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Author of the novel "The Workhouse Almanac - A Story of Shrewsbury", Kate Mclanachan makes use of her vast experience and knowledge base, and combines it with thoroughly researched history. Her books, written alongside her full-time job as a mental health nurse, entwine fact and fiction with shock and intrigue. This book is her first non-fiction book to be followed by the sequel novel to "The Workhouse Almanac", another time-slip story based in her hometown of Shrewsbury, as is everything she has written about so far.
"Spirits of Shelton" uniquely shares the real ghostly experiences told by the people who knew the old psychiatric hospital, previously a former 'Lunatic Asylum' open from 1945 to 2012. The people associated with Shelton share stories, including the author who trained and worked there. In particular, the night nurses described paranormal experiences while they were awake at the darkest, coldest time, known as the 'witching hour' or the 'devil's hour,' when spirits are thought to be at their most powerful.
Disembodied spirits visibly witnessed, with varying motivations and possible unfinished business, walk the corridors and nightingale dormitories as they did when it was their home. With the hospital being the location of past barbaric treatments, when overpopulated and understaffed, it became at one time a dumping ground for the unwanted and unmanageable, 'certified as insane,' who lived there for most or all of their lives. Reports of maltreatment became increasingly common in one period, and those who died within its walls appear to carry the emotional traumas, and physical pains and afflictions which are still obvious, even though the spirit is no longer within a physical body.
We had our own wandering grey lady, a shadow man who lurked in corners and slipped under doors, a ghostly choir and organ in the Chapel, and the matronly staff ghosts and laughing children who appear in places they once frequented. Generations of people who passed through the doors reported similar sightings of spirits and unexplainable events akin to the supernatural. There are those who returned and those who can never leave.
A separate chapter focuses on the aftermath of the terrible fire, and another provides details about the doctors who influenced the institution and the treatments they implemented during its 167 years of operation. The renovations that converted the hospital into apartments and houses disturbed older spirits, who laughed or walked silently by as workmen uncovered hidden areas with chains and secrets boarded up over a century ago.
At all times, the author queries alternative explanations, but leans heavily towards at least some sort of unintelligible energy imprint that remained imprisoned and replayed upon the environment. Sceptics argue that noises, mists, orbs, changes in air pressure, and the effects of infrasonic frequencies can explain faulty human perception of ghostly phenomena. But many staff reported visibly witnessing Shelton's ghosts and orbs as apparitions, and others have sensed their presence through a sudden temperature change or a sensation of dread.
Lastly, she treats you to the history of the asylum and past treatments administered at the hospital, as only those who knew it or share the passion of the author can tell. With information, confidentially and sensitively reported, which you would struggle to find in the archives, it helps to put into perspective the life span of the English County Lunatic Asylum / Mental Hospital.
Many thanks to the Facebook group Kate set up nearly a decade ago, "Shelton Hospital Community 1845-2012," who contributed to this book.
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