Investigation
Bacup royal court theatre
History
Originally an iron foundary , the building was bought in 1892 by john walters. It was reopened as a variety theatre in 1893. In the 1900s it became a picture palace and later a bingo hall before returning to its earlier roots as a theatre named the empire . In the new millenium the theatre changed back to its original name,the royal court.
Reported experiences.
Staff have reported that an apparition of a man has been seen in the rigging above the stage. Doors have been reported to be held shut and a presence has been felt in the dressing room area. Perhaps the strangest reports by a staff person is of coins seemingly tossed towards the stage from the audience area when the theatre is not in use.
The team decided to put coins on the arms of chairs on the front row as trigger objects.
We began with a walk around the building with chris body,a medium who is part of our investigation team.we started the walk in the lower circle area. Chris said he felt the presence of a gentleman he believed had owned this building and was very proud of it.he was then drawn to the stage area.here chris said there had been a tragedy above the stage resulting in the loss of a life.
We next headed for the dressing room area. Here again chris felt that the same man he came across in the lower circle would now and then make his presence known.
The walk ended in the bar and café areas upstairs. Chris said that a gentleman had suffered a heart attack in this section of the building.this was later confirmed by our host although the person had made a recovery.
The investigation
Vigils took place throughout the building with the team and hosts splitting into two groups.two vigils produced incidents that were to leave everyone present to debate them for days.
The first of these vigils involved a timeslip experiment. One of our team[pete] is a professional singer.pete went onto the stage while everybody else sat in the upper circle.as part of the experiment pete would sing songs performed in the early 1900s and everyone else would be his, audience.before the vigil was started the team checked that every unused seat was not down.our host judi confirmed that none of the seats were known to be faulty. During, pete performing his song it was noted on camera that a seat in the lower circle had lowered into a seated position.also team member darren asked did anyone hear a faint groaning noise.this noise was not heard by anyone else but when checking the filming later it was picked up on the recording.peter performed another song and in two different areas of the upper circle seats again were found to be down.
The second vigil of interest involved the stage area. Team members pete and dave had separated from their group and moved onto the stage.they were the only people in the auditoriam.the two groups were in the dressing room area and the bar area. Pete asked if any spirits present could copy him whistling.a whistling noise was heard back.he asked the same question and again a whistle was heard in answer.one of the groups was asked to join them on the stage.pete again asked if his whistle could be copied.again a response occurred.although everyone heard the response it was not caught on camera or recording.
Summary
The bacup royal court theatre was a wonderful investigation.it was great that the two main talking points were witnessed by groups of people.the timeslip experiment was brilliant.the chairs around the theatre dropping into a seated position caused great excitement. Although these incidents could not be proved to be paranormal due to not being caught on camera happening, judi our host said it was not known for these seats to drop as they had.
The whistles heard were excellent as they were in direct response to questions.everyone were accounted for when they happened so these were difficult to explain.
The team would like to thank judi and her guides for there wonderful hospitality and help in what was a memorable night.