Our ghost hunt at the Noose and Gibbet pub in Sheffield was made all the more enjoyable by the warm welcome and open mind of affable landlord Andrew and his equally friendly bar staff Steph and Louise who decided to join us for the event. After they had said a final farewell to the last of their jovial customers we all got in the mood by talking ghost stories over a mug of hot chocolate or cup of tea. Andrew then took the team and group of ghost hunters on a tour of the deceivingly spacious building which is located on a road named after local villain Spence Broughton who was hanged for his crimes and gibbeted close by as a deterrent to others contemplating a similar career. In his own down-to-earth and plausible manner common to many a Yorkshire man Andrew gave us fascinating accounts of the spooky goings-on which lay behind his reason to agree to Ghost Night Events conducting a paranormal investigation at the hospitable drinking den. These included a cleaner being mysteriously locked in one of the rooms when there was no-one (earthly) around, sightings of a figure, heavy padding footsteps which terrified one poor bartender as they appeared to run towards her one night when closing up the pub alone and strange footprints which bizarrely appeared on a mopped floor. Following the tour we settled down to vigils and séances in the various parts of the pub. In the main bar a number of loud taps and bangs were heard and by pointing out the different sounds naturally caused by an ice machine and other pub paraphernalia the staff were a great help in assisting us to determine those for which there was no explanation which also seemed to respond to our requests for communication. The strong smell of tobacco or smoke which appeared fresh rather than stale was noted by many people in one of the upstairs room and a distinct sigh or moan was heard by separate groups in another room - which just happened to be the one in which the cleaner had once found herself mysteriously locked in!! Our table tipping experiments proved most productive and our mediums picked up on the presence of a woman and child. Another strange experience was observed when two members of the same séance group simultaneously stated that their forearms felt suddenly sunburned and tingling.

Whilst nothing dramatic of note occurred during our ghost hunt at the Noose and Gibbet there were sufficient happenings to cause a definite interest and to certainly warrant a follow-up visit later in the year. As we all know the ghosts never perform to order and we have been so very blessed recently with oodles of unexplained shenanigans at many of our other locations that it is easy to become a little spoiled and dismissive of some strange occurrences which would have had us thrilled to bits at the start of our quest. As one of our paranormal investigators Kathy always reminds the team - just one piece of evidence for which we can genuinely find no logical account is just as indicative of the presence of ghosts as a whole night of phenomena. So sensible our Kath - well most of the time!!!