I first visited Peterborough Museum with Phil Whyman and his paranormal events team and realised straight away that I had to return to the location in the future with a team of my own to conduct an investigation.

So, in 2010 I did and we were not disappointed!

A Little History

The main part of the current museum building dates back to the early 1800’s when it was a grand Georgian house of Thomas Cook and his wife Charlotte. Prior to this the land was given to the Orme family by King Henry VIII back in 1538.

The house was converted into a hospital around 1856 and remained as the Peterborough Infirmary until 1928. The building was later opened as a museum in 1931, taking on the role which it is known for today.

The Ghosts and Spirits of Peterborough Museum

Peterborough Museum has varying reports of activity throughout the building; from the Cellar to the Main Stairs and to the Back Staircase too. This has included reports of strange lights, weird noises, the sound of footsteps, temperature changes, ghostly voices and more.

The Cellar alone has been said to be a bit of a hotbed of paranormal activity with reports of moving objects, the feeling of a ghostly breath on your face and possible sightings of a Monk in the shadows. Those that have been brave enough to venture into the Cellar alone have told stories of feeling uneasy and the presence of something else down there with them.

One of the most famous ghosts of the Museum is probably that of the ANZAC soldier located on the main staircase. It’s believed that the soldier died in the building in July 1916 when the building was a hospital.

The Back Staircase also holds reports of some rather chilling ghostly visions, including the form of a young woman. This staircase also has had many visitors feeling as if they have been touched or pushed in the area, which could relate to the possible story of a servant being pushed down the stairs. Taps and knocks are also commonly heard in this area.

On the upper floors there are a few that have said they’ve witnessed the presence of a White Lady too. A Roman Soldier is said to stand near to a sword that is on display in the museum too. Down on the ground floor there have been accounts of moving furniture and other poltergeist related activity too.

Some of the witnesses I’ve spoken to have backed up some of this activity, but also added some additional stories of their own. Including a child’s building block which was thrown across the room by unseen hands and one individual that saw what looked like a small dog crawling across the floor.

My Visit to Peterborough Museum

In 2010 I arrived at Peterborough Museum with a team of seven people, each of which would add significant value to our investigation. My intention was to understand the location and hopefully capture or experience some of the reported activity that the museum had to offer.

We setup the location with various equipment including CCTV and the usual paranormal gadgetry. Focussing our attention on the known hot spots.

We also setup a Singapore Theory based experiment during a part of the evening at the bottom of the Main Staircase. In this instance we used an iPod and speaker to play a selection of music from around the 1916 era. The idea here being that as the music was from the same time period as the ANZAC Soldier it may stir up some activity from when the building was a hospital and when the soldier was there. This also had a couple of extra effects, it was a very eerie background music which could be heard throughout the building. It also made a noticeable change to the atmosphere during the investigation. Perhaps this experiment may have been responsible for some of the activity experienced that night, it certainly seemed to change something!

Our vigil on the first floor saw us attempt to engage with a possible spirit of a child by building towers of blocks and rolling a ball. To our amazement this actually worked and on one occasion we witnessed an object move by itself, rolling across the floor ever so slightly. We just about caught this on film too. Please check out the full investigation report here for all the details and video.

Our time in the Cellar returned some interesting things too! It seemed to begin with faint knocking or tapping, but escalate from there. Members of the team experienced what can only be described as the room becoming much darker than it was initially, but this was also followed by what we thought was someone peering around the corner at us.

This feeling of an area becoming darker occurred upstairs at the base of the main staircase too. The feel of the area also felt different too, something strange was a foot! As a couple of us sat on the bottom of the staircase looking up we saw something travelling up the top set of stairs. Whatever it was resembled an orange flickering glow, much like a candle light; perhaps it was the residual energy of a nurse or perhaps our ANZAC soldier. We later tested the theory of candle light using one of Stuarts lanterns, which appeared to be an excellent match.

A Most Haunted Location Indeed

Many of the team and I experienced oddities that night at the museum, many of which remain unexplained. It’s for this very reason that Peterborough Museum remains one of my top ten most haunted locations in the UK that I have had the pleasure of investigating.

If you would like to read about the investigation in a little more detail the investigation report can be found here along with the video of the moving object. Simply follow this link.

Also, if you’ve ever visited or investigated Peterborough Museum, then I would like to hear about it too? Have you ever experienced similar activity as I did with my team?

Have You Ever Been To One Of My Top Ten Most Haunted Locations In The UK? Would love to hear your comments below.

I will be posting the ghost stories, and how our investigations went in future articles on this site. So, make sure you follow me on Twitter, or like my Facebook Page to hear the latest. Better still, so you don’t miss out on any spooky haunting stories, you can sign up for me free newsletter here:

Also, if you run paranormal events I am interested in checking out the experience and event that you deliver to your customers. Invite me along and perhaps your event will make my top five paranormal events for 2016.