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Introduction The Minerva Inn has stood in its current location on Looe St, Plymouth since 1572 and it is the "oldest licence premises" in the historic city of Plymouth. The Inn was originally built as a sea captains home and later served as a seaman's rest. The Inn boast's a Spanish Galleons mast built within the stairwell as was the custom at the time. The building has links with Sir Francis Drake between 1540 - 1596 as he was reputed to have lived no more than 30 metres away. By the late 18th Century was well defined as a "press gang haunt" where poor and well and truly intoxicated men where beaten and dragged to the Parade in Plymouth (located within the Barbican area) though a purpose built tunnel. The press gang window and the tunnel entrance still survive today. In 1899 the Minerva was sold to the Octagon Brewery Plymouth and the now familiar stained glass window synonymous with the Brewery and the head of the Roman goddess of wisdom will be seen and remain the pubs trademark to this day long after the demise of the brewery. The Inn has a history of Haunting including a screaming man an Elizabethan lady, over 5 prostitutes and a young girl in Victorian dress. We were pleased to be the 1st team ever to have carried out any form of investigation into the property.
Investigation PLACE: The Minerva Inn, Plymouth DATE: Saturday 9th September 2006 TIME: 2300 HRS - 0600 HRS Moon State
Radio 2.4 GHz Channel 1 Environmental Log Temperature data loggers had been placed around the building and the bar area. The reading below was from Data logger 1 located in the bar area.
Data was captured from 21 August 2006 - 12 September 2006 there were no significant temperature fluctuations over the target period.
Preliminaries BJ, Dave and Kriss had already spent the majority of the day at the Minerva filming. As stated previously temperature and humidity equipment had been sited on the 21st August 2006 for the event. Ambient temperature was around 22° C A full EMF and NID sweep met with negative results both on the morning of the event and several hours prior to the event going live. A LIVE WEB feed was placed in the upper office rooms. Wireless cameras were set up in the bar area looking out towards the main door to the Inn with the final camera looking into the Inn from the main bar area towards the toilets. A control room was set up on the 1st floor with monitors covering the bar displayed and recorded to Hard disk recorder. Studio Digital audio equipment (DAT) Was set in the bar with twin microphones. All teams were equipped with laser thermometer and additional baseline equipment.
Medium Use Two HD mediums were used Caz and Jo. Caz on this occasion carried out the early visit and her finding's are below.
Lead Investigators Comments Independent witnesses unknown to the new owner had witnessed the young Victorian girl. She is normally seen in the bar area where she enters via a now sealed door and appears to draw water or perhaps a beer in a jug before leaving the bar. The male spirit Henry appears to be the infamous "screaming male" ghost often seen on the 1st floor. Kriss spent a rather uncomfortable 30 minutes in the bar on his own. During this time and when calling out Kriss heard a large bang - the team have as yet failed to establish the cause of this noise. It has been caught on camera and the footage is excellent. Conclusion The Minerva Inn is definitely worthy of additional investigation and we hope to visit again in the future. Whilst technically we were left wanting it would appear that our mediums had a field day and Kriss certainly enjoyed his lone vigil. This investigation will be covered in full on a DVD release later this year. |
