The Challenge
My name is Duncan Barford, and I’ll be spending the night of Sunday 31st October, 2010, from 11pm until dawn, all alone in the dark, in The Old Police Cells Museum, Brighton UK, which is in the basement of the Town Hall at Bartholomew Square.
The museum has a strong reputation for being actively haunted. There are stories of at least three ghosts on or close to the site. Staff at the Town Hall report odd experiences, and some have expressed a disinclination to visit the basement area on their own.
The Old Police Cells Museum. © Tony Mould: My Brighton and Hove website.
I’ll be adding more information about the history and haunted reputation of the museum as this blog develops – before I go and gain some firsthand experience on Halloween!
Whatever your opinion on ‘ghosts’, no one can deny it’s going to be creepy down there, on the spookiest night of the year, in an old building with a grim history. I get slightly nervous just sleeping with the lights off, and I’m a sucker for ghost stories, so this will be for me a feat of extreme endurance.
And that’s why I thought it would also be an ideal opportunity to raise some money in a good cause. So here’s the deal:
Sponsor me, and I pledge to stay down there all night, with the lights off and no one else present (except the security guard, on duty upstairs), no matter how badly the ghosts kick off, or how badly I scare myself.
I reserve the right to a torch, however, so that I can go and investigate anything weird. I’ll also be taking along a videocam to film myself becoming pathetically scared – and anything else that happens. I hope to make a short video, to be posted onto the internet, and to which everyone who sponsors me and provides an email address will be sent a link.
All proceeds from the event will be divided equally between The Old Police Cells Museum Society (which runs the museum) and Mind in Brighton and Hove, which provides mental health advice and services in the city.
I hope you’ll dig deep and sponsor me, if only because I’m sure this is going to be far more entertaining than your average sponsored run…
