Rotherham Civic Theatre South Yorkshire

Class : Single Investigation

Investigating Since : 2006

In early autumn 2006, Northern Ghost was invited to investigate Rotherham Civic Theatre.

This was preceded by a lot of publicity in the local media and high expectations for the investigation.

We were joined on the night by two members of theatre staff and a local reporter from the Sheffield advertiser.

The site, originally a Methodist chapel & school, now has two distinct parts – the theatre with its stage area, auditorium, box office, bar and dressing room underneath, and a neighbouring former school house, now used for storage and behind the scenes work.

Before the investigation formally started, Northern Ghost’s medium, Joe, identified a number of spirits in both parts of the site, particularly that of a middle-aged man who was an “important figure” at the theatre and whom appeared to be having an affair with an actress, whose spirit Joe also felt.

Whilst the team walked the theatre to familiarise themselves with each area and room for the nights vigil, several team members saw a green flash of light in the corner of one particular room in the old school house.

Also, in this area, Joe felt the strong presence of a lonely, elderly man.

The investigation started at 12.40am with a full group vigil on the stage.

Before long, members of the group and observers started reporting unexplained lights, shadows and seeing the curtain move.

At about 1am the Negative Ion Detector suddenly started to activate around the stage area. This is very unusual, as it takes a huge amount of concentrated negative ions to trigger it, for which we could find no rational explanation. At the same time two EMF meters on the stage suddenly started to activate and register continuous and very high EMF levels. (4.1 milligauss)

Baseline checks before the investigation had not picked up anything in these areas, and despite the teams best efforts, nothing could be found that would cause these sudden bursts of EMF & Negative ions.

Joe (spirit medium) was being drawn back to the room where the green light had been seen, so it was decided that while one group remained in the theatre, four people should go with Joe into the school house, which had been locked for the duration of the stage vigil.

When they arrived, they found five chairs set out in a circle in the centre of the room. They certainly hadn’t been in that position earlier, any such strange formation of the chairs would have been noted on the baseline check, plus the team would have had to walk around them earlier when they went to investigate the green light incident.

Sitting on the chairs, one member reported intense chest pains and trouble breathing that suddenly stopped after about a minute. She felt fine for the rest of the night.

Throughout the vigil, there would be sudden bursts of radio static interference and the two-way radio alarm call-sign would sound suddenly without warning, but often within seconds of the group asking for a response.

Later in the night, the entire group returned to the stage area where more lights, EMF activity and noises were reported.

A camera was put on the edge of the stage, well away from the group, for the vigil and throughout the vigil various members reported hearing movements in that area.

When the camera was checked at the end, it was found to have moved from its original starting position and had in fact recorded an empty space.

We ended the night back in the room where the green light had been seen, this vigil concluded on an interesting note when, as they left, a Northern Ghost member clearly heard someone whisper “hello” into her ear. This was also heard by several other Ngrit-uk members and an observer.

Although various other locations were investigated during the course of the night, nothing further was recorded.

After a promising start, activity quietened as the night progressed, but Rotherham Civic Theatre still left Northern Ghost members with plenty of food for thought, plus many hours of film and equipment data to study.