The Manor House Restaurant, Most Haunted (S4, E12) REVIEW

The Most Haunted team visit The Manor House Restaurant in West Bromwich to investigate its 800-year-old mysteries, ghostly sightings and unexplained phenomena, writes JOANNA HAGUE

Episode Title: The Manor House Restaurant
Location: West Bromwich, West Midlands
Series: 4 Episode Number: 12
Originally broadcast: 8 June 2004

The Manor House Restaurant, Most Haunted Review

Yvette opens the episode talking about the 800 years of history of The Manor House Restaurant, the dark figures that can be seen and unexplained power cuts. The building is listed in the Doomsday book and was owned by the Baron of Dudley in the late 13^th century. 

The building was sold and changed hands through the 17^th and 18^th centuries before it was set to be demolished in the 1950. It has since been restored to the restaurant that stands today. 

Richard Felix discusses the house and the 800 years of habitation there, including the chapel that is part of the building. Lots of visitors have had experiences, with eyewitnesses hearing footsteps. 

The chapel has its lights turned on and off by themselves and the figure of a man has been seen standing at the window. The owners found a sealed room when renovating and since then a spirit of a young girl has been seen. The strangest haunting in this building though is the ghost that has been seen in the ladies’ toilets. 

Phil Wyman conducts his baseline tests, sets up his trigger objects including a cross on some paper in one of the rooms and leaves a Dictaphone running. Derek Acorah begins his walkaround in the chapel. He says he is getting impressions of heat, feeling useless and the flames are enclosing around him. He also senses a little girl running around the building and looking out of the windows. He believes that she lost her life due to smoke inhalation, as did her grandmother who is there with her. The information is displayed that a fire did break out in the 16^th century. 

The crew move on to a place under the building where lots of artefacts have been found and stored. Derek picks up on a murder in this room, even though there has been no record of a murder at the manor. The body is buried under the patio outside, and he was quite confident that if it is dug up, they would find the remains of this person. 

Things are getting hot at The Manor House Restaurant

They venture to one of the bedrooms, where Derek picks up on flames and heat again, but Yvette feels very uneasy in this area, almost scared. Following up from the earlier energies that Derek picked up on, the little girl is called Emily, and she is active in this area. Phil comments that this is a coincidence as the staff have named the little girl Emily. Derek is unable to get a surname for the girl so as always, this information cannot be verified without one. Yvette mentions that she can feel a burning sensation on her hand, and it is tender to touch. 

The team then spent the rest of the investigation split between the sealed room and the attic. While in the sealed room, the crew begin to feel nervous, with Karl developing a headache and Stuart getting back pain. Derek can hear noises coming from the attic, where he picks up on the energy of a man with the surname Clarke. Information pops up and says that the Clarke family owned the property in 1713 up until 1823. 

The crew then split into smaller groups, Yvette begins a séance which results in knocks on the table and a feeling of a girl dancing round the table. Karl and Stuart are in the sealed room where they begin calling out, moving sounds can be heard coming from the room, knocking sounds are evident and the temperature seems to drop. 

Karl and Stuart say that they feel quite relaxed but lightheaded in the room, as they are talking scratching can be heard coming from the panelling. There are footsteps coming from outside the room, the scratching is happening in response to the questions they are asking. Stuart says he is feeling uncomfortable, like he is being watched but Karl is the complete opposite and feels quite calm. 

Yvettes’ group move to the chapel area, they begin to experience the latch on the door rattling, and everyone feels uneasy. As they are calling out the latch begins to rattle again, they can hear sounds coming from the stairs at the other side of the door and what sounds like gravel being thrown. 

My favourite part of the episode is when they go to investigate the lady’s toilet, not only is it funny to watch them all try to squeeze in the space, but they all get the scare of their lives in there too. As they are talking, there is a hissing sound that sends them spiralling into terror.

However, it is Derek that says that it is just the air freshener going off!! They all feel rather silly when they realise that it is an automatic spray and not something malevolent. 

The episode begins to wrap up with Derek in the sealed room, he hears a few knocking noises but not much other than that. Richard goes to the artefact room where he is convinced that he has seen a figure walk past the door and goes out to investigate. He shouts out to Stuart who says that he is nowhere near the entrance and no other crew members are around. 

WORDS

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