Ghost hunting fun as Wisbech Castle hosts an evening of paranormal investigation led by team from local group Forgotten Souls

“I ain’t afraid of no ghost” was my mantra on Saturday night as I joined a team of ghost hunters at Wisbech Castle to investigate paranormal activity.

Eleven members of the public, myself and members of Forgotten Souls Paranormal Investigations undertook five hours of vigils in two separate groups at various locations in the building and grounds.

For me it was a first having never ventured into the world of ghostly-activity before, but for many of my cohorts it is a regular past-time with many having under-taken vigils in places across the country including Warwick Castle.

My team led by Steve Daloia-titmarsh, Tracey Harvey and Vanessa Castillo-Roman of Forgotten Souls (which uses the Castle as its main venue), took to the Castle’s vaults for the first part of the evening.

Vanessa and her daughter Amber Castillo-Roman have been taking part in this type of investigation for the past 18 months but Vanessa claims to have been sensitive to the paranormal since she was a child.

Among my group were sisters Kerrie and Anna. Kerrie has attended numerous events, but for Anna, like me it was a first.

And like me she admitted to being just a little nervous, but fellow team member Mark Street and his wife were excited to join the action.

He has been involved in the paranormal for four or five years and has been to numerous locations and has even captured what he claims are ghostly images on camera and recordings of unexplained voices.

As we set off for the vaults we were advised to watch out for the bats and were also told we could leave if anything happened to scare us (which was a little disconcerting).

Once underground we sat in darkness as first Steve and then Vanessa called out to any potential spirit visitors. At first there seemed to be little action, but then messages started to appear on one of the pieces of equipment the group uses to allow spirits to communicate.

Intrigued I went to see the box for myself and was surprised to see the word ‘neck’ appear as I looked at it. Now it might just be a coincidence, but I did have a stiff neck, and was in pain - so who knows maybe a spirit had picked up on that.

One thing I can say is a short while later I heard a definite growl noise. Unexplained and heard by many others in the group, this was apparently not a good thing as that type of noise is normally the harbinger of something evil.

Fortunately the growl didn’t develop into anything too threatening, but I kept the Ghostbusters’ mantra going - just in case.

I did also feel oddly chilled at times, so cold in fact I had goosebumps, but it was short-lived and I can honestly say this was not just down to it being a cold night. Again I was told the presence of spirits can make the temperature drop sharply.

While Steve claimed to have seen some sort of figure rise up from the ground as he went off to explore one of the vault corridors, and others thought they might have seen something moving in the gloom, there were no flying apparitions or ghostly hands clutching at us, which was disappointing but also something of a relief.

We adjourned to the Castle’s kitchen for a break and caught up with the other group, who seemed to have had a much more exciting time of things.

They apparently heard voices, someone had their hair pulled and there was other unexplained activity - that sounded good - so we ventured off with hope of some paranormal fun to the Fendick room.

But once again, for us it seemed quiet, although some of the group reckoned there was a young boy in raggedy clothes present and trying to communicate with us. But personally I did not get that, and our monitoring equipment failed to show any activity. I did however, get that cold feeling once more, so who knows?

There was more disappointment in the nursery, which had what the others described as a ‘flat atmosphere’ and definitely no ghosts.

At the end of the evening I can honestly say, I had fun, learnt a lot, met a great group of people and may even have had at least one paranormal experience.

Would I do it again, yes, would I recommend it as a different way to spend a Saturday evening - yes. But be warned, it is a little scary(mainly because it is all done in darkness) and there are no guarantees of ghostly happenings.