This black and white coaching inn is one of the oldest inns in Cheshire, and parts of it date from mid 14th Century. It still retains some original structural features. There is a small cobbled forecourt. It has a main bar with a large fireplace and two other rooms forming the lounge. These have very low ceilings and exposed beams. The place is decorated with a large number of horse brasses, brass plates, copper ware, maps and photographs.

Even those of you who are skeptics cannot help but be fascinated by the strange phenomena reported all around the country, today as they have been for hundreds indeed thousands of years. Ghosts, ghouls and poltergeists abound in Britain and one of the most haunted counties is Cheshire. Few people actually get to see a spectre appear before them, but there is no doubting that places associated with historic or horrific events retain an indefinable atmosphere. A most accommodating aspect of British ghost tales is that so many are centered on pubs and Inns. The inns and pubs that are scattered throughout Cheshire have a lot of haunted history attached to them and there are many that have a history that stretches way back to Elizabethan times or beyond. These pubs are just as much a tourist attraction as they are a watering hole and the Blue Bell Inn is certainly at the top of my list. This is an eccentric pub and well worth the effort to visit.

Cheshire offers a peek into some of Britain’s most important historical events as well as the continuation of a very long British tradition for enjoying a pint or two of ale with your friends. Visiting them offers a different way to learn about their haunted history, most publicans are only too pleased to tell you about the other spirits that frequent their premises, while you sip on a refreshing beer.

Group members attending this Investigation

 Andrea Ellis, Kate Lloyd, Mike Griffiths and Jimmy Ellis

 The Investigation

Unfortunately on this particular occasion the investigation was severely limited by the restraints imposed on us by the landlady of the Blue Bell Inn. We never question the why and why not’s because at the end of the day they have to live there, we don’t, but of course we like to think we are professional enough to play with the cards we’ve been dealt. The very fact that ghosts or spirits are a source of much fear for many people seems somewhat bewildering to me. The reason is probably because they represent the 'unknown' and this factor is unsettling to the human psyche. But why should the unknown be something that causes such fear?

Fear of ghosts or spirits – also known as spectrophobia or phasmophobia – most obviously stems from our fear of the unknown. This is a deep-seated fear that is hard-wired into our genetic makeup. The primitive parts of our brain that respond to instinct – a holdover from our cave-dwelling ancestors – flushes our bodies with adrenaline when we encounter a threat, preparing us to fight or flee. And when that threat is something unknown that might leap out of the darkness, we'd just as soon flee.

 There's another component to this fear when that something in the dark is perceived as a spirit. After all, a spirit is the manifestation of a person who is dead. So now we are confronted not only with what we think is a threat to our lives, but a representative of death itself. Not only is it an entity that we don't understand, it is also a resident of the place many of us fear the most – the mysterious land of the dead.

One of the group’s investigators was picking up on an area around the fireplace that he was being drawn to, apparently this fireplace was once the location of a priest hole and during some renovations some artifacts of by gone years had been found, Behind the counter and over the fireplace on a beam, there are bells stacked in rows. Near the main bar counter, there is a glass case containing several articles which were recovered from the wall cavities during renovation. On display are: a hat which is about 300 years old, Lady s shoes and a hat worn by a Miss Weaver in 1735 AD, and a mummified rat which is believed to be about 400 years old. On the walls there are framed accounts of a duck which haunted the Blue Bell Inn.

Our medium sensed three sprits that haunt the Inn, one was a young boy aged about 8 who walks the Inns rooms. This fair haired child was wearing black trousers and what he thought was a white shirt, like the old naval blouse design with the flap at the back of the neck with a red neck tie. The name for the young boy was given as John Hickson unfortunately the boy didn’t give a name for his mother. John had died of a respiratory health problem sometime during the 1850’s, he also believed that his mother worked at the inn and was probably a servant or maid of some kind, and they had originally lived in the Nantwich area.

One of the men was described as having the appearance of a Cavalier and gave his name as Roger Dunning he had fought for the Royalist Army of King Charles in 1643 in the area of Cheshire and he gave his Commanders name as one John Marrow who unfortunately was shot and killed some time later. Roger had a link to our second spirit who gave the name of John Davies to our medium. John was the landlord of the Blue Bell Inn around 1655 both these men had been cheating the Army out of provisions by selling food and goods that should have been destined for the royalist troops in the area of Chester. Whatever happened to these two spirits in life is unclear or if they ever paid for their crimes is unknown, but their spirits still haunt the Blue Bell Inn to this day.

Another spirit that had been picked up was that of a very large family dog which roamed around the rooms and corridors. This is rare for our medium and only the third time he as ever picked up on an animal spirit. This dog was thought to have died within the last 20 years. The landlord said that this was true and that a previous landlord had owned a Great Dane by the name of either Dino or Deano. People who believe in an afterlife and the possibility of spirits are often skeptical when it comes to the idea of spirit animals. They don't have souls or spirits, goes the argument, and therefore cannot have a life in the next world. But cats, dogs, birds and other animals are made up of the same energy that humans are, and this energy can survive death, just as it can for people.

Plenty of photo’s had been taken and one of the investigators had caught an anomaly sitting in one of the rooms, it looked white and slightly orb shaped. Other photos taken also showed orb activity. There is much debate about whether orbs are just dust, moisture particles, inexplicable light anomalies, or whether they really are signs that a spirit is present and trying to communicate with the physical world. Perhaps the most appealing fact about these phenomena is that all it takes is a digital camera for anyone to possibly capture such intriguing images. It is an interesting look at a subject, which clearly requires much further debate and the amount of orbs we have in our collection certainly makes this of interest to us all! Though it perhaps in fairness, fails to offer any persuasive evidence to support the phenomena.

Spirit Portals, Doorways

This type of haunting, or paranormal phenomena, is the most controversial type of haunting that has been documented to date by paranormal researchers. The idea that this type of activity may actually exist is still mostly theory and conjecture... although evidence is starting to be collected which may actually prove these "portals" exist. The problem is that this type of haunting is the least understood and least traditional of all types of spirit activity.

Any ghost researchers reject the theories behind "portals" because they do not fit into their accepted ideas of haunted places.... but we cannot afford to do this. We cannot afford to just reject off-hand something that we simply do not understand. Just think, if we had done this, many researchers would still be thinking that "poltergeist" activity was the work of evil spirits.... and not activity caused by the hidden depths of the human mind.

So, strange and untraditional or not, the idea of the "portal" must be examined because evidence is starting to appear which just may surprise the doubters among you.

The idea of a "portal" or a "doorway" to another dimension is not a new one. Many researchers believe that there are places all over the world that serve as "doorways" from our world to another. These doorways are thought to provide access for entities to enter our world. They may be the spirits of people who have lived before, or they could be something else altogether. Some researchers even believe that they could be otherworldly beings from another dimension.

If that sounds far-fetched, believe me, it isn't as strange as it sounds. The entities sighted, reported and even photographed around what many believe to be "portals" could be the spirits of the dead.... or something much stranger.

f locations like this do exist and they are "doorways", isn't it an easy assumption to make that these spots could have been labeled as "haunted" over the years by people who have seen things near them that they couldn't explain? I believe this has probably happened quite often and these places didn't become "haunted" as other places do (through tragic events or death)..... These locations had already been that way for many, many years.

One of the most common locations for these "doorways" seems to be in cemeteries. Now, as a rule, most cemeteries are not haunted, but in the past few years, ghost hunters have collected dozens and dozens of anomalous photographs taken in cemeteries. There seems to be no explanation why many of these cemeteries would become haunted unless they provided access for spirits, or entities, to pass from one world to the next.

Of course, some of the cemeteries are haunted in the traditional manner.... it's the ones that aren't which causes the puzzle. It is possible that these sites were "haunted" long before a cemetery was located there. It is possible that the psychic draw of the area was what caused our ancestors to locate a cemetery there in the first place. They may have felt there was something "sacred" or "spiritual" about the place and without realising why, they placed a burial ground there and made it a protected place.

The Native Americans chose their burial grounds in this manner, although they did it consciously. They found a place to bury and honor the dead which they felt was more closely connected to the next world. Many of these locations are now considered to be "haunted" or at least inhabited by spirits.

So why not our own cemeteries? Could our own ancestors have not chosen the sites for our own burial grounds in the same manner, albeit in an unconscious way? These "doorways" could be passages to the next world and the entities captured on film here could be the spirits of the dead... passing back and forth between two worlds.