Dare go into ghost Ship?

Have you ever wondered about things that go bump in the night?

Debbie Charlesworth has, ever since being a little girl.

That’s why, after training to become a paranormal investigator, she has set up her own ghost-hunting group.

And now she’s offering two lucky Guardian readers the chance to join her to investigate Worksop’s oldest pub, the Ship Inn, on 16th November.

Debbie, 39, said: “We’ll be the first team to have ever investigated this building and no other teams will have the chance to do it again so this is a rare opportunity.”

“Rumour has it that there has been spirit activity in the pub, so it should be a great night.”

Debbie’s group is called North Notts Paranormal Investigators and meets at another old Worksop pub, The Innings, where Debbie says she has seen a spirit dog.

She said: “My nan was a medium and she read tea leaves and tarot cards, so I’ve always been aware of the spirit world and it’s never frightened me. I see it as a natural thing.”

“My mum said that when I was three I used to talk to an old lady in a rocking chair who nobody else could see.”

“Years later when the house was being demolished I heard that workmen had dropped their tools and run away after seeing an old lady.”

Debbie went to her first ghost hunt at Tutbury Castle in Staffordshire where she says she saw a lot of paranormal activity and became hooked.

She got a diploma in the paranormal investigator’s course at the College of Management Science in London.

Now she is doing a parapsychology course, studying phenomena such as telepathy and clairvoyance.

“Loads of people have asked me where they can go to see paranormal activity so I decided to set up the group,” said Debbie, who is also developing her skills as a medium.

One of the team is Andy Froggatt, 39, a police officer from Sheffield, who said Worksop has one of the highest recorded statistics for all different types of paranormal activity.

“It’s not just about ghosts and ghouls, but also about UFOs and other things like that,” he said.

“I’ve always been interested in the paranormal and I went to school with Debbie so when I found out what she was doing I asked if I could join in.”

“It’s a taboo subject for a lot of people and I wanted to be with people who took it seriously.”

“I’ve never been frightened by it, perhaps a bit apprehensive occasionally, but the more you do and the more you see the less frightened you become.”

Debbie, who has four children aged 10 to 19, said the team always tried to find an explanation for activity first.

She said: “We use scientific measures to find out why something’s happening.”

“We use equipment like CCTV, and night vision cameras, electronic voice phenomena recorders, electromagnetic field meters, motion sensors and infra-red thermometers.”

“We’ve also got a spirit box from America which produces white noise which spirits can talk to you through.”

Her own experiences include seeing full apparitions and hearing voices. Debbie is running 22-hour courses for beginners.

For more go to www.nnpi.co.uk.

Related topics: