Most Haunted At Delapré Abbey - Series 16, Episode 5 Review
This article is more than ten years old and was last updated in December 2018.
Yvette Fielding takes five members of the England Rugby team to a neo-classical, former monastery in Northampton, where they hope to spot the spirit of the Blue Lady.
Originally founded as a monastery of nuns in the year 1145, the massive building is situated South of Northampton in the meadows of the River Nene, in fact "de la Pré" means "in the meadow." Up to 20 nuns lived in the monastery at any one time, until it was closed in 1538, during the dissolution of the monasteries.
The building has been passed from family to family for years, and in 1940 the War Office took over the abbey, the building has been mostly empty since then, and its future is unsure. Yvette described one part of the building in the bowls of the north wings as feeling like the set of a horror movie, she said "it's cold, it's damp, it's ughhh."
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Is Delapré Abbey Haunted?
This derelict building has so much history and has been home to so many families and servants, that it's no surprise it's said to be so haunted. The house has an oppressive feel to it and paranormal activity experienced here includes the rustling of a dress on the stairs, the creak of floorboards and shouts in the dead of night.
In 1460, the Battle of Northampton between the Yorkist and the Lancastrians took place in the ground of Delapré to the north of the abbey. Since then many have reported hearing the ghostly battle cries in the dead of night, and the ghost of soldiers marching have been heard many times.
The show's resident demonologist, Fred Batt, says "a lot of the soldiers that were killed in that battle were buried here in the nuns' graveyard, so there's that type of haunting going on here, but there's also more modern ones."
Fred then tells us about a ghostly black dog, known as a harbinger of death, that prowls around the abbey's grounds. It's often spotted coming out of the tearoom, that used to be the stables. The animal is said to wander around before disappearing.
In and around the building, there are a network of tunnels and cellars, which are said to be the most haunted parts of the building. Each with a plethora of ghost sightings, and each as frightening as the other.
The spirit of the Blue Lady has been seen floating down one of the derelict corridors. She's thought to be one of the nuns, perhaps on her way up to the chapel.
Some say they even heard the sound of King Henry VI pleading to be released from his cell. He was captured and spent a night as a prisoner in the abbey after the Battle of Northampton.
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The England Rugby Team
Before the investigation got underway, it was time to meet the special guests for this episode. All members of the England Rugby team, Ben Foden, Alex Corbisiero, Chris Ashton, Lee Dickson and Dylan Hartley. But, it seems the boys hadn't come willingly, Ben said, "I had to convince them all to come down, they didn't come willingly."
Ben added, "most of us our skeptics, but we believe in something, so we're waiting to be convinced." After a brief chat, the lights were turned out throughout the whole property and the investigation began.
The Creche
The first stop was an area that was used as a creche for children of visiting families. Yvette started to call out to the the spirits, stood next to Fred and rugby player Chris, with the rest of the team looking on. Early on they began to hear taps, which seemed to be coming from the wooden floor.
Yvette asked the spirits to tap out how many of them were present, Lee said he counted five taps in response, although the sound wasn't picked up by the cameras' microphones.
Using one knock for no and two for yes, Yvette asked the spirits if they meant them harm. The spirits replied with two knocks. She followed up this question, "what are you going to do, hurt us?" There were two more bangs.
As the team were about to move into the next room, there was panicked as a stone was throw. Mel Crump reported feeling a tap on her back at the same time.
They again went to leave the room, this time Ben throw the stone back into the room as he left, the idea being it gave any paranormal beings the chance to throw the stone back.
In the next room, Yvette asked the spirits how many people were in the room and asked them to tap it out. The gang heard 15 taps in response, which is exactly how many people were present, including the Most Haunted team, the rugby team and the crew.
Ouija Session
With protection in place and prayers said, the rugby boys joined Yvette around a table for a ouija board session. Yvette lead the séance by asking out to the spirits, the board initially seemed quiet. But after a while the glass started to move under the participants' fingers, which were lightly placed on the glass.
First the glass slid to "yes" in response to a question to indicate that it was over 50-years-old. Yvette then asked the spirit to move the glass to where they were standing, and the glass shifted towards Lee.
Yvette then asked the spirit to spell out the name of the person it wanted to talk to, the glass moved to the letter A and then S. Ashton took this to mean that it was his name that was being spelt out. Yvette then said "please move the glass to someone you want to speak to," and the glass moved straight to Ashton.
Chris then started asking the questions, firstly he asked "what was the first car that I wrote off?" The board correctly answered that it was a BMW. The session was then cut short, Yvette said in a voice over that "the information that followed was of a very personal nature and extremely emotional," so they had decided not to show the rest of the vigil.
The Attic
The rugby lads left the investigation at this point and the rest of the Most Haunted team split up into two groups hold vigil around the abbey. Karl Beattie and Stuart Torevell were making their way up to the abbey's eerie attic. While on the stairs they heard a crash coming from somewhere upstairs. When they got up to the attic they found a sinister looking bunch of dead roses in the middle of the room. While investigating this, thinking it could be a spooky offering from beyond the grave, the door to the attic room slammed closed behind them.
Stuart start taunting the spirit, "come on you shower of s**t, do something else. Push one of us down the stairs. Push Karl down now he's on the stairs. Do you worst. Throw him through that glass window."
Despite his bravado, the pair seemed to be getting more and more freaked out by the minute. To the point where they weren't happy to venture any further into the darkness. Things got worse when suddenly a stone was thrown on the stairs. As they climbed back to the top of the stairs, the same stone was thrown again, it seemed to come from behind the camera.
A stone was then thrown again, this time Karl said it had come from outside the attic room. This seemed to be the final straw and the pair decided to make their way downstairs, only they were both too scared to actually descend the stairs. Karl said, "I'm actually sh**ting myself." And for good reason, seconds after he made this comment something else was thrown near them. They eventually ran for safety.
The Cellars
Meanwhile, Yvette was in the cellar with crew member Darren Hutchinson, where she started calling out, "hello, can you hear me? If you can, please call out, throw something..."
They stood in the darkness waiting for a reply for the long dead, but initially it seemed still and quiet in the dank, arched cellars.
Darren then took over, "we're going to leave here in two minutes. If there's anyone in here and you want to share anything with us, if you wanna say hi to us or you just wanna prove that you're here, it would be nice to just get a little reaction from you."
As he finished speaking they heard a strange repeating banging sound, Darren described it as sounding like a bouncing ball on the roof. Seconds later it happened again.
The pair ended up huddled together in the darkness, now too scared to walk through the cellar in order to get back out to safety. As they were about to brave a dash through the cellar, they heard several loud bangs, which sounded like footsteps.
There was a surprise waiting for them on their way out, there were several large stones in their path, which Darren said couldn't have been there on their way into the cellar as they would have seen them.
Back In The Attic
Karl and Stuart returned to the attic for one last vigil, this time bringing the rest of the team with them for backup. Karl tried to talk Yvette into going up the stairs first, but she wasn't keen, probably as she was picking up on the other's fear.
It wasn't long before the activity resumed when something was thrown at the bottom of the stairs, that sounded like a rock or a stone being thrown. A few moments later they her a disembodied whistle.
Yvette then screamed when there was a loud bang at her feet, it turned out to be a false alarm, she'd just dropped her torch, but seconds later there was another unexplained bang, which turned out to be a stone being thrown again.
With this, the episode came to an end as Delapré Abbey proved to be one of the most terrifying places the team have ever visited.
For reviews of all of the new episodes, plus highlights and evidence from the shows, and to find out when Most Haunted is on next, visit the Most Haunted episode guide.
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