Seeking Beyond Paranormal

The village of Rugby, Tennessee was founded in 1880 by English author Thomas Hughes. It was an experimental village of sorts, built as a would-be solution to an economic problem in England at the time. That probelm was the social and economic practice known as primogeniture, wherein a family's assets and money all went to the first-born son and left all the other children without any inheritance. These other children, culturally known as "second sons" were met with a double-blow financially, as an economic depression hit Victorian England around this time. As such, these second songs were left jobless and without any opportunities to buy land and become successful.

In 1870, Thomas Hughes was traveling in America and learned of the Boston-based Board of Aid to Land Ownership, which helped unemployed craftsmen relocate to rural areas. Later in that decade, the president of this Board of Aid, Frankling Smith, was traveling along the Cumberland Plateau and identified (and later secured options for) the site that would become Rugby. Smith would then try to recruit local Boston families to relocate, but the economic conditions in the Northeast had since improved, meaning his ordinary customer base was no longer interested. Smith then told Thomas Hughes of the new site, and Hughes expressed his interest in establishing a colony there. Hughes, along with several British lawyers, bought the Board of Aid from Smith and secured the land for his colony.

Thomas Hughes did not favor the materialism of Victorian England and instead favored the ideals of Christian Socialism. This is where his "experiment" grew from. He wanted to establish a colony based on the notions of equality and cooperation from his book Tom Brown's School Days. One example of these ideals is that all colonists were required to invest in the colony's businesses, ensuring public ownership.

As idyllic as it was sounding for Thomas Hughes, the village itself was ravaged with problems from its onset. In 1881, a typhoid epidemic swept through the village, killing several colonists. Additionally, due to how the land was acquired, the village was hit with numerous lawsuits from the local Cumberland Plateau natives, keeping the colony's growth bogged down in legal problems. Furthermore, the land itself proved incredibly difficult for the colonists to farm. By 1887, most of the original colonists either died or moved away, and the Board of Aid was reorganized a decade later, abandoning Thomas Hughes anti-materialistic ideals. By 1900, the Board (now the Rugby Tennessee Company) had sold it's holdings in the area, leaving only a few residents to continue the village on into the 20th century.

The Claims

This investigation covered five structures in Rugby Village, though the onsite cabins are said to be haunted as well. As such, the claims are spread out across these structures and do not collectively belong to all of them together. Our guide from Historic Highway Haunts listed off some of the following claims for us to investigate (this is not a comprehensive list):

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Equipment and Setup

Equipment-wise, we kept our standard kit for this investigation, and in a mobile setup since we'd be walking around a lot. The only piece of equipment we left out was our XLS camera. We brought it to our first location, but quickly discovered how cumbersome it would be to use in such a small space, so we opted to put it back in our vehicle following the first location. Aside from that, our kit included our voice recorders, REM Pods, EMF meters, flashlights, catballs, our dead bell, and our Spirit Box / Estes Method setup.

Additionally, as far as setup goes, this investigation was a collaborative effort! We paired up with Ghost Hunting with Delta, a team out of Kentucky. Unlike our previous collaboration, we opted to cover more ground by splitting up between the teams and rotating our locations every other hour or so. We would come back together at the end of the evening and investigate Uffington House together. Splitting up meant each team could potentially have widely different experiences at each location, potentially increasing the amount and types of evidence gathered. They filmed a video as well, so we invite you to check it out here alongside our own.

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The Investigation

After getting a full tour of Kingstone Lisle, the Visitor Center, the Schoolhouse, and the Library, we split up into each team. Seeking Beyond Paranormal started the evening at Kingstone Lisle while Ghost Hunting with Delta started at the Visitor Center's theater. We started the investigation off in the men's parlor room, which housed the piano that reportedly plays on its own, and introduced ourselves to the space and to the potential spirits of the house. In that room, we got some minor, unintelligble flashlight activity, as well as a short beep on our Mel Meter (which we later debunked as vibration from walking). It was otherwise quiet in that room, which was to be expected right at the beginning of the investigation, so we shifted into the dining room where the reverend is said to occupy. Here, we started to get an uptick in activity, experiencing intelligent flashlight activity dead bell activity, and numerous ticks, thuds, and sounds (including an audible disembodied voice saying "hey" right into my ear).

Next, we swapped locations with Delta and went to the Visitor Center's theater. The Visitor Center itself is a modern building, but out guide explained that it has activity because it's situated right at the center of town, where lots of day-to-day activity occurred with regularity. I don't recall if there was an explanation as to why just the theater portion of the building had activity, but it's said that's where the activity in the building is. In the theater, we ran an Estes Method session in which I went under on the stage while Jessica asked questions from the audience seating. The full session is in the video below, but notably I recall saying "under your seat" and then Jessica got touched on her lower leg. We were at least 20 feet apart and we were alone.

Next, we went to the Library to investigate while Delta's team took the Schoolhouse. Hot off the heels of my own Estes Method session in the theater, Jessica wanted to go under for her own session. We also set out voice recorders, flashlights, the dead bell, an EMF meter, and a few cat balls. If I recall correctly, the Estes Method session wasn't terribly fruitful. However, during the entire session, our dead bell and EMF meter were going off like crazy. Almost every time the dead bell would ring, the EMF meter would spike up one or two LEDs. It wasn't occurring in a regular pattern, but it was almost non-stop. Then, shockingly, as we were packing up, the EMF meter started spiking up its entire color range steadily for 10-20 seconds, several times in a row. The only time I've ever seen the EMF meter spike up that high was while standing under some power lines. So that meant a large amount of energy was causing it to happen. And for it to only happen that one time during our entire time there tells me it wasn't some "ordinary" energy spike. I had been gently provoking during Jessica's Estes Method session, so something tells me that may have been the librarian kindly ushering us out.

Following the Library, we swapped again with Delta's team and went to the Schoolhouse. Unfortunately, beyond accidentally scaring myself with some weird acoustics, the schoolhouse was mostly quiet for us. We did manage to get a little bit of dead bell and EMF activity early on, but we didn't experience much activity after that. As we have learned from other investigations, it may have been too late in the evening for any of the occupying spirits. Two little girls are said to be in the Schoolhouse, and it was nearing 2am. They were potentially done for the night.

To end the night, we regrouped with Delta's team and our guide, and drove about a mile down the road to Uffington House, the homestead of Madame Margarate Hughes. After a quick tour of the place, we started to sort through our equipment when we got a brief hit on one of Delta's REM Pods. After a bit of nudging, we couldn't get the activity to repeat, so we continued about our business. Uffington House was our last stop for the night, and we had less than an hour there, so we just wanted to sneak in one last Estes Method session. This time, though, it would be a double Estes, wherein Jessica and a team member of Delta's would go under simultaneously while the rest of the room would ask questions. It wasn't terribly fruitful (possibly due to how late it was), but this session actually gave us an incredible EVP.

Below is our video of the investigation. It tells the story a lot more cohesively than this article does, as it was edited and published shortly after the investigation, whereas this article is being written and posted months later. I kept telling myself to skip out on the article for this one, but I feel it deserved something. Regardless, enjoy the video! And if you haven't already, please subscribe to our YouTube channel if you haven't already and like our work!

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Our Results

This being our first investigation of a multi-structure location, we didn't know what to expect. To investigate such a place in one night seems incredibly daunting and hasty at best, considering most other investigations allow you to focus all your efforts on one location for the entire time. Ordinarily you'd build up trust with the spirits and your experiences grow as the investigation rolls on. However, here we didn't have too much time to invest into each location. Our tactics didn't really change, though, but we still managed to get some interesting results for the evening:

We'd like to thank Eric Turner for once again setting up this investigation (sorry you couldn't make this one either!). We'd also like to thank Miranda Young of Historic Highway Haunts for being our guide and facilitating our investigation. It was a fun one, and we're certainly coming back!

by David Reimer, posted September 6, 2026

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Who We Are

Seeking Beyond Paranormal is a team of paranormal investigators based in Huntsville, Alabama. First started as a fun way to visit some of the country’s most haunted locations, Seeking Beyond now explores the realm of paranormal investigation.

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