Ashford couple to spend night in haunted abbey

May 5 2009 By Mark Goode

Ken and Val Butler holding an infared camcorder, digital temperature gun and an electro magnetic field meter

Intrepid ghost hunters from Spelthorne are to spend a night in a haunted abbey to raise money for charity.

Middlesex Paranormal Investigation (MPI) will be bedding down at Beaulieu Abbey in the New Forest to try and find evidence and apparitions of ghostly goings-on to raise money for war charity Help for Heroes.

The non-profit group, who usually have to fund their trips out of their own pocket, was started by Ashford's Val Butler, 64, who lives with her partner Ken Taylor, 63, in Town Tree Road.

Val said: "A lot of places we investigate can be very scary and a lot of members will say 'I am not staying there.' Some places are simply very hair raising but this time nobody is going to be allowed to leave. We want people to sponsor us so we will be able to stay all night."

The group use infra-red recording equipment, scanners, and thermometers, and find evidence of paranormal activity, such as stange lighting, movements, sounds, and appartitions, and usually proceed in the dark.

It all started when Val's dad Sam died of stomach cancer five years ago at the age of 88.

She said: "I was with him at the end, and something happened which made me think he hadn't gone. It was just a feeling, but the man I saw laying there was my father's body, but I knew he was somewhere else.

"Life is short and special, and I like to think that when you die it is not the end."

Val said she then joined another investigative team, but started the MPI last summer so she could confirm her beliefs of life after death. The group have made 12 investigations, including one in a sports centre in Staines, where Val said a door opened three times when she asked it to.

The group chose Help for Heroes as a few of the members have friends and relatives in the armed forces.

Val said: "There are all those people fighting out there, and I think as much needs to be done to help them. The brother-in-law of one member of the group, Mark Ormrod of the Royal Marines, Plymouth lost both legs and one arm Christmas Eve 2007 and is hoping to join with us."

To sponsor the group email val on val@mpi-uk.com