http://www.thisislocallondon.co.uk/indepth/features/display.var.1936802.0.the_night_i_talked_to_a_ghost_called_dave.php

Is Dartford's Acacia Mansion haunted?

Reporter MARK CHANDLER spent an evening in a haunted house with a ghost-hunting group in search of some spooky goings-on.

IT IS not just the time of year which leaves a chill in the air. Ghostly dogs, moving objects, and shadowy presences are just some of the phenomena Sharon Slatter and Ginette Hobbs, the founders of Haunted Places Paranormal Investigations, claim they have uncovered.

And they are not alone.

On November 24, the pair were joined at Acacia Mansion, Dartford, by two mediums, two trainee mediums, or sensitives', testing their psychic skills, a mental health worker called Marcus Kennard, who claims to have recently been taken over', and others - including me.

The mansion, built around 1868, is currently used as council offices but there have been reported sightings of a ghostly woman at the top of the stairs and strange shadows in some of the attic rooms.

Guests paid £25 each to take part in paranormal activities including a seance and using a ouija board.

advertisement

The evening began with two prayers of protection to ensure our safety before medium Pete Gilbane, from Sidcup Road, Eltham, took us on a tour of the house.

On the upper floor, a number of the group claimed to feel sick and cold, which was taken as a sign of a possible supernatural presence.

Ghost hunters try their hands at a ouija board

Down in the basement, we were excited to find some wet footprints which stopped halfway down the corridor.

Unfortunately, they turned out to belong to a security guard doing his rounds, much to the ghost hunters' disappointment.

Mr Gilbane, who runs a cleaning business by day, said he saw a ghostly woman in the mansion earlier in the day, just one of many spirits he has come across since he was a youngster.

He said: "Over the past seven years, I started seeing auras and lights. I thought I was going mad and I needed to find out some answers."

Mr Gilbane found help at the Spiritualist Association of Great Britain and then the College of Psychic Studies, which trained him to become a medium.

He said: "As I'm a bit more sensitive, I pick up a bit more than other people, but we all have it in us."

Though he can switch his powers on or off, Mr Gilbane says he is regularly visited by his spirit guides, including an Indian, an Arab and a Greek priest.

Things picked up during a ouija board session when the group contacted a ghost called Dave.

Unfortunately Dave must have been a practical joker in his former life as the messages he spelt out on the board made no sense.

Finally, the group managed to contact the ghost of a former resident called Poppy who told them her daughter, Rosie, one of a pair of twins, died at an early age.

Mr Gilbane also picked up the aura of a dog which used to live at the mansion and which, he believed, was once responsible for an act of heroism.

Ms Hobbs said afterwards: "A lot of our findings are in accordance with my own research into the building and overall I think it was a really good session."