Haunted Pubs in the UK
Fancy a pint? It is rather a well-known catch phrase in Britain... recently used by Paul Whitehouse and the fastshow!
There’s something rather wonderful, and very British, about approaching a building that, for me, seems to date back almost beyond the beginning of time. A pub that is hundreds, perhaps even a thousand years old, contains so much history within the very fabric of the building. It’s there in the walls, in the joints between the ancient brickwork, in the crooked beams and leaded windows.
The pubs, they promise something rather spectacular, rather romantic, and yet, perhaps, slightly ominous.
I can think of few better ways to spend a little time alone than walking through the door of an old brick building with its wooden beams and stone floors; sitting on a pew-like bench at a heavy wooden table with a pint, left alone with my thoughts. Perhaps there is a steak, slightly bloody and tender, with potatoes waiting to be devoured and thoroughly enjoyed.
Maybe the sun is out and you can see the greenery of the trees outside. Or perhaps, my preference, a wild and windy night, with an open fire flickering nearby and the smell of burning wood filling the air. On the tables are candles, wax slowly running down their sides, showing you just how long you have been sitting there enjoying the relaxation and solitude.
In contrast, modern pubs with their booming music, crowds and standing-room-only approach just don’t make any sense to me.
How are you meant to think? How are you meant to eat or relax?
How are you meant to do anything?
No, you can keep your modern drinking, standing there with your fashionable drinks and your expensive speciality pints. Me, I love ancient, haunted pubs.
There is another reason why I enjoy an ancient pub. After hours.When everybody has gone home, when it is quiet and dark. That is when an old pub takes on a completely different feeling and, perhaps, a completely different role. Yes, it may feel spooky and you may feel filled with anticipation and slight unease, but that is exactly why we are there.
We are there to discover what energy remains within and we hope to discover what energy wants to reveal itself. Which customers, landlords or landladies perhaps never really left. Which arguments became something much darker. Which tragedies have somehow become absorbed into the building itself and which spirits might still remain.
Barry and I have sat in so many haunted pubs and inns over the years. We talk about the folklore and the stories while trying to feel the energy around us. I often try to think of the establishment almost as a living entity.
The atmosphere can change from moment to moment.
Something that feels warm and cosy one minute can suddenly become oppressive and cold the next. Once the people have gone, it almost feels as though the building itself is finally allowed to speak. You might hear unexplained noises. Footsteps somewhere above you. The ancient beams beginning to creak, groan or knock. You can be sitting there completely still when the temperature suddenly drops. Your first thought is that somebody must have opened a door but you know they haven’t, then a breeze passes you by.
The goosebumps rise along your arms. The hairs stand on end.
Sometimes there is simply the unmistakable feeling of being watched. At other times it can be entirely different.
On one investigation there may suddenly be the smell of lavender, followed by an overwhelming need to sleep and rest. A strange sense of peace comes over you and then, just as suddenly as it arrived, it is gone. We have yet to watch an object physically move across a room entirely on its own, but we have certainly seen objects appearing in one position, disappearing, and later being found somewhere else. We have seen Fairies, full bodied appiritaions, lights flickering, heard sounds from a room that you know is empty, footsteps above and next to you, been scrtached, things thrown at the windows and a door moves on its own, something knocks...
Of course, individually, every one of those things may have a perfectly ordinary explanation. Part of investigating the paranormal is trying to find that explanation and occasionally you are left with something that does not quite fit and that you cannot immediately explain.
Those are the moments that keep us coming back!
Ghosts on Tap and Ghosts on Draught are designed to transport you, the reader, into these pubs with us during our investigations. I want you to understand not simply what happened, but what conducting a paranormal investigation actually feels like, to know that the story is as different as the pubs are themselves# varied, in fact wonderfully varied, every one is unique.
THAT is exactly how it should be.
No proper pub should ever be the same as another, it should have character, it should have history, it should have stories. We, of course hope, that perhaps it should have something else as well. So join us on the adventure...
Do you fancy a pint?
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