By Martin Jeffrey
In Britain a huge amount of ghost sightings take place in one of our favourite places – the local pub. For years people have read about Haunted Inns and Hotels up and down the country.
Bruce Piggott, an amateur historian from Welwyn Garden City has uncovered something spooky at his local pub, the Attimore Hall. The Pub is situated in a building that is nearly 400 years old and until recently was a lone isolated farmhouse surrounded by three small cottages and 300 acres of open fields.
Since its conversion to a public house in the late 1980′s a series of sightings and strange incidents have occurred. Bruce has detailed the sightings for his website and now for the readers of Mysterymag.com.
One manageress told Bruce how one night as the pub staff were clearing up after closing time, her assistant manageress checked the toilets. She used the toilet herself and then washed. From the corner of her eye she saw a lady exiting the women’s toilets wearing a big flowery dress. She followed after her expecting to see her in the main bar area but only found the other barmaid. She asked the barmaid if she saw the women. The Barmaid hadn’t.They checked all the possible exit places where she could have gone too, but there was no one there!
The manageress also witnessed poltergeist activity. On a few occasions, in the front bay rooms that were part of the old house, small piles of dirt appeared. One night doors were heard slamming at 2 to 3 o’clock in the morning. Because these doors were not in use, Bob, her husband, nailed the doors up and then for three following nights all the alarms went off in the middle of the night. An alarm expert was sent for to check the installation but he could find no fault with the system.
Further managers also experienced similar activity, Nickie (The next manageress) felt a small child tapping on her shoulder whilst she was asleep in bed. Her son Robert would do this when he was ill or upset. Nickie turned expecting to see her son but there was no one there! The tapping on her shoulder still continued. She woke her husband John and told him that she felt the tapping. He could see nothing but Nickie still felt the tapping. On several occasions in the kitchen area Nickie saw a small boy peeking aroundcorners and through windows. He appears briefly and then is gone. All she can recall is that he is about 8 to 10 years old with dark hair.
An assistant manager, Tomo has also experienced the paranormal, Tomo was running the pub alone while the managers John and Nickie where away. He took the till trays up to the office and put the bulk of the cash in the safe.The float money for the next days business was left in the till trays. Helocked the office and went to bed. The next day was cold and he remembered he had left his fleece coat in theoffice. He unlocked the door and took his fleece from the back of the chair. He then noticed that all the money had been taken out of the till trays andlaid in neat piles. All the note denominations and all the coin types were placed up in neat piles. He went downstairs to get Hazel who works in the kitchen to witness what he had seen. She walked ahead of Tomo up the stairs and witnessed the coins stashed in piles. Tomo told her the room had been locked all night and the only key was beside him when he slept. It was just as though a small child had played with the money!
Since starting as a Barmaid at the Attimore in October 2000, Pauline has sensed the presence of a small person behind her whilst working at the bar. Usually at the corner of the bar next to the stairs door. It makes her turn around expecting to see someone but there’s no one to be seen.
A catalogue of sightings have occurred for nearly a decade, and even the millennium celebrations didn’t stop further sightings.
Jo (a barmaid) told Bruce that at the end of the 2000 Millennium celebrations at the Pub, two of Jo’s friends, Karen and Richard had no transport to get home so they were offered the Non Smoking room to sleep in. Not knowing its history they took up the offer and slept in what was one of the original rooms of the house. Throughout the night they heard footsteps. After a time they realised that the footsteps were going nowhere. Next morning, Jo told them that’s the room where one of the ghosts lives. They were both visibly shaken, especially Richard. Jo herself, says that she often feels the presence of someone passing her when she works in the Pub near or in the non-smoking room, but there’s no one to be seen.
Conversations with regulars have turned up what could be a very sensitive story. During his research of the area’s history, Bruce stumbled on the Pub’s history, especially dating back to 1957.
Bruce wrote to me “I discovered as I spoke to ex-tenants of the house that a young boy had died in the house at the age of 8 in 1957.
“None of the people who reported seeing the ghost of a small boy knew this.The managers and manageress who have come to run the pub have all come from out of town and wouldn’t know a little known fact about the house. I do not wish to upset the relatives of this boy and therefore I will not give any names. It may of course be coincidence that many of the sightings include a small boy.”
For more information visit Bruce’s Website: www.attimore.org.uk
