Glastonbury - Eastbury Cemetery
Nestled in between two large houses on Manchester Road lies the relatively small Eastbury Cemetery. Oddly, I drive past the cemetery on a weekly basis during the summer months and I never knew that it was there. It is not a notorious haunted spot, but several people I know that live in the area claim that sometimes they unconsciously speed up as they drive by the area. It is a rather unusual cemetery as it comes right up to the road and there is no fence or wall of any kind.
Three members performed this investigation: Craig, Brandon, and Dave. We arrived on Manchester Road at about 10 pm but we drove by it a couple of times before we realized it was there. The road is about 10 feet lower than the yards on either sides so the headlights did not hit the graves unless you were driving really slow. After parking across the street, we walked across and entered. After letting our eyes adjust for a few minutes as there was little light pollution in the sky from Hartford in this location, we began to walk around. The first thing we noticed was that the arrangement of graves was very unusual. There was a sort of circle of trees about 100 feet from the road that the majority of the gravestones were clustered very tightly around. The farther you went from the that spot in any direction, the less amount of graves there were, and the back was almost empty. The dimensions were rather small so we did not spend that much time in it. At the back wall, there was a stone fence that led into the woods that possibly held more graves but we were not sure. As a rule we do not use flashlights in most cemeteries because we do not want to attract attention from a neighbor or cars driving by.
The walking investigation went by rather smoothly. It was a dark cemetery but nothing overt happened until the end. I was walking about twenty feet in front of Brandon and Dave and I stopped and turned around to whisper to them and I felt a wave of absolute terror. This was not the usual creepy or paranormal feeling: I was rooted to the ground with my arms visibly shaking. It passed after about twenty seconds. There was no stones within about ten feet which made me wonder the source. Perhaps there used to be a headstone in this spot, but vandalism caused it to be moved or destroyed. After snapping a couple of pictures, we also noticed that in one of the pics there was a red haze that appeared thicker than smoke in one of the pictures, somewhat close to the spot I felt the extremely odd feeling. Hopefully the developed pics may show more.
CONCLUSION: 3 out of 10
No real conclusion can be made from this investigation except for that a follow up in the future will be done. Sure there was that one period of extreme fear I felt and the red haze in the picture but there were no other signs of a haunting. The odd way the gravestones were arranged also leads to this ranking. Even if it is not haunted, it was easily worth the short drive to get to as it is an unusual cemetery. After doing some extensive research, perhaps the source of the mild paranormal events will become clear.
Second Investigation
On the night of July 31, 2008 we returned to Eastbury Cemetery. The group was Craig, Jacob, Brandon, and Justin. Once we entered the cemetery we immediately noticed some changes. There were several new clusters of graves in the front, and the previously empty rear now had about 30 new headstones. This contradicted my thinking that it was no longer an active cemetery.
We walked around the small cemetery a few times, but felt nothing odd and had no strange events happen. We did not stay more than 15 minutes because of how late it was. When we were driving in, all along the road on both sides were temporary no parking signs which I had never seen before. But once we walked around the cemetery we realized why. There were signs of vandalism in knocked over stones and some paint on the grass. We realized this might not be the best place to be as it appeared recent so we left.
CONCLUSION: inconclusive
Because we left quickly because of time and signs of vandalism, I am giving it an inconclusive because it was not a full investigation.
Mold on the stones show that it is not a new cemetery.
Red haze/possible ectoplasm near the spot where I felt a sense of fear, mentioned in the write up.
Near the front of the cemetery.
An interesting headstone.
The crowded center.
