Most Haunted At Wentworth Woodhouse Stables - Series 20, Episode 2 Review

Yvette Fielding's team of ghost hunters have been invited back to Wentworth Woodhouse by its owners, this time to investigate ghostly goings on in the building's stable block.

Wentworth Woodhouse itself is one of the most famous facades in global architecture and its history is as intricate as its carvings, which adorn its stone elevations. The building replaces a medieval hall, which originally occupied the site. The current building was constructed in 1630 by the 1st Earl of Strafford, Thomas Wentworth.

In this episode the team investigate the building's stables, which might conjure up the image of a small building, but in the case of Wentworth Woodhouse the stables are huge, as they contained living quarters for stable hands, as well as other facilities. In its day, the very impressive stable block would have been a hive of activity, houses grooms, works, and of course, the horses themselves.

Today the stables are derelict, having been used for various different purposes since the stables were last used. Most Haunted are the first ever ghost hunting team to be given access to this part of the estate.

Dark shadows are witnessed regularly, cries are heard in the dead of night, and doors slam on their own. One of the most frequently reported sightings is that of a large figure of a man is seen endlessly wandering the corridors, but once spotted he vanishes into the darkness.

The show's resident skeptic, Glen Hunt, said "I'm excited by the prospect of seeing said gentleman, if anything because being within the grounds of Wentworth Woodhouse. This stable block apparently has the same ratio of hauntings as it does in the main building. What's exciting about that, because this is much smaller, that increases our chances of connecting with any paranormal activity."

Before the investigation got underway, Karl Beattie introduced us to a new piece of kit, which he calls GORT.

Karl described GORT as "a highly modified remote control car" with a camera mounted onboard and an array of infrared sensors which help it navigate and in case you're wondering, GORT stands for Ghost Observing Robotic Tracker.

Based on the philosophical thought experiment, "if a tree falls in a forest and no one is around to hear it, does it make a sound?" GORT is designed to be there to find out what happens when no one else is around, the hope is it'll catch ghost when no people are around.

The device is capable of driving around on its own, avoiding obstacles as it goes, and exploring the corridors alone.

With the lights out, the investigation began. Yvette went to the stables with demonologist Fred Batt, camera man Gregg Smith, Darren Hutchinson and her trusty ghost hunting pooch, Watson.

They went into the middle room and Yvette started calling out, "can you make a noise, please if you're here. Can you throw something?" As soon as she finished speaking they heard a bang, followed by an even louder bang. The sound seemed to come from above them, so they went upstairs to investigate.

The stairs led them to a very small upper floor, which consisted of not much more than a balcony that overlooked an old squash court. Yvette said that while they were walking up the stair, Watson reacted to his surroundings as if there was someone around him and he wanted their attention.

Yvette then started to freak out, not because of anything paranormal but because Gregg mentioned that he'd seen a bat in this part of the building earlier. In the midst of her panic the team heard a bang from the court below, as if something had been thrown.

As the team were about to head downstairs, again Watson started acting strangely. He was starring into the darkness like he had seen or heard something downstairs.

Meanwhile, Karl and Stuart Torevell stayed in the accommodation area of the stable block. They entered an upper level where a set of stairs went up on either side of a small landing. Stuart pointed his camera up into the darkness and commented on how ominous the stairs looked.

He said, "I defy anyone to come here at nighttime, this has got to be one of the freakiest places, me personally, has been in a long time." Karl agreed, "I've gotta say, it's a weird weird place."

While commenting on how quiet it was, they heard a loud shuffling sound coming from the darkness outside the room they were in and went to investigate. They heard another sound coming from a room at the end of the corridor.

They started to call out and heard a bang, which at first they thought was a door slamming, but the door was locked so couldn't have slammed. As they left the room they heard an almighty crash like furniture being thrown. Moments later they heard a disembodied whistling sound.

As they wandered between rooms they heard several more bangs, and then found a chair, which hadn't been there before, lying on its back in a doorway.

Hearing a thud, on the locked door they ran around to the other side of the door on the corridor, via another exit that wasn't locked. There was no one near the door, or in the corridor, the pair couldn't come up with any explanation for the bang.

Now in a room at the end of the corridor, Karl suddenly heard a noise out in the corridor and the pair rushed to the door and peered out into the darkness. Karl said he could hear footsteps and put his camera down on a sideboard as they listened.

Karl started calling out, "come on if you're here... what's that?" In the darkness on the stairs halfway along the corridor, they saw the figure of what looked like a man. The image was clearly visible on camera. Karl picked up his camera and he and Stuart ran along the corridor in pursuit, only to find there was no one there.

In the replay of the moment it was clear to see that someone was present on the stairs. Karl said, "I thought it was one of our team." But, it couldn't have been as a check revealed that this part of the building was empty.

Meanwhile, with Watson now tucked up in his bed, Yvette, Fred, Gregg and Darren continued their investigation in the squash court. They heard a couple of noises, which sounded like parts of the decaying ceiling falling to the floor.

Then Yvette looked up at the balcony where they had previously been stood. She thought she saw a shadowy figure in the darkness of the balcony. Fred backed her up saying, "I thought I saw somebody up there."

Yvette again thought she saw a dark figure above them on the balcony. Gregg ran off to check there was nobody around. The coast was clear, but Yvette said, "I definitely saw a dark figure standing on the balcony," the figure was so clear to Yvette that she thought it may have been someone else in the building messing about.

The two teams regrouped and talked about their experience and it became apparent that the balcony overlooking the squash court was actually at the other end of the corridor that Karl and Stuart had been investigating. The figure that Karl caught on camera was headed in the direction of the squash court.

Darren said, "we could see the dip in the stairs where we saw the person," this is the exact spot Karl and Stuart saw the figure. Karl sums it up, "in two vigils, at the same time, we've both seen a solid figure, how rare is that?"

Yvette said, "as we're going on with these investigations, we're seeing more and more solid figures with our own naked eye."

Glen went alone to the upper attic rooms, armed with his laptop in an attempt to capture some spirit voices as audio recordings, known as EVPs. He said, "it may have been my imagination, but I heard some knocking when I was setting up my computer to record."

Other than those initial bangs, it was all quiet for Glen in the attic and he got no activity on the voice activity front. Yvette and the rest of the team went to the stairs where they'd seen the figure. Yvette called out and encourage the spirits to communicate, she heard some faint taps in response and said, "hello, sir. It's not very loud, can you make a noise with your voice instead perhaps?"

Yvette asked any spirits present to walk towards then, when suddenly Fred said, "something's around me, I can feel it around me. Icy icy cold. It's like I've been wrapped in an ice cold blanket." He speculated that when Yvette asked the spirits to approach, one obliged and was now stood next to him.

After a while Glen rejoined the rest of the team and straight away they heard a sound coming from one of the rooms, so they went to investigate. Fred then said he could smell sulphur, like a match or candle had been lit and blown out.

They then heard what sounded like a window being opened or closed, but couldn't find a source for the sound, this was followed by a loud bang coming from elsewhere. Then moment later a piece of wood was thrown.

Soon after all this activity, Yvette called an end to one of the most thrilling investigations that the Most Haunted team have ever embarked on.