat made Christine jump back and spooked her a little.

The circle carried on and Bob and Claire moved to the bottom left end of the cupboard. Claire gave Bob her plug pendulum as he'd earlier asked to have a go of this live on his show. Claire had wanted to do a triple pendulum experiment with Bekki but this was not practical at this time so Claire used her metal one and called out for both pendulums to indicate which way for yes. Claires went clockwise Bobs went anti clockwise. Claire asked which way for no and hers moved another way and Bobs went backwards and forwards. Claire asked for this to be done again and hers went a different way but Bobs was the same. Then Bobs stopped but after Claire asked again for it to clarify 'no' again it went backwards and forwards again the same as before. Both Bob and Calire were happy that his pendulum had both times given the same responses for yes and no twice so decided to go with that as an indicator as Claires was swinging wildly in all directions each time.

We asked various questions with the pendulums such as whether it was a male energy that was present (Yes) and whether this man was somebody who had worked at the library (No). We did ask further questions but never received any consistent answers before running out of time.