Derek Acorah’s Ghost Towns

At the time of writing, I have just completed the second live show, which took place in Halifax. The second series is on air and a third series is underway. The show is going from strength to strength and I’m loving every moment of it!

Wherever we’ve been, we’ve had fun, had fascinating experiences and, I hope, helped people to understand the world of spirit. Our ‘open-minded sceptic’ has certainly had a lot of food for thought.

‘It’s hard to be sceptical, because Derek can often prove you wrong. And in a way it’s easy to dismiss things and it’s often more difficult to believe, because then you have to work out why something’s happening and what it means.’

Angus

But where next? My mediumship has already taken me to America, Canada and New Zealand, and I would love to take this show there too – and even further afield. It has already been sold to Canada, the United States and Iceland.

‘Ghost Towns is a roller-coaster ride of a show and the fun’s only just begun … Our aim is to take Derek to the world – and beyond! – and to keep the Ghost Truck rolling.’

Paul

As for the future, we’ll see. But now, let’s go back to the very first series that went out on air…

‘I’d heard that Faversham had a lot of stories, a lot of spiritual activity. I was expecting something. I wasn’t quite expecting this much.’

Angus

Chapter One Faversham (#ulink_32d19965-1ab8-5bcb-bc82-527e12db9d46)

As I arrived at Faversham, I wondered what spirits still haunted these old streets. The ancient Kentish town lies between the Downs and the sea. One of the famous Cinque Ports, it has a picturesque market square, a traditional brewery and many fine historic houses. But what else would we find there?

The Ghost Truck arrived at about nine in the morning and it wasn’t long before it was packed with residents telling stories of strange phenomena and ghostly sightings. By midday we had hundreds of reports. There were many haunted places to choose from for our investigation, but when the Ghost Towns team heard the legend of a local pub, the Shipwright’s Arms, they knew we had to start there.

The Shipwright’s Arms (#ulink_48d23274-60ba-5ba2-9e45-a40ec44f2ee5)

‘I felt really privileged to be part of that, with that activity going on.’

Danniella

Neil Cole, who lives at the Shipwright’s Arms, and Honda Rye and Trisha Philpot, who work there, told the Ghost Towns team that there had been many strange events in the old pub. A customer had disappeared right in front of the barmaid’s eyes, a gas lamp had flown across the room, mysterious phone calls had been made from the pub when no one was there – it just went on and on. The level of activity had been constant over a long period of time and had been witnessed by many people.

Even as we were in the Ghost Car travelling to the pub I found I was picking up energy. It often happens that as I approach a property I am able to start sensing the energies present. If there is negative energy there, I feel a kind of anxiety or depression and know I have to prepare myself. In this case, I could feel a pull of psychic energy and I knew we were going to encounter spiritual activity.

Once we had arrived at the pub and been made welcome, we decided the easiest way to find out what was happening would be to hold a séance.

Séances

The word séance is French for a ‘sitting’. A séance is when a group of people gather together to make contact with a spirit or spirits. It is not absolutely necessary for an experienced medium to be present, but I always consider it to be advisable. The people taking part in the séance arrange themselves in a circle, often around a table, place both feet on the floor and either hold hands or, if a table is being used, place their hands palms down upon it with the little finger of each hand touching the little finger of their neighbour on either side to form a chain of energy.

It is often a good idea to place a lighted candle in the centre of the table, as the flickering of the flame can indicate a spirit’s movement through the atmosphere.

Everyone then closes their eyes and empties their mind of all thoughts, whilst the medium recites a prayer of invocation and protection for both themselves and the people taking part in the séance. Protection is highly important, as it is impossible to predict what sort of spirit or spirits will come to the group. Before I start any kind of psychic work I always perform an ‘opening up’ meditation to ask for protection from any negative energies. I call this my‘spiritual waterfall’ and I visualize white light cascading down on me and protecting me from any negative energies.

During a séance, once contact with the spirit world has been made it is no longer absolutely necessary to maintain physical contact with the neighbouring person and people may rest their hands on their lap or on the tabletop if they wish, palms upwards to keep the energy field of the physical body open.

Although the medium leads the communication with the spirit or spirits, anyone can talk to them or ask questions of them. Participants are also encouraged to say how they are feeling at any time and to just go with the experience.

A séance should end with the medium ‘closing the circle down’ by thanking the spirits for their presence and offering a prayer of thanks and protection to help them to return to the spirit realms.

Séances can be a very useful way of getting in touch with the spirits who are present in a certain place and finding out more about them. At the Shipwright’s Arms, this certainly proved to be the case.

We sat around a table in the oldest part of the pub, lit a candle and all held hands. Once we had opened the circle, it wasn’t long before I made contact with a spirit presence. I just wanted to scream out, ‘Splice the main brace!’ I took a deep breath and asked my spirit guide Sam to help him to step back. He was an angry spirit.

At that point I became aware of a strong smell of tobacco. ‘He’s got boxes and boxes and boxes of tobacco,’ I said. ‘He’s piling it up. That’s what he did.’

Who was he? I knew he was a strong man, but a weary man. He was a man of the sea. The reason he kept coming back to the pub was that he resented the way he’d lost his life. Sam told me that he’d barely made it this far. His ship had gone down, but he had not perished with it. He had got out of the water, but after that he had been walking blindly. He had had no idea where he was going.

The smell of tobacco was overwhelming. I had to ask Sam to back it off. I couldn’t believe that no one else could smell it.

Then I caught a whiff of another smell.

‘Ugh!’ I wrinkled my nose.

‘That’s amazing,’ said Angus, who was sitting on my right. ‘That’s horrible!’

‘Can you smell it now?’ I asked.

‘I can smell it,’ he said.

It was the smell of tar. It began wafting around the room and soon everyone started to smell it.

‘When I first smelled the smells I just thought, “Oh, it’s probably all in the mind,” but it was really, really strong. I could really smell the tar. It was just like roads being laid.’

Trisha

‘That happens all the time,’ Neil said, ‘and it’s always around this area.’

Then I got a name: Frederick Symes. ‘That’s his name,’ I stated.

‘My favourite part of this investigation was actually putting a name to the sailor.’

Neil

Hardly had I said the words than Angus looked puzzled and asked,‘What’s started swinging?’

Everyone looked up, startled. A lamp that was hanging above the bookshelf behind us was rocking back and forth. Its moving shadow was what had caught Angus’s attention.

‘That’s got to be phenomena,‘I explained.’ No one’s touched it. ‘I felt really pleased that we were getting such a good response.‘Come on,’I said encouragingly,‘give it a really good swing!’

Suddenly Danniella exclaimed,‘That’s moving, that one, that’s moving as well!‘She and Angus both pointed at once. A miner’s lamp which was hanging near the other lamp was also swinging gently. The spirit man was responding to us.

‘When we saw the lamps moving, we all stopped in our tracks.’

Angus

There was no window, no draught, no breeze, no physical reason why the lamps should be moving, and the wonderful thing about it was the way that the momentum kept up. There was no one near the lamps anyway, but if they had been physically pushed, sooner or later they would have slowed down and come to a stop, but the pace remained the same for six or seven minutes.