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Haunted Pubs
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One Man And His Dog
Leckhampton Inn, Cheltenham
Again in 1997, the Western Daily Press reported on some new regular customers who had started turning up at this Cheltenham pub.
An old man and his terrier dog who frequented this old coaching inn in Cheltenham appeared to landlord Andy Hobbs so clearly that he asked the man what he wanted to drink.
Mr Hobbs told the newspaper: "I saw this old guy sitting at the bar with a scruffy terrier dog one Sunday lunchtime, not long after we took the place over.
"When I said 'Afternoon, what can I get you', he just looked right through me. "I turned to have a word with someone else and when I looked up, they'd both gone."
Mr Hobbs thought no more of the encounter until one of his customers showed him an old picture of a man and a dog which bore an uncanny resemblance to his phantom visitor.
"The old man I saw was dressed quite smart, like he was just dropping in for a quick pint on the way back from chapel," he said. Perhaps they were just popping in for a swift one between hauntings.
Haunting Sights
Coach and Horses, Gloucester
Back in 1997, Tony Lewis, landlord of the Coach and Horses in Gloucester, complained to the Western Daily Press about the ghosts that plagued his pub.
Only eight weeks after Mr Lewis, his wife Rosalind and three young children moved into the pub, they'd had enough of the bumps, bangs and apparitions that plagued them there.
Mr Lewis' son Carl, 11, described a little girl wearing an old-fashioned dress and white pantaloons and the family was too scared even to sleep upstairs any more.
And checking out the pub's history, Mr Lewis found that none of the previous landlords had hung around very long - there had been 20 in as many years!
A variety of ghosts
The Bowl Inn - Lower Almondsbury, near Bristol
This pub is haunted by a young French girl called Elizabeth Maronne who died in the village in 1708.
Thought to have been badly treated at the hands of her father the girl has returned to haunt the village.
She has been heard crying in the village as well as reciting nursery rhymes, most recently in the late 1970s.
There's also a plaque inside the local church, which tells us the girl's father believed his children - Elizabeth and her brother John - died because of his sins
The Bowl is also said to be home to two other ghosts - both women - whose identity is unknown.
Ghost behind the bar
King William III, King Street, Bristol
Bristol's King Street is noted for its old pubs, but the King William III has another notable resident.
In 1998 customers and staff claimed to have heard the spook walking up the back stairs of the historic building and calling out to staff.
Landlord John Thompson told the Bristol Evening Post: "I don't believe in ghosts myself but I can't explain what has been going on. "Four of us were sat in the bar the other day and it suddenly sounded as if someone one was going up the back bar stairs.
"We all went out the back and there was no one in sight. "Other members of staff also say they have heard voices calling their names when there has been no one around.
"I don't know of any record of ghosts here, but this building has been a pub since the 1600s, so you never know."
Tragic mother and baby
The Ragged Cot, Hyde, Nr Stroud, Gloucestershire.
The spirits said to haunt this pub have a tragic history. Their story goes back to 1760 when the then landlord Bill Clavers, rather hard up and a little the worse for wear for drink, decided he was going to hold up the midnight stagecoach to London.
When his wife pleaded with him not to go he pushed her down the stairs whilst she held their baby in her arms and on his return from his raid, the constables hard on his heels, he discovered that both were dead.
Clavers held off the police outside while trying to conceal the bodies of his wife and child in a trunk, but just as the constables prepared to storm the building, they heard a cry of horror from inside the pub. Clavers had seen the ghost of his wife and child cross the floor and ascend the stairs. One of the constables later noticed a woman with a baby in her arms watching as the bodies were found.
Caught In The Flashlight
Ram Inn, Wotton-under-Edge, Gloucestershire
There have been plenty of ghoulish happenings at this former inn in Gloucestershire, which is claimed to be the most haunted pub in Britain.
The Ram Inn is over 360 years old so it is bound to have seen plenty of action in its time, not only that but it is built on a Pagan burial ground.
Indeed a dowser that was called into the pub told a landlord there that scores of bodies, some of them children killed in ancient religious rites, were buried there.
No wonder it's also a favourite haunt for ghost hunters. Plenty have held vigils there and reported sudden drops in temperature and bright lights dancing across the fireplace.
The picture here was taken by ghostbuster Julie Hunt during a stay at the former pub, which is now a private house.
Rather than the benevolent spirits so often reported, the general feeling amongst those visiting this pub is that the spirits here are evil.
One room is said to have an especially doom-laden feeling to it and is known as the Bishop's Room. Once two men stayed the night there and had such a bad night that they had to go and get a vicar to exorcise them. The vicar was so shocked he banned them from going back to the building again.
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