Night Two : Royal court Theatre

Night Three : Wirral Museum
 
First Broadcast : 9th December 2005

Night Two : Commercial Tavern

Night Three : Clink Prison Museum

Night Four : Blind Beggar Pub

 
First Broadcast : 28th October 2005

Staircase House  is a cruck timber building and the timbers were dating, using dendrochronology, to 1459-1460.[1] Very little is known of the house’s early history, though it is thought that it was originally the home of the Mayor of Stockport, William Dodge, in 1483.

The first definite residents were the Shallcross family who owned the house from 1605–1730. Part of the landed gentry, it was they who installed the cage newel staircase in 1618, which gives the house its name. The Jacobean staircase is one of only three surviving examples in Britain and has been carefully restored following an almost devastating fire in 1995, the second of two arson attacks on the semi derelict building.

The House was restored after being damaged in the second fire. It was used partly as a warehouse for Gardner’s Green Grocers in the 1990s and as the Staircase Cafe until 1989. It was compulsarily purchased by Stockport Council following a long and gruelling campaign to save it by local conservation group, Stockport Heritage Trust, which began in 1987.

Now open to the public it offers a unique glimpse into the lives of medieval Stockport, the roots of the town, (including what made it a borough) and subsequent stages of development until the 1940s, when it was last used as a residence.

 Night Two : Barnes Convalesent Hospital

Barnes Hospital, also known as Barnes Convalescent Home, in Cheadle, Greater Manchester, England, is a former hospital.

A donation of £26,000 for the founding of a new convalescent hospital in Cheadle was made in 1869 by Robert Barnes. Construction of the hospital, named the Barnes Convalescent Home, started in 1871 and was completed in 1875.

Broken remains of three stone high crosses were discovered in 1874 during the construction of the hospital. The location of only one of these is known today; this consists of a crosshead of Celtic cross form with a central boss, and dates from the late 10th or 11th century. It is now located in St Mary’s Church, Cheadle. The other two pieces are said to be part of a much older cross, and the upper part of an Anglo-Saxon cross shaft.

Night Three : Brannigans Night Club

The Albert Hall (Grade II) was designed in eclectic style with Baroque and Gothic elements for the Wesleyan Mission by W. J. Morley in 1910, and after a long period of inactivity is now being utilised once again as Brannigans Night Club. A meeting hall is located on the first floor, with a horseshoe gallery, sloping floor and coloured glass rooflights. The finely detailed buff terracotta is formed into large traceried windows at gallery level, and the interior has a wealth of detail and floral decoration in plaster work and glazed tiles.

First broadcast : 2nd September 2005

The Rutland Mills complex was originally  built in 1875 as a woollen mill.

Night Two : Wakefield Theatre Royal & Opera House

The Theatre Royal is situated in the heart of Wakefield, on the corner of Westgate and Drury Lane. There has been a theatre on the site since 1774, with the current building dating from 1894 and designed by the internationally known British Victorian theatre architect Frank Matcham.

Night Three : Caphouse Colliery

A plan dated 1791 showing workings from 1789 to 1795, includes a shaft on the Caphouse site. It is probably the oldest coal-mine shaft still in everyday use in Britain today.

Before 1827 the colliery was owned by the Milnes family, but then passed into the ownership of the Lister Kaye family, until 1917.

After 1917 the colliery was run by a company, which included the ex-manager Percy Greaves, a colliery owner in his own right. Around 1941 Arthur Sykes of Lockwood and Elliott bought the colliery and remained as owner until Nationalisation in 1947. By 1985 the coal at Caphouse was exhausted and its conversion tothe NATIONAL COALMINE MUSEUM began.
 
 
First Broadcast : 19th June 2005

Elstree Film Studios has a long and colourful history. The present facilities are built on land originally purchased in 1925, to locate a ’silent’ studio constructed one year later. At that time, ALFRED HITCHCOCK was engaged as a staff director and was responsible for a number of films, including the first British talkie, Blackmail.

During the pre-war years, the Studios undertook pioneering work in colour films and produced the first French talkie and the first multi-lingual film. It launched a number of pre-war movie acting careers including those of CHARLES LAUGHTON, RAY MILLAND, STEWART GRANGER, LAURENCE OLIVIER, ROBERT NEWTON, ANNA NEAGLE, VIVIEN LEIGH and MAUREEN O’HARA.

During 1939, the original Studio closed and was commandeered for ‘wartime purposes’. A few years later, Warner Bros. Purchased a 25share in the parent company, ABPC, and the Studio was largely rebuilt before re-opening in 1948. The first major post-war movies were Stage Fright with MARLENE DIETRICH and The Hasty Retreat starring RONALD REAGAN. Post war careers launched at Elstree include RICHARD HARRIS, AUDREY HEPBURN, LAURENCE HARVEY and RICHARD TODD.

The 1950’s and 60’s saw productions such as Moby Dick with GREGORY PECK, Kings Rhapsody with ERROL FLYNN, The Dam Busters, Look Back In Anger and hit TV series such as The Avengers and The Saint. The stars GARY COOPER, JEFF CHANDLER and TALLULAH BANKHEAD were to make their last movies at Elstree.

Between 1959 and 1975 Hammer Films produced 39 films here starring such actresses as STEPHANIE BEACHAM, MARSHA HUNT and KATE O’MARA. Films included the comedies On The Buses and Man About The House, the ambitious The Lost Continent as well as the chiller thrillers for which the company is notorious, such as ‘The Horror of Frankenstein, The Curse of the Mummy’s Tomb and The Vampire Lovers.

Elstree was busy throughout the 1970’s and 80’s with productions such as Murder On The Orient Express, Never Say Never Again, the Star Wars trilogy, the Indiana Jones trilogy and Who Framed Roger Rabbit. The post-production facilities were used on a wide range of movies, including Chariots of Fire, The Rocky Horror Picture Show and The Last Emperor.

During 1986, Cannon purchased the Studios and sold off the film library – before announcing closure plans during 1988. The complex was then purchased by Brent Walker who agreed with the planning authority to retain 15.5 acres as a film studio, in return for permission to sell 12 acres of land to Tesco Superstore for £19 million. The agreement involved rebuilding the facility and its leisure amenities, and maintaining them for 25 years.
The Section 106 planning agreement, signed in 1990, was designed to secure the Studio’s future. However, in 1993, Brent Walker announced it was closing the facility, as it wished to maximise the site’s value. A legal fight ensued that lasted until Brent Walker offered the Studio to Hertsmere Borough Council for £1.9 million in February 1996, in return for dropping all legal actions.
From 1988 onwards, a successful voluntary ‘Save Our Studios’ campaign was mounted, which resulted in world wide media coverage, a 700 strong audience at a public meeting and nearly 30,000 petition signatures. It was successful in enlisting the support of Steven Spielberg, George Lucas, Lord Attenborough and a host of stars including PETER CUSHING who offered to lie down in front of the bulldozers!

After Hertsmere Borough Council bought the Studio in February 1996, it soon reopened for business with a British Lottery assisted movie Peggy Su starring BURT KWOUK. Next to be produced was the $25 million Warner Bros. movie Watch That Man starring BILL MURRAY and JOANNE WHALLEY. This spoof spy thriller was subsequently re-titled The Man Who Knew Too Little.
Since reopening, Elstree Studios has proved an attractive facility for commercials including those for BT, Cointreau, Pontins, Success, One To One (with IAN WRIGHT), St.Ives Swiss Formula, Bisto (with JULIE WALTERS) and Puma.
Elstree has also attracted numerous television productions such as a 90 minute film of Jane Eyre for LWT, interiors for the long-running Last of The Summer Wine, Wuthering Heights, Big Women, The Fast Show and The Judas Tree ballet for Channel 4. Major television series to use Elstree’s sound stages include Kavanagh QC and Playing The Field and big TV productions include the BBC’s Tom Jones and Coming Home starring JOANNA LUMLEY and veteran actor PETER O’TOOLE.

http://www.elstreefilmtv.com

Night Two : Waggon & Horses, Allum Hall, Hollybush Pub

Night Three : Gate Studios

Investigation Events

The most interesting encounters they experienced, included the spirits of a family located in one of the large empty studios. It is belived this family died during the great plague of the 17th Century, and that the area where the studio now stands they passed away together, trying to escape from the awful disease.

Various paranomal activity occured during the investigation, including the switching off of a televsion set and a candle falling over many times.
 
First Broadcast : 6th May 2005

Day 1 Lupton House, Brixham

Lupton House, now a school, was a seat of the Bullers for a time, and was rebuilt c. 1770. It has been gutted by fire and reconstructed in recent years

Day 2 The Globe Hotel, Brixham Heritage Museum, Smugglers Haunt

Day 3 Berry Pomeroy Castle

It is said that the ruins of this very old castle are among the most haunted in England…
It was built in the late 15th century by the Pomeroy family who first came to England during the times of the Norman invasion of England in 1066 and settled in Devon. In times of prosperity the Pomeroys were a very influential family with high social status and close friends with Royalty. They were also a family of Knights, Barons and Sheriffs of Devon. In troubled times they also rebelled against Royalty, were in debt for generations and avoided being hanged!
In 1547 the castle and mansion house were bought by the Seymour family who also settled in England after the Norman conquest. They too were a family of great wealth and social standing. Henry VIII, King of England married Jane Seymour. Also the boy Prince Edward VI was guarded by his uncle Edward Seymour until he came of age and inherited the throne.

After taking over the castle the Seymours embarked on a huge building project to transform it into one of the finest mansions in the south west of England. The entire mansion, uncompleted, was abandoned between 1688 and 1701 when the Seymours made their estate in Wiltshire their main home. After this time the castle and fine buildings were used by local folk who reclaimed building materials and by 1800 the entire site became a place where passers-by marvelled at the ruins and folklore stories abounded.

The castle and mansions that were built on the site were places of great activity and the lives of those families who resided there were varied indeed. The castle saw 19 generations of Pomeroys and 6 generations of Seymours… is it any wonder that the colourful lives of those who lived there were imprinted on the castle both physically, in legend and also in the spiritual realm?

First broadcast : 12th March 2005