If I am completely honest, when I first heard about the case of a possible haunting at the Royal Oak, I thought it sounded “too good to be true” and my initial thought was that I would likely visit once or twice. Those couple of visits would be enough in my mind to debunk the phenomena, as at the time I was very much a ghost hunter that thought most activity could be explained away in some way. I think I even had some theories regarding the phenomena described, but that was not to be the case.

The Royal Oak was a place like no other that I had investigated at the time, as a pub it was very much a public location and I think thats how I initially treated it; but as I slowed down to hear the locals stories and try to understand exactly what was going on, it presented more like a private residence case. There was a huge amount of history linked to the location, but in a strange way to the people too. Many of them were local to the area and were part of families that had been there for generations. This quickly highlighted an early lesson for me when it comes to paranormal investigation; it is not as simple as cataloging activity and then finding ways to debunk it. These experiences are personal to people and whilst we may be able to find explanations, sometimes people may challenge that having a desire to keep their experience. So, this provided me with a new more open minded perspective that meant jumping to an answer, or something to explain away someones experience was not always the desired route. Many still wanted to hear the possible theories I may have as explanations for various phenomena, but at the same time I think they realised in many cases we often resided to the simple fact that I had to state; “I don’t know” as a response. Providing potential possibilities is one thing, but being able to evidence that theory and convince someone that has had an experience is another.

This concept caught my fascination, but also highlighted to me that I needed to know much more than I already did. So, I hit the books and the internet to learn more and more.

One thing that we already knew going into the Royal Oak case was the importance of witness statements as a source in a case such as this. They often provide you with a huge amount ofinformation to understand, but more importantly the more witness statements you collect the better as thats where experiences begin to cross over each other. The sightings of the same or similar apparitions, that curtain moving at the bottom of the stairs, pictures falling off the wall from time to time, footsteps being heard above the bar and many more. Whilst you often start with a single witness in paranormal cases on rare occasions these numbers can grow. During our time at the Royal Oak this is what happened, with the Landlady introducing us to more and more people that had an experience of some kind at the pub.

These added witness statements helped to build the case for me as it meant we gained a real interesting insight into some of the high strangeness occurring at the pub over the years. Some of these experiences began to align with the more spiritual approaches also being explored by some of the locals within the pub, which also caught my interest as I thought perhaps they too could help gain greater understanding of these oddities.

Obviously there were certain things we had to take into account whilst capturing these witness statements; in fact there were two primary things we had to take on board and a lesser third. 1) We were in a pub where people often drink alcohol, which means many outsiders may likely discredit the statements as something that occurred under the influence. 2) Slightly linked to the first was that simple fact that memory is fallible and can not always be trusted as we believe it can be. 3) Was the likelihood that as this was a local pub frequented by many that may discuss its potential haunting there was also the possibility that some accounts could be incorrectly remembered or even someone else’s experience. To be clear this is not by any discrediting the accounts we were told, it is simply as an investigator you must maintain such possibilities during any investigation, including the possibility of fraud too.

When it came to the Royal Oak I was comfortable that fraud was not on the table during our visits, as the landlady was extremely kind and welcoming, but more importantly there was no benefit gained from fraud in this case. Equally the many witness statements may have began during her time at the pub, but we also gained some from a previous landlady and recognised that the oddities stretched a little further back. Cross-referencing some of these accounts certainly helped to build an interesting picture of a potentially haunted pub. What was clear, the Royal Oak was not being marketed like other locations I had visited that presented themselves as haunted and would charge you for an overnight investigation. The Royal Oak felt more like that private case where the people were nice and genuinely wanted to understand more about the places haunting and why the past seemed to be bleeding into the present.

Over the years, we have probably used an abundance of “ghost hunting gadgets” whilst trying to investigate the strange occurrences at the Royal Oak. We’ve used complex CCTV setups, specialised video cameras, various audio recording devices, specialist built gadgets that record multiple data streams (like EMF, Temperature, Humidity), and so much more. And whilst these have been good to provide various perspectives and data to analyse, the constant throughout was probably my journal, capturing notes on various investigations from design to results. The journal also captured my own thoughts and notes during my time at the pub. Sometimes the simplest of tools can provide the greatest information. Fundamentally, the measurements taken during an investigation can only really become truly useful when you are recording, comparing, and finding patterns. Something which takes time and patience; and not something that occurs in the moment like on TV.

In regards to divination, there were certain things that the locals were not comfortable using or even having on the property; like a Ouija Board. Even though this was not something that I would generally us on my investigations, for anything that was not wanted by the locals, we would respect their requests and not bring them. We did of course eventually engage with them as they held spiritual circles and we did conduct seances on a few occasions too. These were approved by the landlady and involved her and the locals. In fact these were very interesting as I think they allowed my team to really begin to expand their knowledge of such things and explore a side of the paranormal that we perhaps had not ventured into in great detail. Something that was extremely fascinating to be involved in but equally very interesting to learn about too. In fact, it was probably this that led me to the Scole Experiment and from that to the Society for Psychical Research (SPR). Something which I must thank the Royal Oak for, as the SPR is not a huge part of my paranormal journey.

Don’t forget to catch next months blog post on the Royal Oak, just before the book is official launched on the 26th May. I will look at some other oddities that occurred during my time at the Royal Oak; like the Victorian Seance we conducted and the strange Box.

Make sure you subscribe to get a notification of all my blog posts – and check out My Books section to pre-order the book on the Royal Oak today.

Also, if you want to hear more on this, check out the Paranormal Soup and The Paranormal Monkey Podcasts for my recent interviews. And if you’re free on the 30th April and in London why not join me with Spooky Isles for a face to face chat and Q&A.