Most Haunted At Wentworth Woodhouse, Part One - Series 17, Episode 6 Review

Yvette Fielding and the Most Haunted team investigate the biggest house they've ever investigated, it's so huge that the investigation is split over two parts, starting with the old college area and servant's quarters.

Wentworth Woodhouse is the largest privately owned house in Great Britain, with a total of 365 rooms to explore. It's impressive facade stands at 180 metres, and its courts and buildings cover a full 3 acres. The house originally stood in a vast 19,000 acre estate, but it now set in 250 acres of parkland.

The property was originally owned by Thomas Wentworth, the first Earl of Strafford, the ill-fated administrator to the equally ill-fated King Charles I, And like his king, Thomas was destine to end his life at the sharp end of the headsman's axe.

After his execution the house was passed on to his son William Wentworth, the second earl, but when he died in 1695 he disinherited his eldest male heir, Thomas Wentworth, in favour of his nephew Thomas Watson. This began one of the most enduring and lasting family feuds in English history, lasting for over five decades.

Since then the house has had many uses, including as a convalescent home during the war, and a college for physical improvement, the Lady Mabel College, before being bought back into private hands recently.

With a long history, so many former uses and a long family feud, it's no wonder that the building has such a haunted reputation. There have been reports of strange dark figures, a ghostly monk, children laughing and whispering, and an operatic voice has been heard when nobody is present. Doors are said to open and close on their own and unseen hands grab visitors.

On the house's grand oak staircase, the first earl has made his presence known. He's been seen as a headless ghost walking up and down the stairs. Glen says, "it's a historical fact that the Earl of Stafford was beheaded, so I think with that in mind, that's something that people are automatically expecting to see or at least think they're seeing."

Most Haunted's resident skeptic, Glen Hunt thinks Wentworth Woodhouse is "the quintessential manor house." He said that "with such a house and such a history, we're all going to be open to suggestion, and I think we all just need to fight that really and just try and be logical wherever we can be."

Demonologist Fred Batt is always excited when there's a possibility that the location might have ties to witchcraft, but he says that in the case of Wentworth Woodhouse there definitely is a connection, "this place, I've actually got [the names of] the four witches that were condemned here in the grounds."

With the lights out, the team began their investigation. Fred and Glen took Eamonn Vann-Harris, Gregg Smith and Darren Hutchinson to the library, where Fred got comfy on a sofa.

A laidback Fred called out to the spirits, "if anybody's here, if you can hear me, can you make yourself known please. Either move something, touch someone, move something or come and sit next to me on the sofa."

Darren started feeling faint tapping from under the sofa, but that was about all the activity the team experienced in this part of the building.

Mean while Yvette was upstairs with Karl Beattie and Stuart Torevell and straight away they heard heavy thudding sounds, which seemed to be coming from a step right in front of them.

Yvette called out, "hello, how many of you are with us now?" They counted five bangs, but as there was already banging, I'm not sure this can be thought of as a direct response to the question.

As they walked into a big empty, unused room, Yvette heard a noise that she described as sounding "like an extra footstep, as if someone's following us."

Stuart said, "I feel as though the energy is just starting to build up now," and moments later the team heard more banging coming from the walls.

Yvette asked Karl if he was scared, he said "on a scale of one to ten, it's about 15 at the moment, I'm actually shaking."

Yvette called out "hello" and instantly the knocking started again. Stuart said, "that's right under my feet." And seconds later Yvette screamed as she heard a scraping noise, which she described as sounding like a cupboard door on carpet.

Moments later she said she saw what looked like a shadow moving in an adjoining room, so they went to investigate. After moving into the adjoining room they once again felt banging under their feet, all of which was audible on camera.

They passed through into the stairwell of a spiral staircase and heard a whine echoing up the stairs. Moving back into the rooms, Yvette asked then spirits to copy and sung a note, loud knocks seemed to emanate from the walls in response.

The gang had a swap around, Yvette went to the student's quarters with Fred, Glen, Eamonn, Gregg and Darren, who was first to experience something, saying he felt "really weird" in the old bedroom they were in.

Moments later they heard a whistle "as clear as day" coming from back towards the hallway, followed by voices. They went to investigate, and now out on the landing now, Yvette whistled and asked the spirits to copy. They heard someone or something whistle back.

As they walked away they heard the same whistle. Glen then said "can we have another whistle" and immediately they heard it again, proving it wasn't just an echo. Testing the spirit further, Yvette whistled a tune and whatever was causing the whistling sound mimicked her melody, an experiment which Yvette successfully repeated several times.

Karl and Stuart had gone off alone, we joined them at the top of oak staircase. The first activity the experienced was a noice which they thought sounded like children. Karl said, "it sounded like a kid laughing."

They went into the room where the sound had come from and soon after there was a crash. Stuart spun the camera around to find the door behind him and slammed closed, not only had it closed but it seemed to have locked. They panicked as they thought they were locked in but found there was away out through an adjoining room.

As they stepped into the second room, the door once again slammed and locked behind them, sealing them off from the first room.

Amazed at what they'd experienced, Karl and Stuart called the rest of the team to try to uncover what had tried to lock them in a room. Karl told the others, "it's either they're joking with us, or they're wanting us out of their room cuz that's where the laughter was, that room now is specifically locked."

Yvette started by trying to make contacted with the spirits, "are there any children here? If there are children here can you tap out how many of you are here?" There was two bangs in response.

They then heard a dragging sound coming from behind the locked door. Moving out into the corridor, next to the first door that slammed, a bit of plaster hit the floor, it seemed to have been thrown from further down the corridor.

There was then a loud noise centred around Darren, the others thought something else might have been thrown but Darren said "it wasn't an impact noise, it was an anergy boost noise" and he should know about sounds.

The team began to knock on the locked door and found that whatever was inside copied their knocks. At one point Glen suspected it might have been an echo, but Karl said "don't copy this" and when Glen knocked again, this time it wasn't repeated back.  They eventually got into the other room and found it was empty.

That discovery marked the end of the episode, but there's plenty more to come from Wentworth Woodhouse. Next week the team embark on their investigation of the subterranean labyrinth of tunnels beneath the house.