NEW HAUNTED EARTH DOCUMENTARY SOON TO BE RELEASED

In the background are the chapel and guardhouse - The military chapel is the oldest  in Britain

Our latest documentary, `Tilbury - Legends of a Tudor Fort` which is in edit, will be available to view on Saturday, March 15th, 2014.

The shoot encompasses a number of locations in Essex and Kent, and English Heritage have allowed us to shoot in areas at the fort which are not open to the public.

Walking away from the raised `Dead House` mortuary

One of the more interesting, if not morbid locations was a 17th century building known as the `Dead House`.
It was used over the centuries as a makeshift mortuary above the gate leading to the rear of the fort.

The floor still has an original trap door where cadavers (dead bodies) were dropped into a waiting cart below before being taken away for burial.

Chris Halton pictured with some sizeable activity inside the `Dead House`

Many people died at Tilbury, men women and sadly, children. The highest mortality toll was from either drowning, or from malaria, which was epidemic from the nearby wet marshes. In past times the soldiers at the fort called it, `Essex Ague`.

It wasn`t until 1875 (following a serious outbreak) that a connection between the disease and the fort`s own water supply was forged. After this, there were no further outbreaks.

During our visit to the `Dead House`, we were able to pick up activity, and undoubtedly the room (as with many other locations) is haunted.

A sketch showing the fort in the 17th century

The documentary includes visits to the old `New Tavern Fort` in Gravesend, as well as Coalhouse Fort in East Tilbury.

This is our most ambitious project yet, and has already resulted in many hours work both filming or compiling video.

Georgian houses which were once occupied by senior officers

My personal thanks to the staff at Tilbury Fort - manager Kevin Diver and assistant Jennifer, who assisted and facilitated the location for a shoot.

Tilbury Fort is regarded as one of the best preserved bastion forts in the whole of Europe, and it`s site plan has changed little since 1680 when it was completed by Sir Bernard DeGomme, architect to Charles II.


We still have much to edit, and am hopeful that we have some interesting paranormal activity.

Pictured with Chris Halton is the manager, Kevin Diver and assistant, Jennifer - staff of English Heritage

GHOST HUNTER CLAIMS CAPTURE OF GHOSTLY MONK IN MEDIEVAL CHURCH WINDOW

Is this a ghostly monk or an example of pareidolia?

An amateur snapper thinks she might have captured a series of phantom photo bombings.

Laura Dickson, from Sittingbourne, has taken several photographs in which ghostly figures mysteriously appear.

The latest incident took place during an afternoon shoot at St Peter and St Paul Church in Borden on Wednesday.

When she returned home to view the results of her work, the 26-year-old was stunned to discover one picture of a church window seemed to include the spooky spectre of a faceless monk in a habit.

It is the fourth time she claims an apparition has inexplicably turned up in a photograph she has taken.

Machinist Laura, 26, said: "People might say it's a trick of the light, but I think it's definitely something spiritual.

"I've always believed there's a spirit angel looking over me, so maybe these images are connected with that.

"When I looked at what I'd taken at the church when I got home, I saw straight away what I thought was a monk in a habit.

"I blew it up on my computer to have a closer look and it confirmed what I originally thought.

"I called my mum, and she saw it straight away as well."

Father John Lewis, vicar at the church for nine years, remained sceptical of Laura's claim to have inadvertently photographed a random wraith.

But his description of St Peter and St Paul's history added further intrigue.

He said: "The existing building dates from 1160, something like that.

"I believe the original church was founded by monks from Leeds Abbey."

Her passion for all things afterlife has not affected her boyfriend, 42-year-old Bradley Smith, who she said refused to join her on a haunted hunt around the Borden church.

She said she has since returned to the site, but the window was empty both of human and spectral beings.

"I've photographed the church three or four times before and it's the first time I've seen anything like this," she said.

Source: KentOnLine

CHRIS HALTON GUEST ON UNKNOWN ORIGINS RADIO - TONIGHT!

Tonight Monday Feb. 24th at 9 PM EST (2am, 25th February - UK time) I will be appearing as a guest on Unknown Origins Radio. It`s a late hour for me, so I hope you`ll be able to tune in to the show.
I will be talking on a range of topics related to my work and the paranormal.

Live Link to Show:
http://darkmatterradio.net/unknownorigins.html

SIR ALEC GUINNESS SAW A GHOST WHEN FILMING IN INDIA

Sir Alec Guinness played Marley’s ghost on the big screen and was resurrected as Obi-Wan Kenobi in the Star Wars films.

But the Oscar-winner also had a real-life otherworldly encounter, according to letters published for the first time today.

Then 69 and a devout Catholic, Sir Alec said he saw a ghost while in Bangalore filming David Lean’s A Passage To India.

In a letter to his wife Merula dated March 23, 1984 he wrote: ‘Last night I heard my bathroom door click open. I was immediately awake and called, “What’s that?”

‘A very conventional white ghost appeared, an elderly... woman in grey white and heavily veiled.
‘I couldn’t make out her face. She moved... with dignity down the side of my bed and as I clicked on the light she disappeared.’

Guinness, whose credits include The Bridge On The River Kwai and The Ladykillers as well as Marley’s ghost in the 1970 film Scrooge, told his wife if he hadn’t seen a spirit then he must have been dreaming ‘while sitting up and awake’.

Although deeply religious, Sir Alec was interested in the psychic world and reportedly told James Dean not to drive on the day the star died in a crash in 1955.

Piers Paul Read, Guinness’s official biographer, last night said he was not aware of the letter.

He said: ‘Alec was quite superstitious... In the Navy he also had a premonition about being drowned in an oncoming storm. I don’t think he claimed to be psychic but he was open to the idea.’

In other letters acquired by the British Library, Guinness reveals he and director David Lean, who had worked together five times previously, were barely speaking during the filming of A Passage To India.
Their rows lead Sir Alec to write: ‘I don’t think I will ever bother to do a film again.’

In another letter he delights in having been to Mass as he feels it allows him to keep on hating Lean.

Source: DailyMail

IS THIS A REAL GHOST - OR AN ATTEMPT AT GETTING FREE PUBLICITY?

Spooked staff at one of Britain's oldest pubs believe they have caught a ghost on CCTV.

The freaky footage, which appears to show a shadowy figure flickering into view by the bar, was filmed at Ye Olde Man and Scythe in Bolton.

Manager Tony Dooley spotted the spectre when he checked the cameras on Friday morning and found they had mysteriously stopped recording at 6.18am.

"I came down and saw a glass smashed on the floor so I was instantly suspicious and went to check the CCTV and found it has stopped working," he said.

"We checked the footage and it revealed this figure.

"To be honest I was a bit concerned - I'm a bit of a sceptic when it comes to ghosts but you become more of a believer when you see things like that."

The pub, which dates from 1251, is the fourth-oldest pub in Britain and is reputedly haunted by the Seventh Earl of Derby, James Stanley.

The royalist, whose family originally owned the inn, is said to have spent the last hours of his life there before he was beheaded in 1651 towards the end of the Civil War.

The chair he sat in before he was taken outside and executed is still in the pub today - and some say so is he.

Hundreds of soldiers and civilians were also killed outside the pub in the Bolton Massacre of 1644.

With such a bloody history, it has long been considered a hotspot for paranormal activity and a psychic evening held there in 2006 reportedly found it to be haunted by at least 25 spirits.

Among them is said to be a woman who hung herself in the cellar several centuries ago as well as an eight-year-old girl and a phantom dog.

"There have always been rumours it is haunted and we've had psychic readings done here in the past," said Tony.

"Occasionally you hear things and wonder if it's just the building settling down or whether it's something else.

"It's the fourth-oldest pub in Great Britain so it's had its fair share of deaths and whatnot."



Source:ManchesterEveningNews

If you look very carefully, you can just see someone creep low through the door before the `incident` occurred and just after the door grandly flings open with a card or notice being thrown..
The cowled head with the flashing light as it rises (probably a prop) is pure theatrics. If you look carefully, there is someone standing in the background - very faint, but very much present.
As usual, there is scant information, but more importantly, you will read that the pub trades heavily on it`s history. There are thousands of ancient properties in the UK, and spiritual manifestations appear to have a `half life` over the years before they fade completely.
Or to put it another way, have you ever seen a caveman era ghost?
I suppose the heavy play on history is an attempt to justify this `haunting`.But you have to ignore the `dressing` of the story to see what is actually there. A staff member with a blanket over his or her head.
Not impressed.