Marsden Grotto - Pre Invo Vigil

Bekki arrived at the venue, at 9:30 and hung around playing on the game machines, till the bar started to empty at about 10. As the bar began to empty Bekki went off to the toilet. As she passed the entrance to the back cave, she got a sudden feeling that she should go in there. Instead she decided to wait for the rest of the team. Bekki now wishes she had followed her instinct and gone in.

After descending the steps down the cliff, Claire got the urge to 'run' on the beach. To just run and run for sheer delight. This may have been because of what she'd felt on a previous visit.

On entering the building and during the initial walkaround Claire felt nothing other than suprise that the building was larger than she'd previously thought. member of the bar staff gave the entire team a tour of the building and talked briefly about other paranormal groups who had visited. One thing that was pointed out was a mark in the shape of a footprint in the upstairs restaurant. This mark was near the window on the wooden floor. It was claimed that even after the wood was sanded back and revarnished a few times, the shape reappeared.

Another comment was made by a couple of staff who said that since recent renovation of the steps leading down the cliff side, activity in the Grotto had practically diminished entirely.

After the guided tour, Mark decided to set up his camcorder in the 1st floor bar area where the security camera had previously picked up some footage of a 'strange moving light'.

Between 11.30 and 12.30am Lee took shots of the location and orientated himself before things began. Outside there was a strong smell of urine from near the toilet area and while on the terrace a number of bats swooped overhead and came very close. It was very warm, the tide washed gently on the shore and slowly receded. The moon in its final quarter occasionally appeared from behind a cloudy night sky.

When Claire went in the 'cave' (she didn't go in on the walkaround and hadnt been in before), she got the name 'Jack'. She ignored this thinking 'bloody hell theres a fuckin 'Jack' everywhere I go according to me hehe'. When sat on the decking talking with Lee and Carol a staff member said the place was linked to a 'Jack'. Claire has in the past loosely read about the place, however not in depth. She probably has read the name 'Jack' linked with it, although conciously has no recollection of this.The staff member mentioned several things regarding the history of the place especially linked with a book that had been written about it. The books author was also a paranormal investigator, who had told her all sorts about the place.

On entering the room on the top floor with the piano, Claire felt a tightness in her chest which she only felt in this room. (Stepping out of the room her 'tightness' ceased, stepping in agin and the feeling returned) She felt quite excited and 'genial' in there.

When Claire was sat with Jay upstairs at the table with the 'footsteps' they both heard a 'rattle' from in the room. Claire said she presumed it was the blinds rattling cos a door had shut downstairs. Jay had been walking at the time and tried to recreate it to see if it was his footsteps. On further inspecton Jay traced the source of the noise to a ventilation thing further down the room. Wind, movement in the room and downstairs seemed to cause it to make a noise, and the door to the stairs only had to slightly move to cause it to rattle loudly.

Walking through the small first floor cave bar with the camera, once on her own Claire felt several draughts, and noticed several cobwebs floating about the place which seemed to be floating in an air system type of thing. She couldnt trace this and noted it down to ask the staff about.

Claire sat on her own in several locations and felt nothing 'energywise', although she did note things down in regards the layout of the rooms and factors which could possibly influence things.ark filled a metal tankard up with beer and put in on a barrel in the back bar cave area. He placed movement sensors in front of this area. This was an attempt to recreate the old story that is attached to the Grotto. Apparently there used to be a tankard that was filled with beer every night for the 'spirits'. Each morning the tankard would be found drained of beer. The tankard has since been lost/stolen. Mark called out to whoever was listening, that, although this was a different tankard, if the spirits would be so kind to drink the beer during the course of the night then he would kindly donate the tankard to the pub to be filled with beer on a nightly basis. (By the end of the investigation the tankard was still full of beer so Mark consoled himself that his experiment didn't work by having a nice pint.)

Some of NGI were still sorting themselves out in the front bar area so Mark decided to conduct a solo vigil in the Back Bar Cave area for a while. Seated in the south corner Mark sat in silence and monitored the area.

TIME / TEMP / HUMIDITY
12.21 am / 21.5ºC / 67%
12.26 am / 21.6ºC / 67%
12.31 am / 21.7ºC / 67%
12.37 am / 21.8ºC / 68%
12.43 am / 21.9ºC / 68%

EMF: A 10+ MG reading was detected from all of the emergency lights that were distributed around the area.

This vigil passed without incident.

The team considered their plan for the evening and split into 2 teams. Before the investigation started, the bar staff turned off what lights were allowed but the remaining emergency lights still left the building relatively light so any hope of an atmosphere based on the psychology of being in the dark was lost.