The Bermondsey Abbey Haunting

Reports by Rachel Keene

I work with the group as resident medium and asked if the team could participate to document evidence when I was approached about this haunting after the owner read my story in the News of the World sunday magazine.

The Bermondsey Investigation 18.02.06

We were called in by a lady whose home had been very active since the early 1990s, with sightings of spirit people, unexplained mists in a hallway between certain times of day for a few months, and loud banging and crashing sounds on the doors and floors of the house while the family were asleep. Physical experiences had also been reported, with the activity increasing to such a level in recent times it had started to frighten the family. Plague pits are being excavated by developers on the building site across the road, with hundreds of bodies found so far, and this wasn’t helping matters on this site either!

We began the investigation at 9.10 pm in the living room. It looked like any living room, but had an atmosphere I’ve not felt in a private home anywhere else. It is known to have been built on the site of what was once Bermondsey Abbey; there is a plaque on the exterior of the building stating this. It is known that the Abbey dated back to the 10^th century; however I feel there are indications that another building was on the site before that. Also I felt that plague and cholera had swept through the area but these were not at the same time, a long apart in fact. There are bodies buried below the car park of the building in a long trench (Lisa and I felt this as we walked across on arrival). It has been confirmed that excavation of plague pits is going on within 200 feet of this place so no surprise really!

The main first impressions I got were of how the Abbey once appeared and felt. I felt there had been at least 2 very different buildings on this site, but the impression I received first was of how the Abbey looked around the 12^th or 13^th centuries. I could feel the floor of the original Abbey was 4 feet or so beneath the living room of the home we were in, ground level was much higher in the early days of the site’s religious history.

I saw a vaulted ceiling above my head, wood, with white rough plaster everywhere, beams and rough hewn but attractive wooden structures. There was a gallery running around the upper level walls, and that there were secret hidey holes or tall narrow spaces on this upper gallery where people and goods were hidden.

I felt all was not as it appeared in this time frame, in particular I felt there were nefarious deeds going on, and that the people in the higher ranks of this place were in on these entire crooked goings on. I felt that in the 11^th century there had been a French prior named John, who had embezzled money and wealth from the Abbey. I also knew there had been more than one “John” at this Abbey in a position of power over the years.

It felt like quite a ruthless atmosphere, which threw me a little because we assume and expect “holy” places such as monasteries and abbeys to be peaceful and tranquil places, but this place was far from tranquil!

I saw monks in black attire and received the words “black friars” and saw 2 monks who I nicknamed Phil and Grant (the “Mitchells” from Eastenders he hee!)

They were crooks and would blatantly march into the surrounding homes and take whatever they liked and brought it back to the Abbey where they would hide it.

I felt quite overwhelmed with the levels of residual energy in the place, and felt at times the place had been crowded with 20 or so spirits visiting in memory of the place and their lives there. I was being bombarded with so much I was talking away ten to the dozen to get it all out!

I felt the Abbey had been a place of extremes in the 12^th century and the following 200 years in fact... as if there was great tragedy and great wealth at differing times, almost as if one moment the place is thriving with lots of wealth and peaceful times then next moment some disaster would strike and poverty would ensue. I felt that at times there had been a great number of black clad monks here, then in times of poverty only a few. I also felt that one or more of the priors had taken wealth from the Abbey too.

We were joined by a wandering spirit after about 10 minutes – a woman who told me her name is Mary. She looked dishevelled and confused, I had to ask her name but she approached me clearly in need of help. She was in heavy rimmed glasses and clothing of WW2 era. She showed me she had been at home nearby during the Blitz and was killed in an air raid and didn’t know what to do. She had wandered in as she knew there were people present who could see and hear her. I helped her to move on to the next stage of her life, she was glad to go as she had been in shock and “stuck” in the moment of her passing since the war.

At this point while I was speaking to Mary, Norma in our group felt pain in her shoulder and pressure in her head when she moved closer to the fireplace.

Once Mary had gone on, I paused for a moment, and then I began to see a scene from the past, where 2 monks hid 2 men in long tall spaces in the upper levels of the Abbey. These men were in fear of their lives and were “good men” not crooks, just people in fear of persecution. I saw these two men being taken away, then the kind monks who hid them being taken to the Tower for hiding them. I couldn’t see exactly when this happened but I felt it was pre 1500.

I could hear what sounded like harpsichord music and was told that the bricks from the “monastery” were used to build a house on the same spot. Someone was very unhappy with this and considered it sacrilege but didn’t come forward to speak at this point, I just felt his rage.

I felt strongly that the winter months especially between December and January were historically terrible times for the place in the 12^th or 13^th centuries and that some activity was likely to occur around these times because of it.

At 9.50pm we were joined by two young boys, who were so small, thin and ragged f I could have wept for them. The smaller of the two came forward first of all and showed me they had been one of the orphans living in the streets just outside the Abbey walls and had passed in the plague outbreak. He showed me he viewed the current home owner as a mother figure and this is why she had been able to see him on many occasions previously. The second slightly older boy showed me he had been in the same situation, orphaned, and that the two of them were not related or knew each other in life, but shared similar circumstances which drew them together in spirit form, so they had tried to help each other. He showed me he had been a stable boy at the Abbey and had been called names in French and hit with a stick if he walked past certain cruel monks. He didn’t show me how he died, just that it was sudden, and he needed help moving on. I spent some time helping him and the other little boy move on. Both boys were collected by family in spirit.

I was aware of small playful children in the house from time to time, two blonde children who were tiny and would move things from time to time too, but these were more connected to the family who lives there now.

Five minutes later there was a damp, musty smell mingled with stale incense, swiftly followed by an elderly monk appearing in front of me, waving a stick at me!

He was one of the monks who had mistreated the boy and he was trying to hit me with this stick, which of course didn’t hurt a flea! Lol! He tried to tell me I didn’t intimidate him and I had no right to speak and that he didn’t like me, that women “like me” would have been muzzled in his day! He implied he had been in charge of the place at some point and shouted “I am Henri! I am Henri!” and went on to complain and shout at me about how dare they build mere houses on his Abbey, and what an outrage to the sacred land etc...

He showed me he makes money disappear in these houses on this site, and is disgusted at people living the way they do in this day and age, sex before marriage and children out of wedlock etc... He was a nasty piece of work! He also shouted about how disgusting it was that Abbey bricks were used to build a “den of iniquity” when the Abbey was demolished! I assumed he was referring to a later house I’d felt came after the Abbey. He rattled on for five minutes or more and stomped off into the ether again, saying he had no desire to return... good riddance!

After a break we resumed the investigation, still in the living room as I felt there was just so much left to speak about in terms of layers of time and people in spirit coming in to speak, as the night wore on I was becoming aware of more and more spirits waiting to tell me something about their connection to this site.

The next thing I saw was an image of a woman laid out in an open coffin, quite regal looking, no time frame but certainly hundreds of years ago by the look of her gown. I felt she was possibly royalty, certainly her energy imprint felt regal - and was told her name was Catherine. I saw the coffin as lower down on a level where the abbey floor would have been back then. I wasn’t communicating with her I was sensing her in the residual energy of the place; she would have had violent headaches, to the right side of her head, possibly even a tumour. She passed from continual vomiting and a fever.

The only other woman with a connection to the site was a lady named Elizabeth who came forward and said she had been waiting for the men to leave... she was scared of them and in quite some distress, she didn’t want to be here, which was strange to me as I could tell she she was not grounded there, she was a visitor and had come from the world of spirit to tell me what happened to her, waiting to have her say.

Elizabeth was a “lady of standing” in her words. She had been brought to this place under some kind of arrest and remained within the Abbey grounds until her death. She kept asking God why this had happened to her in life... She showed me she had been stripped of everything she owned, falsely accused of things she hadn’t done.

She also asked me where Edward was, she was looking for him here, and she didn’t know what became of him after she was imprisoned. I felt he must have been her husband. I could see her feet and legs very clearly but the rest was faint, she was wearing a floor length emerald coloured gown with a sheen, looked like silk but heavier, so she was obviously an important woman of means before she was imprisoned.

I felt that some of the banging heard by the present residents on this site may have been her. I asked her to remain in spirit from now on, despite being compelled to return by some misplaced urge. She seemed to understand when I told her that she could meet Edward again in Spirit if she chose to look for him there instead, and that to come here was torture and self inflicted torture at that. I felt she wouldn’t be back again.

Shortly after Elizabeth left, I became aware of my hand being held by an unseen little hand, Steve reported at that moment the focus went blurred on the camcorder pointing at my hand, but as soon as I tried to speak to this little person, they were gone. Very gentle and loving energy though...

At 10.15 I felt a modern day woman – a relative of the home owners – standing next to the fireplace. She had very long hair and a long skirt; she seemed young, around mid to late twenties, very pretty eyes, and in 1960s style clothing. She came over and hugged me gently and asked me to pass this on to the lady of the house. I feel she passed before she was born though.

It was a veritable queue of spirit that night, as soon as one came in to say their piece or I felt some layer of time being revealed, and then another would be along immediately after!

As soon as this gentle lady had stepped back, a man named James took the hearing in my left ear away while telling me he had been in charge for a short time. He was certainly a monk, he was dressed as one – and he showed me he would help and protect the needy children in the streets around the Abbey when he was able. He was a good man. As I was speaking with him, John one of our camera men felt a cool sensation on his shoulder and heard a tap behind him. Several of us heard the noise too as the entire team plus the home owners were in the room in front of John – no one could have made the noise behind him.

Five minutes later, the musty smell was back again! James was back – he wasn’t speaking but showing me images of how he moves other spirit back from this environment when they are casing physical phenomena like banging or moving things. He was not corrupt or materialistic in life like some of the other monks of his era, he showed me they would hide behind their position to acquire material things or exert power.

James showed me a scene where one monk named Bartholomew would conspire with another monk to knock on doors of people in the immediate area and just stroll in and intimidate and take whatever they wished – come back to this place and hide their swag in these hiding places up in the vaulted gallery area above me. They certainly seemed to be the thuggish “Mitchell brothers” characters I’d picked up on earlier. I found it quite shocking that supposed “men of the cloth” would do such a thing back then... James picked p on this and went on to show me how many monks would join the order to hide their true characters. They would kneel and pray then go and commit sinful deeds.

James showed me that most of the 14^th century was a dark time for the abbey, with many underhand dealings and material obsession overriding the spiritual purpose that should have been uppermost in the minds of the monks. James’ emotional energy seemed to communicate to me that he is actually glad that the Abbey is gone, as he was so saddened by what went on there to cause its demise and fall into ruin. He withdrew his energy again.

By 10.30 I felt like I’d been talking for a lot longer than an hour and a half and needed a break. But the layers of residual energy in this place continued to come thick and fast.

I could see a mansion house, it felt late 16^th century at the time I saw it - and knew it had been built with bricks from the then ruined abbey. It felt like one of the palaces, but knew it wasn’t one –it felt like someone important lived there for a small part of the year at a time and that they had more than one residence.

My guides love to show me the more interesting side of places – and told me there was much scandal in this mansion house that went on and was never written about – picture Casanova and you have an idea...

I was given a mental picture of a man as if he were posing for a portrait of the time... he wore dark velvet clothes and a cape, tight sleeves – this portrait hung in this house I was seeing for some time, and he liked this portrait of him. I was not in communication with this man but my guides were giving me more information, and then showed me leather shoes and the Pope! I asked them why they were shoeing me the Pope (modern day one that I would recognise!) and then I was given the name Thomas. So I assumed Thomas Pope was the name of this man, which was confirmed. I was also told that the house was “lost” on his death.

(We discovered later that the house did exist and that Thomas Pope was a man of importance who built it – we also found a picture of him dressed as I’d been shown)

At this point Norma reported a feeling of transfiguration and a scene from the past. She felt her face had been frozen for a few moments and she saw during those moments through the eyes of an elderly gentleman who had been sitting outside; she could her crows and took on the physical feel of this gent, who could barely move at that time. She reported there was a band of pressure around her head.

I felt as she was describing him that he was an elderly abbot who had been “put out to pasture” and cared for here after suffering a stroke. I felt Norma was seeing through his eyes in a moment from his last days. She felt he was quite content, and at peace with the world.

I got a warm inner ear which always indicates deafness to me... he was a nice old boy who showed me he hasn’t much of his wispy white hair left and that he had big jowls, and was Joseph or Josiah. He confirmed we had seen some of his last moments and he was waiting to die at that time, at one with heaven and earth.

At last at around 11.20 there was a breather... we took a break to have a drink and change camera film and batteries etc... John and Steve reported some orbs had been captured on film as I was speaking about one of the ladies at the area around the fireplace. As it turned out we had a couple more when we reviewed the tapes!

While we chatted I felt more of the residual images coming through and saw that this ground had been an island with possibly an oak tree or something of enough significance for there to have been a sacred site here back in Pagan times. The local people had allotted significance to this site and I saw people crossing stagnant water to get across here to worship on this island at certain times of year. I saw white robes and believed it to be solstice related worship mainly, but as I saw just snapshots of this time I can’t definitively say it was.

I also saw 2 people bringing a rough hewn wooden battered looking thing (I believe it was a cross) to the abbey and special significance being placed upon it, as being holy. It seems to have been stumbled across or found by water, and carried by the two into the abbey. I could see people coming to see it from miles around, and men lying prostrate on the ground in front of the altar.

There was no activity to report in the kitchen, so we proceeded upstairs. No activity in the bathroom to report.

We moved up to the bedrooms...in bedroom 1 the master bedroom; the room was alive with constant activity! We got most of the night’s camera footage here, with lots of light anomalies on camcorder and digital stills. We split into 2 groups with me remaining in bedroom 1 and the team swapping rooms after about half an hour.

I was being made aware of this vaulted ceiling again from back when the place was an abbey – I cold hear muffled noises coming from the hiding places where I could feel men had been hidden by monks. Soon after I was spoken to directly by a man who was speaking to me in French. I could understand most of what he was saying and my guides filled in the rest for me lol my French is more than rusty these days.

He told me “je reviens” – which I translated as “I return”, and “j’ai perdu mon vie”, which I checked with Chris as “I lost my life”.

He showed me he was another James, and that he had a double barrelled name James de something. He showed me this was the last place in his earthly life that he felt safe. He also showed me his hands were bound – I actually felt him move my hands together at the wrists to show me this. He felt terrible that the two monks who hid him and another man were also taken away for hiding them. When I was speaking about how I felt he was being hidden because he was perceived to have committed treason, he banged to confirm this was correct – the loud bang is on our video footage too. He hadn’t moved on properly because of the remorse he felt for having brought harm to the monks who hid him, and because his body parts were not together – he had been hung, drawn and quartered, most likely at the Tower of London which is less than a mile away.

He told me he had been speaking out against injustice and this is why he was taken. Steve and John both reported lights caught on camera and one being made in the shape of the cross as we spoke with him – he told me the lights were an expression of his happiness to be heard and that he associates this place with safety, not fear. He was very happy to have told his story and wanted to move on now.

The final visitor of the night was a very small man who walked in from the right of where I was sitting (through a wall!) and announced himself “I am from Cluny” and showed me he was here as one of the first ever to occupy the site as a priory in the 11^th century. His name is possibly John, and he showed me the physical symptoms of how he died, with some kind of liquid feeling or congestion internally.

He was a very devout monk and took his vows very seriously, and would often fast and stay awake keeping vigil for 3 days at a time. He made me feel exhausted at this point and as no more spirit were waiting to speak, we called it a night.

The group from the second bedroom reported some orbs on video, and conformation of one of the bangs we heard caught on video tape, so we have that recorded on 2 separate cameras with everyone accounted for in the two rooms. The bang seemed to come from the living room and the lady of the house confirmed that the banging they heard at night was usually from the same place. The second group also reported afterwards that they were aware of a very small person in the room with them just before the time I became aware that this small monk had walked in – from that very direction!

There was a portal of energy (or vortex) in the main bedroom and I closed it after he left so no more spirit could come and go through the house. I spent a long time cleansing, closing down and putting protection around the bedrooms to stop the occurrences that had caused the occupiers to call us in. I felt this had been their point of entry and hopefully no more wandering souls from the plague pit across the road will pop in! The spirits who had approached me all night had been waiting a long time to tell their story and to have someone point them in the right direction to find Home, and so now they have been heard and visited Home again back in Spirit, there will be no need for any of them to return. I remain in touch, just in case...

This was without doubt one of the most active places we have investigated to date, I was speaking with or about spirit for hours on end, we received more than one confirming bang or knock and lots of temperature changes and phenomena during the night. There was actually no need for a séance as we had so many spirit come forward of their own accord!

I left instructions with the lady of the house on how to close the place down and cleanse the home if any more activity occurred in future. A few small incidents happened around two weeks after our visit but after cleansing the house remains peaceful with the two playful blonde child spirits who pop in from time to time. I feel they are connected with the current occupiers and pose no threat or harm, they are playful innocents.