Ye Olde Trip to Jerusalem (Nottingham)

 


Situated at the foot of castle rock is the well known public house Ye Olde Trip to Jerusalem. Thought to be the oldest Inn in England and dating back before 1189 when King Richard the Lion heart came to the throne. It is a well known fact that one of the first things Richard did when he came to the throne was answer the call to arms for the Holy Crusades. The knights and men at arms that answered his call to travel to the holy lands would often stop and rest at the castle and the inn below, hence the inn's unusual name. The word trip in the Middle English of the time did not mean a journey as does today, but instead a resting point on a journey. There are many legends attached to the Trip, but probably one of the most prominent is the downfall of Sir Roger Mortimer. (Visitors to the castle can take a tour of the passage, south of the palace that leads down into the network of caves that honeycomb the castle rock). In the year 1330 AD King Edward 3rd entered the castle through these tunnels to arrest his mother's (the Queen Mother, Queen Isabella) lover Sir Roger, who had treasonously murdered his father, King Edward 2nd and then run the country as regent. Mortimer was captured in the royal apartment and subsequently hung at Tyburn; an ignominious death for one of royal blood. The connection from the passage to the inn is to this day known as Mortimer's hole. Mortimer's room still exists behind the door to the private living quarters in the pub located above the rock lounge. The most eagerly sought of all the room's in the Trip is the rock lounge. It is in this room that staff have reported hearing voices and seeing balls of light flying above their heads, as well as an apparition of a lady dressed in a charcoal grey dress that passes through the wall. In the bar area staff report glasses and optics moving on their own, the assistant manager Paul has personal seen a glass lift from the storage area below the bar float around him and then hit him on the backside! Below the inn is another network of caves that are used as the inn's cellars, there are several different area's of note down here; the dungeons now used for storing stronger ales, but are reputed to have been used as dungeons for wrong doers, one for the ordinary criminal and a smaller one for the prisoners condemned to death. The tunnel which leads to the site of the brew house underneath the rock lounge. (In medieval times the water was not of the highest quality, so brewing it into ale was deemed the safest way of drinking it!) In the area where the kegs are now kept is an old cock fighting pit, a relic of the days when gambling and drinking went hand in hand. Bear baiting was also reputedly held here. One other point of interest is the model of a galleon that is kept in the inn, now displayed in a glass case, that has a curse on it. The model used to hang from the ceiling and when it was decided to move it a medium had to be called in as none of the staff would touch it. It is said that if the ship is moved then the landlord will die.


(UK Paranormal)
Mike Driscoll
Wendy Driscoll
Samantha Marriott
Louise Marriott
Ray Matthews
Scott Badger
(Medium)
Andrew Garley
Lee Rand
(Staff Members)
Claire (Manager)
Paul (Assistant)
1 x Digital Video Camera
2 x Analog Video Cameras
Digital Still Cameras
35mm Still Cameras
5 x Dictaphones
2 x EMF Meter
Closed Circuit TV
1 x Minidisc Recorder

Visited  26th October 2002
On Saturday 26th October the group visited the famous public house "Ye Olde Trip to Jerusalem" in Nottingham to ascertain whether or not events that had been reported there were of a paranormal or ghostly nature. We had an interesting night long stay and would like thank Claire and Paul for their hospitality. The group began arriving around 8pm and after being shown a room that had been closed to the general public for our use; we unloaded our gear and started to plan the night's events. However before we could get started the first strange event of the night befell one of our female members. She had been to use the ladies, (an area has had reported noises in the dead of the night), and on her return she reported that she had been scratched by "something" in the toilets. This was not witnessed so cant be backed up, the member in question however has the full trust of the group so we don't doubt she was telling the truth.
The night continued as follows:

At the beginning of the vigil as we were getting organized one of the team was chatting to Paul the assistant bar manager when she believes she saw an apparition, below is her description of what she saw.

Description
Male - Blonde, 6 feet tall (judging by size compared to Paul) Cloths: Thick Brown leather straps over shoulders, Corn yellow cloth similar to sack cloth! That's all I got - I told Louise and Paul as soon as I saw it!

The two mediums had their initial walk through of the building to see if they could connect with anyone, although a lot of the information gained from them was a little vague with only first or last names, they did both mention bodies that had at some time been laid in the cellar and a strong religious connection, which we have confirmed in our later research, (research page) So well done to them. However during the walk through as one team was in the lower bar a beer mat that was blue tacked to the wall fell off and made us jump as it hit the top of a metal drip tray. We stuck the beer mat back up and it stayed there quite easily. Both of the managers present told us that in five years of working in the bar it had never happened before. Coincidence? Probably, but interesting though. An experiment called an EVP map was set up where we left recorders placed all around the building which where started at the same time we then left the building empty for a period of one hour, (EVP= Electronic Voice phenomena), to see if we could pick up on tape any voices or noises that couldn't be explained by people being in the building. Although several noises where picked up on tape only two noises remain unexplainable. These sound like a chair being dragged across a wooden floor, and a bottle being opened (click here for EVP's); incidentally the sound was recorded in the rock lounge, an area that does indeed have a wooden floor. The interesting thing here is that there was no one at all in the building at the time and all the doors were locked.

A séance was held in the museum room with the two mediums and 2 team members. Although the name Richard came up as well as a reference to a flag with a red lion on a white background, nothing much in the way of information could be gathered. One of our team members had a strange experience during the séance, and reported that she felt as though someone was trying to take her over. This is difficult to substantiate as it is one persons word, however the she did seem to be having some trouble shaking etc. At this point the mediums thought it best to call an end to the séance and perform an aura cleaning on the member concerned. No significant video or photographic evidence was collected during this part of the séance.

An experiment was set up in the rock lounge with one of the mediums asking spirit to join him to see if we could capture anything on stills or video. We did capture so called spirit orbs during this experiment with about a 50% accuracy rate as to where the medium told us they would be.

One other very interesting point of note during the evening was that two investigators reported seeing a shadow move from the wall by the bar in the rock lounge, (an area we have been told that may be where the tunnel to the castle starts, now covered), and across the room. Both investigators saw this at the same time and mentioned it to each to see if they had seen the same thing. Due to certain circumstances this sighting didn't come to the lead investigators attention until some time after the investigation was finished. I must stress that this was in no way due to any fault of the two investigators at the time.
Since the initial investigation two members of the team have returned to conduct a short EVP experiment in another part of the cellars. The resulting recording is quiet startling. (Click here for EVP's).

The UK Paranormal team is planning on returning to this venue in the New Year to carry out further detailed experiments around the areas that seemed to have the most activity.

 


NO VIDEO AT THIS TIME


Chair Scrape - 87kb Download

Cellar Scream - 31kb Download
 


 - Anomaly above Andrews head


- Area where the apparition was seen exiting the wall


- Medium Lee Rand asks the spirits to join us


- Mike and Lee replace the fallen Beer mat


- Old cock fighting pit


- Scratch made by unseen entity in ladies toilet


- The cursed Model


-The hidden room where the scream EVP was recorded


- The Museum Room

'Just thought I'd let you know about a strange occurrence that has
happened between Christmas Eve and this morning (26/12/2002).
Basically, Paul and I cleaned the Pub on Christmas Eve. Upstairs in
the Museum Room, after mopping the floor I placed all the Stools
back into their rightful positions. The Museum Room and Top bar
were not open on Christmas day and no one went up there either
this morning.  When I went to the museum room to place the mats
on the tables I found that a Stool had moved more or less into the
centre of the room.  There was no way that the stool could have
moved on it's own.  Just thought I'd let you know !!'

Claire.


- The Team outside the Trip to Jerusalem


- Investigation Photograph

We've had the analysis back from the Trip to...  investigation photo and our analyst thinks its something usual.
 
Here is what he had to say about it...
 
"Wow, this one was more interesting than the usual orb photographs that I see.  I don't want to categorically deny any spiritual activity going on in these photographs, but what needs to be kept in mind is the much more likely...
 
"As already stated, there are a number of points of reference to start from when dealing with any photograph featuring an orb, or similar object thought to possibly be of supernatural origin.  Please refer to my article on orbs for further information on this subject.  As for this particular photograph, it is relatively interesting compared to many other orb images.
 
Firstly, the orb itself is not part of the background, and it is not suspended or held in place.  It is also free from any evident tampering around the photograph using digital technology or otherwise.  It is probably one of the best examples of a clear picture of an 'orb' - by which I mean there are numerous reasons why this may appear in the picture.
 
As one cannot find betting odds of it being a ghost, perhaps it would be more pertinent to suggest what is more likely, though it is possible there are other explanations.  Although relatively big, this may be a reflective dust mote or damp particle.  One look at the 'strange snow photos' on the Mysterymag.com website can show you how strange digital photographs can be!
 
Another possibility is light being drawn into the lens for that particular spot, be it a reflective surface or something near that location causing image anomaly.  In terms of explanation, all of these are possible.  Naturally the sceptic, and any good researcher to be honest, should look at the most likely first.  The believer will naturally want to follow through the 'ghost' side of things - tilting the angle of the research especially about that area.
 
What I would suggest is to draw your own conclusion, given the evidence and theories I have supplied.  Bear in mind that sightings of supernatural phenomena have increased massively due to the advent of digital photography.  Or have they?  Perhaps people simply fail to utilise their tools correctly, or forget the inherently sensitive nature of this technology.  Any good investigator must rule out the obvious before moving on, and as this photograph, and many others like it, may well be explained a number of normal ways before anything else, one must seek to rationalise."
 
Based on my time working with Gary - I've never heard him say "Wow" about any orb photo! Feel free to use on your new website (with a link of course ( ; 
 
Cheers
 
Martin

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