The Most Haunted Team visit The Wellington Hotel, a spooky Cornwall inn with a chilling history and active hauntings, for an eerie investigation and some humorous woodland adventures, writes JOANNA HAGUE
Episode Title: The Wellington Hotel
Location: Boscastle, Cornwall
Series: 4 Episode Number: 8
Originally broadcast: 11 May 2004
The Wellington Hotel, Most Haunted Review
Yvette opens the episode with chilling words: murder, suicide, and dark figures lay deep in a valley in Cornwall.
The Wellington Hotel is a 17th-century coaching inn, which has seen the death of the Duke of Wellington and has had lots of regal people and famous visitors over the years. The building itself is said to be extremely haunted, with rooms nine, 10, 21, and 23 all being extremely active.
The ghost of an old lady has been seen walking through a door without opening the door, and an apparition of a young boy has been seen running next to the cellar. There is also an evil presence that lurks in the cellar where a man killed himself. Furniture can be heard being dragged across the floor, especially in the dining room, and an image of a tall man has been witnessed in the corridor by members of staff.
Phil Wyman conducts all the baseline tests, including taking readings in various areas. He also looks at local maps of the area and the local history of both the buildings and the woods surrounding them. The woods themselves are believed to be haunted, and his closing statement is that they might visit there later. Spoiler alert: They do visit the woods, and some of the best recordings are captured there.
Derek Acorah begins his walk around by wanting to go upstairs to the rooms, where he picks up on the energies of two ladies. In room nine, he says that there has been an apparition of a maid disappearing through the door; she can be seen moving in the room as well as the corridor. Inside the room, they notice that it is really cold, and Derek says that people who sleep in the room will pick up on her moving things and even see her.
He says that the ladies he first picked up on didn’t die the same way as the young lady that is the maid; he says one was strangled and one committed suicide. There is information that comes up on the screen about the suicide that took place.
On the second-floor corridor, Derek senses the energy of a man with a ponytail who moves up and down. Yvette asks him how many active spirits are in the building, and he says he picks up on about eight or nine active souls, but they are not grounded; they only come in visitation.
There is a gruff man on the bottom floor who does not visit upstairs in the building. He stays at the bottom and near the cellar. Derek says he was the boss of the stables; he was in charge of taking care of things. There is a small boy who is scared of this man; he feels there is a connection with water or a stream that is close to the property. This is where the boy’s presence will be stronger.
Joking Yvette says to Derek that she would love nothing more than to venture into the cold, dark woods, but in true, most haunted style, off the venture into the elements. While the team is walking in the woods, one of the funniest moments is captured when one of the cameramen frightens the living daylights out of Yvette. She does not find this funny, but the rest of the team is in stitches.
When they reach the water, Derek picks up a life that has been lost in the area near the water, but it wasn’t the water that killed them; they were just dumped in there. He states the dates from 1914 up until 1939; the usual information flashes up on the screen, but there were no deaths related to the building or area at those times.
Now is my favourite time when the team splits into groups. Yvette splits off and goes into room nine, where she begins calling out for something to happen, the door to open, or any sign that the spirit is there. While focusing on the door, spirit lights can be seen. This opens up a discussion between Yvette and Derek about what they would do if they were spirits and that they would do anything to let people know they were there.
They move out into the corridor and begin calling out again, but there is nothing much happening till a footstep can be heard. Yvette opens up about how frustrating it can be when they don’t get a lot of activity. Everyone then jumps when Derek moves his foot.
In the Thomas Hardy room, Cath sees the pendulums of a bedside lamp moving quite violently on their own. She tries to debunk this by walking near the lamps to see if it is normal vibrations that set them off, and it is not. She begins calling out in the room, and there is a knock in response to their questions. What they don’t know is that the locked-off camera that they set up on the light captures the pendulums moving on their own.
The rest of the team go to the Thomas Hardy room, where they begin to conduct a sceance. Ian Lawman starts the sceance and immediately picks up on the spirits of children. He picks up on the spirit of Elizabeth, who cannot find her mother. Information shows that, as always, without a surname, it is hard to trace someone with that name. While in the sceance, one of the crewmembers seems to be tuning in to this little girl and is completely unaware that he is actually crying with sadness from her.
In the woods, Stuart and Rick have ventured out alone; this is one of the best bits of footage from the episode, apart from Yvette’s scare. They hear rustling in the woods, and they joke about it being animals. Rick gets really excited when he captures something on camera.
When the footage is reviewed, it cannot be determined what was seen when the recording is reviewed. Stuart begins to call out, but the more they call out, the more they scare themselves. Deeper in the woods, Rick screams like a girl (Stuart’s words), and he goes on to tell him how embarrassing he is being.
The end of the Wellington Hotel episode shows lots of funny footage of the crew in the woods, slipping and sliding down hills, and it definitely ends on a high note.
Read more about the Wellington Hotel on Spooky Isles
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