Ghost hunters claim to have recorded ghostly voices and seen a door “open on command” at a spooky hall.
Castle Bromwich Hall, built between 1557 and 1585, is supposedly haunted and Afterlife Paranormal spent a night there looking for ghostly goings-on.
The paranormal experts claim to have captured spooky images of faces on camera, with one described as wearing “a dress”.
Footage also appears to show what investigators claim is a door "opening on command" near the boardroom of the Grade-l listed property.
A voice can be heard coming from a device known as a “spirit box” asking "are we friends?” Birmingham Live reports.
In the clip investigator Charlie Harker, aged 58 from Walsall, replies: "Are we friends? Yes we are friends, that is why I want you to open the door again. I'm trying to be your friend."
Seconds later the dark-brown door, which is flanked by old wooden panels, slowly opens backwards. Charlie, a cleaner by trade, then says: "As I said 'I want to be your friend', the door has opened. What the f***? Thank you."
Two ghostly apparitions were also allegedly caught on camera during the ghost hunt on April 17. One appeared to be half of a face, seen through glass window panes, while the other was a golden-hued figure "in a dress".
Charlie said: "We had the door opening into the boardroom on its own. We experimented with the door, because, we shut the door and went around the grounds for 40 minutes to see if the door had opened, to see if there was a wind or anything, but the door was still shut when we got back."
The spirit box - a device which supposedly detects electronic voice phenomena (EVP) and translates them into words - allegedly called out Charlie's name and his partner, Teresa. Charlie said: "We had an interesting EVP saying 'Teresa'.
"It was the spirit box. In one room, it said my name first, Charlie. It didn't actually say Charlie, it said 'Char... lie'. It spoke in English but it sounded like somebody with an accent.
"The second EVP we got said Teresa, which sounded like a younger voice to the other one." Charlie believes the first voice may belong to a former hall resident called Lady Ida, while the second one belonged to a woman called Catherine Arden.
Asked about Lady Ida, Charlie said: "She was married to George Bridgeman. The Bridgeman family used to live in Weston Park, which is a big mansion (in Shropshire). They didn't live there much but later on, George and Ida moved into that building (Castle Bromwich Hall) and they were permanent residents there. She was the last survivor in that building, Lady Ida, she died in there."
He continued: "There was definitely something going on there. I know the building goes back to the 16th century but I didn't expect anything to happen.
"I have been to buildings like this before and nothing has happened. That place was active that night, it was alive. Lady Ida lived there for quite a long time and I believe one of the spirits must be her."
Asked about the photos, he said of the golden-hued shape caught on camera: "It is known for the 'white lady', like a tall lady in a big frilly dress coming off of the bottom of that. We caught that in the outer grounds."
Castle Bromwich Hall Hotel, as it is now known, is a landmark building in the Castle Bromwich area, located on Chester Road near to Junction 5 of the M6. It was originally built by Sir Edward Devereux, the first MP for Tamworth.
The ten-acre site was later sold to Sir John Bridgeman in 1657, who made significant changes to the hall and surrounding gardens. The last member of the family to live at the hall was Lady Ida, Dowager Countess of Bradford, who lived there until her death in 1936. Today the hall is a hotel, which opened in 2012. Follow Afterlife Paranormal on Facebook here.
