Reading time: 4 minutes
The Most Haunted Team visits The Wellington Hotel, a spooky Cornish inn with a chilling history and active ghosts, for a spooky investigation and some humorous woodland adventures, writes JOANNA HAGUE
Episode title: The Wellington Hotel
Place: Boscastle, Cornwall
Series: 4 Episode number: 8
Originally broadcast: May 11, 2004
The Wellington Hotel, most haunted review
Yvette opens the episode with chilling words: murder, suicide and dark figures lie deep in a Cornish valley.
The Wellington Hotel is a 17th century coaching inn, where the Duke of Wellington died and has had many royals and famous visitors over the years. The building itself is said to be extremely haunted, with rooms nine, 10, 21 and 23 all extremely active.
The ghost of an old lady has been seen walking through a door without opening the door, and an apparition of a young boy has been seen running next to the cellar. There is also an evil presence lurking in the basement where a man committed suicide. Furniture can be heard being dragged across the floor, especially in the dining room, and staff members have seen a statue of a tall man in the hallway.
Phil Wyman performs all baseline testing, including taking measurements in various areas. He also looks at local maps of the area and the local history of both the buildings and the forests surrounding them. The woods themselves are believed to be haunted, and his closing statement is that they may visit there later. Spoiler alert: they visit the forest and some of the best shots are taken there.
Derek Acorah starts his walk by wanting to go upstairs to the rooms, where he picks up the energies of two ladies. In room nine he says that a maid has appeared and disappears through the door; you can see them moving around the room as well as in the hallway. In the room they notice that it is very cold, and Derek says that people sleeping in the room will notice her moving things and even see her.
He says that the ladies he first picked up did not die the same way as the young lady who is the maid; he says one was strangled and one committed suicide. Information about the suicide that occurred appears on the screen.
In the hallway on the second floor, Derek feels the energy of a man with a ponytail moving up and down. Yvette asks him how many active spirits there are in the building, and he says he notices about eight or nine active souls, but they are not grounded; they just come to visit.
There’s a grumpy man on the ground floor who doesn’t visit the upper floor of the building. It stays at the bottom and near the basement. Derek says he was the boss of the stables; he was in charge of things. There is a little boy who is afraid of this man; he feels that there is a connection with water or a stream that is close to the plot. This is where the boy’s presence will be stronger.
Yvette jokes and tells Derek that she would love nothing more than to venture into the cold, dark forest, but in true, spookiest style, away from adventures in the elements. As the team walks through the woods, one of the funniest moments is captured when one of the cameramen scares the hell out of Yvette. She doesn’t find this funny, but the rest of the team is in trouble.
When they reach the water, Derek picks up a life lost in the area near the water, but it wasn’t the water that killed them; they were just dumped there. He gives the dates from 1914 to 1939; the usual information flashes on the screen, but there were no deaths related to the building or area at the time.
This is my favorite moment when the team splits into groups. Yvette splits off and goes to room nine, where she starts shouting for something to be done, for the door to be opened, or for some sign that the ghost is there. As you focus on the door, ghost lights can be seen. This opens up a discussion between Yvette and Derek about what they would do if they were ghosts and that they would do anything to let people know they were there.
They go into the hallway and start shouting again, but nothing much happens until a footstep is heard. Yvette talks about how frustrating it can be when they don’t get much activity. Everyone then jumps when Derek moves his foot.
In the Thomas Hardy room, Cath sees the streamers of a bedside lamp move quite violently on their own. She tries to debunk this by walking near the lights to see if it’s normal vibrations that are setting them off, but it’s not. She starts shouting into the room and there is a knock in response to their questions. What they don’t know is that the locked camera they placed on the light is capturing the streamers moving on their own.
The rest of the team heads to the Thomas Hardie room, where they begin to lead a scene. Ian Lawman starts the scene and immediately picks up the ghosts of children. He picks up the ghost of Elizabeth, who cannot find her mother. Information shows that, as always, without a surname it is difficult to trace someone with that name. While in the scance, one of the crew seems to tune in to this little girl and is completely unaware that he is actually crying in grief for her.
In the woods, Stuart and Rick went out alone; this is one of the best images from the episode, aside from Yvette’s scare. They hear rustling in the forest and joke that they are animals. Rick gets very excited when he catches something on camera.
When the images are reviewed, it cannot be determined what was seen when the recording was reviewed. Stuart starts shouting, but the more they shout, the more scared they get. Deeper in the woods, Rick screams like a girl (Stuart’s words), and proceeds to tell him how embarrassing he is.
The ending of the Wellington Hotel episode shows a lot of funny footage of the crew in the woods, slipping and sliding down hills, and it certainly ends on a high note.
Read more about the Wellington Hotel at Spooky Isles
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