Most Haunted At Antwerp Mansion - Series 24, Episode 3 Review

Yvette Fielding and the Most Haunted team visit Antwerp Mansion in Manchester, a place that was once a family home, a gentlemen's club and a nightclub, but now it's all but derelict.

Built in 1840, Antwerp Mansion was a private residence in a gated community created for the Victorian super-rich industrialists. It became the home of the Belgian Consul for a time, before becoming a private gentlemen's club in 1922. At this time the building was massively extended, with a ball room and a snooker hall being added to the existing building. The property was subsequently purchased and turned into a nightclub and art centre, with graffiti decorating the walls.

A long way from its original splendour, the mansion seems empty to the naked eye, but stories of paranormal occurrences tell a different tale. Strange flashing lights have been reported in unlit rooms, footsteps have been heard when no one else is around, objects move on their own with stark regularity and a feeling of unease is felt by many who enter the building.

Many people say they don't like being on the mansion's main staircase, could this be because of the many accidents that have happened here or because of the dark shadows that have been seen? On the first floor in a grand room that later became the main room of the nightclub, deep bangs and disembodied voices have been heard. People also say they feel like they're being watched and followed in this part of the mansion.

In the eerie cellars there has been reports of deep guttural growling noises and poltergeist activity is common, but the most frightening thing to happen down here is people witnessing a dark shape that is said to lurk in the corners.

Despite these stories, Glen Hunt, the show's resident skeptic is more skeptical than ever about this property. His reason being that tens of thousands of people visited the mansion when it was a night club, yet no stories of revellers running out having seen a ghost have emerged. For this reason it will take a lot to convince Glen that the building is haunted. He added, "it looks as though it should be haunted, but I just don't think it is."

With Yvette and Glen's initial walk around complete, it was time to join the rest of the team and begin the investigation. They were joined by Karl Beattie, Fred Batt, Stuart Torevell, Gregg Smith and Darren Hutchinson in one of the old rooms of the nightclub.

Yvette started calling out, but was interrupted almost straight away by what sounded like someone running up the stairs. After Karl checked there was no one else in the building, Yvette said, "I'm more frightened of the living than the dead, because it sounded like a proper person running up the stairs."

They then started hearing several taps and knocks that seemed to be in response to their questions and a weird mechanical noise began from over their heads. Although not paranormal in nature, it wasn't clear what the sound was or what started the sound off.

Moments later the team heard a whistle and followed the odd sounds they were hearing up to the first floor. At this point they decided to split up in to two teams.

Now downstairs, Yvette, Fred and Darren almost immediately start to hear more tapping sounds, but they couldn't pinpoint where the sound was coming from. Fred took control and called out, "if you're here tap twice," but the taps continued constantly.

As they walked further into the abandoned club, what sounded like a child humming was picked up on camera. Darren then felt very distinct knocks on the floor, which seemed to be in response to Yvette's knocking sounds. They then heard three very loud knocks that sounded like they were coming from upstairs, but a shot of the other team there showed that they hadn't been knocking.

A few minutes later, Yvette asked the spirits if they could throw something and straight away a metallic crash was heard, like something hitting a piece of metal as if thrown. Darren described it as sounding like "a spring going off".

Karl, Stuart, Gregg and Glen, who were upstairs during this time, had a much quieter time.

The team then regrouped and went down to the cellar and split into smaller groups. Yvette and Glen were together in total darkness, where Yvette started calling out to the spirits, while Glen attempted to capture spirit voices, known as EVPs, on his laptop.

Pretty soon they heard a sound like something being dragged above them and then what sounded like a woman's voice, unfortunately this wasn't very clear on camera.

As Yvette continued to call out, she saw a shadow on the wall, cast by the light of Glen's laptop. Seconds later she heard a humming sound while she was speaking. It wasn't picked up on camera, but they'd hoped that it was captured in Glen's audio recording software. Sadly, upon reviewing the playback it couldn't be heard over Yvette's voice.

Elsewhere in the basement, Fred was with Darren, and Gregg who was behind the camera. They straight away experienced banging coming from around them. Gregg called out, "hello, is anybody there" and a few seconds later a wheezy breath was heard. Everyone had different opinions of what it sounded like. Darren said it was like fingers being dragged down a chalk board, Gregg described it as a screech and Fred said it sounded like a murmur.

The team then became aware of a constant, repetitive low thud, Darren likened it to a heartbeat. Then another sound above them, which Fred said was like a child scampering above them. Apparently the area above them is where a child died after falling through a skylight into the building a few years ago.

The next unexplained sound they heard was like something being dragged. Darren started calling out, asking "did you used to live here?" They heard very loud knocks confirming 'yes'.

By continuing this method of one knock for 'no' and two for 'yes', Darren deduced that he was communicating with a young boy. Fred asked the spirit to tap out its age and they heard eight knocks in response.

Towards the end of the investigation they heard the sound of something metal hitting the floor, bouncing off of Gregg as it did. They found that a coin had been responsible for the sound. The incident happened at the same time as Glen, who was still in another room, said "if you want to let us know you're here without alarming us, can you drop some coins?"

They then heard an even more bizarre sound coming from upstairs, it sounded like a rusty swing, but the team knew there was nothing like that up there.

Karl and Stuart were in yet another part of the basement, where straight away something was thrown or fell making a dinging sound as it did, but with so much junk on the floor anyway it was impossible to workout what may have caused it. Later they heard something being thrown against a wall, it sounded like glass but they couldn't find any broken glass anywhere. Then seconds later something was thrown and smashed again. The smash was followed by an odd noise that neither of them could explain.

The investigation ended with Yvette and Glen hearing footsteps in the room they were in and the strange whimpering sound that Fred and Darren's group had thought was a rusty swing.

The new series of Most Haunted continues on Really. Watch on Freeview (17), Sky (155) and Virgin Media (129), or watch previous episodes of Most Haunted on demand on the UKTV Player.