In this exclusive article, paranormal researcher David Farrant recounts his investigation into the haunting of a derelict Welsh Manor house.

I don't think anything came close to being similar to the actual Highgate Vampire case, as you've probably realised. There were a couple of other cases that I investigated that were supposed to be connected with “vampires”.

The first one was in Wales and that goes back to 1982. It concerns an old derelict Manor House which is about six miles from Beaumaris, Anglesea in Wales. It was very isolated and the whole area was practically deserted.

Rumour had it that the mansion was haunted by a “female spectre” and locally she'd become associated with stories of “vampires”. We never found out why, right at the beginning, but this was the general story going around.

We spoke to the locals - and I should add here that the Welsh are not exactly the easiest people in the world to get information out of … especially if you're English - they seemed very guarded as if to protect their own life styles and little communities, and most people all told the same story; that there was a terrible spectre that haunted the Manor House that was supposed to be the apparition of a vampire and nobody went near the place at night. We also checked with the police at Beaumaris before we started the investigation but they were unhelpful except that they confirmed that Baron Hall hadn't been lived in for many years and it was the ancestral home of the Bulkeley family who were very high up in the community.

The first thing we did, was to visit the Manor House by day - this would have been in the late summer or early autumn of 1982. It was very difficult to find. We had to go up long winding lanes, and there was not even anyone around to ask, but we eventually located it, hidden, right in the middle of nowhere. As it loomed up in the distance, in the grounds, we discovered a short flight of steps, very overgrown but not vandalised, and at the bottom of these were two securely locked iron doors with bars in them at the top, so of course, we had to look through these to see what was inside! When we shone the torch through them - and there is a comparison to Highgate Cemetery here - there were concrete shelves on either side of a small room and at least six coffins were clearly visible. We automatically assumed that these contained the remains of people who had lived in the house and who had been interred in the family vault. At the time, I remember thinking that this seemed unusual because there were no churches in the vicinity and it was almost as if the vault lay on unconsecrated ground. It was a bit of a mystery … the point being of course, that if this was the case, it could probably have given rise, or served as a reason, for the vampire stories.

Story continues:www.the-book-of-thoth.com