Repeated Hauntings In A Hotel

This is my first story on this site! I have been a reader for a while now, and thought I would share some of my own (and others) experiences with you (I apologise now as this will be a long one!)

A bit of background: at the minute I am 19 Years old, and I work at a bar/restaurant/hotel in the north of England. I have worked there for around 2 and a half years now, and throughout this period I have heard many things. I am not like others on this site, and have not had a long history in the paranormal or anything of the sort: however I am still intrigued, and can say for certain I believe the place is haunted.

The Pub is in the north of England. It is fairly old, although to be honest I'm not exactly sure how old! What I do know is that it was used as a coaching inn. One story some tell is that muggings and murders were not uncommon, and that someone was killed outside. Another story says that as one man left one night on horseback, the bridge nearby crossing the river broke, causing him to drown.

In the cellar there is actually a tunnel which goes a mile underground to a nearby cemetery. According to what I've heard, bodies were dug up, brought underground through the tunnel and stored in the cellar (where the beer is stored now!) and then they were sold to doctors who would pass through. The tunnel is still there, albeit blocked off, and downstairs in the cellar is where a lot of the activity takes place.

The Building actually used to be 4 different houses: and in later years they were all joined up in order to create a larger one in which the hotel is now housed. It may be coincidence, but the most haunted room in the hotel is room 3. Originally, the hotel numbers went from 1-15: and room 13 was where a lot of activity occurred. My manager actually told me that so much happened there they had to swap the numbers round, so that the hotel actually went from rooms 1a, to rooms 1-12, and then 14/15. When the rooms were changed over, room 3 was where room 13 used to be.

(This may be where I get a bit jumbled, as I tell all of the different stories I know, but I'll try my best!)

My own experience happened in the cellar. I was responsible for getting the stock up to the bar. It was a Saturday night, and I was downstairs. I had done the majority of the stock, and was busy sending a quick text to my girlfriend, telling her what a busy night we had had, etc. Out of the corner of my eye, I see a large black figure. I thought it was my manager, so obviously I quickly thrust my phone into my pocket before standing up straight and looking across: but of course the figure slowly vanished. It was as if I had looked at the light for far too long, and I had black spots in my vision, although it was a figure shape. It was as if a person was standing next to me, staring at me.

Not too long ago, the inspector came round, and she was checking everything was up to scratch. She was downstairs in the cellar with my manager, and they were just chatting. As my manager tells it, she would repeatedly glance left, and then glance right. When he asked her what was wrong, she said that there were shadows moving on the walls. Although they were the only two in there, and the lights are long strip lights (so that shadows cannot be made).

Another story my manager likes to tell involves the cellar. The office is actually downstairs, next to the cellar, and one of the other employees was standing talking to my manager. All of a sudden, a spanner shot out between them, hit the wall, and then dropped onto the floor as they stared at each other in disbelief.

One day when I was at work, one of the supervisors was downstairs counting the until when he heard a large bang. He went into the cellar to find the door that leads into the tunnel wide open. Obviously freaked out, he shut the door and then dragged a large, full keg of beer in front of it in order to prevent it moving again. He went back to counting the till. 5 Minutes later, he heard another large bang, went into the cellar, and he found the keg had been dragged out of the way and the door was swinging open. There have also been several other occasions where staff have gone into the cellar only to find full kegs literally spinning on their side.

The bar itself is also haunted. Perhaps my favourite story involves the bar. Around 3 years ago, the river burst its banks and flooded the premises. Obviously this meant a lot of work needed to be done, and the entire place needed refitting. One evening, the builders laid down cement in order to lay some slabs the following morning, and surrounded it with tape so no one would walk on it (part of the bar has a sort of ceramic tile floor). When they came back the next morning, there were 4 very neat footprints in it. The manager blamed the night porter - however after looking at the CCTV footage from the night before he changed his mind. You can actually see the footprints appear in the cement as the night porter sits blissfully unaware in the corner. Several night porters have actually quit, because they became too freaked out finding someone standing over them in the middle of the night as they read the paper.

Not too long ago, I was working on a Saturday afternoon when my manager called me downstairs. There were several staff working, and two of them had left their handbags in reception. He had been watching the CCTV footage of the reception area for the guests (which is joined to the bar) when something caught his eye. If you watch the handbags closely, you can actually watch them unzip, one after the other. No one is even in reception, never mind next to the bags.

One Saturday night, we had a member of staff who used to work there long before all of us did: she was around 40, and had worked there as a barmaid when she was a late teen. She asked all of us if we had encountered the ghosts, and we got onto telling each other stories about the place. She told us that one night, they were sat around after work, telling each other stories and out of nowhere one of the vases, which was perched on a shelf, shot across the room, shattering on a pillar on the far side.

There are the usual things that happen, such as the phone ringing when no one is there; the hand dryers go off by themselves (they are motion activated) and television sets just turn on.

One day two guests that were stopping in the hotel were checking in, an elderly man and his wife, who was in a wheelchair. The elderly woman looked at my manager, and said to him 'you have 6 guests here with you'. My manager looked at the screen, thinking she was here meeting other family; and he told her we didn't. Turns out she was a medium and she thinks we have 6 ghosts.

Another of my favourite stories involves the hotel. One night, there was a resident staying in room 3, when he heard a knock at the window. Half asleep, he got up, and opened the curtains. There was a woman looking at him. He pulled on some clothes, and walked along to the fire escape, and opened the door in order to let her in, believing she was locked out her room. He looked across and realised there was a 15 foot drop outside his window!

The housekeepers in the hotel report seeing lots of things. One even likes to speak to them, telling them off when they turn the televisions on and flick the light switches! She says that one morning she was upstairs working, when she heard a noise in the corridor. She glanced down towards the fire escape to see a lady walk towards room 6, which is next to it. She ran down, attempting to chase her but she had vanished. Often when the housekeepers go into several rooms (namely 3, 5 and 6) there is the perfect outline of a person lying on the bed, even when no guests have been staying overnight.

During breakfast for the hotel one morning, a guest told the waiting staff that during the night he had been sleeping (in room 3) and was woken up because someone in the room was pulling the covers off him. He turned on the bedside lamp and continued to watch the covers being pulled off the bed.

My final story again involves the flood. It was very severe, and many residents in the town had their homes flooded. One family actually had the pleasure of staying in room 3 for several months as their home in the town was repaired. When asked one morning how everything was, they casually replied 'Yes, good thanks. Although the children have had to get used to the shower curtain moving by itself in the middle of the night'. Apparently the shower curtain would move up and down the rail, grinding as it went.

I hope you have enjoyed my collection of stories, it took me a fair while to write and I apologise if it isn't as fluent as you would like!