Guest post by Gemma of Junior Paranormal Events

Back in my earlier diary entries, I mentioned that I was incredibly sceptical of any
and all stories relating to our office being “haunted”. One of these stories was of a
gentleman who is reported to roam around the front floors of the building – floor 3
being part of his alleged stomping ground. Told to us by one of the trustees (now a
very good friend) I took it with a pinch of salt until we began to have encounters with
something strange.

The first encounter was with my daughter a few months after we had moved into
Office 7, she was coming back from the bathroom – situated a short walk from our
office and lit by green exit signs, it really does look like something from Insidious.
She had generally been confident and comfortable with the dimly lit area until one
evening she came running back into the office very pale faced. We have a security
door with a glass pane in at eye level height, my daughter told me that peering in
through the glass pane was a dark shadow that stood completely still as thought it
was watching her as she walked back. Naturally, we tried many different ways to
debunk and recreate it, if nothing more than just to put her mind at rest. We just
couldn’t. Initially, I put it down to an overactive imagination, we were somewhere
different, and the light plays funny tricks with you here. However, I then started to
see the exact same thing but this time in different parts of the space and different
times of the day.

Sat on the office sofa having a brew with my daughter, we were talking about some
of the other experiences that had been happening in the office when she went on to
start recalling her experience with the shadow figure a few weeks prior. “Could your
mind have been playing tricks on you maybe?” I asked her “No, I know what I saw.
You know what would be funny Mum… if you saw it, I bet you would scream!” Now,
I am known as a bit of a scaredy cat, but I have been getting braver. “No, I wouldn’t”
I said confidently. “OK then… If the shadow person can see me, please come and
make my Mum jump” I kid you not, the words had only just left her mouth when I saw
a tall shadow peer round the door, it was a bright day, and the door is white, so it
stood out like a sore thumb. It only lasted a few seconds, but it was enough to make
me leap up and spill scalding hot tea everywhere. Thinking it was my son or my
Husband playing tricks, I leapt up and flew out of the door – no one there.

If you have been following my diary entries, you will know that we have mischievous
other worldly visitors here at Office 7, the shadow figure was no exception to this. I
felt very much that day they were proving themselves to me, as though they were
letting me know that they were watching, they could hear me doubting them and they
wanted to prove me wrong. Boy did they prove me wrong the next time I saw them.

My Husband had popped out of the office, I opted to stay because the weather was
awful, and I was mid-way through something important. My headphones had run out
of battery and were charging so I was sat working in silence. My focus was
disturbed by a tapping at the office door which had been closed, it was gentle and
fairly quiet, so I ignored it thinking it was a neighbour on our floor. Then it got louder,
purposeful as though someone was knocking at the door to be let in. I spun around
in my chair to be greeted by the sight of a shadow figure looking at me through the
glass in the door. I froze for a moment, the only thing I could think to do was to grab
a phone and try to take a picture. My hands were shaking as I was doing it, I
managed to catch something on camera, but it really doesn’t do it justice. When my
Husband got back, we tried several times to recreate it – again we couldn’t.

Due to the experiences that we had been having in our office space – which included
the shadow figure – we decided to allow our guests to come up and investigate the
space during our Junior Paranormal Events. We didn’t actually tell any of them
about the shadow figure – for fear of scaring the juniors – and so when we started to
get guests commenting on seeing a shadow figure, it added further credibility to what
we had been seeing. It was reported to us that it had been seen near the lift on our
floor, in front of the toilet door and stood in the doorway between our office and the
hallway. Each and every report described the same image – a solid black figure, with
no visible face, around 5ft6 and looking like it was wearing some sort of hat.

You may be wondering why we call him John; the name came from a medium who
visited a friend at Champness Hall. I can hear your eyes rolling from here, mine
were too believe me, but we opted to use it as a starting point for investigation in our
office. If the shadow was a man called John, we needed proof of that so one quiet
evening, we went up to our office and popped out some kit. We started with the
usual pleasantries and introduced the kit– a few Maglite torches, REM kit and K2
meters, nothing overly technical. We started talking and asking for some interaction,
nothing was going on at all – complete silence. Then we opted to start calling names
out, inviting spirit to use the equipment to let us know if they heard their name –
Margaret, Robert, Andrew, Mary, Nathan, Thomas – nothing. “John? Do we have a
John here?’ Boom, two Maglite’s turned on at exactly the same time, the REM kit
was flashing and there was movement on the K2, we hadn’t seen such a strong
reaction like that before. In the interests of confirming and increasing the credibility
of the interaction, we repeated it a few times. Each and every time we got to the
name John; the same thing happened.

Great, we had a name but now we wanted to confirm if it was him that had been
seen around the third floor. “John, are you the person we have been seeing?”
Intelligent engagement with two Maglite’s, at the same time, gave us a clear answer.
Through further questioning we discovered that he didn’t mean to scare us, he was
just curious about what we were doing.

John is also not connected with the building, he is connected
with the land that Champness Hall is built on, a prior Primitive Methodist Chapel
where he was a preacher. He passed away before Champness Hall existed and he
can move anywhere around the front three floors of the building. He is not trapped;
he likes to visit because it has special memories for him.

And so there you have it, the medium was right, we do have a John and we have
actually grown quite fond of him, even though his appearances can take us off guard
sometimes. Shadow Man John appears the most when there is change happening.
A few months ago, the third floor was broken into, and John was spotted a few times,
possibly just curious about the Police and the damage that had been caused. He
actually seems to be quite fond of us, we were all very shook up by the break in and
so he may have been appearing to also provide comfort.

The last time I saw Shadow Man John was just a few days ago, we are in the middle
of moving into Office 8 and I was organising things in the office with my son. We
both saw a black shadow walking around in the area outside, rather than being
scared we both said hello to him. We have been talking aloud about our move next
door to Office 8 so that, if he is watching us (which he most certainly seems to be) he
knows what is happening.

When we talk to people about our office, and Champness Hall in general, the
response is usually one of horror and “My God how do you work there, are you not
scared?” No actually, we aren’t. If you have ever had a resident spirit, you will
possibly understand what I am about to say… in a weird way, they become like
family and for us, they have become part of our special paranormal team too. Yes,
the list of spirits that we say good morning and good night to is growing, but I
wouldn’t have it any other way.

Now… I just need to teach them how to make a good brew but that’s for next time.