Location

The Trevor Arms itself dates from 1811, when it took over the function of toll house from an adjacent cottage and also its ale licence when one widow Hignett retired. Some of the tolls for this period were 4d (pennies) for more than three cattle and 1d for every person on foot carrying goods to market. It soon became a coaching house providing an opportunity for rest, changing and adding horses before tackling Marford Hill. During the nineteenth century horse racing took place on the field at the foot of Marford hill. At one meeting held on the 26th of December 1853 'The Trevor Arms Stakes' was run with prize money of £5 10 shillings.

The Investigation

The Group started the investigation upstairs in room 7 with a locked off night vision camera. [Orb activity started immediately. Spiritual orb are thought to represent the soul of a departed person. The soul being the essence of who they were in life, complete with their intelligence, their emotions and their personality. The orb or sphere is common in our every day lives. The earth and moon are spheres. Our blood cells are sphere shaped]. Two of the group's female investigators along with two female guests and the landlord's wife conducted a table tipping. The group asked for any spirit to join them and move the table. The name of Elizabeth had been given by Ray and started to work with the group she started to move the table violently back and forth until the table tipped over.

A seance was held in the pool room and a night vision camera fixed to cover the table, but nothing seemed to be happening, some orbs had been caught and recorded onto tape, but there was no response from any spirit to come forward and make themselves known. The group decided to return to room 7 and perform a Ouija Board reading.

The Ouija Board seemed to be bringing through spirit messages that didn't seem to be making any sense until the spirit of an Elizabeth came through, the details of the message included she was one Elizabeth Nell aged 29, she was born in 1910 and once lived in Gresford. Some of the group live in Gresford and decided to ask the spirit to name the three pubs in the village close to the church...Elizabeth spelled out the "Plough", then the "Griffin" and finally the "Yew tree". She was then asked to name the church...and she spelled out "All Saints". All of this information was indeed correct. She gave her husband's name as Colom Nell who was in the Navy. The address they lived at in Gresford was 40 Pant Lane. They had been killed in Manchester by a bomb in 1939. To everyone's surprise there seemed to be a family link between Elizabeth and two family members of our investigation team. Elizabeth had even spelled out the name Jean, again a sister to Jim our group's founder.

17th Century Cavalier? On our three visits to this area and location the spirit of a Civil war soldier from the mid-sixteen hundreds had shown a great interest in contacting our mediums with clear information about just who he was and where he had lived, he had even tried to contact us while we performed a seance and investigation at a cottage close to the Trevor Arms a week before our first visit. He was determined to let us know his story, and indeed how he came to lose his life in the Marford area.

This is the information gleaned from him during our last visit and now included in this report. There is no doubt in my mind that the sprit thought to be a Cavalier and seen at the Trevor Arms is definitely wrong. The man seen in uniform with a large black hat [no feather] is in fact a man by the name of THOMAS WILLOUGHBY, who was 33 years old when he died. He was born in Ballymena in Ireland in 1610, no wife or children and was a carpenter by trade; he worked alongside his brother CLIFFORD WILLOUGHBY. He and his only brother spent much of their spare time catching fish in the river which was close to their home. The landowners name was given, one WILLIAM ADAIRE or ADARE, but Thomas and Clifford both liked and respected him because he was a good man and allowed both brothers to trap and net fish in the Braid which was on his land. Thomas left Ireland for England to join up with the Royalist Army of King Charles, and fight the Parliamentarian Army. He joined Byron's Oxford Army and was a foot-soldier. He along with five other foot-soldiers were making their way towards Chester looking to muster volunteers to join their army. He was killed in a skirmish with enemy soldiers in 1643. When Thomas was killed, the area of the Trevor Arms was mostly open fields and hedgerows with just a few thatched cottages. He often walks the area outside of the Trevor Arms. Why he would want to stay in this location we don't know. He is aware of other spirits in the house, but never acknowledges them. I did ask him if he wanted to be sent over, but he was happy to stay. My feeling is that he is a good man with a good soul and no threat to anyone that happens to come across him.

A gentleman staying at the Trevor Arms Hotel during our investigation had experienced paranormal activity in room 19. During the night he woke up and heard what he thought to be someone walking across the room and then sit on the end of his bed, and it felt like the room had become much colder. The next night he woke up and when he tried to climb out of bed it felt like he was being held back and prevented from getting up. He admitted that he had always been a sceptic and that seeing was believing and he had never experienced anything quite like this before. He even admitted that when he rang his wife and told her his story she accused him of having had too much beer. From our previous walk about Mike had picked up on Thomas Willoughby in this particular room and told this gentleman not to be alarmed and to try and indulge in a conversation with him because Thomas was a good natured man during his life and still is in death.

The Findings

Plenty of orbs caught on our locked off cameras again, a table that rocked and tipped over which we seem to be becoming blase about. But the highlight of the night was the message from Elizabeth for family members of the group; of course all this information will be investigated because in the past the Ouija Board has proved to be unreliable.

Folklore and the Padfoot The Padfoot:

Also known as 'Black Shuck', 'Grim', and 'Shuck Dog'. In Wales it's the Gwyllgi (dog of darkness) a fire-eyed spirit in the form of a great black dog, the size of a small calf. Known to protect lone travellers; or kill the unworthy. Sometimes, an omen of death. Invisible at will; at home in the fens, downs, and marshes of any world. The Padfoot is always completely silent.... The Padfoot has been a legend since the 1500's.

The Padfoot was probably descended from the Viking legends of Odin's black hounds and Thor's own dog, Shukr. At first the Padfoot was seen as an omen of death, and a messenger of the devil. More recently, the Padfoot's true, benevolent nature has been discovered. Reports and sightings show a protector of travellers, and an understanding of humans. The Padfoot's form conflicts with his nature, however-- a gigantic, fiery-eyed black dog appearing at midnight in a fen would scare the living daylights out of anyone.

Many Names: The Padfoot is called by many different names. In Yorkshire and Lancashire, the Padfoot is called Guytrash, Shriker or Barguest. East Anglia and Norfolk are the origin of 'Black Shuck' and Skeff. In Southern England, 'Yeth' and 'Wish Hound' are the Padfoot's aliases. The origin of 'Guytrash' is unknown. 'Shuck' may be from the Old English word, 'Scucca', meaning 'demon' or 'spirit'. 'Yeth' means 'heath', and 'Wish' may be an old Sussex word for 'marsh'. 'Barguest' may be a German word, 'Bargeist', which means 'spirit of the graveyard'('Geist' means 'spirit' or 'ghost').

A typical sighting is a Padfoot appearing suddenly out of the gloom, walking with a traveller for a few paces, and then slowly fading from sight. Several sightings have been more violent, however; an early Padfoot raced through a church and killed two kneeling parishioners in an instant. Burn marks on the church door can still be seen today.

A 1577 sighting of the Padfoot shows a great fear by humans. "There appeared in a most horrible form a dog of a black colour, together with fearful flashes of fire which made some in the assembly think doomsday was come. This dog, or the Devil in such a likeness, ran the length of the church with great swiftness and incredible haste, passed between two persons as they were kneeling and wrung the necks of them both at one instant."

But one scholar says, "There is rather more evidence that black dogs are friendly (or at least, harmless) than they are dangerous. Indeed, the dogs are often positively helpful." In more recent times, there have been more benevolent sightings than evil ones.