The Community Centre

A P.E.G. Case File 

© Brian Allan 2005

Word Count: 2,624

Although paranormal phenomena occur in all sorts of settings, including gloomy deserted old churchyards and modern buildings that teem with life. In this instance the events occurred in the Kincardine-on-Forth Community Centre, a large, solidly built sandstone structure that serves as a venue for various local groups in the village of Kincardine. The reports from the caretakers and cleaners concerned glimpses of figures seen scurrying around the corridors, voices, anomalous noises, doors opening and closing for no obvious reason, a clock that kept literally jumping from a wall and a piano that tinkled a few musical notes when no one was near. Although none of these events were particularly alarming in isolation, gradually the number of occurrences began to build up until people working alone in the building became increasingly nervous. We were asked to evaluate the phenomena in an attempt to discover what was causing the disturbances, although in this case it was out of curiosity and since there was nothing malignant, there was no particular desire to put a stop to them.

The Community Centre

The Community Centre was first built as a church in the 19th century, but was converted into a school in the early 20th century and it continued in this use until it's conversion to a multi-purpose building during the mid 1980's. There are no known reports of any unusual or paranormal events prior to this time although it is possible that anything that did occur was simply either ignored or, for various other reasons, not recorded. However in recent times this has changed, particularly since a portion of the building was allocated to the local youth club. The areas allegedly affected by the phenomena include the stage and the corridor immediately behind it, the youth club and a corridor running slightly downhill alongside the youth club and the stage area.

The investigation was initiated by Ann and Brian Allan on the basis of preliminary evaluations followed by a later visit using the services of a psychic medium. A series of interviews, the first on Sun the 21st October 2004, were conducted with a few of the permanent employees and the following details emerged.

The First Visit

Accompanied by the centre manager Mrs Nancy McBeth, the first area we visited was the main hall in the old part of the building where the stage is located; apparently it is also the most active location. According to Mrs McBeth who has been involved with various community projects in the area for twenty years, her experiences within the Community Centre stretch back approximately ten years. Due to some reports of odd happenings on the premises she was speculating on the possibility of a 'presence' in the building with a friend; when they experienced an abrupt temperature drop accompanied by a sudden, loud noise next door in the coffee lounge. Her most recent experience, which occurred only two weeks prior to this interview, involved the large windows in the main hall. She explained that all the windows that had been closed during the morning but one was found to be open when they returned for the afternoon session.

I asked if anyone could been in the hall and opened the window, but according to Mrs. McBeth, the door is fitted with an alarm, and the caretaker, Mr Brian Connolly, set the alarm and it had not activated. The same night as he prepared to go home, Mr Connolly followed a regular route through the building securing doors, checking windows and putting off the lights as he did so. When he returned the following morning he discovered that a light at the back of the stage was on. At around the same period, Mr Connolly also glimpsed an 'orange flash' shoot past him as he walked along one of the corridors behind the stage area. Mrs McBeth also told us of another occurrence when she noticed the control pad of Sony Playstation used by the children started to vibrate spontaneously when the Playstation to which it was attached was switched off. In another story she explained that a previous caretaker, 'Gibby', frequently asked if she had been in the main hall because he could hear the sound of footsteps, in every instance she had not left her office and none else was in the building. In another instance the same caretaker heard a 'swishing' sound crossing the hall as he cleaned it.

It is almost the equivalent of having a party and inviting anyone and everyone to come along, in other words you can have literally anything arriving and you cannot control it. I commented that the phenomena seem to have manifested to a small number of people and asked Mrs McBeth if we could speak to them, fortunately raised no objection to this request. Out of curiosity, at this point I asked if anyone (a spirit person) was present, we became silent for a few moments but regrettably there was no evidence of any attempt at contact.

By this time we had reached the coffee lounge and youth club and Mrs McBeth told us about the odd, almost poltergeist type of phenomena displayed with by wall clock. Nancy was alone in the large room when the clock, the one that is still there, literally launched itself; actually she used the word 'flew', off the wall. She indicated where it had fallen; the spot was in excess of two meters away from the wall. We examined the area near the wall but there was no indication why the clock should have behaved in this extraordinary manner. Curiously, just after this happened Mrs McBeth went into the storage extension off the lounge where toys etc are stored, and as she entered the room a child's doll started 'speaking' to her. We asked her if it was the usual type of 'ma-ma' noise produced by most dolls but according to Mrs McBeth it was not, the sound was quite unusual and distinctive and it gave her some cause for concern. Perhaps significantly the sound was not repeated and on examination there was no obvious reason why this should have happened. We terminated the interview at this point and decided to conduct an interview with Mr Brian Connolly at later date.

The Second Visit

When pressed on this Mr Connolly explained that it was not just one single note, rather it was a progression of four or five notes. Following this he also experienced a number of occasions when the clock in the lounge jumped off the wall and almost struck him, he estimated the number of times this happened at between twenty and thirty. He made it clear that he never ever entered the hall to find the clock lying on the floor, it always happened when he was physically present in the room on his own.

Oddly enough all this happened in the first few months he was there and has not happened again for the past two years. There is still one another, less tangible, occurrence currently happening to him and that is an odd physical sensation when he enters the main hall; he describes the feeling as 'horrible'. It is not always present and not necessarily at night either, it can happen during the day as well. He went on to describe an instance the previous week when he and Mrs McBeth were in the coffee lounge one afternoon when they heard the sound of footsteps moving around the stage area. The stage is only a few feet way from the lounge, separated by the corridor where he had glimpsed the 'orange flash'. Mrs McBeth called out in case someone had gone into the hall looking for them, but there was no reply, Mr Connolly went in to investigate but there was no one there. He has since heard the footsteps several times. On another occasion about a year ago he was sitting in his office waiting for someone to arrive when, once again, he heard the sound of footsteps in the corridor that runs alongside the coffee lounge and the stage area but this time they were running; he had the impression that it was the sound of children. He is certain that there was no one there because of the door alarms. He called out and when he went to investigate the sound the footsteps abruptly stopped, when he returned to his office they started again; he has no explanation for this.

He described it as hooded, like someone wearing an anorak or other hooded garment. His first impression was that someone had run past him, but there was no one there and had been absolutely no noise. He felt pangs of alarm and quickly opened the door, threw the items inside, locked the door again and left the building immediately. Another related experience happened only a few months ago when he was polishing the hall floor. The door was propped open securely and he was working way with his back to it when suddenly he experienced the, now familiar, 'bad feeling'. As he did so the door slammed shut with a reverberating bang, not surprisingly giving him a considerable fright. I examined the door and when the door is opened it stays open and it takes some effort to close it; in my opinion it is unlikely that it slammed shut of its own volition. As if this was not enough a calendar on the wall suddenly dropped to the floor, however, this may have been coincidental and caused by the action of the door slamming. We decided to leave it at that and return at a later date with a medium.

The Third Visit

Here Ms Tognan quickly picked up on an elderly man who 'did not like the noise in the building' he told her, 'I wish you would stop making all that noise'. She was then drawn to a clock, although currently there is not one in the hall, she sensed that it was a big old school clock, the type with a opening brass bezel and a wooden frame round it; this was a good beginning since she had picked up on the buildings use as a school. Further enquiries revealed that there had indeed been a large clock in the hall, it was mounted high on the wall above the door directly opposite the stage; it had been removed several years ago. She went on to repeat her impression of a thin, very elderly man, she also told us that when she first entered the building she had sensed the presence of running foots steps, the quick, light steps of children. Still in the hall she sensed the sound of the main door been vigorously slammed shut, which mirrored the recent experience of Mr Connolly the caretaker. Returning to the old man again, she sensed that he may have been a janitor of some kind, she also sensed that he carried out the maintenance around the place and he was strongly connected to the clock. She continued to sense that he was not happy with the hall, especially the noise in it.

We moved towards the coffee lounge via the side of the stage, the medium did not detect any activity in the area, but as we emerged into the lounge this changed. She quickly detected the sound of voices and sensed that they had been heard quite frequently. She paused and was at pains to point out that although there had been quite regular paranormal occurrences in the building there was nothing malignant or potentially harmful there and Mrs McBeth agreed with this, we then went outside to the bottom of the building next to the main road. Here Ms Tognan turned and looked at the mottled grey of the building; she told us that she sensed a large group of women knitting socks and scarves. This is quite likely since the building had been used for a variety of purposes during the Second World War and it was common practise for local women in most areas to 'knit for the troops'. At this point we re-entered the building again and this time we went into the storage area, but there was no activity there.

Following a brief discussion we thanked Mrs McBeth for her time and allowing us access to the building and having discovered the probable source of the sightings and sounds we concluded the investigation.

Conclusion

The outcome of the investigation was fairly satisfying, we had established that;

Like many investigations of this kind there was no defined outcome, but none had been asked for. The medium had supplied information about the probable source of the phenomena in the building and the people working there were happy with this, which is the most we could ask for. We wish to thank Mrs Nancy McBeth and Mr Brian Connolly from the Community Centre and Mr Bill Wolsey from Kincardine Local History Group for their assistance.