Derbyshire, UK
Old Church - South Street
Spooky Goings-on at former JD's cafe bar (now the Hop)
STABBINGS, hangings and necks being broken are all legacies of gruesome deaths at the site of an Ilkeston pub in years gone by - but are they really consigned to history?
JD's Cafe Bar at the bottom of South Street has had some spooky situations recently that suggest somebody or something isn't ready to be forgotten just yet.
There have have been tales of paranormal practice for years but nobody has been able to back it up with facts, but that may all be about to change.
Parapsychologist Jack Phillips of New Lawn Road, Ilkeston has been involved with investigating supernatural signs for 20years and is Vice President of The Society for Paranormal Research. After hearing of the phenomena at the pub, Jack posted a letter to landlord, Ozzy, and set off a chain of events that was totally unexpected.
Last week when it was just me and Ozzy here the alarms went off and we couldn't shut them off, when we tried we realised that the alarm hadn't even been activated and no signal was being sent to the police station.
"The sensor was showing movement in four areas of the pub but there were only two people in here, then when the sensor shutoff we were able to reset the alarm."
It was the latest in a two week series of eerie incidents.
Ozzy said: "Since the letter came through the door four separate people have seen silhouettes or figures on the top balcony - I have seen a silhouette on the CCTV and twice seen a figure up there, but I couldn't explain it."
Mediums have been called in and their accounts of things they have seen in the pub are backed up by historical fact - while members of staff have been overcome with a drowning sensation in the courtyard coupled with sharp pains in their side. The exact spot it is rumoured that a prostitute was murdered!
Electromagnetic Field readings have been conducted in the pub, with the electrics off, that have - according to experts - suggested a high possibility of supernatural activity.
Jack explains: "The meter will give EMF readings that stay constant between one and ten when around an electrical field.
"When it encounters a field not from an electricity point it fluctuates. In this pub it has given me readings of ten on the meter.
"You don't get ten ever, it is most likely when directly beneath an electric pylon, the readings were coming from points in the pub. Sceptics have said they have seen apparitions, but more convincingly there are no electric points nearby or even switched on.
"It is my job as a parapschologist to disprove the existence of supernatural presence with scientific fact, in 20 years it is the first time I have not been able to explain what is happening!"
Ozzy and Carol welcome people to come forward with their own stories of strange goings on in the pub grounds and are keen to hear particularly old stories and have old pictures of the site in its former guises as church and graveyard.