Watch the Hallam FM ghosthunt and hear spooky voices - VIDEO
Ghostly voices caught on camera, objects moving on their own and evil laughter heard echoing down the hallway...no it's not Most Haunted Live - it's Star reporter Nik Brear's exclusive behind-the-scenes peek at the paranormal investigation of Hallam FM...
I'LL be the first to admit I was sceptical.
As a guest at the paranormal investigation of the Hallam FM building, I was fully expecting a night of Yvette Fielding-type screams and panicked 'did you just feel that?!' looks.
But I couldn't deny I was curious, which was how I found myself walking long-forgotten corridors in the depths of the Sheffield radio station late at night, encouraging ghosts to poke me and ruffle my hair while the rest of the nation was enjoying a cuppa in front of Corra'.
After 20 years of strange happenings and 'bumps in the night' at their Hillsborough home, the staff at Hallam finally decided it was time to get some answers and called on South Yorkshire's answer to the Ghostbusters - the Barnsley Paranormal Society - to identify their ghostly roommates.
"Things fly out of cupboards and heavy sliding doors move on their own," Hallam's marketing manager Alex Caley explained.
"Strange happenings have just become the norm and we decided it was time for some answers."
Wayne Mathers, lead investigator of the Barnsley Paranormal Society, was the first to arrive. He explained upfront that he is not a 'sensitive' himself, but rather someone with a fascination for the paranormal.
He set about photographing the building and placing 'trigger' objects - coins circled on a piece of paper - in various rooms in the abandoned wing of the building, where most of the sightings have been reported.
Throughout the night, he explained, we would ask the spirits to move the coins and Alex, who had the only key, would lead us back in at the end of the night.
"The theory goes that - as it's a radio station - there should be lots of high EMF energy for the spirits to use to try and manifest in some manner," Wayne told us.
Once the rest of the team had arrived, the group's resident 'sensitive' - and the only psychic among them - Karrie, asked Wayne if he'd come across a room with an old abandoned bar in it. He confirmed he had.
Karrie immediately became uncomfortable as she told us about a dream she had the night before that showed an evil spirit in a room with a bar, warning us to stay away. She described the room and the bar precisely, down to the unusual metal shutter pulled halfway down.
Wordlessly, Wayne took out his digital camera and showed me a photo he had just taken of the room downstairs which was exactly as Karrie had described.
She said she felt the spirit had been responsible for many deaths during his lifetime and also said he had threatened to 'mark' someone that night.
On that nervous note we began our investigation.
In a board room on the first floor, Karrie felt a presence.
"There's someone here and he's very shy," she told us.
"He's only young, perhaps a teenager."
We all sat around the table and, at Wayne's instruction, placed our hands flat in front of us.
Wayne 'called out' to the empty room - encouraging the spirit to touch someone or make a noise. When this produced no results we decided to try the 'ghost box.'
For those who have seen the film White Noise, the theory of EVP (Electronic voice phenomena) will be familiar. EVP are electronically generated noises that resemble speech, but are not the result of intentional voice recordings or renderings. Common sources of EVP include static, stray radio transmissions, and background noise and some people claim these sounds are of paranormal origin.
We turned on the 'ghost box' and listened.
"If there is a spirit present, will you please tell us your name?" said BPS member Christine, sat to my right.
After a minute of indistinguishable noise, we heard a distinct male voice mumble something that sounded like a name - David or Philip.
Christine asked the spirit to repeat his name and after a few seconds, the voice came again, clearer this time: "Philip."
We had contact.
We asked 'Philip' a number of questions and found out that he was just 12 years old. He refused to talk about how he'd died and told us he was hanging around the Hallam studios because, in his own words: "I like it, it's good."
After 10 minutes of talking to Philip, Hallam FM presenter Michelle Mustard complained that her chest was burning. We turned on the lights and saw three distinct fingernail scratch marks on her chest. It seemed she had been 'marked.' A few minutes later she complained of the same sensation on her arm and, before our eyes, further marks began to appear.
We heard Philip laugh through the 'ghost box' before he apologised and admitted that he liked Michelle.
"It was blummin' creepy!" the breakfast presenter told The Star.
"My skin really was burning and I know I didn't scratch myself as my hands were flat on the table the whole time.
After a snoop around the Hallam offices - where Karrie felt the presence of an older lady with a bad leg called Doris - our last stop was the room with the bar.
As soon as we stepped into the cold, dark room, Karrie was frightened.
"He doesn't want us here," she warned.
"He's getting angry."
We checked the trigger objects on the bar and saw that one of the coins had definitely moved, if only slightly. Wayne also took numerous pictures which showed orbs flying around us.
After a few minutes Karrie began to feel so threatened that we decided to leave.
As we locked the door behind us and began to walk away, Alex and I - both at the back of the group - heard a deep throaty man's laugh that was, unmistakably, coming from the other side of the locked door. Up ahead members of the group cried out in surprise as they claimed to see a man's figure in the shadows watching us. Wayne hurried over to the now empty spot and put his hand into, what he called, 'a serious cold spot.'
"I was surprised by how much I saw and felt at Hallam," Karrie said afterwards.
"I definitely think we made contact with the other side and I'd love to go back as I think there were many other spirits we didn't get a chance to talk to.
Wayne agreed: "I think there's a lot more to discover and we'd like to learn more."
All-in-all, the team agreed, it had been a successful study.
So after speaking with a lonely ghost, being chased by orbs and being thrown out of a room and laughed at by an evil spirit - is this cynic now a converted believer?
Well I do think seeing is believing, so why not visit our website to watch footage of the talking ghost for yourself and make up your own mind...?
The History of Hallam
TWENTY years ago, the Hallam FM building was a brewery - which explains the disused bar in its basement. Before this is was home to Wardsend Farm and House,
There is a well outside that is now covered up but there is a persistent rumour of a small child that fell down it and died many years ago - could this be Philip?
They also found a report from a previous team of ghost hunters who claimed to feel the presence of an old woman called Doris.
Do you know anything about these spirits? Do you perhaps remember something no one else does? Or do you have a ghostly story to tell? Email Nik.Brear@sheffieldnewspapers.co.uk
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