The inn has been a public house since it was first built in the late 18th century. Our research told us that it's cellar, split into many rooms, was once used as a holding cell for prisoners as they were brought down to the courthouses in London.

Katherine decided that we should carry out our ghost investigation in this old inn when she found out that a lot of the prisoners held in the cellars never left alive. The current owners of the inn told Katherine about some of the ghost activity that kept them awake at night.

Glasses have being thrown off tables, tables and chairs have been moved in the night, and strange ghostly figures have been seen, but the thing that interested our ghost team the most, were the ghostly screams coming from down in the cellar. The staff at the inn refuse to go down there alone, often don't go down there at all in the evenings.

The team turned up and began our initial investigations into the workings of the building. We placed a glass in the middle of table in the bar area and around it laid some flour. Hopefully when we returned later on in the evening the glass would have been moved. We also placed some motion detectors in the hallway going from the bar to the cellar area to catch anything that may move through beams.

We brought Annabel in to give us her initial opinions of the inn. Walking into the bar, Annabel felt the residual energy of the past 300 years that still accumulated in the building. She told us of people and noises, the smell of ale, and laughing.

Annabel found it very hard to concentrate on any one given thing, as she was beginning to tell us so before she stopped. Annabel asked to leave for a few minutes for some fresh air. This is something we had never come across before on our ghost hunts, and were quite shocked by this.

After ten minutes outside, she returned and began to tell us about the energies in the building and how earlier she was about to speak, when somebody whispered in her ear "Those that will be judged will be done so here."

She saw a very strong image of a man tied up to a pole as he was being whipped to death. This image had been so vivid that Annabel had to go outside and take a breather to clear her mind.

Now that she was back in however the ghostly images had returned. She informed us that the voice she was hearing was from one of the old patrons at the inn. "Robert". She told us that when criminals were bought here and held overnight some of the soldiers escorting the prisoners paid Robert to do away with the men so they could lay claim to the prisoners dying on the way down to London. The soldier's get paid and they could return home sooner than expected.

Annabel claimed that Robert took great delight in beating the prisoners to death and doing away with the bodies. Annabel asked if we could now go down to the cellar, as she wanted to confront this evil man and hopefully cleanse the inn of his ghostly influence.

As we descended into the cellar, Katherine, our parapsychologist, told us that the temperature had dropped significantly. Annabel told us that Robert was extremely angry that we had entered his place, and was going to do anything to get rid of us tonight.

As we went deeper into the cellar, I was instantly struck on the back of the head by what felt like somebody's hand. When I told the other ghost hunters about this, one of the other members of the team shouted out in pain. They also claimed that they had been struck on the back of the head.

Annabel told us that Robert was going to make his spirit presence known to us, and we should all be very careful here. She could feel that a lot of men had been murdered down here in the cellar. More than thirty bodies had also been dragged out of here and buried in the surrounding woods. It was just after this, that a loud bang was heard coming from one of the rooms in the cellar. Investigating the noise, we discovered that one of the beer barrels had been pushed over.

I decided to call out to the ghost, and nervously I asked him to show himself to the rest of the ghost-hunting group. I just managed to utter these words, when we heard screaming coming from one of the rooms, further down the corridor. What happened we got there, was something I won't ever forget again.

Inside the room, Annabel told us that this was the place that Robert carried out his evil job. I slowly entered the room with another member of my team to see what could have made the scream. Although the room was empty, we did hear a shuffle coming from deeper inside the room. As we entered further, we heard Katherine shouting for help. We returned to find Annabel lying on the ground in tears. We tried to lift her up but she appeared to be in some sort of trance. I told the team that this would have to be the end of the investigation, as we needed to get Annabel upstairs and away from this inn.

As we were picking her up, we heard another scream coming from the room we had just been in. Annabel began to shout uncontrollably, saying that she had to cleanse this place of the lingering ghost spirits. I told her that we were not going to do that, as we had to get her out of this place.

We finally got Annabel outside, and I went back into the building to check the glass, which we had left on the table as an experiment. Unfortunately, nothing had been moved, and nothing had set off the motion detectors either. I collected our stuff and got outside with the rest of the ghost team.

I don't know what happened that night, and will probably never find out. I do know that soon after, Annabel went back inside without us knowing, and cleansed the building of ghost spirits. She won't tell us what she saw in there that made her cry that night. She has said that is something she never wants to see again.

I am glad we had gone there, but I'll never visit that place again.

Return to Ghosts Main Page