Haunted Happenings at Her Majesty's Pleasure

Evening Everyone, 

So if you cast your mind back a few weeks ago to my birthday in Mid-September and my otherworldly gift from my bestie - Miss Tweedle-Dee. With the run-up to Halloween coming quickly I am so excited for Autumn and Spookies to come, so with all of this in mind Miss Tweedle-Dee paid for us to both encounter the paranormal inside one of Britain's Most Haunted prisons - HMP Gloucester. 

At the time, the website describes HMP Gloucester as having "a long and chilling history with many of the executed criminals remain buried in the grounds of the prison with some of the most infamous serial killers have been incarcerated within the walls of Gloucester Prison." Only last weekend during a catch-up at Treat Street - A local sweet treat bar we had a email that would change things slightly. Miss Tweedle-Dee and I were due to start our overnight ghost hunt at HMP Gloucester was already booked and fully paid for including the hotel which was a non-refundable, non-transferable and non-cancel-able date. the problem that we now in counted was the fact that the new owners of HMP Gloucester had decided that bought out the prison and had decided that Haunted Happenings who were the group that were posting the ghost hunting experienced were no longer accepting any sort of Paranormal company or tour of the prison. 

Fortunately though we were able to transfer our trip from one haunted prison it to another and with a few good miles difference between HMP Gloucester and HMP Shepton Mallet we were disappointed to say the least but we were certainly glad that not all was lost and we were able to move our trip and still get our spook on! Having closed as recently as 2013 this formidable prison operated as the oldest prison in England. However, before its closure it was a Category C Lifer Prison incarcerating the most hardened and dangerous of criminals including the notorious Reggie and Ronnie Kray otherwise known as the Kray Twins - The notorious 1950s East End gangsters. The empty corridors and lifeless cells were crying out to be investigated by those who have a fascination for what life must have been like in such a desolate and unforgiving existence, and who were Miss Tweedle-Dee and I to not snatch at such an opportunity. I was even able to sweet talked to the lady at Ibis hotels Gloucester into refunding Miss Tweedle-Dee for the room and instead we easily found a hotel room that could accommodate us within budget. 


Originally built as a House of Correction in 1625 this prison has a terrifying history. Much of what had taken place there was extremely brutal. In the 17th and 18th Centuries the men, women and children who were imprisoned there existed in the most horrific conditions where they were left starving in packed, small pox infested cells. It is said that former inmates lie in unmarked graves throughout the grounds and despite the seven Judicial executions, the full amount is largely unknown. As with most places of large occupation capacity, during the second world war HMP Shepton Mallet was adapted as a military prison and used by the British and the Americans but by the end of 1944 sixteen Americans had been hanged and 2 shot by firing squads for crimes that included rape and murder.

And so with everything all in order, Miss Tweede-Dee and I set off on Saturday morning, my Besitie driving in her new car, down to Shepton Mallet and checked into the hotel and instead made the rather grave mistake or opting to visit a local designer retail outlet rather than sleep. Our experience started at 9pm that night and not wanting to be late and in a timely if anxiously early manner, Miss Tweede-Dee and I decided to leave in plenty of time. An experience that we were sure not forget in a hurry. As we were invited in through the large wooden prison gates with suffering torment and death deeply etched into the very fabric of this imposing prison it felt surreal walking around the modern metal railings and old school brick buildings. HMP Shepton Mallet Prison was home for the night as Miss Tweedle-Dee and I were excited, if a little on-edge about seances, vigils and contact-experiments in the most active areas of the imposing location and at 3am all would be well as Miss Tweedle-Dee and I will return to the hotel, hopefully not possessed! Arriving into Base Camp for the night, I recalled the website saying how "HMP Shepton Mallet, also known as Cornhill, now lies abandoned, bereft of those who were incarcerated there." 

Our ghost hunt at HMP Shepton Mallet was nothing if intense and as Miss Tweedle-Dee and I started working in small groups we were taken through on a tour of the prison which included the infirmary, morgue and execution room. The next part of our evening, after a quick snackette and a coffee to warm our souls all accompanying a cigarette, we joined in some amazing experiments in our attempts to make contact with whoever or whatever still walked through the prison corridors. These experiments included several Ouija and Ouija-type Boards, Table Tipping, Glass Moving and some intense watch and wait vigils, even getting to use some of the to date paranormal and ghost hunting equipment. Using the most active areas of the prison throughout the night our group entered the morgue and mortuary area of the prison underneath the exercise yard and conducted a seance type vigils in which we got a few responses from beyond the grave. 

Continuing into the early hours, I was excited and really enjoyed using the Ouija Boards to speak with the people from the other side, despite Miss Tweedle-Dee not buying it at all, convinced that someone with their finger on the glass must be moving it. I was wholly convinced though, you could tell with the speed, ease and precision that it takes for the living to move a glass over a smooth board it is not so easy for a spirit and with this can be overwhelming sensation that something was moving the glass other than those we could see around us. We were informed that some of the ghosts that are thought to reside at HMP Shepton Mallet are varied, with links back to the early 17th Century. One of the other groups were able to made contact with a gentleman called Harry who murdered his wife and another group who spoke to a Black American GI called Stephen who was wrongly accused of rape and hung. 

My interactions with the spirits were fairly mundane and existed in the form of a gentleman called Chris or Christopher who likes to play games and mess with us using the Ouija board, however when Miss Tweedle-Dee and I moved over to the glass work in a different wing, I was startled after speaking to what I thought was a gentleman who had been put away for homicide started to take an interest to me in particular out of the four or five people lightly touching the glass. After some gentle coaxing from our guide I asked several questions which tried to Whittle Down my understanding of the person or being I was talking with. From the very simple yes-or-no questions, I nervously started asking the entity about itself and it's attraction to me. I discovered that it was a gentleman who passed away in the 1980s and was aged between 20 and 25 when he passed. I cannot recall whether it was on my mother's side or my father's side that he passed away but I do know that there was nothing at physical that he was attracted to although it was something about my being that was intangible that he took a liking to and in a way related to me, despite us never meeting in person. He had never met me even as a small baby and I would never meet him in person, however for whatever reason we were now in a very awkward scenario of yes and no answers to questions that I wasn't sure I knew what to ask. 

Some of the most scariest moments were in the hidden cells underneath the courtyard where I clearly saw with my very own eyes a sad and lonely white woman figure bend down to pick something up that was sure was one of the women opposite me in the seance circle that had bent down to pick something off the floor, although on further clarification with the group inside the concrete walls I discovered that I was not the only one to have seen the apparition with the origin of which was not from any of us. With the feeling of something in the thick black blackness moving round I suddenly came over nauseous and as though I was going to be sick any moment. Then, out of nowhere the guide asked me if I was OK to which I responded with the honest truth that I felt terribly sick and overwhelmed with the nausea that was now building as I could feel the bile at the back of my throat balling. Our guide informed me and the rest of the group that this was a totally normal feeling when in the company of the paranormal and especially so when he said that there was twinkly pin-pricks of light sprinkling over me, indicating a spirit presence. 

Getting back to the hotel however after what was a very long and exhausting at night of ghost hunting and energy giving, Miss Tweedle-Dee and I were glad of the soft and comfy bed to fall into. Revelling in the cosy, warm sheets I heard a confession through the darkness from Miss Tweedle-Dee explaining that whilst she was once a believer she is more sceptical now than she had ever been leading us to one conclusion - Another spooky nights spent somewhere terrifying and maybe this time Mr. Warehouse will join us for a thrill - Asylum anyone?

'Til next time, Love A.Lou xx