I was never really meant to spend over a decade returning to the same Swanage pub time after time; investigating its claims of spontaneous paranormal activity. It was a case that a friend that I investigated with; Aaron, brought to my attention and one that we thought we would visit once perhaps, debunk much of the activity and leave with our skeptical heads held high. I do not wish to use the term ‘open and shut case’ but in reality I think that is exactly what I thought this case would be.

The Royal Oak had other plans; this was to be an intricate and fascinating case that would not only have me return many times over to observe, investigate and to a degree experiment; but it would also guide me on my own journey into psychical research. As the Royal Oak Case evolved through its layers of oddity, so would I evolve as an investigator, researcher and general explorer of the paranormal. And all that would begin with a single event I could not explain in a dusty loft.

I had found myself sat cross-legged facing Pete in the loft space above a room that many labelled as feeling ‘heavy’ or they would feel ‘trapped’ whilst staying there. My team was yet to experience this during one of our first investigations at the Royal Oak. Many of the team were stood in the room, whilst one team member attempted to film us from the loft hatch.

The room itself was odd; it was certainly a loft space, dusty, full of boxes, unused, but also had a window where the moonlight illuminated the room. It felt very much like it had once been a room used by whomever resided at the pub, perhaps prior to its life as a pub. I did not know it then, but in the future it would once again become a bedroom, that of the landlady Rachel.

As we sat there we decided that the simplest approach would be to call out into the darkness of that dusty space; asking for something, anything to connect with us. Between us I had placed my Grandfather’s pocket watch, an old slightly scratch gold timepiece that reminded me of the tall man that had been there as we grew up sharing his love of steam trains with us. The pocket watch was there as perhaps a trigger object or just there, I couldn’t really tell. However, as it was there, in desperation of trying to get something to happen I offered it up as something to be moved, it did not.

With our attempt to communicate with the pubs spirit residents appearing to be very much a failure I looked down to pick up the old pocket watch; to my surprise the previously broken watch was now working, ticking away the minutes as it once had many years ago. I didn’t really know how to explain what was going on; part of me wanted to explain it away, but another part wanted it to continue as the working watch made me feel somewhat connected to my Grandfather again.

However, as quickly as it had began this oddity came to an abrupt end with the watch returning to its broken state once again, stopped and no amount of winding would free the hands to move once again. It had ran for twenty minutes in total and if I recall the events correctly, it stopped once picked up.

Now there maybe many out there that would offer a logical explanation to this curious moment of life for the pocket watch; I can even imagine Ciaran O’Keeffe providing a sound explanation that is perfectly reasonable on the Uncanny podcast. However, I want to make it known that this event hugely troubled me and I initially thought there must be a simple explanation to why this may have happened. So, what followed the events of that nights investigation at the Royal Oak was many many different tests to attempt to recreate the events of that dusty loft space.

Suffice to say no amount of pulling my Grandfathers pocket watch or a known working pocket watch from my pocket in various ways would cause the watch to run for nearly twenty minutes. I even tried a few tests with magnets, radios, impact tests and electrical devices, but there was no success. Those odd events simply could not be recreated.

Now that does not mean that there is not a logical explanation, but over a decade later it still escapes me.

This singular event matters greatly to the entire case of the Royal Oak, even though it may seem somewhat disconnected from the local narrative. We were trying to engage with a potential spirit at the time, as many ghost hunting groups do during their investigations, but our focus was on the obvious movement of the entire watch. However, in reality the watch was still moving, but not in the way that we had imagined. Whilst the watch had remained in the same location the inner parts of it had been set in motion when they had not been able to previously. The concept was most peculiar, but opened my mind to a new way of thinking, that where meaning is not always as specific as we may believe.

This of course presented an interesting angle for those that were more local to the Royal Oak than us, and certainly more spiritual; was this caused by a ‘local spirit’ or was it perhaps a more ‘non-local spirit’ namely that of my Grandfather. The answer to that was as unobtainable as the explanation to how the watch ran for twenty minutes.

However, time was clearly important here and this concept of time woven in the narrative and case of the Royal Oak would be something I would encounter on multiple occasions as I returned to investigate over the years. Equally the concept of personal links, whether they were my own or that of the locals, would feature regularly.

This early in the case I was still very much focused on the more sceptical stance, with classical ghost-hunting approach of attempting to debunk what was reported. Not to catch the landlady out or even the locals, but to help them reframe their experiences with more logical reasonable explanations. What I did not realise at the time was the case was already beginning to re-shape my own position on the paranormal, and help set a course for more in-depth research and investigation. It was quickly becoming more than ‘is this pub haunted’ it was challenging other understandings and broadening my horizons. My own paranormal journal of exploration had begun.

Next time, when I post about the Royal Oak, ahead of the launch of my book on the case, I will discuss witness accounts, environment and methods that changed my approach to the paranormal.

If you’ve ever had a ‘time went strange’ moment, reply/comment below.

Next month I will share how I learned to treat stories as data without stripping them of meaning.