Maes Artro heritage museum
Llanbedr
North Wales
28/08/2004

This location was once the living quarters for the nearby airfield, RAF Lanbedr was a rest and re-equip base where pilots fighting from airfields in the south east of England during the offensive raids into Europe came here to relax and to train replacement pilots
After the war it became no5 CAACU (Civilian Anti Aircraft Co-operation Unit) where targets were towed for anti aircraft research, the airfield is now run by DERA (Defence Evaluation and Research Agency) although it is soon to close
The living area is now a heritage museum from the war period plus other exhibits to show a welsh way of life in a past era with restaurant and bar, they also hold successful 1940’s nights, where the guests dress in 1940’s dress including authentic RAF uniforms, many guests report strange occurrences during these nights such as being touched when no-one was in reach, this is reported to happen many times on different nights
The hauntings started as the sound of things moving when no-one was there, and the activity seems to have grown, one witness has reported hearing a group of men just chatting and the sound of boots on the floor, he got up to investigate, no one there of course!
Many sightings an instances have occurred here most of it harmless some areas seems quiet oppressive at times

The team

1) Paul Robins
2) Laura Mcphilimey
3) Kerry
4) Anne
5) Chris
6) Iain Armstrong

Equipment used

1x Ricoh xr-p manual SLR 35mm camera with lens hood, tripod and cable release
1x Olympus Muu1 auto focus 35mm camera
1x Fuji mx-1500 1.5 Mp digital camera
1x Fuji S3000 3Mp digital camera
2x Sony Dcr-hc14e Minidv camcorders on tripods using nightshot
1x sharp MD-MT280E (S) minidisk recorder with Omni Directional Electret Microphone
1x Cell sensor 50/60 hertz emf meter
1x spectral 2g emf meter
1x spectral Negative ion detector
1x infra red thermometer
1x digital thermometer with K thermocouple probe
5x 400 asa Fuji superia colour film
1x dell laptop linked to g-uk advanced emf meter
1x pair of infrared motion detectors
1x amethyst dowsing crystal
1x pair of brass dowsing rods


Base tests

Paul, Iain and Kerry went onto the location to gather some basic base readings (temperature (degrees c) EMF, Negative ions) as well as to make any notes on the rooms including any draughts etc

The village hall

6:15 pm

Notes
The room has bales of hay and lots of small pieces are lying on the floor, this may cause increased airborne particles which in turn may cause many “orbs” for those with digital cameras or nightshot cameras
Ambient air temperature was an average of 16.5 degrees c
Surface temperature was 13 degrees c apart from a wall at the back of the main hall which measured 7.7degrees c
6.20pm
As Paul was explaining what activity had been reported here before when a door at the back slammed shut with some force, all three went to investigate, there was a light breeze certainly not enough to cause the door to close in such a way,
No one was in the area as the door shut, three people were seen out the front (the owners) and everyone else was accounted for, no-one was in the area, the door also should have been held open by a piece of rock, the door itself doesn’t shut by itself (it isn’t on a spring) so we put this down to unexplained for now as time was getting on. We asked the owners if that door has been known to slam
No emf or NI detected

The rural room

6.35

Notes
Average ambient air temperature 16.5 degrees c
Infra red thermometer was giving some very high readings, as stated earlier the device has been working fine before and after
No emf or NI detected
Environment, quiet dusty
No other notes recorded

The RAF room

6:50

Notes
Average ambient air temperature 16 degrees c
Average surface temperature 11 degrees c
Infrared thermometer gave readings of 60 degrees c by a jet engine in the room at the rear; these engines are never used and are purely for show, the device was working fine and has never given such strange readings before
No EMF or NI detected

Investigation notes

The museum

Temperature: 16.5 degrees c
Lee from Maes Artro joined us for this room,
The team set up equipment including cameras, audio devices and lights were turned off,
We sat in silence, the room had a nice atmosphere but nothing paranormal was felt or heard, we understand from Lee that not a lot has ever been noticed in this room
We sat for about half an hour then decided to leave as the location is large and we wanted to visits rooms that have experienced suspected paranormal activity in the past
During the vigil pictures were taken and video footage shot, nothing odd appeared in the footage or photos
As an after thought I realised that this room is one of the only room that has been altered so much it looks nothing like a 1940’s military billet, it has a concrete ramp inside and many recreated shops so to look like a small welsh village from years gone by, could this be a reason why little or no suspected paranormal activity is reported from here?

Break

The RAF room

This room is called this as it houses a display of crashed plane parts and an Avro Anson, a WWII aircraft as well as an example of an unmanned drone used at the airfield during its time with CAACU
Average temperature 16 degree c
Equipment was set up and the vigil started
Half the team went to the back room (Laura, Anne and Kerry) whilst the other half set up on the raised balcony behind the Anson aircraft (Paul, Iain, Lee and Chris)
Paul checked for natural or manmade emf, none were found.
Paul placed a pen on the banister and asked any presence to move it, Paul then stepped back away from the pen, Chris was to the right about two foot away and Lee was to the left again at least two foot from the position of the pen,
The pen then flew off, it didn’t just fall as it had forward momentum and hit the Anson tail plane which was at least 2 foot away from the banister, we checked to see if a movement of the banister could make the pen move, Lee rocked the banister with some force and the pen did not move, the girls on hearing this came into the main room to join the rest of the team for the vigil
We took pictures with 35mm and digital and took any NID and EMD readings none were found but a presence was felt to be there although none of our devices or cameras showed anything odd
The team looked around the rest of the building but nothing was seen or heard
We decided to go for a break; the ‘flying’ pen was the conversation topic during the break!
On inspecting the photos after a strange light anomaly can be seen in the door way in the middle of the building, it moved position in a few photographs then disappeared

Break

The decontamination block

This building has got the reputation as having an oppressive atmosphere; headaches are commonly felt here shortly after entering and will subside after leaving the building, this is exactly what Paul, Kerry and Iain feel after entering, we walked around taking pictures, the bats in one of the back room soon got everyone’s attention!, and were the stars for a few minutes, after a while a dowsing session was carried out in the front room by Paul, other team members took pictures and took notes on information gained
Paul checked his responses by asking for a yes and no response from the crystal
Is there a spirit in this building with us?
Yes
Is the spirit female?
No
Is the spirit male?
Yes
Paul changes to using dowsing rods as he feels these will give greater accuracy
Again the responses were checked
Please point to the direction of the male spirit
Rods swing to point to the corridor
Are you willing to communicate with us?
Yes
*Members took several pictures in the direction the rods pointed to*
Paul asks if the entity can leave
No
Are you being held against your will?
Yes
Are you willing to give us your name?
Yes
Paul asks to give a response when the first letter of his first name is spoken
The rods move when the letter E is s said
The process is repeated to gain letters of the first name
The name Ernest was gained and noted
The process is again used to try and get the surname of this entity
We attained that there was eight letters in his surname
After getting the letters Heb, Lee says he has the name Hebfeild comes to mind and this fits the eight letters,
Paul then asks if he is British, rods indicate no
Are you Polish?
No
Are you German?
Yes
Are you a prisoner of war?
Yes
Dowsing session ended
The team decided to go for a break
All equipment was packed up and taken back to mess hall

Break

The village hall

Note: by this time the weather had started to become quiet windy
Average ambient air temperature 16 degrees c
We set up usual equipment and started the vigil
Laura had a little trouble closing the two double doors due to the wind; the door had to be held shut with a chair as to stop it blowing open
The team sat quietly on the bales of hay and occasionally called for any presence to make itself known,
A few noises were heard in the far right corner pictures were taken and ‘orbs appeared’ but as stated earlier the room has an increased airborne particles so this could have been a factor
The group then joined hands in a circle and tried to encourage any activity, bangs were heard from the roof, and this turned out to be the skylights banging in the wind, after a while the team stopped as nothing was happening but a few members felt the atmosphere had changed, Paul asked for a response of two bangs, he thought he heard two faint bangs but most possibly the wind again so he asked for three bangs this time and just as he finished asking the two double doors blew open like someone had kicked them, this obviously shocked the team but credit to them not one screamed or ran!! Although it would have seemed to be a response the culprit was actually the wind! You could feel the force of the wind when trying to close it; it could have easily caused the door to open in such a way
The team sat and took pictures, nothing more was felt or experienced.
After being in the room for an hour we decided to have a break

Break

The Airaid shelter

Temperature, 16 degrees c
No emf or NID readings

The team sat on the bench and turned all torches out, a minidisk recorder was set up and started to record the teams vigil
For the main nothing was felt, Laura thought she saw a streak of light at one point, the minidisk player turned off a couple of times with no obvious reason, batteries seemed fine
Paul called for any response and asked questions that may give us a sign; at one point an unexplained noise was heard which Kerry and Paul both heard it
Although nothing else was heard and apart from the one streak of light Laura nothing was seen on listening back (after the investigation) to the minidisk 4 possible EVP’s were caught
One seemed to answer my question of what year it was to them, a faint voice says 1941, I then asked who was your king or queen, after a short gap another voice is heard to say tragic accident (thanks to Jamie Robertson for cleaning the EVP up), the most intriguing EVP was a strange low frequency (43 Hz was the prominent frequency) noise built up as Laura asks for a sign then fades off after 5 seconds or so, no-one reacts to the noise as no-one could hear or feel it, on comparing this noise to the sound of a Merlin engine from the early war years there was a very good resemblance and many people who have heard it says it sounds like a plane or at least an engine, no one heard such a noise at the time.

Break


The mess hall

Average temperature 15.5 degrees
No emf or nid readings

We decided to hold a table tilting session as successful attempts have been conducted in this room on previous occasions, Video cameras were set up and Laura would take 35mm and digital pictures during the session

Very little was felt during this session apart from a slight vibration, probably due to us moving it unconsciously, after approximately half an hour we decided to stop the session as we were all feeling very drained and tired,
We decided to start to bring the investigation to an end as we were to tired

As Paul was Loading a few items into the car (about 4:30 am) he heard voices coming from the direction of the Airaid shelter/billets, they sounded English, no-one as far as we know was on the site, all of our team was accounted for!


Summary

This location certainly has some strange goings on, the EVP’s were very interesting and we are hoping further information can be gained about this tragic accident in 1941, there are two fatal accidents in that year after the site opened, one on Sept 20th when an Anson is presumed to have crashed into the sea killing five airmen of no6 a.o.n.s., another accident happened on the 24 December 1941 when Sgt. C. J. Stuart crashed during formation flying, recorded as accidental death, The German pows in the decontamination room will be looked into further on future investigations to try and gain information on who they were, why there are there and why only in that particular building
The location is a great place with extremely friendly hosts and very interesting exhibits,