When you buy a very old house you are also buying its history, a unique bundle of past people, events and emotions, and there's a good chance that all three elements were not positive. But it still might be a bit of a shock to discover that your 17th century home was once where a respected midwife of the era was brutally killed.
That's the news that came to haunt the Laurence Llewelyn-Bowen and family when the fabulous interior designer and TV presenter put their historic manor house in the Cotswolds forward to be investigated by the team from discovery+ popular paranormal programme, Help! My House is Haunted.
The paranormal team of dark arts specialist Ian Lawman, paranormal researcher and historian Jayne Harris, and investigator Barri Ghai turn up to LLB's pad in the country ready to find out why most of the family, apart from LLB himself, have had unexplained experiences.
Over the years, friends and family members have experienced unexplained occurrences of paranormal activity in Roberts House, the name of his six-bedroom home, so Laurence has called in the paranormal experts to finally get some answers - and now LLB is 'keen to find out if my home is as haunted as everybody says it is'.
Laurence says: "Cecile, my oldest daughter, definitely feels very strongly that she's had moments where things have happened, where she cannot in any way explain, so it’s near constant that people are reacting to unexplained phenomena."
Cecile tells Barri about an unnerving incident she had at the house a few years ago, whilst putting her baby son down for a nap in one of the upstairs bedrooms.
She says: "I returned five minutes later but halfway through, while he was crying, I heard a very distinctive ‘shhh’ sound and he [the baby] went absolutely silent… I went back in to make sure there wasn’t anyone in there with him, there wasn’t.
"The windows were closed, it wasn’t like I could have heard someone shushing from outside. I think I went white as a sheet and I felt a sort of coldness at the idea of leaving a child in a room with a spirit that seemingly could be soothing and comforting him, but it could also be quite malevolent, [that] was the most distressing thing I think. Still to this day I really struggle to go into that room.”
During her walk with historian Robin Shuckburgh, paranormal team member Jayne discovers that Roberts House was brought in 1618 by the founder of the local Quaker group John Roberts, described as 'a very religious and remarkable man'.
Robin also reveals the details of a tragic incident that happened during a raid of one Quaker meeting. Armed objectors stormed the house and forced the group to an upper floor only to violently push them down the stairs. Most of the group survived but shockingly, a well-respected midwife named Elizabeth Hewlings died from her injuries.
In the hope of triggering spiritual contact, Cecile joins medium Ian in the bedroom where she had heard the disembodied ‘shhh’, as Laurence and mum Jackie watch on. Cecile says she feels “chilly… itchy and a bit uncomfortable,” and they deduce that the corner where she once placed her baby is the exact spot where during an earlier investigation of the room, Ian sensed a female entity.
In order to communicate with the spirit, Ian activates an ITC device called an Alice box, which helps spirits communicate. Ian asks the female presence to speak to them and a voice replies with 'Sneak…July'.
Cecile says: “That’s interesting because it was in July, it was my mum’s birthday when that happened" and Jayne adds, via the two-way radio, that the fateful Quaker meeting raid was in July 1670.
A visibly teary Cecile assures Ian that she is okay to continue and Ian urges her to move to where she feels drawn. Cecile eventually fixates on that corner. “So, she’s walked you round to turn back to where the cot was,” Ian says.
Cecile starts feeling a connection to the spirit, saying: “I feel that tingly sponginess again. I’m rooted to the spot, my legs feel like a little bit jellied, very tingly, and my breasts are prickling, like when a baby starts crying, I’m feeling a bit uncomfortable actually. I feel a bit antsy and a bit distressed…I think I want to stop."
Worried, Ian stops the session. With a visibly shaken and upset Cecile, will the 'Help! My House Is Haunted' team be able to get to the bottom of the terrifying hauntings? The full episode is part of series two streaming on discovery+.
A Welsh farmhouse in the Rhondda Fawr valley owned by BBC's Homes Under The Hammer Martin Roberts was also visited by the paranormal team during series one, find out more about that here.
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