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| Image: Tom Tom - Shutterstock.com |
My latest novel – In Darkness, Shadows Breathe – spends a significant amount of time in the frighteningly haunted Royal and Waverley Hospital whose walls conceal many dark secrets. Although a fairly modern hospital, my creation is built on land formerly occupied by a hospital, asylum and workhouse and is fairly typical in this. Many of today’s hospitals had multiple functions in their past – or are built on the foundations of earlier institutions whose practices would not be considered appropriate in this day and age.
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| Image: Shelly Jensen - Shutterstock.com |
Liverpool’s Newsham Park Hospital shares this murky heritage. Situated not far from the city centre, this crumbling and derelict building once housed an orphanage, hospital wards, a Bell Tower, an attic lined with 18 punishment cupboards where children who misbehaved would be incarcerated alone in the pitch dark, a schoolhouse, mortuary, nurses’ accommodation and chapel. Built in 1869, it variously served as an Orphanage, Psychiatric Hospital and finally an Old People’s Home before closing and being finally abandoned in 1992 when it quickly fell into disrepair. Plans to redevelop it into flats fell through, owing to local opposition, but, since then, stories began to circulate. Strange ghostly phenomena were reported. It wasn’t long before word got around and numerous haunted event companies began organising night time vigils and trips around its desolate corridors which are still littered with broken beds, commodes, wheelchairs, peeling walls and tons of rubbish and detritus – a kind of decrepit Marie Celeste of the medical world.
One of these event companies is Haunted Happenings. Newsham Park is a regular venue for them, and Philip Barron is one of their most experienced ghost hunters and guides. In more than twenty trips around the former hospital, he had witnessed his fair share of the unusual and unexplained and become accustomed to the many individual different experiences members of the same party might report But, on one fateful night, something happened that he had no way of explaining. It all started when, at the beginning of the all-night vigil, the group posed for the obligatory photograph.
The vigil passed off spookily as usual. Everyone had a great time and went home satisfied.
The next morning, Philip uploaded the photograph – again, as usual. What happened next wasn’t usual. The photograph quickly went viral. There were all the smiling, happy faces. The problem was there was one too many smiling faces. No one – and I mean no one – remembered the additional member of the group, a smiling girl. She wasn’t on the tour, well, not officially anyway. Maybe she had somehow sneaked in, and gained entry for free. Except...the simple fact was, she lacked substance somehow. The team tried to find a logical explanation and failed. Equally no one else has come up with one either. It remains one of the many mysteries of the stubbornly haunted Newsham Park Hospital.
Maybe she’s one of the former orphans, or a nurse from its psychiatric hospital days – maybe a patient. Whoever she is, she doesn’t seem too upset by being there.
The mystery ghost joins an ever-expanding collection of phenomena that includes: mischievous poltergeist activity such as workmen’s tools being moved and objects being disturbed when essential work was being carried out on the premises, the sighting of a small child in the attic along with voices heard coming from there, shadowy figures seen in one of the former wards, dragging noises coming from the former dining room, eerie screams and crying coming from the basement and other parts of the building. Then, there’s the overall heavy feeling of dread experienced by many visitors from the minute they cross the threshold. Only to be expected, I would have thought!
Carol and Nessa are strangers but not for much longer.
In a luxury apartment and in the walls of a modern hospital, the evil that was done continues to thrive. They are in the hands of an entity that knows no boundaries and crosses dimensions – bending and twisting time itself – and where danger waits in every shadow. The battle is on for their bodies and souls and the line between reality and nightmare is hard to define.
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| Image: Artfully Photographer - Shutterstock.com |
One of these event companies is Haunted Happenings. Newsham Park is a regular venue for them, and Philip Barron is one of their most experienced ghost hunters and guides. In more than twenty trips around the former hospital, he had witnessed his fair share of the unusual and unexplained and become accustomed to the many individual different experiences members of the same party might report But, on one fateful night, something happened that he had no way of explaining. It all started when, at the beginning of the all-night vigil, the group posed for the obligatory photograph.
The vigil passed off spookily as usual. Everyone had a great time and went home satisfied.
The next morning, Philip uploaded the photograph – again, as usual. What happened next wasn’t usual. The photograph quickly went viral. There were all the smiling, happy faces. The problem was there was one too many smiling faces. No one – and I mean no one – remembered the additional member of the group, a smiling girl. She wasn’t on the tour, well, not officially anyway. Maybe she had somehow sneaked in, and gained entry for free. Except...the simple fact was, she lacked substance somehow. The team tried to find a logical explanation and failed. Equally no one else has come up with one either. It remains one of the many mysteries of the stubbornly haunted Newsham Park Hospital.
Maybe she’s one of the former orphans, or a nurse from its psychiatric hospital days – maybe a patient. Whoever she is, she doesn’t seem too upset by being there.
The mystery ghost joins an ever-expanding collection of phenomena that includes: mischievous poltergeist activity such as workmen’s tools being moved and objects being disturbed when essential work was being carried out on the premises, the sighting of a small child in the attic along with voices heard coming from there, shadowy figures seen in one of the former wards, dragging noises coming from the former dining room, eerie screams and crying coming from the basement and other parts of the building. Then, there’s the overall heavy feeling of dread experienced by many visitors from the minute they cross the threshold. Only to be expected, I would have thought!
Want to see more? Here’s a clip to whet your appetite:
You’re next…
Carol and Nessa are strangers but not for much longer.
In a luxury apartment and in the walls of a modern hospital, the evil that was done continues to thrive. They are in the hands of an entity that knows no boundaries and crosses dimensions – bending and twisting time itself – and where danger waits in every shadow. The battle is on for their bodies and souls and the line between reality and nightmare is hard to define.
Through it all, the words of Lydia Warren Carmody haunt them. But who was she? And why have Carol and Nessa been chosen?
The answer lies deep in the darkness…
I totally believe there could be a ghost girl who joined in the photograph. An old hospital is a place with lots of emotion and death. I wouldn't be surprised if there were many ghosts. (I think there's a typo in your YouTube link.)
ReplyDeleteThanks for letting me know about the typo, Priscilla. It seems the ghosts crept in there as well. Thankfully all is well and it works now!
DeleteHi.
ReplyDeleteI went to newsham park asylum on ghost hunt with haunted happenings and it didn't disappoint me or my partner. My partner at the time was a non believer and never believed in the paranormal until he went to newsham.
When we was walking around Learning about the history in the naughty boys corridor we heard children crying him thinking it could of been children st the park opposite the bulding but this was like at 10.30 in the evening and there were no children out there we heard it twice.
Another part of the buliding he was laying in a old gurney and he always wore his hat no matter where we go, laying there and being a bit of a big guy and he couldn't move he noticed his hat wasn't on his head until he got out ot was near his feet, a spirit of a nurse was talking to us on the spirit box and called him partner "randy" and I goy a bot annoyed and told her thst she couldn't have him and she got abt annoyed and strached the back of my leg, he heard straches whilst he was in the gurney which was a bit scary.
We even saw a little child run from the naughty boys corridor to the bath room and a woman which looked like a nurse or the Marton walking around too
In the laundry room/locker room sitting the doing evps we was sat there quiet after asking the last question, it was strange as we heard laughing and running down the stairs to the laundry room us thinking it could be the other the groups but they were in different parts of the asylum and didn't hear nothing. So we finished our section a couple of mins early to see what it could be when we got back to the Base camp there was no body there the other groups were just coming back to base camp and saw us in shock and comfussed when they asked whst happened we told them and they told us saying it wasn't us we just came back like you saw. Until this day we still can't put it together and still do know who it could be. Afterwards leftdd to get our taxi back to hteh hotel I asked my partner if he believes In the paranormal and he said yes which is amazing w are thinking of going again as it was amazing. I've always wanted to do a ghost hunt in a hospital/asylum and getting to do it was amazong.
Thank you for sharing your experience, Becka. It is certainly a creepy, disturbed and much-haunted place...
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