FT259

Writing of haunted pubs in his study of British ghost beliefs, historian Owen Davies remarks: “There are relatively few instances prior to the twentieth century… It is possible that those who recorded stories of ghosts thought such tales were not credible and saw them as belonging to the superstition of the people or caused by alcoholic excess.” (The Haunted: A Social History of Ghosts, 2007).

Whatever the reasons for their relatively late appearance in national ghostlore, there is certainly no shortage of UK pubs claiming to be haunted today. Serious psychical researchers have long considered that stories of pub hauntings should be approached critic­ally. Many a licensee has been suspected of inflating a ghost story to drum up trade, and caution is certainly needed. Although we have some way to go before reaching the teetotal Islamic dystopias imagined in GK Chesterton’s The Flying Inn or the late Anthony Burgess’s novel 1985, as many as 50 pubs a week are closing down, according to some estimates. In such a dire financial climate, it is not surprising to find many pubs promoting their relatively recent haunted trad­itions in the hope of drawing customers, and some extraordinary reports are circulating.

The novel story of a ghost topping up pints at a Hampshire pub appeared in October 2009. Landlady Janice McCormack of the Apsley House in Southsea claimed that a ghost was pouring extra beer into the pint glasses of her regular customers. “It happens when customers pop into the loo or put their pint down for a second. When they look back there’s an extra inch of beer. It must come from the pumps”. She states that it started its antics nine months earlier and she was planning a séance “to ask the poltergeist to quit”. She states: “My regulars love it but it is costing me. We are getting more people through the door but it seems to be people expecting a cheap never-ending pint.”

One theory held the phenomenon was caused by the spirit of actor Oliver Reed who occasionally drank at the pub before his death in 1999. (Interestingly, in life, Reed claimed his own home in Dorking was troubled by a poltergeist, which he believed to be the spirit of an Irish sea captain – see the Sunday People, 27 April 1975). Customers at Apsley House have dubbed the ghost ‘Reedy’ and fear an exorcism will put paid to their free beer. Pub regular John Sands, 27, declared: “I will certainly miss Old Reedy, because he keeps me topped up.”

Ghostly interference with beer taps and barrels is well known from haunted pub surveys (see, for example, The Haunted Pub Guide, 1984, by Guy Lyon Playfair), but a spook supposedly producing drink for custom­ers is a new departure. Sceptics may note the absence of any other reported phenom­ena, and also Ms McCormack’s reference to pub finances, which have been clues to hoaxes in the past. The late Andrew Green once investigated an allegedly haunted pub in the Midlands where two ghostly cavaliers supposedly fought a duel with swords in the saloon bar at midnight. Investigation of the accounts showed that this spectacle occurred only when the pub’s monthly takings were down, the sole witness being the landlord himself. Green recalled the man concerned died some years later in a mental home. (Sources: Sun, D.Mail, 1 Oct 2009; and many others.)

Meanwhile, what was once fêted as “Britain’s most haunted pub” has recently re-opened in Bungay, Suffolk. Bungay is best known for its famous Black Dog manifestation at St Mary’s Church, but in the 1960s and 1970s this was eclipsed by the supposedly haunted Three Tuns inn. In 1969, it was claimed the pub had at least two dozen ‘earth-bound entities’, identified in séances by a psychically inclined landlady. Messages were received by means of an improvised Ouija board using a tumbler. A complicated story of adultery and murder emerged, with one ghost supposedly identifying itself as an 18-year-old youth called Rex Bacon who hanged himself in The Three Tuns in 1682 after killing his wife’s lover. Another was the spirit of Tom Hardy, an 18th-century highwayman who used the Inn as a base before being executed with his gang. Church of England exorcist Canon Pearce Higgins became involved, treating the communications seriously. During one séance, a Mr Beckett, a local hairdresser, claimed to have seen a white ghost-like figure in a corner of one of the rooms where he later discovered a door had been situated. A former assistant manager, Mervyn Blakeway, told the press that his window had mysteriously opened and closed.

In many ways, The Three Tuns was ahead of its time, its haunted reputation being built upon the statements by financially interested psychics, but little in the way of manifest­ations experienced by anyone else. Armed with extensive local knowledge and a fair chunk of local patriotism, author Christopher Reeve in Paranormal Suffolk (2009) reviews the evidence and points out that a local journalist searching local records found that at nearby Mettingham there was once a vicar named Bacon. However, it should be noted that enquiries undertaken in 1970 by the Norfolk and Norwich Record Office in response to the ghostly messages found no confirmation of the claimed executions of the highwaymen.

In the subsequent 40 years, The Three Tuns has passed through a number of hands, but little more activity has been reported. In October 2009, a former landlord was fined £8,000 for removing an ancient wall dating from at least 1540, and this may have put paid altogether to any haunting.

Indeed, psychic researchers have now switched to The King’s Head standing directly opposite The Three Tuns, and backing on to Bungay Castle. This hotel has been visited by paranormal investigation groups several times, and when I stayed there in November 2009, a member of staff told me that strange noises had been heard recently, but “[T]he boss says it just creaks because it’s a very old building.” (Sources: The Haunted Inns of England, 1972, by Jack Hallam; Eastern Daily Press, 30 June 1969; Eastern Eve. News, 25 April 1970; “Landlord removed historic pub masonry” East Anglian Daily Times, 6 Oct 2009.

Another Suffolk inn with a long-standing reputation for ghosts is The Crown at Bildeston. It cost £40 a night for the privilege of sleeping in its allegedly haunted four-poster bed when I stayed there in June 1997. Now on special nights the re-fitted four-poster can cost between £200 and £300 with dinner, though to be fair the Inn is now playing up its reputation for quality dining rather than ghosts. The Crown was long claimed to be haunted by footsteps, a man in an overcoat and ‘old-fashioned hat’ and ghostly children. However, it must be noted that in August 1977 mysteries researcher Mike Burgess of Lowestoft overheard the then staff plotting to stage manifestations. They seemed to have achieved some succ­ess in October 1977, by scaring a lorry driver sleeping in the four-poster. Within weeks, coach-loads of American tourists were visiting the inn under the guidance of the late Dr Eric Maple, who may not have been aware of the stunt. (Sources: Lantern magazine, autumn 1977; The Gazetteer of British Ghosts, 1971, by Peter Underwood.)

Both The Three Tuns and the Bildeston Crown provide cautionary examples for ghost-hunters, since they illustrate how a pub may gain a wholly inflated reputation for being haunted; The Three Tuns particularly illustrates the dangers where information is solely derived from mediums. Promotion of the other type of spirits may also lie behind the Coalisland Ghost reported early in 2009 (see FT247:10), where the chief witness was the teenage son of the local pub landlord, but of which nothing has been heard since. One active local ghost-hunter recently informed me: “When I heard there was a bar not doing well in the neighbourhood, I didn’t even bother to go and look.”

But there is no doubt today that many ghost enthusiasts will travel miles to cert­ain haunted pubs. One pub increasingly featuring on the spectral tourist trail is the 15th-century Ostrich Inn at Colnbrook, Berkshire. On Hallowe’en night 2009, a combined ghost-hunting and supper party was arranged for customers by the company ‘Mystic Paranormal’, which avers the inn is haunted. Certainly, a number of people have reported odd experiences and sensations at the pub in recent years, but at best this may be no more than Victorian-style séance phenomena, generated by participants and unconnected with anything in the historical past. In other cases it may simply be hysteria, generated by hearing the macabre fable of a past landlord named Jarman who supposedly murdered up to 60 guests on the premises, in either the 16th or 18th century (accounts vary). At an earlier séance organised by Mystic Paranormal in June 2009, a Ms Chantelle Armstead, aged 38, “collapsed uncontrollably”. Fortunately, Ms Armstead was unharmed by what she believed was her first paranormal experience and said she wouldn’t be put off ghost hunting. Reporter Mike Greenshields stated: “The night was interesting and provided a lot of entertainment, but even after doing these investigations for the last three weeks, I am not fully convinced that any spirits have made contact” (Slough and Langley Observer, 23 June 2009). Indeed, it appears the haunted status of The Ostrich is comparatively recent; when listing haunted pubs in the area, Diana Bowerman in Historic Thames Valley Taverns (1976) categorically asserted it was not haunted, though a gypsy had once put a curse on the beer.

Another “most haunted pub in the UK” is the Skirid Inn, Wales, which regularly regales visitors with claims of recent activity, yet seemingly remains most comfortable with its ghosts. The inn has previously feat­ured on Most Haunted and ITV’s Extreme Ghost Stories, with stories of unexplained footsteps, lights and the feelings of being touched by unseen hands. According to ‘Eerie Evenings’ which hosts events, one guest took a photograph on a mobile phone, obtaining an image of a half-naked man surrounded by a crowd of people. Like The Ostrich, The Skirid is currently advertising dinner evenings on a website, charging £59 per head for events; some more sceptical investigators and former participants now suspect a strong commercial motive for cooking up the manifestations as well as supper. (Source: Abergavenny, Pontypool & Cwmbran Free Press, 18 April 2007.)

However, it must be emphasised that one should not dismiss every contemporary report of a haunted pub as dubious. It has also been accepted that the stresses of licensed trade may actually be a trigger for genuine psychic phenomena. A good example was The Seven Stars, Robertsbridge, Sussex, where 12 successive licensees reported phenomena over a 32-year period, although it currently seems quiet.

Sources: Guardian, Times, D.Mail, D.Record, etc, 6 Nov 2009; The Most Haunted House in England (1940) by Harry Price; and pers. comms. from Karen Cliff, Bob Menary and Mark Salmon; Haunted Sussex Today by Andrew Green.