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INTRODUCTION AND HISTORY Continuing our investigation into the ancient Village of Cheam (now engulfed by The London Borough of Sutton), the Grade Two-listed Old Rectory dates from the early 1500’s and stands opposite our previous investigation at Lumley Chapel. This beautiful building stands in the vast area that was the estate of Nonsuch Manor (now long since demolished), one of King Henry VIII’s homes. The Stables and Old Laundry are intact and The Orchards and Farmland (which once fed the residents of the Rectory) is now occupied by the New Rectory and flats in Michelham Gardens. The Rectors of Cheam were Bishops of Chichester for many years and the post is still an important Church position. It is tempting to imagine the Rectory, which would have formed a kind of B&B for prominent visitors to the Court of Nonsuch, humming with gossip. Queen Elizabeth the First said, ‘I love well of Nonsuch air’ and hunted in the park with her boyfriend, the Earl of Leicester. After he died and his stepson the Earl of Essex replaced him in her affections, Nonsuch was the scene of Essex’s downfall when he burst into Elizabeth’s bedroom without warning, finding her without wig or make-up. Previously, he had kept up the flattering fiction that she was an attractive woman whom he desired. She was conciliatory, fearing that this was a rebellion – but she had literally lost face, and he lost his head! Later, Nonsuch was a centre of Catholic plotting to put Mary, Queen of Scots on the throne. The Lumley family lived here for years but the Palace decayed until Charles 2nd gave it to Barbara, Lady Castlemaine, a high-maintenance sexy piece, who had it pulled down and sold the stones to pay her gambling debts. A well-known Rector of Cheam was Lancelot Andrewes who wrote the famous meditation on the Magi: ‘A cold coming they had of it. Just the very worst time for a journey, and such a long journey.’ These words were taken by T.S. Eliot to open his famous poem, Journey of the Magi. The Rectory survived a bomb in the Second World War and you can see many pitted bricks on the outside wall to the left. Whilst everyone arrived, we filmed an interview with Jane Funeral who provided some very interesting tales of the Rectory’s alleged paranormal occurrences. These included apparitions of a child, a Grey Lady and even a Roman Legion that marches through the Living Room wall towards the old Village of Cuddington! Author Jane Furnival and her family now own the property and were exceptionally welcoming to the Spiral team.
CELLAR / GROUND FLOOR This was out largest team to date with eleven people splitting into two teams. Jane’s son Will had also joined us as a cameraman along with houseguest Sarah. After a pre-investigation briefing from Marq, Alexis took everyone on a tour of the Rectory so to familiarise people with the property. Being an old building, we were making sure that creaks from the ambience of the Rectory were realistically explained before any paranormal reason would be given. Our psychic Alan went down to the cellar alone to prepare himself in quite meditation. With Alexis and Marq as Team Leaders, Alexis took Team A (Byron, Hannah, Lisa, Will) into the living room whilst Marq took Team B (Alan, Patricia, Sally, Lianne, Sarah) down into the cellar. Alan began to pick up on a male who had been killed across the road in the Red Lion pub in the Eighteenth Century. Although this male had not passed in the cellar, his body was brought here for a while. Interestingly, Alan had picked up on this same person a few weeks before when he visited the pub and sensed the murder at the pub Well. Alexis and her team sat quietly in the Living Room with Hannah calling out. Later in the Hallway, Hannah was picking up on a child that would later be relevant to the investigation. Later on, the team’s swapped round and Team B entered the Living Room. Alan focused in on the atmosphere and picked up a lady entering the room. At this precise moment by the doorway, Marq felt a chill go through him as Patricia took a digital photo that caught a number of light anomalies around the area. Alan pointed out that this was the same lady he had sensed in the nearby Whitehall some months earlier. As we continued our vigil in the Living Room, Sally detected a higher reading on the EMF Reader (Electro Magnetic Field) around Lianne. What was interesting that the EMF field seemed to follow Lianne around? We asked Sarah to sit in the same chairs as an experiment as Lianne had but there was no reading. Alan sensed that the lady he had picked up on earlier was looking after Lianne. He asked Lianne if she had been ill recently which she confirmed as true. It is important to point out that EMF readings are not scientific proof of spiritual activity but it was odd that the energy field was following someone about the room!
FIRST AND SECOND FLOOR BEDROOMS After a break we ventured out to the stables, although nothing was occurring here and Alan was not picking up any individua spirit presence, he did once again sense the strong linking between all of the older buildings in Cheam Village. We then headed upstairs to the First and Second Floors. We spilt up into teams and took different Bedrooms to explore. Alexis’s managed to capture quite a few light anomalies around her partner Byron that was very interesting. Patricia as well managed to capture various light anomalies around the building with one intriguing photo taken in the crew room. Although two light anomalies were captured here, there is an unknown image to the middle left of the picture that seems to look like a torso? We moved into one of the Master Bedrooms. Sitting on the bed, Alan was sensing a lady who had lost a child here (the same child Hannah had picked up earlier?). We all watched as Alan became very emotional because of this lady’s loss and Marq wanted to take him out of the atmosphere although Alan was happy to stay. Marq took a digital still during this time and captured a light anomaly above Alan’s head. After a while, we moved to a spare room. Patricia and Sally thought they heard what sounded like a Maid’s bell (unfortunately the camera was not on at this point) from the landing. The others in the team did not hear anything so any validity is hard to confirm. In the adjoining Bedroom, Alexis once again captured various light anomalies.
CELLAR / ST DUNSTAN’S CHURCHYARD With some of the team retired for the evening, we headed back down to the Cellar where Alan had earlier picked up on a murder victim. We attempted further call outs and Sally felt something touching her hair a few times (although this could be caused by any number of natural explanations). We were suddenly startled by a light crash behind us although we couldn’t say what it was. As the night at the Rectory was drawing to a close, Alan suggested that we take a walk over to St Dunstan’s Churchyard. Exploring this area at 4.30am was intriguing, especially when Alan picked up on a rather bad tempered male who wanted us to leave right away! Patricia managed to capture some light anomalies around this area. With the Sun starting to break through the night sky, we decided to call it an evening.
CONCLUSION Our evening at The Old Rectory had been a fascinating experience. Light anomalies, interesting EMF readings and possible connection with the Rectory’s historic past had given us topic for discussion. With the buildings strong connection to the surrounding area, we now want to find out more about the nearby Red Lion Pub (the oldest pub in the Borough) and the magnificent Whitehall to see if further details of Cheam’s paranormal and historic would present itself.
Ghost Walks at the Rectory are available for interested parties. Please contact Jane Furnival at the Rectory website at the top of the page. |
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MEV Productions / Spiral © 2007 |
