Last year, my husband, Phil and I went on a National Trust road trip. We visited Erddig Hall first, then to Speke Hall and finally to Charlecote Park. But this blog is concentrating on our visit to Speke Hall.

We arrived at Speke Hall at about 7.15pm, a bit late in the evening one would think, but not for us, it was time for a ghost hunt!

Other people began to turn up with varying degrees of nervousness, we all smiled nervously at each other and then the previous ghost hunting party came round the corner. We tried to read their faces, see how nervous they were, but they weren’t giving anything away.

We were greeted by a National Trust guide who issued us with torches which apparently were only for helping us around the house from room to room, once in the room, they were turned off!

After a few do’s and don’ts from the guide, we headed towards the Hall. It was pitch black and the hall was lit only by a couple of lights, making it look very creepy indeed. (I may use the word ‘creepy’ a lot in this!)

We entered the Hall via a small door and stood in the entrance hall to await The Lady in Black (or Sheila as she is known in everyday life). I have to say that none of us saw her arrive and she gave us quite a start, dressed in a period black costume. She explained that she was a paranormal investigator with over ten years experience and that she had investigated all sorts of places. She showed us her paranormal equipment which consisted of a rem pod and EMF detectors, both which are used to signify the presence of something.

Then began the hunt… In each of the rooms we were told of the things that had happened to people: being touched, being pushed, voices heard, dark shadows, spirits manifesting in front of people’s eyes.   There was one particular room where the presence of children is felt and someone in our group did feel cold air in front of them. “Children, do you want to come and play?” asked The Lady in Black, “Come on, hold somebody’s hand, let them know you are here,” at which point I placed my hands firmly in my pocket!

The room which I felt most comfortable with was The Great Hall, there seemed to be a relaxed feel about it which was surprising as this was the room that the paranormal guide had seen spirits manifest in. The room that I felt most uncomfortable in was the blue bedroom – it was a small room and once the torches were out was extremely dark. I was going to grab Phil’s hand at this point, but thought that that was probably the worst thing I could do…

I think that both Phil and I wanted something to happen, for the EMF detectors or rem pod to go off, to hear a bump in the night but unfortunately the spirits were obviously taking a break that night.   All in all though, it was a great first ghost hunt, it wasn’t scary, just very, very creepy!!

We stopped off at Charlecote Place on the way home and whilst I was in the kitchen I heard a voice in my ear say, “Come on!!” in a very impatient manner, I looked at Phil and asked him, “Did you just say something to me?” His reply was, “No, I didn’t say a word…..”