Issue 9 In Association With Haunted Southampton www.hauntedsouthampton.com February 2012
DATES FOR YOUR DIARY
In This edition Event news
Saturday 31st MARCH Flying Museum
Update from Penny Legg Interview with Heidi Rehman Location Research
MIDDLE WALLOP 19.30 – 02am -------------------------------Saturday 28th april 22.00 – 06.00
If you are interested in attending any of our events or would like further information please contact myself at petercollins@hauntedsouthampton.com or visit www.hauntedsouthampton.com My Best Wishes
Pete Collins
An all scientific investigation Hampshire. More details to follow -------------------------------Saturday 19th May Investigation ( More details to follow) 10pm – 06am ----------------------------------Saturday July 7th An away day investigation Isle of Wight 10.30 – 06.00
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Event news For some time now the team and I have discussed the various ways to investigate a venue. We were extremely lucky to come across a venue which we are well aware of its reported paranormal activity. We have been talking to this venue for over 7 months now how we can proceed to host a special night – one of the stumbling blocks has always been the use of psychics at this location and from the very start it has been a closed door for us to use one of our regular mediums to compliment the team.
Flying Museum. Middle Wallop Air Base March 31st 2012 19.30 – 02am You may remember some time ago we ran an on line poll of the venues you would like to reinvestigate. Top of the pole by a fair distance was a return visit to the Army Base at Middle Wallop to investigate the Flying Museum.
So – we have decided to host an all scientific approach investigation without the use of any psychic mediums for this venue. One of the criteria laid down by the owners was we cannot use any experiments such as Séance boards, our whole approach has to be scientific. It is a real challenge for us and we feel an opportunity to try some thing a little different. We may not be able to disclose the venue either but we hope to get the final details shortly and let everyone know.
Last time we visited the air base was nearly two years ago – it was a venue that a lot of people really enjoyed for the levels of activity captured during the night - so it will be interesting to see what happens this time.
Some time ago we as a team thought about having away day investigations. Our first was upon a very very cold night at Nothe Fort Weymouth - we then ventured into the East Sussex countryside last year to Michelham Priory . Our 2012 away day is over sea’s – don’t worry you won’t require a passport but we are hosting an overnight investigation upon the Isle of Wight.
Those who wish to come along this time will have to be quick as we are limited to the numbers we can have on site –
The Isle of Wight location is an impressive location – reports of paranormal activity are rife and we have full access to all areas – if you thought Nothe Fort was a large venue – this is possibly twice the size, we feel extremely privileged to be allowed access to the venue and hope to host a good investigation.
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As the site is controlled by the MOD we are under certain restrictions – some of you may remember the rule about wearing your ID badge all night – car registration booking in so we will be letting people know exactly what they need to bring on the night.
Middle Wallop – The Flying Museum
Penny Legg. Author and Associate member of Haunted Southampton Ltd Penny has been a busy girl recently. The publication of Haunted Southampton led to requests for talks about the book and about the paranormal. She has enjoyed meeting a variety of people interested in things that go bump in the night (and at other times!) in the local area and further a field. She has also broadcast on the Katie Martin show on BBC Radio Solent. She has been working on a new book of ghost stories, which will be published by The Thorn Press in time for Halloween 2012. Several Paranormal Press readers have come forward to help with this and Penny will shortly be talking to all of them for the new book. She will be looking for more stories, personal experiences and photographs for this book, in Wiltshire, Hampshire and West Sussex, so if you have a story to tell, please contact her. Eastleigh Then and Now, a photographic look at the town over time, has just been completed and is due for publication in September 2012, again with The History Press. She is also working on a bloody history of Southampton - all the interesting horrible bits of the city's history in one volume! This is due for publication in July 2012. One of the most exciting things Penny is involved with at present is Life to the Full magazine for Age Concern Southampton. This is a new, free community magazine that is sponsored by Haunted Southampton and is distributed at key points throughout Southampton. It is a result of Penny's creative writing class at the Third Age Centre and the average age of the magazine's writers is over 60. Saying this, the magazine is firmly aimed at readers of all ages. The first edition was launched in December by the Mayor and Mayoress of Southampton. The next edition of the quarterly publication is due out at Easter. Penny is looking for more financial support for this project so if you would like to advertise your services in this magazine, please contact her. So, 2012 is shaping up to be a busy year. There will be seminars on aspects of writing coming soon - apologies to those who have asked Penny for these and who have had to wait. They are coming very soon now! Penny looks forward to meeting more Paranormal Press readers soon!
Best wishes
Penny Legg www.pennylegg.com
Penny and the Haunted Southampton Team @ Waterstones
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Pete Collins chats to Heidi Rehman 1. Hello Heidi, can you give us some back ground into the reasons why you are raising money for your cause and what you plan to do? Hi Pete, I was diagnosed 3 years ago, at 35 with Breast Cancer, and it made an unwelcome return last year. It is important to me to be a positive role model to my 2 children and to try and show strength and courage even when I may not be feeling it! I have taken part in the London Moonwalk Marathon in aid of” WALK THE WALK” breast cancer charity for the last two years, power walking 26.2 miles through the night in a decorated bra with 16,000 other people. This year Jim (My Husband) and I have secured a 'golden bond' place for the Virgin London Marathon place for “WALK THE WALK CHARITY”. This is a coveted place and only 8 people can represent the charity in this marathon. Not only will we be raising a lot of money this year, we have to raise a minimum of £4,500 but we are raising awareness of breast cancer, particularly in younger women. It is important to me to prove and show that there is life after breast cancer! I will be completing 3 marathons 3 weeks apart. April 22nd is Virgin London Marathon, 12th May I will be completing London Moonwalk Marathon and 9th June I will be completing Edinburgh Moonwalk Marathon - 78.6 miles in total!
2. What was the idea about holding a paranormal investigation event to raise money?
Paranormal investigation is something that I have always been interested in, and know that other people are also intrigued. I did not want family and friends to feel obliged to sponsor me for a third year running, so this year I decided to think up different ways of reaching our fundraising target, ultimately through social events and ideas like this one! I contacted Haunted Southampton to see if we could somehow work together to raise money and was thrilled when they said that they wanted to help.
3. Have you ever done an investigation before?
No I have never done an investigation before. I have seen several psychics and taken part in séances but have never been/seen anything done professionally before.
4. Do you have any other events planned that people may be interested in attending?
We are holding a masquerade ball at Careys Manor on 23rd March, with profits going to WALK THE WALK BREAST CANCER CHARITY. Tickets are very limited as interest has been so high. We are holding a brilliant SILENT AUCTION and raffle, and then Rufus Stone will be performing for us.
4|Page We are also holding a competition to choose my husband a middle name, which will be chosen at the ball, and he will have to change his name by deed poll and run with it on his back at the London Marathon! A minimum pound donation per name choice!
5 . If people wanted to donate to your events - How can they find out more?
We have a face book page http://engb.facebook.com/groups/354581227890428/
Heidi Rehman
Keep an eye out for a special investigation to help raise money for Heidi’s fundraising with Haunted Southampton. Saturday May 19th 2012.
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It’s all in the research !!!
Juliet Collins
In the last few weeks I have rediscovered something about myself. Sat at a desk squinting at yet another dusty ledger with spidery writing – all those ‘S’s and ‘F’s that all look the same – or trying to unwrap a map or mortgage deed and wincing at the crackling noise as a piece of irreplaceable red wax seal hits the floor (and hoping that none of the archivists notice) I looked up and realised that the time was almost ten past five in the afternoon. I had to pick my daughter up in Romsey at five forty five, had not been to the loo, had not eaten or drunk since nine thirty when I got there and had a swig of water from a bottle and half a chocolate cookie. It was cold, raining and my shoe had leaked, letting in what seemed about ninety percent of the large puddle that I had stepped in getting out of the car. I had spent the entire day puttering about in my socks, getting strange looks from all and sundry as I slipped across the floor, immersed in the papery remains of other people’s lives. Though much time had passed for these memories, it seemed to stand still that day for me – snippets of history jumping at me from the yellowy parchment to tell me that these people had lived, argued, had children, drank and ate, worked in the coppices and the fields, and had all the same concerns and moments of happiness that we all still do today. There is an almost tangible connection between the reader and the writer – seeing these words in their own script make them real for me in a way that reading history in a dull book at school never did. I had thoroughly enjoyed myself at Winchester Archives. I did not really want to have to go and pick up the child from school – I wanted to stay and hear more of these villagers and their world. But the Archives closed at six and duty called, so I reluctantly packed up the piles of dusty vellum and handed them back to the archivist, knowing that they will still be there when I came back.
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These facilities are dotted about the land, holding a treasure trove of information – in council offices, in Churches, in Libraries and in Archives like this one. State of the art facilities that keep alive the echoes of the past – just waiting for someone like me to come and bring them out to the light of day and wake up those who have gone before so they can tell their stories again. And these facilities are free. All you need is a library card and good light to read in. This is a part of Paranormal investigation I love – searching for the links from the past to the present in the hope that those who wrote these words so long ago will return to tell their tales again. The anticipation of an event is such that even though I know I need to sleep beforehand I rarely do – the possibility that I might have words with someone whose handwriting I had seen just days before from over two hundred years ago prevents my eyes from closing and my mind from resting. The Ancient Egyptians believed that if someone’s name was erased from a monument it would prevent their passage into the hereafter and immortality. In that respect they were right – if not for the human’s instinct to hoard all and sundry from the past then those people I had read about would be lost to us forever. Instead their hopes, dreams and memories are just waiting for someone like me to bring them back to life. Kind of romantic isn’t it? Now all I’ve got to do is learn to read Latin. And get some proper reading glasses. Juliet Collins
Hope you enjoyed the read - please remember to keep up to date with all things going on within Haunted Southampton – you can follow through Facebook and Twitter – just follow the links from the website
www.hauntedsouthampton.com
If you have any thing you would like to share with us , maybe you have a story you would like others to read about your “ghostly” experiences please let me know My Best wishes
Pete Collins petercollins@hauntedsouthampton.com
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