
k Parapsychology Publications Casebook Gallery Media Links	Investigation at Letchworth Library, Letchworth, Hertfordshire APIS Investigation: Friday 19th / Saturday 20th September 2008 TEAM: Judith Basil - Keith Blackaby - Aaron Hardy Jasmine Jenkins - Sonia Jenkins - Michael Lewis John Wickham Team Leader : Damien O’Dell Gill Clements Letchworth Library Janice Brooker Letchworth Library Background This was the second part of the two part investigation at Letchworth Library and this time we did not investigate the Museum (next door) so we had a smaller team. All of the Team on this occasion were members of APIS. Three of the Team, Michael, John and Damien participated in the first investigation. The same modus operandi was employed however we did not have a psychic medium as part of the group as last time. The Team assembled at the same time as the previous vigil and we began at the same time. Once again we located ourselves in the Lecture Room upstairs, the Stack Room, Children’s Library and the Large Print Area. These are all areas where various paranormal phenomena have been reported in the past. Report from the Library It was fortunate that Gill Clements allowed APIS to conduct a second vigil because I feel that this added considerably to the information that we gathered together for the investigation as a whole. The second vigil was also more productive in terms of anomalous phenomena recorded. The Stack Room was fairly quiet but several noises were heard, a loud mechanical click, which may have had a natural cause, was heard in the main library at 21.15 hours by Michael and Judith. Sonia and John were on the second watch and they heard various creaks including quite a loud one from the ceiling, but this may be explained by the building cooling down. At the start of the vigil the temperature in the Stack was measured at 22.5 degrees Centigrade, at the end of the vigil this had fallen to just 20.3 degrees Centigrade. A faint, distant intermittent thudding was heard on the third watch by Jasmine and Keith and all was quiet on the final watch here. Keith and Jasmine had the first watch in the Large Print Room and they heard a sharp noise at the very start of their watch. At 21.10 hours a sharp noise from a back shelf was logged, quickly followed by a sharp noise from the ceiling and then above the books at the same time that a movement was detected in the corridor. Then two clicks were heard and minutes later two creaking sounds. Shadows were seen through the middle bookshelf then footsteps were heard in the corner. An eventful first hour. On the second watch with Judith and Michael a novel on the bottom shelf of a bookcase had a bookmark tassel hanging down which moved as though in a breeze, but the investigators could find no breeze to account for the movement. The third watch with Aaron and Damien was uneventful. The final watch with Sonia and John and the investigators saw some blue flashes of light coming from outside the building, on the church wall. The upstairs Lecture Room was where we expected activity, given our Dowser’s report, and it did not disappoint. Aaron and Damien heard some unexplained clicking noises from the far end of the room at the start of the watch. Sonia and John heard some creaking noises. Things really got going on the third watch, with Jasmine and Keith, the two-way radios were affected, a message that sounded like ‘let me out’ was heard at 00.28 hours. At 00.58 a loud clattering broke out, both Jasmine and Keith went to investigate and found a pencil on the window ledge and another pencil on the floor yet the noise that had first alerted them was too loud to be just the movement of a pencil. Nobody in the team could recall the two stray pencils but we cannot rule out the fact that they may have been overlooked. We do recall, however, that there was a pot of pencils at the far end of the room, on the stage. As the two investigators checked the pencils there was another loud sound from the opposite end of the room but nothing was found to account for it. The most spectacular event of the evening occurred in the Children’s Library, not where we had expected the main focus of attention to be. At 23.10 hours Jasmine and Keith heard a ‘double thump’ and were sure that something had landed on the floor. On investigation they discovered that book (in the My Little Pony series) lying on the floor. Sensibly they left it exactly where it was and reported it to the Team Leader at the end of the ‘watch’. Damien questioned Janice as to where the book had come from, and then he used a tape measure to calculate the angle of trajectory. The book had travelled horizontally, in a 27 degree angle from the bookshelf. It had not fallen vertically as might have been expected. The ‘double thump’ heard by Jasmine and Keith was probably the sound of the book first hitting the shelving on the back wall and then hitting the floor. Haunting History It is always our policy not to divulge particulars of previously reported paranormal phenomena to our investigators so as not to prejudice an investigation. It would now seem appropriate, at the conclusion of our investigations to summarise the history of the hauntings recorded at this site. First opened on Friday 6th January 1939 the library always relied on the services of ‘Mr Kane’ as caretaker. He had to leave to go to war for a few years but he was soon back and he spent the remainder of his working life at Letchworth Library until his retirement in 1965. As well as working at the place he also had a large flat above the library. He was described as ‘the embodied spirit of the place’. Could it be that he has continued to watch over his beloved library now that he is an incorporeal spirit? A famous psychic medium of the 1960s, called Tom Corbett, had this to say about why ghosts haunt a particular place: ‘Ghosts are just people who have died and bound themselves, because of great happiness or great tragedy to a spot on earth.’ Some members of the library staff feel that it is Phillip Kane who continues to haunt ‘his’ library, although, strangely, the ghost has been nicknamed ‘George’. What is a matter of record is that on the day that Mr Kane died the library’s electrical supply went wrong, the heating and the lighting failed causing the building to be shut down for half a day. Some said that the building had, of its own accord, come out in sympathy. So what activity exactly has been recorded? Books have been found on several occasions, sometimes standing upright on the floor, well away from the shelves, by staff arriving to unlock the building in the morning. On one particular spring day in 1975 the library floor was being varnished and the building was closed to the public. Some members of staff were in the workroom and two members of staff (including Sue Marina) were sitting on the stairs overlooking the library. The foyer was glass fronted and the entire library could be seen from the vantage point of the stairs. ‘Something’ was seen, moving from the back of the library through and left towards a door that is alarmed. Both members of staff shouted a warning, ‘The floor has just been varnished, please get off!’ One of the staff went to the alarmed door but nothing was seen there and no footprints had disturbed the newly varnished floor. Both staff members clearly saw the same thing. Sadly one of them, Pat, has since died. Another report, from a different staff member, is as follows. ‘Whilst closing up the library one night, I went down to the fiction section to close down the lights. After doing so I ambled over to the fire exit and stared into the garden. As I turned around a book came flying off the shelf and landed at my feet. It was a large print book. I wasn’t scared, I think it was more of a telling off for being in there after lights out!’ Conclusions: What was particularly interesting was that much of the phenomena reported on the second investigation were completely different to the phenomena recorded on the first investigation. The other important point was that the most noteworthy experiences centred on Jasmine and Keith. Jasmine is quite sceptical about paranormal phenomena but after her experiences at the library her viewpoint may have changed. It is not uncommon on investigations; one team quite often appears to be the focus of paranormal events for the whole night while the other teams have a relatively quiet time. In conclusion, if we look at all the various unexplained occurrences experienced by a number of different investigators and we add those to the experiences of library staff over many years, it would seem that the building is subject to low level phenomena, mostly confined to the night time when staff members are not usually present. Displacement of books is likely to continue in the future but may cease over time. It is APIS’s view that Letchworth Library is haunted, but there need be absolutely no cause for concern on the part of anyone who works here. Report by: Damien O’Dell Founder/Chairman APIS 11 October 2008 © Damien O’Dell & APIS 2008

Investigation at Letchworth Library, Letchworth, Hertfordshire

APIS Investigation: Friday 19th / Saturday 20th September 2008

TEAM:   Judith Basil - Keith Blackaby - Aaron Hardy
               Jasmine Jenkins - Sonia Jenkins - Michael Lewis
               John Wickham

Team Leader : Damien O’Dell

Gill Clements Letchworth Library

Janice Brooker Letchworth Library

Background

This was the second part of the two part investigation at Letchworth Library and this time we did not investigate the Museum (next door) so we had a smaller team. All of the Team on this occasion were members of APIS. Three of the Team, Michael, John and Damien participated in the first investigation. The same modus operandi was employed however we did not have a psychic medium as part of the group as last time. The Team assembled at the same time as the previous vigil and we began at the same time. Once again we located ourselves in the Lecture Room upstairs, the Stack Room, Children’s Library and the Large Print Area. These are all areas where various paranormal phenomena have been reported in the past.

Report from the Library

It was fortunate that Gill Clements allowed APIS to conduct a second vigil because I feel that this added considerably to the information that we gathered together for the investigation as a whole. The second vigil was also more productive in terms of anomalous phenomena recorded. The Stack Room was fairly quiet but several noises were heard, a loud mechanical click, which may have had a natural cause, was heard in the main library at 21.15 hours by Michael and Judith. Sonia and John were on the second watch and they heard various creaks including quite a loud one from the ceiling, but this may be explained by the building cooling down. At the start of the vigil the temperature in the Stack was measured at 22.5 degrees Centigrade, at the end of the vigil this had fallen to just 20.3 degrees Centigrade. A faint, distant intermittent thudding was heard on the third watch by Jasmine and Keith and all was quiet on the final watch here.

Keith and Jasmine had the first watch in the Large Print Room and they heard a sharp noise at the very start of their watch. At 21.10 hours a sharp noise from a back shelf was logged, quickly followed by a sharp noise from the ceiling and then above the books at the same time that a movement was detected in the corridor. Then two clicks were heard and minutes later two creaking sounds. Shadows were seen through the middle bookshelf then footsteps were heard in the corner. An eventful first hour. On the second watch with Judith and Michael a novel on the bottom shelf of a bookcase had a bookmark tassel hanging down which moved as though in a breeze, but the investigators could find no breeze to account for the movement. The third watch with Aaron and Damien was uneventful. The final watch with Sonia and John and the investigators saw some blue flashes of light coming from outside the building, on the church wall.

The upstairs Lecture Room was where we expected activity, given our Dowser’s report, and it did not disappoint. Aaron and Damien heard some unexplained clicking noises from the far end of the room at the start of the watch. Sonia and John heard some creaking noises. Things really got going on the third watch, with Jasmine and Keith, the two-way radios were affected, a message that sounded like ‘let me out’ was heard at 00.28 hours. At 00.58 a loud clattering broke out, both Jasmine and Keith went to investigate and found a pencil on the window ledge and another pencil on the floor yet the noise that had first alerted them was too loud to be just the movement of a pencil. Nobody in the team could recall the two stray pencils but we cannot rule out the fact that they may have been overlooked. We do recall, however, that there was a pot of pencils at the far end of the room, on the stage. As the two investigators checked the pencils there was another loud sound from the opposite end of the room but nothing was found to account for it.

The most spectacular event of the evening occurred in the Children’s Library, not where we had expected the main focus of library attention to be. At 23.10 hours Jasmine and Keith heard a ‘double thump’ and were sure that something had landed on the floor. On investigation they discovered that book (in the My Little Pony series) lying on the floor. Sensibly they left it exactly where it was and reported it to the Team Leader at the end of the ‘watch’. Damien questioned Janice as to where the book had come from, and then he used a tape measure to calculate the angle of trajectory. The book had travelled horizontally, in a 27 degree angle from the bookshelf. It had not fallen vertically as might have been expected. The ‘double thump’ heard by Jasmine and Keith was probably the sound of the book first hitting the shelving on the back wall and then hitting the floor.

Haunting History

It is always our policy not to divulge particulars of previously reported paranormal phenomena to our investigators so as not to prejudice an investigation. It would now seem appropriate, at the conclusion of our investigations to summarise the history of the hauntings recorded at this site.

First opened on Friday 6th January 1939 the library always relied on the services of ‘Mr Kane’ as caretaker. He had to leave to go to war for a few years but he was soon back and he spent the remainder of his working life at Letchworth Library until his retirement in 1965. As well as working at the place he also had a large flat above the library. He was described as ‘the embodied spirit of the place’. Could it be that he has continued to watch over his beloved library now that he is an incorporeal spirit? A famous psychic medium of the 1960s, called Tom Corbett, had this to say about why ghosts haunt a particular place: ‘Ghosts are just people who have died and bound themselves, because of great happiness or great tragedy to a spot on earth.’ Some members of the library staff feel that it is Phillip Kane who continues to haunt ‘his’ library, although, strangely, the ghost has been nicknamed ‘George’. What is a matter of record is that on the day that Mr Kane died the library’s electrical supply went wrong, the heating and the lighting failed causing the building to be shut down for half a day. Some said that the building had, of its own accord, come out in sympathy.

So what activity exactly has been recorded? Books have been found on several occasions, sometimes standing upright on the floor, well away from the shelves, by staff arriving to unlock the building in the morning. On one particular spring day in 1975 the library floor was being varnished and the building was closed to the public. Some members of staff were in the workroom and two members of staff (including Sue Marina) were sitting on the stairs overlooking the library. The foyer was glass fronted and the entire library could be seen from the vantage point of the stairs. ‘Something’ was seen, moving from the back of the library through and left towards a door that is alarmed. Both members of staff shouted a warning, ‘The floor has just been varnished, please get off!’ One of the staff went to the alarmed door but nothing was seen there and no footprints had disturbed the newly varnished floor. Both staff members clearly saw the same thing. Sadly one of them, Pat, has since died.

Another report, from a different staff member, is as follows. ‘Whilst closing up the library one night, I went down to the fiction section to close down the lights. After doing so I ambled over to the fire exit and stared into the garden. As I turned around a book came flying off the shelf and landed at my feet. It was a large print book. I wasn’t scared, I think it was more of a telling off for being in there after lights out!’

Conclusions:

What was particularly interesting was that much of the phenomena reported on the second investigation were completely different to the phenomena recorded on the first investigation. The other important point was that the most noteworthy experiences centred on Jasmine and Keith. Jasmine is quite sceptical about paranormal phenomena but after her experiences at the library her viewpoint may have changed. It is not uncommon on investigations; one team quite often appears to be the focus of paranormal events for the whole night while the other teams have a relatively quiet time. In conclusion, if we look at all the various unexplained occurrences experienced by a number of different investigators and we add those to the experiences of library staff over many years, it would seem that the building is subject to low level phenomena, mostly confined to the night time when staff members are not usually present. Displacement of books is likely to continue in the future but may cease over time. It is APIS’s view that Letchworth Library is haunted, but there need be absolutely no cause for concern on the part of anyone who works here.

Report by: Damien O’Dell
Founder/Chairman APIS
11 October 2008