11th Jan

Just to let you all know that I am still trying to research the names and dates that were picked up on last night. I am having a really hard time because there doesnt seem to be a lot of history on the place, so you will all have to bear with me!

Also, Relfy you were right Robert Maxwell was a MP of Buckinghamshire, but he never had any businesses in the area.

I will keep looking!!

Thanks for having a look at the history, I'm going to try to investigate myself and let you know!

Relfy

apparatly Mr Maxwell was overseeing a factory in Olney (??) look up the link with Olney and it might direct you to emberton (?)

Ta Relfy, in that case can you please also do the report as well?

No problem, Could you all please give me any info that you can remember, incase I forgott something, (which is highly likely!) If you could just PM me then I'll type it up.

Thanks for your help!

Relfy

Investigation Bell and Bear 11th Jan 2008

Investigators
Karen
Claire
Sue
Paula
Dave
Paul
Pat
Julie
Relfy
Sara

Thais investigation took place in Emberton at the Bell and Bear

On the investigation we had the use of the main restaurant area and upstairs in one bedroom and the landing.
We went to the bedroom first and tried to contact anyone who may have been present. Claire picked up on a lady called Polly who was wearing, what looked like a milk maid outfit. She was aged between 16-18 years old and used to work between the two houses carrying buckets. Claire felt that she was a very mischeivous young lady who had a relationship with a boy called Joseph who lost his hand in an accident. There was also the presence of a cat in the room and a couple of people felt it go around their legs. Claire felt that the cat belonged to a lady called Magaret. After we had finished in the bedroom we went onto the landing and apart from the feeling that there was someone there, we didn't hear anything or pick up on anything substantial. We went down to the main restaurant area and used a glass on the table to try and contact someone. Claire picked up on a lady called Margaret Ann Miller, who owned the cat upstairs. Margaret lived with her husband Jonathan and 4 children. They lived in the house next door to the pub, what is now the main bar area of the pub. They lived there while the cottage that is now the Bell and Bear was being built. They knocked the wall down to make one building in the year 1792 -a date that was given on the night. Whilst they were renovating the owners wanted to create a fireplace between the two rooms. Claire believed that when they used the fireplace the first time, the chimney was blocked and smoke came down from the chimney and back through the room. Killing Margaret and one of her children. After that happened the owners decided to block the fireplace up permanently and never used it again. Relfy picked up on a man who walked with a limp and a walking stick, he looked quite dishevelled having black hair and wearing a black jacket and trousers. He was intent on looking for something in the fireplace, the information was given that it was money that was hidden in the fireplace that he wanted back. He looked like he was from the 1800's. We did pick up a couple of other spirits through using a glass on the table, but couldn't gain much detail. We did however pick up one gentleman who was described as a large man, bear like with black hair and pretty tall. We picked up a name as Bob and whilst this was going on Sue picked up the name Maxwell! What was interesting is that it wasn't until we stopped to think about this we realized that we could have picked up on Robert Maxwell. Also what was interesting was that when the name Maxwell was picked up, Pat said in jest "hold on to your pension!", the glass on the table shot into the middle and stopped dead. I think we annoyed him by mentioning the pension problem! Whilst we were there in this room Sue kept getting the sound and sense of stone being carved, like carving a head stone and Claire wanted to put her hands in the postition of prayer, like a man of the cloth. Claire also felt uncomfortable with her back to the open space feeling that we shared the room with many others, other than ourselves. Sue picked up that there may have been a tunnel underneath and even bodies buried underneath somewhere, she also picked up a man carrying a sack of coal over his shoulder outside the pub.

Conclusion and history

All in all I think that most of us felt that it was quite slow and didn't feel that we had picked up much, until at the end, until we realized that we had indeed picked up things that were correct with the building.
The cottage next door to the pub was indeed an undertakers, owned by the Paybody family, who was said to provide a "complete funeral service", I guess that would include the headstones! We were told at the end by a local gentleman that they used to use the resturant area as a place where they would hold the coffins before they were buried. The Fire place in between the two rooms has never been used since that event happened, which Claire reported. The owner of he pub told us that the fireplace has always been blocked up and had been for many years. The information that Sue picked up about the man with the sack of coal was interesting. The pub itself was owned by the "Wilsons" and Charlie Wilson also owned the local coal merchants. As far as picking up Robert Maxwell, much to everyones surprise did have a lot of contact with the local community. He did have properties in Olney and was MP for Buckingham, which included at that time Newport Pagnell, Olney, Emberton and the surrounding area, before Milton Keynes was built.

Thank you to everyone who came to the investigation I think that it was actually pretty successful!

Relfy