Travellers Rest - 13th August 2007

This location is on the outskirts of Sheffield.  The owners believe parts of the building to date back to the 1800's.  Over the past few years patrons have reported seeing an old man sitting in corner of a room that was originally a smoke room.  Before the layout of the building was rearranged the face of a man dressed in highwaymans garb was often seen in the mirror of the gents toilet.  Since the alterations this is now the ladies toilet and patrons complain of an "eerie" presence and get out as soon as they can.  Residents have heard loud noises and bangs during the night and shuffling sounds are regularly heard in the oldest part of the cellar.  The landlady is very sceptical but as yet has been unable to explain any of the phenomena. Guest have regularly reported seeing a woman standing at the end of the bar.  

As far as is known there has never been any kind of serious investigation into these strange happenings and we had the priviledge of being the first team ever to undertake an investigation at this location. All of our team was present along with landlord and landlady and one guest.  We began our investigation by doing base line tests and familiarising ourselves with any machinery, fridges, boilers etc and the noises they were likely to make.  We also ensured that no air conditioning or fans were switched on. We began with a glass divination which immediately produced a results.  The glass twisted several times and began to move rapidly.  After asking many questions it appeared that the father of our guest had made contact.  Verification questions were asked, some answered accurately other not.  Then just the men in our group used the glass and it appeared that a young woman called "Milly" (she spelled her name out) was present.  Could this be the woman who stands at the bar? We moved to our planchette but we had no significant activity on this all evening although there seemed to be a sudden drop in temperature around the table and the bar area each time the planchette moved.  A further glass divination and our medium picked up on a male spirit called "Jacob" or similar sounding name.  She believed him to be from the 1700's and believed him to be a servant or even slave to the land owner. Through the glass he seemed to tell us that he had 3 children but could not be with them as the master or boss didn't allow it.  The medium thought that he wanted to pass over but was somehow trapped.   Since our investigation we have delved into history and discovered that the land did belong to George Sitwell in the 17OO's and he made goods for West Indies sugar plantations - so it is not unreasonable to assume that he may have had servants aquired in the West Indies. (source: www.whistonweb.co.uk).

We moved into the cellar to perform a seance as a lot of activity had been reported in that area and staff often complained that they felt they were being followed when they were leaving the cellar. During the seance 2 people were pushed by an unseen presence.  This was captured on camera.  We turned on the lights and tried to find an explaination for this but could not and looking back on the tape they  moved in opposite directions as if someone had come between them an pushed them apart.  Because of the way they moved it ruled out any explanation we could come up with at the time.  One of our team then took a camera into another part of the cellar to do a lone vigil.  At this point none of us had actually been told the nature of the activity in the cellar.  The microphone picked up some dull thud sounds and a few unexplained noises but then it sounded like someone running towards her on gravel.  This really frightened our investigator who ran back to the other team members.  This is only the second time anything has ever spooked this person. Nothing, however, was caught on camera.  Was it imagination?  We were told later in the evening that staff had reported feeling like they were being follow in the same place and some had heard the gravelly footsteps.

Our medium and one other team member attempted scrying in the ladies toilet and used divination rods with minimal effect and unfortunately we could shed no light on the reported "highwayman".

We moved to the smoke room.  Two team members used divining rods to try an locate where the reported old man sat.  They had no prior knowledge of this room at all and did not know where the man was report to have been seen, however when asking any spirit present to point the the location of the man all four rods simulateously pointed in the same direction and the landlady confirmed that was the exact spot the old man was frequently seen in.

All in all this was a very interesting location and we will try out best to seek some kind of validation of the supposed spirits we had encounted.  We intend to visit the Travellers Rest again in the future.