Foundry Livery Stables Building, Thames, New Zealand

Investigation Report

 21 April 2024

General History of the Location:  

The building has had a number of uses since it was built in 1889.  It was initially a firewood/coal yard for Charles Short who relocated his business from Rollston Street in Thames.  He also ran a coach service from the yard and offered runs to Paeroa from the yard.  During this time the coach service was also used  as a hearse to transport bodies to the local cemetery.  In 1909 it was purchased by Thomas Phillips and later incorporated into Judds Foundry.  The building and the block around it were taken over by Placemakers in 1985, which moved to Pollen Street in around 2016.  Since that time the building has housed several restaurants, a takeaway and a craft brewery. In recent times it has stood empty.  

Paranormal History of the Location:

Staff members have reported a feeling of someone watching them.  Footsteps have been heard in parts of the building where no one is present.  Items have fallen or been thrown with no reason found. 

Who was in your team for the Investigation:

Barbara Caisley 

Ian Quigley  

(Stu Caisley attended for an hour or so to take photos of the investigators at work)

Weather Conditions on the night:

Fine with a light wind.  Also a little cloudy.

Luna Cycle - New/full/Half Moon:

Third Quarter

Equipment Used:

Barbara

H4n Audio Recorder

2 x small audio recorders

Mel Meter

EDI+ Data Logger

Various video cameras

REM Pod

Spirit Box

Ian

Zoom F3 32bit Audio recorder

Rode NT2-A multi-pattern condenser microphone

Blackmagic Pocket 4k camera

 Description of the building:  

It was a large and sprawling building built on a corner site on the main road. The wooden building was built in 1889 as a firewood and coal yard, and livery stables. The owner also ran a coach service from the property.  At some later stage it had two warehouse-type buildings added to the southern end of it and while these still stand it is clear where the original building ends with a doorway opening to the newer part very close to where the back wall once would have been.  .  Inside it was well maintained however outside it had a very plain industrial look with wooden joinery and painted wooden cladding.

First impression of the building:

It was a very large building and we decided that due to the vastness of it, it would be best to focus our investigation in the area where the original building was as that is where staff had noted possible activity.  This area had been partitioned off and used as a restaurant and craft brewery.

How we felt in the building:   

No one present had any change of emotion while in the building.

Temperature in the Building:

Baseline temperatures were taken at the beginning of the investigation and were rechecked in the middle and also near the end of the investigation.  At commencement, ambient temperatures around the building were 20.1C to 20.3C.  As the investigation continued the temperature decreased slightly with all readings being around C18.2 two hours into the investigation and C17.7 towards the end of the investigation. These readings are unremarkable.  Temperatures were monitored constantly throughout the entire investigation  with a couple of minor fluctuations noted.  The fluctuations were in the +/- 2.00 degreesC  so were not particularly noteworthy.

EMF Levels in the Building:

Baseline EMF readings were taken at the beginning of the investigation and were constantly monitored throughout the night.  Readings were very low in all areas of the building however a couple of small spikes were measured during the investigation with 9.2 mg being the most notable.  This was measured during a communication session in the room beside the kitchen area in the front of the building.  

Rooms or areas which stood out to the investigators:

We were drawn to the back hallway (close to where the original back wall would have been), however it could have been because it was dark, narrow, had an ancient battered door at one end and a very creepy vibe.  It was also quite close to the toilet area  where we could sometimes hear odd noises which,  upon investigation, were discovered to be the urinal.  There was also evidence of rodents having been in the area so some of the sounds we heard there could  possibly be explained by that.  However all-in-all that area was a place that we were keen to investigate.

Observations during the investigation: 

There were lots of sounds, bangs, knocks and taps but in a building of that age that is to be expected however some of them did seem to be in response to our questions and requests.  We did get a few possibly intelligent replies ie “Ian” was clearly heard when we asked if “they” knew our names.  We did record some possible evps (both voices and whispers) however most of these had to be debunked as possibly contamination by people walking past the building while talking.  As the large building was on a large site with three sides having road and footpath frontage it was impossible to ensure that there was no contamination.  As with any serious paranormal team, Paranormal Researchers debunk any occurrence which could possibly be explained.

Coldspots and temperature drops:

No unusual cold spots were noticed.  The building had some chinks in the cladding that caused colder spots in places but these were noted and taken into account.  There were a couple of unexplained temperature fluctuations noted on our EDI+ but only +/- 2degreesC , so not of great significance at this time. 

Feelings or discoveries psychically:  

Paranormal Researchers do not use psychics however  a sensitive watching the live-feed for several hours messaged us to say that she had picked up on the name “Adam”.

Information on anyone who may have died in the building or information about previous occupants:

Due to the age and various uses of the building there would have been people who died while being employed in the building but to date we cannot find evidence of anyone actually passing away in the building.

Trigger tests or trigger objects used:

This was our first investigation of the building so it was more of a go-see investigation so we did not use any trigger objects.  We did however conduct an experiment with a pendulum to see if a pendulum hanging from a wooden teepee stand would display the ideomotor effect.  The wooden stand along with the pendulum was monitored by the investigators and also videoed.  As we suspected the pendulum did not move during the investigation.

Interviews with anyone who had worked or lived in the building:

The owner was very much a no nonsense kind of guy and was rather sceptical about us investigating his building.  Staff members who have worked in the building in recent times do report possibly paranormal activity and feelings of not being alone.

The investigation:

The investigation went well.  It was an interesting building and Paranormal Researchers worked well together as a team.  As it was a first investigation of this building we needed to identify areas of interest, attempt to debunk any sounds which were common to the building, get our bearings of where the original building stood before the extensions were added, carefully check out any areas with consistently higher emf, note ambient temperatures and identify explanations for any fluctuations.  Once we had completed that we were then able to commence investigating.  We were in the building for around 6 and a half hours and most of that time was in active investigation.  We managed to spend time in most areas and held multiple communication sessions including one with a spirit box.

Communication sessions:  

We conducted several recorded communication sessions in an attempt to elicit responses from any spirits that may have been present.    These were held in the main front area, a room at the rear of the building,  and in the back hallway.  We recorded many hours of audio recordings and found many possible evps.  We were able to cross-reference many of these sounds so that we had several recordings of the same sound and as a result many of our possible evps were debunked.  We do still have several that were not debunked and they can be heard in our video of the investigation along with  Spirit Box “hits”n the night.  They can all be heard here:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X54hEewTTfo   

We also used a spirit box in an attempt to communicate with any possible spirits.  While we feel that a spirit box is an experimental piece of equipment we did hear Ian’s name almost immediately.

Experiment:

We also experimented with a pendulum as a means of communication.  To avoid the pendulum moving due to minute unconscious movements of the operator, we hung the pendulum in a wooden frame and attempted to get any spirits present to swing the pendulum.  We were unsuccessful in moving the pendulum.  We believe this is probably due to the lack ideomotor reflex in the wooden frame.

Summary of the investigation:

Paranormal Researchers arrived on-site at around 8pm and commenced by doing a walk-through, talking to and explaining to any ghosts who may have been present who we were and what we were doing in their building.  We then set up our static video cams, and digital audio recorders, placing them strategically throughout the building to ensure that any sound caught on audio recorder would have been caught on more than one recorder.  We placed other equipment (REM Pod, EDI+, Mel Meter and video cams and audio recorders in areas where we were focusing our investigation and moved them around as we investigated.  We held several Communication sessions and also set up a live feed so our followers were able to be included in the investigation and at times monitor different areas while we were investigating other areas.  The investigation concluded at about 1.30pm.   

Summary of overall feelings on the place?  Is it haunted:

It’s an interesting building and we think there may possibly be something there, but a few knocks, some voices that we are unsure of the origin of and a couple of  spirit box “hits” does not  prove a haunting.  As these responses did all seem to be in response to our questions, it may possibly indicate an intelligent haunting, however we would need further investigation of the location in order to further our research before making any conclusions.

Watch the video