When idiots ruin a Night.

Last night we ran an investigation night at Grossman House in Maitland.

Grossman House is a National Trust building and we have been blessed to be able to run 3 ghost investigations a year for quite a number of years now at the site.

It is always immaculate. The volunteers are devoted to the buildings ( there are two on the site - mirror images of one another, Brough House and Grossman House). They are simply amazing locations that give us a glimpse into life in Maitland over 100 years ago.

Last night we did not have a lot of guests and we decided to keep the whole group together as we investigated. I was very quiet and we really did not have much happen in the form of any spirit communication.

I am not afraid of saying that by the way. We never expect paranormal activity as being the norm on a night out and it really disappoints me that people feel that they have paid money to ‘see a ghost’ and get really pissed off when we cannot come up with the goods.

But that’s for another blog.

Last night we had the most horrible thing happen.

As we were near the very end of the night Anne and I went into the kitchen at Brough House to start packing away equipment whilst Steve took the guests into the dining room of Grossman House.

As we stood there suddenly there was a loud BANG behind Anne and a pane of glass in the window over the sin shattered and flew all over the kitchen.

It took a few seconds to realise what had happened and I yelled out loudly and ran out the door to try and catch who had done this.

As I ran out out to the front I got my phone camera ready to try and photograph the culprits but they were very quick and were gone.

There was a group of three ladies walking on the other side of the road and I asked them if they had seen anyone and they said that they had seen group of boys running up the street very quickly.

Anne was shaken as the glass had actually shattered directly behind her and the bang was totally surprising and I was also shaking and we were upset that this had happened on our watch. We could not find any projectiles and Steve actually suggested that someone may have picked up a tree branch that we found close by and probably had banged it against the glass pane, maybe thinking that they would scare us but instead the pane shattered and they just ran.

What a stupid and totally irresponsible thing to do! To firstly trespass and then to cause damage to a heritage building. We were so angry and upset.

In the 13 years I have been running tours this is probably the 3rd time something of this nature has happened and it effects us all in the same way. We feel responsible for these sites when we are on premises. We feel we let people down even though we know we could not have stopped this happening.

The boys would have come from the Hotel just a short way up the road - as I stood outside I could see some people looking back down and then a car went past beeping its horn at the group then at us. Obviously they thought that it was very funny.

We contacted someone from the House to come in and just be aware of what had happened before we left.

It is such a shame that people like this have no respect for other people’s property and just look for trouble.

They are idiots and they do damage and feel that they should not be made responsible.

Yep, it spoilt an awesome experience and lovely night.

When we go into these sites we take responsibility not only for the people who come on our tours but we also look after the sites. We also pay a hefty fee for being on these sites which we do to help make sure that the sites keep staying open as in most cases the sites are run by volunteers and funding is only created through events.

Onwards and upwards.

Renata and Anne.