World War Two Munitions Factory Dumfries South of Scotland
Team Present
Bill:- Clairaudient/Clairvoyant Medium
Tracey:- Paranormal Investigator
Stevie:- Location Organiser
Billy:- Paranormal Investigator
Alex Team Co-ordinator
Short Location History :-
At the start of World War Two in nineteen thirty nine, the British Government decided to site a new ammunition works near Dumfries in the South of Scotland, to make explosives and fill shell and cartridge-cases for the Royal Navy. Acids, glycerine, fibre and cases, were brought in by rail. The works eventually covered some three and a half square miles, its remains still being visible. Five farms were requisitioned by the Armed Forces. As a safety precaution, the works were duplicated north and south of the railway.
The depot gradually declined from production to storage, which ended in 1965 with the decision to stop bringing bargeloads of munitions to Palnackie Basin, and then by road to the munitions factory.
The works were partially sold off to Edingham Farm. Parts of the works are still used for Armed Forces exercises and demolition practice, but most of the remaining structures were scheduled as a Historic Monument by Historic Scotland.
We arrived at the location at 6.45pm.
After climbing over a gate ( with the farmers permission) and trudging through about 8 inch deep mud, we finally came to the first of the buildings in this vast complex.
We decided to leave the bulk of our equipment here and do a short recce of the complex.
Stevie went off across a sea of mud, to try and find a way to the main complex.
Tracey and Alex went up a small hill beside the building and were able to see most of the complex from there.
Bill and Billy, stayed with the equipment.
Once Stevie returned, we started to make our way to a group of buildings to the right of the complex, to try and find a suitable base room.
Along the way, we come across two old railway bridges. Both bridges also had a wide footbridge running paralell with them. The bridges were about fifty feet apart, with a small valley separating them.
Stevie went down into the valley and across to the other bridge to try and find out where it led to.
Billy takes two photos, then as happened in Glasgow the camera stops working even although new batteries had just been fitted.
When Stevie came back, he said some unseen "presence" had bumped into him on the bridge.
As we cross the first bridge, Tracey, Bill and Billy feel as if they are getting pushed. Alex remarks he is not getting pushed, but feels as if he is walking up a steep hill.
Bill, senses someone walking along the bridge with him, by his right side. The right hand side of Bills face is ice cold, while the left hand side of his face is quite warm.
Bill gets the name Peter Patterson. Peter was a civilian worker, who helped construct the bridges. He tells Bill he was killed in an accident when something hit him on the side of the head.
Alex sees what he describes as a slight mist, about a metre in front of Bill. No one else sees anything. Bills hair is now standing up.
Bill says a little bit ahead of us, he can see people, mostly women, going about there normal dailly business.
A few yards further on, we come to what looks like a thick wall. The wall is about a metre thick, one and a half metres tall and approx 30 metres long.
Alex sees people with haversack type bags on their shoulders stepping on to trains from this "wall." We came across another wall a little further down, approx the same size.
We later discovered this was infact a railway station in the days of old, called Southwich.
The munitions factory had it's own railway system.
Bill hears the voice of a woman saying to him, "We are going to get into trouble if Bill Andrews catches us here"
"Bill Andrews is the man who is in charge of this place" the woman tells Bill.
Bill then says everything seems to be happening in "real time" here.
Eventually, we come to the first of a cluster of buildings.
The first building we come to, only has two sides left standing and no roof.
At the far right hand corner of the building, Alex notices a row of five very old style seats, all joined together.. When touching the seats, the arm of Alex starts to shake uncontrollably.
All the team touch the seats but do not experience anything.
Both Bill and Alex see ladies sitting on these seats smoking cigarettes and drinking tea. They are all wearing the same type of clothes and have headscarves on.
Bill and Alex also feel the seats do not belong in this area of the complex.
Some unseen person tells Bill that we are all going to see spirits here tonight.
Tracey, notices the ground we are standing on is not solid. After a look about, Tracey discovers what looks like two air vents sticking up out of the ground. There is a hole in the ground near the vents. We can't quite see what is under the ground, but it appears to be quite a big space.
The team move round to the back of the building.
Stevie sees a well educated man at the back of the building. There is a strong smell of methane gas in this area.
Bill picks up the smell of flowers, bluebells. Bill says this is before the building was here.
Bill picks up the words "powder proof cannisters".
This is a "new" concept Bill says.
Both Tracey and Alex, are hearing a buzzing sound, but can't quite establish where it is coming from. It appears to be coming from the building where we found the seats.
We move round to the front of a bigger building, adjacent to the one we were just in. This building only has three walls and is devided into three equal sized "rooms"
Bill feels this is where ammunition was tested.
Alex walks into the room at the end of the building and senses a presence there. On taking a step backwards, Alex bumps into what he thought was another team member. When he turned to see who it was and apologise, no team member was near him.
Alex asks Bill to go into the room to see if he can pick up anything.
Alex sees a man standing right beside Bill. The man is wearing a blue boiler suit.
Stevie is then asked to take an EMF reading, but he had left it with the other equipment for the walkround. On video and audio, when Stevie is asked for the EMF meter, a voice is clearly heard saying "S O"
Bill is picking up the word "troops"
Bill is now picking up the feeling of "repetitiveness" ( doing the same thing time after time, day after day.) This again, is in "real time"
Moving further into the complex, there is a building to our left, and a cluster of buildings straight ahead,
Bill and Alex move to the left, but appear to be "ushered" straight ahead by some enseen presence.
Billy, sees somone walk past the building we had just come from. There is no one there.
Bill sees prisoners in this area, not prisoners of war, but civilian prisoners, on work duty. We have not as yet, found any record of civilian prisoners working there.
We are now beside two buildings, one large one to our right and a smaller one to our left.
We enter the smaller of the buildings. This has three large round shaped stone platforms, and what appears to be an open drain running from the building, partly underground.
Although we are not sure, the layout of the building would suggest the stone platforms housed large melting pots. The melted metal was then poured into the "drains" and run off to the other building to be moulded into ammunition casings.
Alex puts the video camera down on one of the platforms. His right hand, passes through a "cold spot. Bill puts his hand into the "energy" and feels the same. Alex, who is looking at Stevie feels someone clearly touch his right hand and asks Bill if it was him. Bill confirmed it wasn't him. Again, somone touches the right hand of Alex.
Bill then "sees" a man standing beside him and Alex. The mans right arm is missing. He tells Bill, he lost his arm in a farm accident.
Alex decides to try the stills camera again and surprise surprise it is working perfectly.
The team decide to go back and get the equipment and set up the baseroom here.
They are about to go, when Bill and Alex sense the "arrival" of more spirits.
A "line" of guys walk through the building. A steady stream, coming in one door and out the other.
Alex picks up the video camera and is preparing to leave, when he notices a change in the facial features of Tracey.
Even allowing for the night vision on the video camera, there is a definate change when viewed through the viewfinder. All team members have a look at Tracey through the camera lens and notice the change. A large deep scar appears ( when viewed through the camera) on the right side of Tracey's face. No explanation for this.
While Alex is speaking to the team another voice is heard. We don't know who it was, or what was being said.
We now go back to the very first building, to collect the rest of the equipment.
When reviewing the voice recording of our walk back to the first building, a voice is clearly heard saying "feck sake"
Now here is a question for you. Why do Spirits in Scotland use the word "Feck"??? .
Stevie, is fully aware of the Spirits, following us on our walk back to get our equipment and remarks " they don't mean any harm, they are just looking."
Bill again sees this is in "real time"
We take our equipment back to the baseroom and have a well earned break.
Alex walks through the building and out of the door at the far side. He "sees" a line of ladies sitting having a cup of tea outside the building. They are sitting in the seats we came across earlier. Alex also "sees" men in working clothes, playing football on a grassy area next to the building. Taking a walk up the grassy area, Alex sees some large "rocks" scattered around and one very large one in particular. He feels these " landed" there. Bill feels they were "projected" there through an accident. On closer inspection of the area around them, there is a large crater in the ground. Before we go back to the first building, we decide to have a look in a building just a few yards up the road from where we are. It is a very large, now empty space. There are six large doors at the front of the building. At the left there are a couple of smalller rooms.
At the right hand side there is what appear to be rest rooms.
Stevie looks around the small room, Bill and Billy, are at the far end of the building from Tracey and Alex.
Stevie takes a look at the rear of the building and finds a train platform and lots of craters in the ground near the building.
As Bill and Billy are walking down towards him, Alex notices someone else walking with them. He asks everyone to stop and stay where the are. When Alex reaches them, the other "person " was not there. Alex tells Bill what he had seen and where the other person seemed to go.
Bill walks over to the door Alex saw the man go out and is immediately overcome with emotion.
Bills hair is once again standing up on end.
Alex then draws the teams attention to his torch. When he shines the torch out of the open doorway he saw the man go out of, the beam is rebounding off of something. Bill, who by this time had recovered, goes back to the doorway. He "sees" a man. The man tells Bill he is trapped here and asks for our help to move on.
Bill asks the man, who is wearing a blue boiler suit for a name. none is given.
For the second time this evening, Alex picks up the name Daniel. This is not the name of the man Bill is seeing. The man Bill is seeing, is Swedish. Bill helps the man cross over.
Alex then hears a scratching noise. When examining the wall, there are marks on it as if it had been scratched by something.
Bill and Alex sense plenty Spirits in here.
They are just standing in front of us watching us. Bill also sees a flash of light in front and slightly to his right.
Tracey feels someone standing by her side and Bill picks up on someone standing in front of her.
Bill picks up on a small child standing beside Alex. Alex senses it is a small boy. Bill confirms this and says he has black hair.
There is movement just a few yards in front of the team and a boy is seen at the other side of the room.
The boy seems to be moving around the building and is quite happy here. Stills photos are taken. Yet to be analysed.
We now go and get our equipment from the first building we were in, take it back to the baseroom and have a break.
After our break, we go into the large building just across from the baseroom.
We just got inside the building, when a loud noise, like someone banging on corrugated iron, is heard coming from the building we had just left.
We are only yards away from the building and can clearly see no one is inside it.
A ladies voice says to Alex, " We are not the only ones here" No explanation as to who said it or what they meant.
Alex hears someone in the corner of the building, but can't see anyone.
The team go over to the corner. Nothing is found.
The team is now standing in the middle of the building. Alex sees two shadows near the wall at the end of the building.
One of them is the figure of a man. No further information on this. Bill suddenly picks up on a Spirit which is showing itself as a man.The mans name is Robert Robertson Commander Robertson. He is waiting to be relieved of his command.
He knows. He is waiting on the top brass coming and he knows what they are going to do when they get here. He tells Bill, there has been a major major mess up here. He is not a very tall man. All he is doing, is pacing up and down, up and down, waiting on them coming. He tells Bill, he told someone to do something and they didn't do it.
The date he gives Bill is the twenty first of March nineteen forty three. This is when he was relieved of his command.
He says he is "finished" he is getting " put out the door".
Thousands and thousands of castings were made and they were made to the wrong specifications. It wasn't his fault. "There are seven top brass coming" he tells Bill.
He says he is "fed up cow cowan? to them and it will be a weight off his shoulders at last. Commander Robertson tells Bill that he gave orders to somone but they sabotaged his plans.
Commander Robertson says he fought in the first world war as a boy soldier. He was wounded while in a place called chantrice in France and he was sent home as a result of his injuries. Commander Robertson says he is Irish, but he lived in England for a while.
When he realised he was to be relieved of his command, he was bitter for a while, because of what he gave for Britain, but now he is not "fussed" and he knows whats coming to him and it is going to be a relief to him.
Bill is now "seeing" a soldier with a rifle standing near him.
In the building across the road, Bill sees a man standing watching us from the open window at the top. Bill, now sees a blind man at the bottom of the building. He takes the team to where he saw the man standing. This is the same spot Alex had earlier seen someone, but when we went to investigate nothing was found. Bill now feels someone at his left hand side.Billy is still seeing the blind man.
The team then hear a rumbling sound. They hear it again then again. It is like a big gun turning.
Alex suddenly asks who is Tommy. The team feel themselves getting pushed forward.
Again, Alex feels he has to ask who Tommy is. Bill says Tommy is the small boy we saw earlier. His mother worked here.
Bill and Stevie, "see" two men fighting each other. They are fighting over a woman. The men are rolling around the floor.
Bill asks if there are any more Spirits present, would they make themselves known to us. There is a dull noise, like someone hitting a bass drum. Bill asks if that was Spirit, would they do it again. Once again the dull noise is heard.
Bill asks again if there are any more Spirits present would they please make themselves known to us. There is movement at the far side of the building. We go across, but nothing is found.
Alex hears a droning sound. It is like the sound of a Hercules Bomber.
The team decide to go back to the baseroom.
Stevie sees someone at the upstairs window, in the building we have just come out of. Bill, Stevie and Billy go to investigate.
Nothing out of the ordinary is found.
Back in the baseroom, Bill picks up on a man by the name of Corneleus Whitson. He was a very officious medic. He tells Bill there was a lorry went into a ditch.
No one seriously injured, but there were twelve stretcher bearers. Mr. Whitson was not very well liked, as he did things strictly by the book. He tells Bill, we are messing things up by being here. He won't say why.
A James Sandeman makes an appearance. He was a doctor here and was slightly deaf.
Stevie hears "wheels" turning. Alex says he has heard the noise before and it is like big guns turning.
Dr. Sandeman, asks to see some money. He asks who is standing with nine pence in their hand. No one is, but Stevie has nine coins in his hand. Dr. Sandeman says he needs ninepence ( old money), to buy a rubber matting. No information on what he means.
He is asked by Stevie what he wants the rubber matting for. He says it is because he does not want to buy a rug.
Bill now feels as if Dr. Sandeman is being sarcastic.
Tracey feels that as we are messing things up for them, he is going to mess things up for us. Bill feels a draught at his legs. It is Dr. Sandeman. He is shouting in a loud English voice, " I can hear you, I can bloody hear you". He says ten times he was up and down the stairs tonight. He says he was upstairs in the other building with Bill Stevie and Billy. He then tells Bill that he is stupid because he is insulting Bill. He says he is insulting Bill becuase we are insulting him by being here. Bill then says the medic and the doctor are having a heated discussion with each other. The medic wants us to ignore the doctor and talk to him.
Stevie, who is wearing his sensitive voice equipment earphones, hears voices, but can't make out what they are saying.
Stevie asks the Spirits where the cartoon of Hitler is. "In the mail is the reply." Somewhere in the camp, is a cartoon of Hitler.
The Dr. refuses to tell Stevie anything and leaves the room just as quickly as he entered.
Stevie asks the medic if he would help us now his friends away. No response.
The medic tells Bill, he has been watching us for a while from the building across the road. He then leaves the building.
The team have a break.
During the break, Bill and Alex go to the grassy area where Alex earlier "saw" the men playing football. Across the small valley, they see what appears to be a gun turret on top of a funny shaped hill. The hill is shaped like a pyramid, with the top sliced off. The sides are perfectly smooth and the top is flat, except for the gun turret. Bill "sees" a lot of twinkling lights, moving on the top of the hill. Alex remarks it is like people smoking cigarettes. There appears to be a lot of movement on the hill, with figures going to and fro. Alex also "sees" what appears to be a light coming from a "window" about half way up the hill and to the left. Bill, Stevie and Billy, go to check the flour experiments which were set up earlier.There appears to be an imprint of a boot at the first of the locations.
On closer inspection they decide it was not a print, but infact a piece of cardboard they had missed when sprinkling the flour.
They then go to the next location and find the footprint of what Stevie describes as a slipper in the flour. None of the team are wearing soft shoes.
Back in the baseroom, the team decide they have enough to conduct a full investigation at a later date and decide to call it a night.
Paranormal Investigation Scotland would like to thank the farmer who owns the land and the Dumfries and Galloway Police for their help and advice, which made this pre- investigation visit possible.
Report by Sandra
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