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Paranormal for Norfolk? New group investigates spiritual activity
Dave O'Dell, Tim Johnson, Diane Rynn, Carol Graham, Anabelle Barnes, Les Nicholls and Gareth Hunt from Paranormal Norfolk Picture: Paranormal Norfolk
If there’s something strange in your neighbourhood – who you gonna call?
Les Nicholls, founder of Paranormal Norfolk, with some of his detection equipment. Picture: Jacob Massey - Credit: Archant
Well, if you’re in the Great Yarmouth area, the person to call is Les Nicholls.
The 53-year-old founded Paranormal Norfolk in March and the team has already carried out searches for spiritual activity at Britannia Pier and St Mary’s Church in East Somerton.
Mr Nicholls, a carer from Gorleston, has been interested in paranormal activity since he was a child and has always intended to set up a group for like-minded individuals.
However, after his wife died, he became convinced of his beliefs and more determined than ever to set up the group.
A coastguard reported seeing the Black Shuck on Gorleston Beach. Picture: Sam Robbins - Credit: Eastern Counties Newspapers
He said: “When someone really close to you dies you do question whether what you believe is fact.
“Two months after she died, I kept getting this sort of white noise in my ears when I went to bed.
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“I listened to what was being said one night and I heard clear as day my wife’s voice say, ‘I love you’.
“After that I didn’t hear the noise anymore and I knew I had to set up this group one day.”
Mr Nicholls began saving up for the array of equipment needed to carry out investigations and has since bought four cameras, an SB7 spirit box, an electronic voice phenomenon metre and an electro magnetic energy detector.
The former special constable said the group had mixed views on the nature of paranormal life. However, they all shared one unifying reason for carrying out their investigations.
He said: “It’s a profound belief that the soul is eternal. That’s why we do what we do.
“I believe when we die, our energy leaves this body and where it goes then is down to us. It may go on to a different realm, but a lot of spirits, for whatever reason, remain here.
“A lot of these American paranormal shows say these spirits are trapped here, but I don’t believe that at all – I believe that if a spirit is here it is because it wants to be, or it feels it needs to be.”
The group has many more investigations planned over the coming months and new members are welcome.
To find out more about Paranormal Norfolk, ask to join their Facebook page or email Mr Nicholls at lesnicholls@live.com
PARANORMAL TALES FROM GREAT YARMOUTH
• In 1971, a family reported being driven from their caravan by an invisible presence at Seashore Holiday Park in Great Yarmouth. Mother of three children, Juliana Dunford, said: “The whole caravan went cold and anyone who went near the bunk was prodded in the ribs. Even Sally, our retriever dog, refused to enter the caravan.”
• Some say that the Lily Pit in Gorleston was the resting place of a mail coach drawn by four horses, and witnesses have claimed to see a phantom coach being driven at high speed towards the pit. There have also been reported sightings of a farmhand who took his own life after his love fell into the pit and drowned.
• Rebecca Nurse sailed to America aboard the Rose of Yarmouth in 1637, where she was ultimately accused of being a witch and was hung in the famous Salem witch trials in Massachusetts.
