THACKRAY MEDICAL MUSEUM GHOST HUNT JULY 2022
Take a journey with Haunted Escapes as we experience the Thackray Medical Museum ghost hunt. Setting the scene. Breaking down the location. Reporting the unexplainable.
THE LOCATION
On home turf at the Thackray Medical Museum ghost hunt, this place is no stranger to Haunted Escapes. This location is the crown jewel of venues to explore after dark in Leeds.
This location is truly huge. Looking on from the outside, you can definitely feel how impressive and foreboding this would have been to those who had no other option but to commit to a life of service at the workhouse.
Thankfully, as with anything in time, the location slowly shifted use and the addition of an infirmary was added. With social progression, the workhouse closed it’s doors as a union which then born St James’s Hospital.
TOP INFO: For anyone looking to explore this location either by day or night. It’s worth quickly mentioning the on-site parking. As the museum is on grounds classified as the National Health Service (NHS), you will find yourself paying a higher rate to park your vehicle.
PRE EVENT WALKAROUND
Moving beyond the foreboding grand exterior and entering the building, you are taken on a journey through decades. Both the ground floor and first floor have what feels like mile long corridors.
The ground floor houses all the regular things you would expect in a museum, a cafรฉ, and a gift shop with learning zones along the way. If you head to the very end of this floor, you will experience a slow fade from the modern day life back to life in Victorian times, and it won’t be just your visual senses that see this. You even get to smell what it was like, as there were no sewage or drainage systems.
INSIDER FACT: The adjacent area to the Victorian street houses the mortuary. This area has an underground tunnel that leads across to the graveyard on the opposite side of the main road leading to the museum. Keen eyes can even look down into the tunnel from the outside.
Make your way up the huge grand staircase to the first floor and once again you are taken on a journey through time. From the apothecary room with all original medicine jars and cannisters, to the strange, painful medical devices. This floor is a treasure trove of the weird and wonderful.
One strange occurrence on the walk-around was a glass cabinet display which houses a jar filled with leeches swimming in water contained by a lid securely on the top. Perhaps after 30 minutes on site, a leech was then wriggling around outside of the jar! Upon asking the museum staff if the leeches can escape the jar, the answer was a firm no.
Heading back down to the ground floor to have a quick coffee before lights out, the area that Haunted Escapes would be investigating was the Victorian street. Before opening the doors and welcoming guests, I returned to the Victorian street with the kit cases, and as I placed them down on the floor, I picked up on a male voice, in the distance uttering the words, I know you are here.
THE INVESTIGATION
VIGIL ONE
We made our way to the Victorian street with only torch light lighting the way. After a brief rundown of the equipment we would be using to try to capture some ghostly activity, so began the first vigil session.
Standing in the street with the lights off truly was pitch black. Usually after a few moments your eyes adjust but this just didn’t happen and this absolutely set the scene, resulting in a few of us feeling a little on edge.
With the calling out and introducing ourselves one by one, the chilling pockets of ice cold air made their presence felt. As we were standing on the main through route to the room further along in the street area, these cold spots were as if something or someone was walking right by us. The only indication of this was a lone REM Pod in the doorway of the adjoining rooms that was picking up on the temperature change.
Enticing whoever was seemingly walking amongst us, we asked if this person could make themselves known to the group by touching someone, and it wasn’t long until someone mentioned that their right arm felt as though it had been touched.
As we stood in the dark with only a small red light haze from the REM Pods, a member of the group became fixed upon the same doorway that was triggering the temperature shifts in the REM Pod. It wasn’t until they gasped that boded the question, what is it? What are you seeing?
I wasn’t quite ready for the answer. I can see a face. It’s looking right at me and it’s white. This tied in with something that caught my own eye only seconds earlier, a silhouette which was peering, but felt more like luring.
Seeing a face just peering back sends shivers down the spine, so perhaps being the end of first vigil for this group was a good thing? Interestingly, I am well acquainted with one particular male named William who often resides in this area, and his behaviour is best described as one of “I am here, and I am watching YOU”.
VIGIL TWO
Ushering in a fresh group, and attempting to build upon the face of someone just glaring back, we continued to call out.
As the kit that was laid out before us, and other than the temperature shifts being detected, we enticed any spirit to make themselves known again through touch, noise or by manipulating light.
A member of the group began to feel their hands being affected. They described the sensation of their hands feeling tight, similar to that same tightness when you have a swelling. Again, this happened shortly after asking for the energy present to touch someone.
Whoever was with us really seemed to enjoy interacting with the group in this way as another two members reported being touched as well.
Similar to the previous vigil, another person who again was fixed upon the doorway, asked if anyone else in the room could see a silhouette watching us. This time, this was in the doorway on the other side of the street. No sooner had this new shadow begun peeking in, clear knocking or tapping began which appeared to come from the same side of the room where this shadow was.
As we were discussing what we were witnessing, and in an attempt to uncover who this shadow person was, I firmly called out, William is that you? The immediate seconds afterwards, I clearly saw the shadow raise its arm into the air from the doorway. This sent a shiver through my body along with taking a deep breath of pure shock. Was this William raising his arm answering my question?
Sadly, for the second group it was time for them to experience a new area of the museum as vigil three was upon us.
VIGIL THREE
The final vigil before a quick respite had arrived. The Victorian street was slowly becoming interactive. The shadows. The touch. Now the addition of clear audibles of knocks and tapping had begun, and they were starting to be amplified.
The shadow previously seen lurking at the doorways had disappeared. It wasn’t until a firm commanding tone was used to ask them to show us where they were did it reappear. One by one, members of the group felt this silent shadow standing next to them. This shadow which we believed to be William was mingling around the group. With each person in the room that was chosen by William reacting in a way that made them step aside.
The Victorian street also has old style toilet cubicles. Some guests decided to sit in the cubicle and it wasn’t long before they quickly stood up to leave. Strange chilling vibrations. Scraping sounds were witnessed which could not be explained. These interactions, which spookily caught us off guard, were enough of a scare to make whoever was sitting there move away fast and refuse to go back to take a seat once more.
Continuing with the theme of the knocking and tapping, and in a final request. We asked one final time for a loud noise that all the group could clearly hear. No sooner said than done, a very clear and distinct dragging noise was heard.
Although it was hard to pinpoint where the noise came from, standing in darkness with the sound of something heavy being dragged across the floor was an eerie yet excellent response before heading back to base for a short break.
VIGIL FOUR
Feeling refreshed after a fill up on a coffee, and entering the midnight hour. We headed back with the fourth group into the night.
Throughout the night, the equipment we’d laid out had remained dormant, and this vigil was to follow suit. With guests getting stuck in, the slow buildup on the previous vigils didn’t take hold. Instead, this time it was straight into those startling touches once again.
Being in a dark room, where you can hear a pin drop and then suddenly something touching you does put you on edge and gives you an unsettling feeling of being vulnerable. This didn’t matter to the energy that was with us. Repeatedly they would touch people on their legs, arms and even one member of the group stated that their ear had been flicked!
The familiar cold spots that were experienced at the start of the night had also made a return. Again, as if walking straight through us before reaching the doorway triggering the REM Pods temperature sensor.
In not my finest moment, I let out a bit of a scream as something brushed the top of my head. Clicking on my torch quick time it turned out this was a frayed piece of rope hanging directly above me. My reaction gave the guests a good chuckle. It also proves the point that you should always try to debunk before concluding its paranormal!
VIGIL FIVE
The last and final vigil, for the most part, had fallen silent. Trying various techniques to summon some kind of activity proved uneventful. The only single piece of new information that was discovered turned out to be the name Josephine. Sadly, nothing more could be discovered about this person.
Not all was lost. We used this opportunity to discuss the group’s findings from the whole night. The group mentioned some familiar well-known names, and this aligned with what we had encountered on previous visits to this location. The museum staff also confirmed the names being accurate ending the night as a job well done.
SUMMARY
Our night spent on the Thackray Medical Museum ghost hunt was one filled our senses being toyed with. From ghostly touches to deathly stares from the shadows. This was one investigation that provided consistency across the board. Thackray Medical Museum is absolutely a place worth visiting for your next ghost hunt
Copyright 2022 – 2023. Haunted Escapes. For more info see FAQ