Plas Teg, Bodelwyddan Castle and Ruthin Gaol. Just three buildings that many North Walians would name as the region’s most haunted, but few if any would add a humble fancy dress shop in Mold to the prolific list.
I was given the unenviable task of finding out.
Learning that I would be spending five hours on a cold, dark Saturday night with a team of paranormal investigators locked in The Party Shop on Mold’s High Street, made me a little apprehensive to say the least.
Beforehand I was the first to admit to the Paradox Paranormal team that I was slightly skeptical, having always leaned towards a scientific way of thinking.
However something about the possibility of life after death has always intrigued me, so it was with an open mind that I joined the group and shop owner Katy Duplock from 8pm to 1am in the shop.
Katy and staff say they’ve experienced a catalogue of spooky goings-on over the years including hearing voices, and oddly the shop’s till operating on its own, often just ringing up a penny.
The building, formerly Cambrian House, has a long history having been a doctor’s surgery, a tobacconists and a cobblers.
Many in the town claim to have seen a young girl’s face peering out of one of the upstairs windows – it is believed that she was kept in the building after falling ill with smallpox, but others believe she came to a more grisly end. Some believe that the girl had fallen pregnant by a local priest and he pushed her out of the window to cover it up.
Our investigation started in the cellar, and I soon found myself surrounded by impressive technology including cameras, audio equipment and sensors.
We were plunged into darkness and being slightly on edge I found myself initially peering into corners expecting to see an eery face, but soon managed to relax.
We took it in turns to introduce ourselves and invite any spirits to communicate, which soon resulted in machines used by the ghost hunters to measure paranormal activity, reacting, with LEDs flashing to show movement had been detected and intermittent beeps to signal each time audio was being detected and recorded.
Paul Rowlands who headed the investigation, after being asked to come in and by shop owner Katy, said he believed there were three spirits in the room, with one possibly being a small child.
While I can’t be certain we heard any real voices there were definitely things I could not logically explain including sudden drops in temperature and a metal grid attached to the wall started to swing despite nobody being close enough to touch it.
Paul told me: “After you all went back upstairs me and Julie were down there just talking and it was moving yet again. We investigated it very thoroughly, we were looking for anything that’s going to cause drafts and there was nothing we could put down. We also thought it is attached to a very heavy solid wall and the floor is not far off bedrock beneath so there were no drafts.”
The spirits also seemed to react strongly whenever shop owner Katy told stories of her interactions with spirits, seemingly acknowledging that they were behind her experiences.
Unknown to me at the time, the night would get stranger as we progressed to a room upstairs.
Within a short period of time the machines became very active, with the team feeling that a male spirit was trying hard to speak to us. Unable to understand what sounded like a series of low grunts the team decided to ask the spirit to repeat our own names.
Eventually there was ‘success’ with us all, including this skeptical reporter, hearing a voice say ‘Victoria’ several times.
Frustratingly just as we seemed to be getting somewhere it was time to pack up with Paul saying it was one of the strongest reactions the team had ever seen.
“So many of us tonight have heard what we believe to be voices at different times and at the same time. It has inspired me to do more.”
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