The Stork Inn, Billinge.

A building was erected on this site in 1640; during the Civil War its crypt was used to incarcerate Royalist prisoners.  The crypt survived the rebuild in 1717 and is now the cellars of the modern Stork Inn or Hotel.  In 1752 The Stork had a bowling green. 

Susannah Howard is listed as being a landlady of the Stork Inn around 1881.

In August of 1890 landlord James George Howard was charged with selling adulterated rum after his wife topped the bottle up with water in the presence of a plain clothes police-constable.  Howard‘s defence was that she was not accustomed to mixing spirits and did not think she was doing wrong.  The Bench dismissed the case, warning him to be more particular in future.

Born to Richard and Ellen on 26/1/1844, Huge Mather married Elizabeth Peet (born 1845 at Atherton House farm, Winstanley Road), on 29/10/1866.  Sometime after 1891 they took over the running of The Stork and its attached farm which they rented from the Bankes estate.  Their four daughters, Sarah Ellen a.k.a Nellie, Mary a.k.a. Polly, Elizabeth ‘Bessie’ and Charlotte or ‘Lottie’,   helped run the Inn by working as barmaids.  The Stork was a resting place for travellers and parties were held there for merchants, the farm providing the food for the elaborate meals.  One visitor was Lord Leverhulme. 

Huge was an easy-going passive man with a sandy beard, for many years he was a member of Billinge Council and served as a Government Official for over 30years as an assessor of taxes and land valuation officer, he was also a sidesman in Billinge church.  Elizabeth was industrious, consequently by 1903 they has saved enough money to purchase the ‘Red Knob Row’ of cottages in Newton Road from number 2 onward.  Huge died aged 68 on 13^th July 1912 from pneumonia after harvesting hay at The Stork.  Their occupancy ended sometime in 1912 after Hugh’s death.

In 1929 the landlord was Wilfred Hortherstall.  

The Stork Hotel; Hugh Mather, 1844 – 1912, and Elizabeth Peet, 1845 – 1933, previously lived in the cottages shown on the right of this picture.

http://www.wiganworld.co.uk/stuff/readingroom.php?opt=readingroom&rr=g

http://sthelens-connect.net/sitefiles/billinge-history.pdf   

The Old Nick Theatre, Gainsborough. 10th December 2011

Now a small working theatre this Victorian building was once the main police station and courthouse for the area, it is grade 2 listed and the cells are original.  It is known that the performance area was once the main courtroom.
During the investigation many members experienced CEP (Corner Eye Phononom) and temperature variations.  However many of these can be put down to the design of the building.  

Shadowy figures were seen walking up the main staircase when there was no one with a pulse on the stairway.  I saw one on the section in the second photograph.  
The main staircase was also one location where Leigh Paranormal’s medium and I had a simultaneous experience that made us grab for the hand rail; we both experienced the sudden overwhelming feeing that the stairs were collapsing under our feet and that the ceiling was coming down.  The medium felt it concerned the chandelier while I got the impression of a bomb, possibly from WW2.  We both agreed people were on the stairs at the time, resulting in them being hurt and calling out or falling.

 

We also shared personal experiences in the female cells; this time the sound of conversation between at least two women in the corridor and, the feeling of women detainees being ‘visited’ in their cells by male warders for their own pleasure.  The female warder happily turned a ‘blind eye’ to these goings on.  In the female exercise yard the medium and I both ‘saw’ the bloodied beaten body of a prisoner curled in the corner between the cellar window and the wall.  We were both positive that this prisoner did not survive the beating.  

 

This old iron gate was found in the male exercise yard when it was being cleared of years of weeds and has been rehung in its original position by the volunteers who look after the Old Nick.  The wooden door just beyond it leads into the male exercise yard where all the drainpipes etc., are built into the walls to prevent climbing.  After this is a long corridor leading to the two holding cells.

 

The corridor taken from the male cells.

Two seperate occurrences happened in this corridor one to each of the investigating teams; the first one involves a whistle.  Three members of the team were in the second male cell when they hear a whistle from in the corridor, one member came out of the cell to ask if someone in the corridor had whistled, but the two members nearest the cell, just outside the cell, had not heard a whistle, however the remaining two members close to the door to the exercise yard had heard it. 

The second incident occurred while a couple of members of the other team were walking down the corridor toward the male cells when they heard what sounded like stones bring thrown at them.  There was no one else in the corridor at the time. 

 

The second male cell.

Both the Team Medium and I pick up on very similar sensations as, separately, we entered the first cell; those of there being someone in there waiting to give someone a good beating.     

 

An exercise yard

Ghost Hunting Equipment – The K2 Meter

Due to the popularity of ghost hunting shows on television K2 meters have become a common sight on paranormal investigations.  A K2 meter measures electromagnetic fields (abbreviated to EMF); the earth has its own EMFs as does everything that uses electricity, and this includes the human body.  It is the residue of this that some ghost hunters believe lingers after death.  

Electromagnetic fields can be generated by electromagnetic radiation flux density (DC fields) or the change in an electromagnetic field over time (AC fields).  An EMF meter measures AC electromagnetic fields (electricians use them to track wiring in walls), while the more expensive Gauss meters or magnetometers measure DC fields; these occur naturally in the Earth's geomagnetic field.  Most ghost hunters use a single axis EMF meter; tri-axis meters are more expensive.  The majority of EMF meters are calibrated to measure between 50 and 60 Hz alternating fields, the frequency of US and European mains electricity.  K2 meters use a series of LEDs to measure the strength of an energy field.

Ghost hunters use K2 meters to measure the energy that some of them believe ghosts emit.  Some ask the ghost to make the lights flash in response to verbal questions similar to the old ‘knock once for yes, twice for no’ thing.  Others will ask the ‘spirit’ to walk in front on the K2 so that the LED display will respond to the change in EMF.  However the sensors on the most common form of K2 are located on the back of the meter in line with the LED display and as they are single axis the ghost would have to walk in line with the sensor, so, in this photo, the ghost would have to walk under the stool.  

When ghost hunting it is good practise to do a ‘base-line test’ before the start of the investigation; walk slowly around the area holding the meter steady at arm's length and note where the meter’s display spikes.  Then look for non-paranormal reasons for the spike; lamps, ceiling fans, electrical wiring, equipment or sockets, or the mobile phone in your pocket.  These will increase their EMF when receiving or automatically searching for a signal, which is why, when on a paranormal investigation you will be asked to; switch them off, put them in plane mode, or leave them in a designated area.  Move your K2 away from the area where you get a spike, check the readings, look for a source of the field and make a note of it so, later, you know to discount any activity there.

Not every K2 spike will be a ghost but once you have eliminated every other possibility only then can you look to a paranormal explanation.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electromagnetic_field

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/EMF_meter

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ghost_Hunters

http://guides.wikinut.com/Things-to-know-when-using-a-K2-meter/1cg139yg/