Investigation into the Olde Jerusalem Pub, Nottingham 22 October 2005.

This was a CEPI Investigation – Both Peter Shears and Stephen Fountain (SP-Paranormal) Attended 

Peter's Report

The investigation started at 11.30pm, both myself and Steve were split in to different groups.  This is my account of the investigation.

 The night started off quietly with 5 members in my group. We decided that we would go and investigate the cellars, which were once home to a cock fighting arena. The others, being used for various things over the lifetime of the building.  We arrived in the cells and was surprised to see that we could not turn the safety lights off this didn’t spoil the event but did make it harder to connect to and feel spirit.  Having said that, we sat in the central cell which now houses casks of beer.  One group member stood against the back wall and stated that she felt that she was being pushed away from the wall.  All of the group members tried and all but one had the sensation of being pushed upon.  Whilst we were in this part of the cellars we could hear various noises coming from up the corridor area.  I went and sat in the corridor area on my own to see if I could link or pick up spirit.  I was aware of a male spirit that came down the corridor and heard the name Drayman.  This could have been his name or indeed his job title?  After a while I was joined by one of the females in the group came and sat with me and picked up on the spirit of a man.  We heard noises that came from a room used for refrigeration and went to investigate.  The room was a ward one with one noticeable cold spot in the far left hand corner.  We stayed there for a few minutes with no real activity. We left and closed the door to on its latch.  After a couple of minutes we noticed that the door had opened on its own accord and that we could see a shadow from underneath the door. We stood and watched for a while then went into the room. No one was present?

Apart from the various noises and the occurrence in the freezer room nothing more was apparent.

After this we went upstairs with the other Steve’s group moving down into the cellars. We went and sat in the disused upstairs bar to see what we could pick up.  From behind the bar the sink started to make a noise like it had water flowing through it, this was unexplained as the bar had not been in use for at least 9 months.  This happened a couple of times during the evening with one of the female members of the group sensing a lady behind the bar.  We went for a break.  Whilst the group went for a break I decided to go on a lone vigil, returning to the upstairs bar. At first I sensed nothing but as read a picture on the wall the door behind me slammed, this was unexplained as I was the only one present in that area of the pub at that time?  I rejoined the main group on there break.  After the break our group returned to the upstairs area.  We sat and waited to see what we could pick up.  I started to feel the impression of a couple of men in the corner of the room arguing or shouting, but definitely angry.  Tracey of the CEPI members of the group started to go into a trance.  She started stomping and would not respond to any questions.  This lasted for ten minutes and ended with her breaking into tears.  This happened a further 2 times.  On the last time Tracey gave some information saying that “they are after me”.  This was the last real activity of the night.  The information was verified by a member of staff on duty, she stated that a man named Mortimer had been chased down a secret tunnel which he used to see Queen Isabella and captured and hung for treason.

Overall this was an exciting and useful investigation.  There were lots of instances of the paranormal.  I would recommend a visit to the Olde Jerusalem Pub.

Stephen's Report

Ye olde trip to Jerusalem is an interesting place; it was used as Nottingham castle’s brewery during 1300’s. The inn itself is carved out of the rock that the castle is built on.
Upon arrival I was drawn to a room above the courtyard, I didn’t know where or what this room was as I had no knowledge of the inn previous to the investigation.
Around 11.30 the public left the inn and we where led to a small room named the snug to set up for the investigation. We were given a tour of the inn starting in the Ward Room and moving upstairs into the Rock room and museum room before been taken into the cellar of the inn.
I was quite amazed that the whole building and each room was carved from the castle rock giving a very atmospheric environment. We went back to the snug and separated into two groups of 5 and 6 investigators this included the on duty staff.
The group that I was in decided to investigate the upstairs of the inn first, we entered the rock lounge and one of the CEPI investigators placed a Dictaphone onto the bar whilst we went into the back most room the museum room.
The Museum Room was a small area; we sat in a half circle around the outside of the room. The room felt heavy in atmosphere and felt positively charged, the hairs on my body was standing up. At one point I felt that something brushed past my leg yet nothing was seen. After roughly 40 minutes we investigated into the rock lounge. In the centre of the rock lounge there was a hole in the ceiling, this was used for transporting goods and barrels into the building when it was a brewery to the castle. One of the CEPI investigators picked up an image of a rope snapping and felt very sad. Another investigator felt the presence of an older person sat near the window, as if watching life go by. I myself felt quiet ill in this room I felt a great amount of pressure in my head and had walk into the corridor.
An investigator called out “is there anybody here” there was no answer after several attempts to make communication a noise of water could be heard behind the bar. This would not normally be considered anything but normal however the bar had not been used for several months and upon investigation no sign of water or any liquid could be seen.

 We took a break and returned to the snug where the other group was waiting. We did not exchange notes as we wanted the other group to investigate with an open mind and not on what we had told them.
After refreshments we went into the cellars of the inn, these where again carved out of solid rock, the cellars where very well lit, we tried to dampen the lights but this did very little. There were three sections to the cellars, a beer-keg storage area, a food storage area and the main keg to bar connection point. At the bottom of this area was a small room for the inns boiler room, as expected this room was extremely warm.
 The middle section of the cellars was an old cock fighting arena; it was now used for storage and drainage of beer kegs. At the entrance to this area was a flight of stairs leading to a dead end. I investigated these stairs and discovered an abandoned room which had no point of entry, a light near this room kept flickering on and off, if this was because of the paranormal or old light fittings I couldn’t say.

 In the area that connected beer kegs to the bar, the taps kept clicking and popping even though the power had been turned off. This was the only strange activity that we witnessed in the cellar area. Because of this we entered the main section of the inn once again and went into the ward room. We were sat in the seating area relaxing and tuning into our environment when the till printer randomly turned itself on,  we were told by the staff on duty that this couldn’t happen as all three till printers are calibrated to register at the same time, although the other two did not.

 We retired to the snug, myself and another investigator decided to explorer the unused cellar, this room was a very small and extremely dark, it was accessed via a trap door that was closed. We held a vigil in the room. After 10 or so minutes we saw a dark shadowy shape appear in the corner of the room, I asked the other investigator if he could see the shape and he said he could. The shadow moved around the room and the feeling we both got was the feeling of someone standing behind us. We asked if the spirit would like to communicate with us but we got no reply. The shadow moved and past in front of me and I felt very uneasy, my breathing became heavy although I did not feel physically frightened. An investigator who was above the trapdoor picked up the image of a little girl whom was looking for a doll, we heard a disturbance from above the cellar and decided to leave. When we climbed from stairway the staff asked if we had been down the cellar when we confirmed that we had she told us about an experience the present landlord had had. He used the cellar for storage and was putting boxes of crisps down there when he saw a little girl standing down there. We were told that he had not been down there since and moved the goods into the ale cellar.

 After this the two groups joined up again and we decided that the most activity that we both as groups had experienced was in the rock lounge so we investigated again as a whole group.

We created a Triangle and I took part with two of the CEPI investigators, after a few moments we were relaxed and had cleared our minds. I felt totally calm and peaceful, after a few moments I started to get a bad back ache but continued to hold hands in the triangle, one of the investigators started to go into a trance, she started walking on the spot as if trying to escape from something. At this point my back was so painful that I had to sit down, I could not focus on what was happening or what was said through the pain in my back. However when the investigator came back from the trance we talked with the staff on duty and they told us a bit about the history of what had happened in this room. We had held the triangle above the hole in the ceiling, the staff explained that the room we were in was used to transport ale to and from the castle and one day they had sent too many goods into the brewery and it had become stuck. They could not manoeuvre the goods through the hole so they sent a four year old boy as he was the only one who was small enough to climb through the hole with the goods in. The rope had snapped and the boy had fallen and broken his back.

 Although we couldn’t trace down exactly why the investigator was trying to escape, we were told that Roger Mortimer, the Earl of March had used the tunnels which were now bricked up to escape from the castle. He was running from the king’s guards as he was having an affair with the queen mother Isabella, he had killed King Edward the Thirds father. He was hung for treason. 

Overall I enjoyed Ye Olde Trip to Jerusalem, there is defiantly paranormal activity here in this old Nottingham Inn and I would recommend it to other paranormal groups, and on another note the ale is good too.