Mucking

At the start of the investigation we made our way up the lane that led past the pond in mucking. The lane and pond are said to be haunted by a lady that drowned herself in the pond.
The Mediums walked up the lane; they were not picking up on any spirits as the moved past the pond or the part of the lane that is said to be haunted. We continued up the lane heading for the old pub (this is now used as offices).
About 100 yards before the pub Steve (one of our Mediums) commented on a cold spot and an energy change, what we then noticed was that he had stopped right between two sets of electricity pylons. Steve would not have known they were there as the lane was pitch black. The pylons would explain the energy change but not the cold spot, this part of the lane was just as sheltered as the rest of it but indeed most of the team could also feel the temperature change in this area.
We continued up the lane towards the old pub. We were not able to go inside the building but we were able to stand right outside it. As we stood outside, all of the team heard what sounded like a deep breath but a very congested one. Phil commented that if it was from a human it sounded like they had tuberculoses.

As Steve stood looking at the building he said he was drawn to two areas - a window at the top and the lower bottom corner (just by the main entrance). He said he was sensing a female in the top part of the build but there was nothing negative about her. He gave her age as being late 30's and gave a time of her being there as the 1960's. Steve believes that some people would have seen the lady in the top part of the building by the window or would have sensed her being there. He gave a name of Mary for her and said her last name started with F.

Steve was feeling more negative about the lower part of the building (just by the part that sticks out by the main entrance as said that this negative energy was older, a lot older. He said this energy was of a male that would have been about in 1820. The male was about 5ft 6, very rugged, an outdoor sort of person that was rough and ready. Steve also said that he was not a happy person when he was alive.
Steve was also picking up on a fire but could not say when this was and felt that the fire had destroyed some of the building but not all of it.

As the team moved just to the left of the building and off of the tarmac road…we all shuddered. We had all felt an energy change and it seemed to start just where the road ended. We were now looking over some bushes to the farm. Steve said the energy was stronger the more he moved near to the bushes. But was not sure whether a lot of this energy was due to the overhead power lines.
Steve felt as if he needed to walk right were the bushes were, as if there had been a path here in the past to the farm. Indeed looking at the layout of the land there might have well been a path here and this is something I will continue to research.
Elaine stood a few yards back from Steve and started to use a crystal on a chain (used by Mediums as an aid in communicating with spirits). The crystal started to spin in a circular motion, and Elaine said she was picking up a female spirit but could not give any more information other than that. When we later looked back at this part of the tape a loud breath can be heard. Phil and Mark were standing next to Elaine during this time and none of them commented on the sound at the time. The sound is quite loud so I feel that it is strange that none of the heard it on the night.

At this point the rain started to get very heavy and we were just about to stop filming when Steve said he was picking up on two bodies that that been in the area, one that had been found and one that had not been.

The one that had been found was female and she was in her late twenties, Steve gave a date of the 1930's but was not sure if this was the time when she was found or when she was murdered.
The male body that had not been found, he said that he wanted to go back to an earlier date of 1916 to 1923 but again he could not say if this was the date he died or was found. As Steve was speaking he become confused and sort of interrupted himself and talked of a couple more bodies. It seemed that all of a sudden Steve was being given so much information, he said that these other bodies were of children back down the lane but not as far as the pond. The children were also male and female and he did not believe that the bodies had ever been found. We started to walk down to the point where Steve felt the strongest connection with the children.
As Steve walked down the lane he found that he was picking up the children further down than he first thought, in fact he pointed to the other side of the pond right in the direction of the old Mucking hall.

The photo above was taken earlier this year.

Now the rain was toheavy that we stopped filming and moved back to the cars to get extra umbrellas. As we did so Steve said that he was also aware that people would have heard horse and carts coming down the lane. Steve is right, some of the Staff that work in the buildings have reported to hear what sounds like horse and carts going past the buildings as they are working in them, but when they have look out of the windows there is nothing there.

The team had now moved to just outside the church, Phil was using the dowsing rods and they seemed to lead him to the old door that once lead into the old school house. Elaine stood by the door and said that she could feel something tightening around her throat as if she was going to be strangled or hung. The is a local tale that says a smuggler was hung just outside the church on the grassed area. There was once a large tree on this area but it has since been blown down. It is said that this was the tree that the smuggler was hung from. The smuggler is said to haunt the area where the tree stood and also the road back to the pub. There are tunnels under the pub that lead to the old Mucking creek…could the smuggler still be trying to make his escape?

Steve was not able to pick up on any energy by the door but instead was drawn to a house to the right of the church. The house is now owned by a company, so we could not go into the grounds but instead we stood by the driveway leading to the house. Steve said that he was not comfortable with the front of the house. But also said that he was picking up an even stronger negative feeling from the rear of the house.

Steve explained that it was more of a residual energy that he was picking up on but said that the negative energy was constantly building up, he felt there had been an initial event that had left the negative energy in the building but as more and more people noticed the bad feeling it grew stronger.
As we stood by the gate to the building Steve was also aware of a gentleman in regency clothing standing on the lawn, Steve could not make a spiritual connection with him but felt the gentleman would walk along the path and exit the ground not by the gate that is there now but were there are now bushes. It is possible that the layout of the grounds has changed over the years.
There is one point I should note, I have been told by some staff that work in the building there now that there is a room in the building that none of them like working in or even going into.

I have recently come across information about the house that might explain the negative feeling but this needs to be researched fully and it would also depend on the company that own it now if I could place this information in the report.
Any updates will be posted on the website.

As we moved back down past the church, I asked Steve and Elaine to walk on the grassed area outside of the church (the site of the old tree), I wanted to see if any of them were going to pick up on a hanging, (like all other investigations the Mediums did not know the location until just before it started and on this night I had not told them until we were only 4 minutes from the location). As Steve walked on the grass he said it was completely empty, I was confused by this until he said it was a circle of people and they had performed some type of ritual here. I asked Steve to show me how big this circle of people would have been, as he paced it out two things become obvious, 1. The circle was a lot bigger than the grassed area and 2. The centre of the circle would have been the old tree that both Mediums had no knowledge of.

The team now moved along a footpath that links Mucking with Stanford le Hope, the footpath cuts through the Mucking marshes and was once an import route for the village. As we moved down the path we were very aware of the wildlife around us, foxes and rabbits could be seen running off the footpath as we moved up it.

After a while Steve stopped and pointed over the marsh (in the direction of the old pub which we could now see across the marshes, Steve said that this is where he felt that the two bodies he was picking up on had been. At this time the team could see a light flashing in the direction of the pub. We turned the torches off to make sure this was not a refection from them. As we did so we all heard a distant scream, it seemed to come from somewhere near the church or lane where we had just been. That night we had heard a lot of animals making sounds but this was human and the sound had come at us against the breeze.
I cannot say for sure what we heard, but it was picked up on the video cameras but only faintly. As we stood on the footpath a few of the team members and I (Shane), all commented on a shape that we could see back down the footpath, the bushes and tree met to make a archway over the footpath but under this arch was where we could see a someone standing there watching us. This could have been a trick of the light as under the archway it was very dark and there was light coming through it from the other side so it was backlit. It seems strange that three of us had seen the same thing at the same time and the archway was only about 30 yards away from us but when we turned the torch on there was nothing there. Apart from the sound that we heard and the shape that we thought we had seen, nothing happened on the footpath.

I felt this was a little disappointing as the marshes have a very long history and I am sure that there must be some very strange things that have happened on them. The whole of Mucking is pre-historic and there have been hundreds of Roman and Anglo Saxon bodies found in and around the area.