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Index of Haunting's
The Starting Gate Public House
Introduction, Reported Activity
Part 1: Fri. 21st – Sat. 22nd June 2002
Part 2: Monday 10th to Tuesday 11th February 2003
Part 3: Friday 2nd to Saturday 3rd of May 2003
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The Starting Gate Public House
By Nicholas Duffy – West Midlands Ghost Club (Click for Website)

Inv. Two – Monday 10th to Tuesday 11th February 2003
Investigators present:  Darren Simpson, Len Jackson, Vivienne Harrison, Mary Thornton and Nick Duffy.

Video recording and manned vigil sessions were staged throughout the early hours of Saturday morning from approx. 2.00 a.m. til 6.00 a.m.
Temperature readings in the cellar area fluctuated between .5 and .3 of a degree – at the site of a smoke alarm near the stairs - and went from 16.2 to 14.00 degrees between 2.00 a.m. and 3.30 a.m.; back up to 16.0 degrees at 5.00 a.m. and back down to 14.0 degrees by 5.40 a.m.
Nothing of a potentially paranormal nature was detected by anyone present during the night.

Upon checking through the video footage taken at the site, it was discovered that – around 2.18 a.m. – the lighting in the pub cellar switched off and on quickly.  A click can be hear on the recording, as of the light switch itself being manually manipulated. 
 
At first it was argued that someone within the building could have possibly been responsible for this action, as the switch to the light is situated at the top of the cellar steps – easily accessible to someone standing in the passage leading to the main stairway to the building.  Nick Duffy was seated at the bar, overlooking the cellar door, for the whole of the recording session concerned, though, practically speaking, it would probably still be possible for someone to covertly slip their arm around the doorframe and manipulate the light switch if careful enough.  (*Such an event – i.e. hoaxing an effect – would be exceptionally unlikely, both from a practical viewpoint and from a simple trust in anyone on site at that point.  However, if we are to be truly open minded about the event, all avenue's have, by necessity, to be debated).

However, at the end of the recording session concerned, the clear sound of the cellar door being opened by the investigators responsible for the recording apparatus can be heard.  This proves that the cellar door was shut at the time of the aforementioned event and, given the noise created by the spring loaded door, it is hard to consider that someone could have easily opened it in complete silence to perpetrate a hoax event.  

Nothing else of a potentially paranormal nature was found on any of the other recordings taken that night.

Click here for Part 3: Friday 2nd to Saturday 3rd of May 2003
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