Speaker 1: You're listening to the second and final part of Unexplained,
Speaker 1: season seven, episode twenty, The Haunting of Hannath Hall. I
Speaker 1: thought we might begin with a seance, says Tony. The
Speaker 1: group is gathered in the living room of Hannath Hall
Speaker 1: around a small dining table. The occupants of the house,
Speaker 1: Audrey and Derek Page and Audrey's mother Rose, Local journalist
Speaker 1: Anthony Wilmot and his acquaintances mister Perryman and mister Trumpus,
Speaker 1: and three members of the Cambridge University Society of Psychical
Speaker 1: Research Investigation Teamwell David Murray and Michael Brotherton have all
Speaker 1: taken a seat. The fourth member of the team, Alan Gold,
Speaker 1: has been tasked with keeping watch upstairs. A ripple of
Speaker 1: excitement circles the room as Tony takes a set of
Speaker 1: cards from his pocket, the letters of the alphabet numbers
Speaker 1: zero to nine and the words yes and no, and
Speaker 1: lays them out in a wide circle on the table.
Speaker 1: Then he takes a wineglass from a nearby cabinet and
Speaker 1: places it upside down in the middle of the cards.
Speaker 1: I take it you're all familiar with the wijab boards,
Speaker 1: he says. They all nod enthusiastically and draw closer together.
Speaker 1: Tony takes a candle from the mantelpiece and places it
Speaker 1: on the table. He lights it with a single strike
Speaker 1: of a match. Upstairs, in a dimly lit corridor, Alan
Speaker 1: closes the door to Bedroom A, the haunted bedroom, and
Speaker 1: positions a small table just outside it with a thermometer
Speaker 1: placed on top. Remarks the reading as sixty degrees fahrenheit
Speaker 1: in his note book, then heads back downstairs. All set,
Speaker 1: he says to Tony, poking his head into the living room. Great,
Speaker 1: says Tony, Let's begin, Derek, would you mind turning off
Speaker 1: the lights? Derek Julie obliges, then returns to his seat
Speaker 1: as Alan clicks on his torch and heads back upstairs.
Speaker 1: With everyone now seated in darkness save for the yellow,
Speaker 1: flickering light of the candle and the dying embers of
Speaker 1: a fire, Tony instructs everyone to place their fingers on
Speaker 1: top of the upturned glass. Is there anybody there? Asks Tony.
Speaker 1: There is no response. A scattering of nervous laughter breaks out.
Speaker 1: Tony waits for it to die down before asking again,
Speaker 1: is there anybody there? Look, it's moving, says Rose. Everyone
Speaker 1: fixes their attention to the glass that is now clearly
Speaker 1: moving over the table. Alan stands in pitch black at
Speaker 1: the top of the stairs. At the far end of
Speaker 1: the hallway is the door to Bedroom A, which he
Speaker 1: can't quite make out in the darkness. He tries to
Speaker 1: ignore the gasps coming up from the kitchen. When he
Speaker 1: hears a loud snap. It sounded like it came from
Speaker 1: the other end of the hallway. He flicks on the
Speaker 1: torch and points it into the darkness, surprised to see
Speaker 1: that the door to Bedroom A is now slightly ajar
Speaker 1: A little unsettled, he holds the light steady on the
Speaker 1: gap in the doorway, but sees no sign of movement.
Speaker 1: Slowly he makes his way down the corridor. He stops
Speaker 1: outside the children's bedroom and takes a quick look in sight.
Speaker 1: Both the children are fast asleep in their beds. Continuing on,
Speaker 1: he soon reaches Bedroom A. He shines the torchlight through
Speaker 1: the gap in the door and cocks his head to
Speaker 1: listen for any sound coming from inside. Is there anybody there,
Speaker 1: repeats Tony back in the living room. Wilmot lets out
Speaker 1: a gasp as the glass begins to shift across the
Speaker 1: surface of the table. It stops just in front of
Speaker 1: the cart labeled Yes. Now, come on, who's doing that?
Speaker 1: He says a little peeved. Well, it could be any
Speaker 1: of us, says Tony. Well it isn't me. I'm hardly
Speaker 1: touching it, look says Derrick. Sh We need to concentrate,
Speaker 1: says Audrey. Thank you, Audrey, you'd like to ask the
Speaker 1: next question, says Tony. Audrey looks at him nervously and
Speaker 1: pauses for effect before finally asking who are you back
Speaker 1: up stairs? Having heard no repeat of the snapping sound,
Speaker 1: Allan returns to the middle of the hallway and turns
Speaker 1: off the torch. He feels the temperature drop suddenly. Then
Speaker 1: from the direction of the stairs, he hears the unmistakable
Speaker 1: sound of footsteps climbing up toward him. T says Tony,
Speaker 1: as the glass continues its way around the alphabet, and
Speaker 1: h Hannath? Was that Hannath? The others watching stun silence
Speaker 1: as the glass moves back towards the Yes cart back upstairs,
Speaker 1: the sound of footsteps. It's getting louder. Alan keeps the
Speaker 1: torch pointed at the top of the stairs as he
Speaker 1: makes his way toward them. Finally, there he shines the
Speaker 1: light towards the bottom. The stairwell is completely empty. The
Speaker 1: seance is brought to a close, and the cu spr
Speaker 1: team retire to the lounge to discuss their findings. Alan
Speaker 1: fills them in on the sounds he heard upstairs, but
Speaker 1: theorizes that they were a little more than the creakings
Speaker 1: of an old house. In return, the others discuss the
Speaker 1: weija session. They speculate that either Wilmot or his friends
Speaker 1: Perryman and Trumpus were responsible for moving the glass. After
Speaker 1: a quick break for tea and sandwiches, Tony and Alan
Speaker 1: head off to begin observations in Bedroom A, while David
Speaker 1: and Michael initiate another seance with everyone else so they
Speaker 1: can keep an eye on them. It's just gone one
Speaker 1: thirty am when, with the others back round the table,
Speaker 1: Tony and Alan switch on their torches and make their
Speaker 1: way toward Bedroom A. As they passed the children's room,
Speaker 1: Tony checks inside and confirms that both are still fast
Speaker 1: asleep in their beds. When they arrive at the door
Speaker 1: to Bedroom A, Alan checks the thermometer he left outside
Speaker 1: the room. He's surprised to find that the mercury has
Speaker 1: dropped a full ten degrees. As the distant sound of
Speaker 1: voices bubble up from the kitchen, The two men push
Speaker 1: open the door to the bedroom and head inside. Back
Speaker 1: in the living room, Michael lays out the Weija cards
Speaker 1: once more and places the wineglass back in the center.
Speaker 1: David lights the candle and switches off the lights before
Speaker 1: returning to the table. Let's see what we can get
Speaker 1: this time, says Michael, placing his finger on top of
Speaker 1: the glass as the others do the same. A sudden
Speaker 1: hush descends and all eyes fix on the empty vessel.
Speaker 1: Is there anybody there? Asks David. Upstairs, Alan and Tony
Speaker 1: point their torches around. The room is exactly as it
Speaker 1: was from their earlier inspection. After making sure that there
Speaker 1: is nobody else hiding in the room with them, Alan
Speaker 1: closes the door and bolts it shut. They each take
Speaker 1: a seat on one of the mattresses on the floor, Then,
Speaker 1: facing each other, they connect the soles of their feet
Speaker 1: to make sure that neither is trying to hoax the other.
Speaker 1: Alan lays a blanket over them both as a second
Speaker 1: precautionary measure. With both settled into place, they switch off
Speaker 1: their torches, plunging themselves into complete and utter darkness. Perhaps
Speaker 1: it's gone for the night, says a despondent Derek. The
Speaker 1: group take a collective breath and take their fingers away
Speaker 1: from the glass, which hasn't moved an inch since they started.
Speaker 1: Michael suggests that Rose try the next question. Rose pauses
Speaker 1: for a moment before asking, is there anybody there? For
Speaker 1: a moment, there is nothing, But then, almost imperceptibly, at first,
Speaker 1: the glass starts to move. What was that, says Tony,
Speaker 1: throwing torchlight into the corner of the room. Alan does
Speaker 1: the same. Forget it, it was nothing. He nearly gave
Speaker 1: me a heart attack, says Alan. No wait over there, listen,
Speaker 1: says Tony again, more urgent now, Alleyan quickly turns his
Speaker 1: torch back on and sweeps it around the room. No,
Speaker 1: keep it off, just listen. Can you confirm that your
Speaker 1: name is Hannath? Asks Rose. The group watches and raped
Speaker 1: as the glass slides across the table to the yes
Speaker 1: cart before returning to the center of the circle. Why
Speaker 1: are you here? The glass moves quicker now from one
Speaker 1: letter to the other as it hastily spells out the
Speaker 1: words looking for someone. Rose looks nervously to her daughter.
Speaker 1: Who are you looking for? She asks, but the glass
Speaker 1: doesn't move. Will you give us a sign of your presence?
Speaker 1: After a moment's pause, the glass moves again to the
Speaker 1: yes card. There. Did you hear it? Just to your left,
Speaker 1: says Tony excitedly. It comes again, clear and unmistakable. This
Speaker 1: time three knocks on the floor just to Allan's left.
Speaker 1: Good God, Hello, Can you knock again? Three times? I
Speaker 1: don't believe it, says Allan, before adding hurriedly, knock once
Speaker 1: for yes and two knocks for no. Do you understand?
Speaker 1: You don't really think it's going to be able to
Speaker 1: make its presence known? Do you? Says Audrey. Try something else,
Speaker 1: insists Derrick. Where are you now? Asks Rose Again. The
Speaker 1: glass begins to move, but slower, this time, much more deliberate.
Speaker 1: It stops beside the letter G, then moves left to
Speaker 1: the letter E, then back to H, and around the
Speaker 1: circle until the word gehenna is spelt out and the
Speaker 1: glass returns to the center of the circle. Ger hennah
Speaker 1: Is that what it said? That's not a word. It
Speaker 1: must be a mistake. Try it again, says Wilmot. Wait,
Speaker 1: nobody knows that word, says David, looking across at all
Speaker 1: the bemused faces, He takes his finger suddenly from the glass.
Speaker 1: What is it? Asks Rose. I'm not sure I should
Speaker 1: just tell us, insists Wilmot. It's a Hebrew word. It
Speaker 1: means valley of Hinnham. It's a place just south of
Speaker 1: Mount Zion in Jerusalem. It's where the kings of Judah
Speaker 1: said to have sacrificed their children. They burned them alive.
Speaker 1: But what, says Wilmot, It's also another word for hell?
Speaker 1: Are you a male? Asks Tony. Back upstairs, comes the
Speaker 1: reply did you die in the house? Did you die?
Speaker 1: And natural death? Back downstairs, the group, thoroughly unsettled by
Speaker 1: David's revelation, bring the seance to an abrupt end, and
Speaker 1: Perryman and Trumpers decide to call it a night, and
Speaker 1: despite Wilmot's please for them to stay a while longer,
Speaker 1: he eventually agrees to join them in heading home. Wilmot
Speaker 1: is disappointed that he won't see Tony and Alan before leaving,
Speaker 1: but David promises to be in touch as soon as
Speaker 1: they have their reports written up. Soon after, the three
Speaker 1: friends head off back to Wisbeach with the others gone,
Speaker 1: Michael and David head upstairs to inform Alan and Tony
Speaker 1: that Wilmot and his friends have left. When they hear
Speaker 1: the sound of knocking coming from inside Bedroom A. It
Speaker 1: seems to be responding to Tony and Alan's questions. Allan
Speaker 1: explains from behind the door that they've just spent the
Speaker 1: last ten minutes communicating with some kind of female entity
Speaker 1: claiming to have been murdered in the house in nineteen
Speaker 1: oh six. Allan suggests David and Michael head to the washroom,
Speaker 1: the room below them, to make sure no one is
Speaker 1: making the noises from there. Before they leave, The pair
Speaker 1: make a trap outside the bedroom by tying a length
Speaker 1: of string around two music stands in case anyone plans
Speaker 1: to sneak around in the corridor while they're gone. Back downstairs,
Speaker 1: the pages are sitting in the living room as Michael
Speaker 1: and David continue through into the washroom beyond which they
Speaker 1: find completely empty. Back inside Bedroom A, the knocks are
Speaker 1: growing louder and more insistent as Tony and Allan continue
Speaker 1: to quiz the apparent entity. How old were you when
Speaker 1: you die? Asks Allan. There is a pause before a
Speaker 1: loud bang, bang bang. The bangs ring out from opposite
Speaker 1: sides of the room. Each bang gets closer to Tony,
Speaker 1: until finally a fourth wraps against the brass bedstand beside
Speaker 1: his head. Tony launches himself from the mattress. Why don't
Speaker 1: we check on the others downstairs? Equally unnerved, Alan is
Speaker 1: only too happy to take a break. He grabs his
Speaker 1: torch from the bed and hurriedly makes his way to
Speaker 1: the door. At the sound of yet another loud knock,
Speaker 1: Alan flings the door open and charges straight into David
Speaker 1: and Michael's trap, bringing the stands clattering to the floor
Speaker 1: and sending him stumbling back into the bedroom. With Tony
Speaker 1: close behind. The pair are forced back for a moment
Speaker 1: when they hear a strange rumbling from inside. Tony points
Speaker 1: to the torch just in time to catch one of
Speaker 1: the chairs seemingly being flung through the air and onto
Speaker 1: the mattress where he'd just been sitting. A stunned Tony
Speaker 1: holds the now stilled chair in a beam of torchlight.
Speaker 1: He stares at it for what seems like ours. Satisfied
Speaker 1: it won't move again, he picks it up and places
Speaker 1: it back on the pile of boxes. A moment later,
Speaker 1: it falls back down onto the floor, making both men
Speaker 1: jump again. Cursing himself, Tony picks it up one more
Speaker 1: time and places it firmly back onto the boxes. Tony's
Speaker 1: had a chair thrown at him, and we're getting clear messages,
Speaker 1: says Alan, running into the washroom, the adrenaline coursing almost
Speaker 1: visibly through him. Michael and David agreed to keep one
Speaker 1: the family as Alan and Tony, having gathered themselves, returned
Speaker 1: to Bedroom A to finish their questioning. Stepping back into
Speaker 1: the bedroom, Tony gasps when he catches sight of another
Speaker 1: chair that seems to have been placed on the floor,
Speaker 1: blocking the path from the door, while a cardboard box
Speaker 1: is now sitting on one of the mattresses under turret.
Speaker 1: The men move the items to the side and return
Speaker 1: to their makeshift beds to begin their questions anew. They
Speaker 1: start by asking how old the apparent entity was when
Speaker 1: she died. Downstairs, David and Michael hear a commotion in
Speaker 1: the living room. David heads through to find that Anthony
Speaker 1: Wilmot and his two friends have returned to the house.
Speaker 1: Wilmot explains that their car broke down half a mile
Speaker 1: away so they came back, hoping to get a lift
Speaker 1: into Wisbeach, with the family having filled them in on
Speaker 1: the events of the last few minutes. Wilmot asks if
Speaker 1: they can be of any assistance, but David declines the offer.
Speaker 1: Derek suggests he drives the three men back to their homes,
Speaker 1: and just after two am they head off together. Michael,
Speaker 1: suspicious of whether Wilmot and his friends had ever truly
Speaker 1: left the house at all, watches them in the car
Speaker 1: as it drives off the property and disappears into the night.
Speaker 1: Back upstairs, Tony and Allen continued their questions. What month
Speaker 1: did you die? Asks Tony. Eleven knocks come back in reply,
Speaker 1: and what day was that? Again the knocks come. They
Speaker 1: seem to emerge from a space just to the right
Speaker 1: of Tony, but as the knocks continue, now up to fourteen,
Speaker 1: they begin slowly again to draw nearer to him. In
Speaker 1: a panic, he shines his torch at the spot, bringing
Speaker 1: the knox to an abrupt stop, much to Allan's frustration.
Speaker 1: They're getting too close, says Tony. He takes a moment
Speaker 1: to recompose himself before switching the light off again and
Speaker 1: repeating the question The knocks return almost instantly and stop
Speaker 1: at eighteen eighteenth of November nineteen o six. Is that correct?
Speaker 1: Comes the reply? To make sure that neither of fabricating
Speaker 1: the exchanges, Tony suggests to Allan that they hold hands
Speaker 1: for the next question. Now, with the soles of their
Speaker 1: feet ganteed against each other's and their hands clasped tightly together,
Speaker 1: Tony asks again, are you still there? Comes the reply?
Speaker 1: With only Rose and Audrey left downstairs, Michael remains in
Speaker 1: the living room to keep watch over Rose, while David
Speaker 1: and Audrey, who's eager to hear the noises for herself,
Speaker 1: move into the washroom to listen from underneath the bedroom a.
Speaker 1: For the next twenty minutes, the pair stand in the
Speaker 1: pitch black together, listening silently as Tony and Alan can
Speaker 1: be heard from above. Each time they ask a question,
Speaker 1: the knocks come back without fail. At two forty five am,
Speaker 1: the wraps finally begin to peter out, with Tony and
Speaker 1: Alan concluding that the apparent entities age at death was
Speaker 1: either thirty eight or eighty three. The men from the
Speaker 1: cusbr take a break. An hour later, with Derek now
Speaker 1: having returned, the men restart their investigation with David keen
Speaker 1: to experience the haunted bedroom first hand. Michael agrees to
Speaker 1: keep the Pages and Rows company downstairs, while the other
Speaker 1: three head back up to Bedroom A, with Alan leading
Speaker 1: the way. The men once again pause outside the children's bedroom. Inside,
Speaker 1: the young boy and girl are still fast asleep in
Speaker 1: their beds. Alan shines his torch toward the end of
Speaker 1: the corridor and gives a start. The door to Bedroom
Speaker 1: A is slightly a jar. What is it? Asks Tony?
Speaker 1: I close that when we came downstairs. The men look
Speaker 1: to each other, then cautiously head toward the room. Alan
Speaker 1: leads the other two inside. Tony has just shut the
Speaker 1: door behind them when a strange metallic clattering is heard.
Speaker 1: He swiftly points his torch towards the internal bolt lock,
Speaker 1: where a large brass fork has been thoroughly jammed in
Speaker 1: its place, locking them inside. The men flash their torches
Speaker 1: about the room, but find no one else there with them,
Speaker 1: and all is still and silent. Taking a breath, Tony
Speaker 1: removes the fork from the lock and places it to
Speaker 1: the side. The men take a seat on the mattress
Speaker 1: nearest the middle of the room, arranging themselves in a circle.
Speaker 1: They plant their feet one against each other, and once
Speaker 1: again switch off their talk watches. In the darkness, they
Speaker 1: reach out and take hold of each other's hands. Is
Speaker 1: anybody there, asks Tony. For a moment, there is nothing
Speaker 1: but silence. Then something very gentle, like a soft rustling,
Speaker 1: is heard. As they listen further, the noise intensifies until
Speaker 1: it sounds like scratching an animal, suggests Allen, but Tony
Speaker 1: isn't so sure. He listens more intently, now focusing his
Speaker 1: mind on nothing but the sound coming from somewhere out
Speaker 1: of the dark to his right. As he stares toward
Speaker 1: the back wall, it feels as though that same dark
Speaker 1: is collapsing into itself, and then it is pulling him
Speaker 1: in from somewhere far away. A cold breeze drifts through
Speaker 1: the room. Suddenly, David and Alan sent something tugging at
Speaker 1: their hands. Tony's body has gone limp. Go away, go away,
Speaker 1: he shouts, startling himself awake, before leaning forward suddenly with
Speaker 1: his head in his hands. I must have fallen asleep.
Speaker 1: Alan quickly feels for Tony's wrist and finds his pulse
Speaker 1: racing at over two beats a second. What happened. Something
Speaker 1: was attacking me a horse. I think all I could
Speaker 1: see were the hoofs kicking down onto my head. It
Speaker 1: was just as Derek's mother had experienced during her brief
Speaker 1: stay in the same room. Alan and David wait a
Speaker 1: moment for Tony to calm. When he assures them he's
Speaker 1: okay to continue, the three men begin again. For more
Speaker 1: than an hour, they sit holding hands in the dark,
Speaker 1: asking questions into the air, but there are no more replies.
Speaker 1: At five a m Tony, Allan and David decide to
Speaker 1: call it a night. They gather their things and make
Speaker 1: their way downstairs for a final cup of tea and
Speaker 1: another debrief. When Tony shows the brass fork to Audrey,
Speaker 1: Derrick and Rose, each claims to have never seen it before.
Speaker 1: A short time later, the men of the Cambridge University
Speaker 1: Society for Psychical Research thank the Pages and Rose for
Speaker 1: their time and make their way back to the car.
Speaker 1: It is still dark outside. As Tony pulls out to
Speaker 1: the end of the driveway. He takes in the looming
Speaker 1: presence of Hanneth Hall last time before slowly easing out
Speaker 1: into the road and heading off into the distance. None
Speaker 1: of the cu spr team will ever be entirely sure
Speaker 1: quite what it was they'd experienced that night. As they
Speaker 1: make their way south, it isn't long before the waterways,
Speaker 1: vast open skies, and plowed black earths of the fens
Speaker 1: are replaced by more familiar and solid surrounds. As they
Speaker 1: cross the border into the city of Cambridge, a pale
Speaker 1: winter sun is just creeping up over the horizon, while
Speaker 1: in the sky above the stars have all but dissolved
Speaker 1: into daylight. Over the next two years, Tony Cornell and
Speaker 1: Alan Goud return to Hannith Hall on at least ten
Speaker 1: further occasions, although no audio or visual proof of the
Speaker 1: apparent Poultic guysed activity was ever recorded. Of the eight
Speaker 1: hundred cases of supposed paranormal activity that Tony would eventually
Speaker 1: go on to investigate, he only considered a handful to
Speaker 1: be as genuine as you might ever hope to find.
Speaker 1: Hannath Hall was one of them. This episode was written
Speaker 1: by Richard McLain Smith unexplained as an Avy Club Productions
Speaker 1: podcast created by Richard McClain Smith. All other elements of
Speaker 1: the podcast, including the music, are also produced by me.
Speaker 1: Richard McClain Smith. Unexplained The book and audiobook, with stories
Speaker 1: never before featured on the show, is now available to
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Speaker 1: in touch with any thoughts or ideas regarding the stories
Speaker 1: you've heard on the show. Perhaps you have an explanation
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