The West Country's 'most haunted' pubs and hotels where guests cannot explain encounters

Several pubs and hotels across the West Country have been rumoured to be haunted by ghosts for centuries.

Guests staying in the historic venues claim to experience strange noises and sounds, with one encounter even convincing a TV presenter that there is "definitely life after death".

Ahead of Halloween, we have compiled some of the most popular haunted stories from across the region.

The Llandoger Trow on King Street in Bristol dates back to the 17th Century and there have been multiple reports of it being haunted by 15 ghosts.

The pub is also rumoured to have been visited by Blackbeard, a pirate who was rumoured to set fire to his own beard in battle in order to appear even more ferocious.

Staff and visitors have reported hearing unexpected footsteps and eerie noises.

Some of the reported ghosts at the pub have been given names, including Pierre, who allegedly walks with a pained limp and a caliper on one leg.

He is often seen staring mournfully from the upstairs windows at the living patrons in the street below, according to Visit Bristol.

The Shoemakers Museum in Street, Somerset, is housed in a 16th Century manor called the Grange.

According to Sam Cullen, manager at the museum, the site is "super-duper haunted".

She said the memoir Tales of the Polden Hills, by Frances Wood, written in 1922, describes supernatural occurrences.

"This was during a time when people loved a ghost story, when the unknown and creepy was exciting for folk," Cullen said.

She said one of the stories tells of two brothers who lived in the manor, one of whom reported seeing a white dog in the kitchen.

"A few moments later the other brother came running in and told the exact same tale," Cullen said.

"The only difference was that in this retelling the dog got up and left the room via the door. And the boy was like, 'how did the dog leave, the door was locked?'

"Within three weeks their father died in his study."

Cullen said when she started working at the museum, she did not know about the history.

"I thought it was just an abandoned old building," she said.

"All of the sudden, this disinfectant hospital smell came out of nowhere," she added.

"I asked, 'why does it smells like hospitals in the barn?'

"It turns out it used to be used as a quarantine hospital during the Spanish flu," she added.

Yvette Fielding, who presents the TV programme Most Haunted, said the Ancient Ram Inn in Wotton-under-Edge in Gloucestershire "sticks in her mind" as one of the most haunted places she visited while filming the show.

She added: "When I first started, I wasn't sure what to believe and now I know there's life after death and I'm not scared of death at all.

"Stuart [Fielding's colleague] decided he wasn't going to be respectful and he was swearing and saying, 'do your worst'.

"Later on in the early hours of the morning, Stuart said he felt fists like he was being beaten. The next day he had bruises around his body and he lost his hair - alopecia - through the stress of it all."

The Ancient Ram Inn has been hosting paranormal investigations throughout October.

On Halloween night, the pub will host an overnight ghost hunt, where people can come in fancy dress and meet with paranormal investigators.

The Black Swan Hotel in Devizes, Wiltshire, dates back to 1737 and was once owned by alleged highwayman Ambrose Saintsbury.

It is said the present-day function room was once a court of judgement, and a meeting place for local freemasons and traders.

Guests who have stayed in room Number Four in the hotel report seeing a young woman in a dress sitting in a chair looking out of the window in the middle of the night.

Some paranormal investigators have also picked up abrupt temperature changes in the cellar and say this might be linked to hauntings.

But some experts say that what people are experiencing in the historic buildings is not true encounters with the paranormal.

Dr Joan Passey, a senior lecturer specialising in Gothic and horror literature at the University of Bristol, said people like to believe in ghost stories because it is "nicer than the alternative".

"We've had a concept of ghosts as long as there has been human storytelling. It's to provide a vocabulary to speak about the afterlife," Passey said.

"The stories sometimes present as comforting and reassuring. Sometimes they manifest as a challenge to all this scientific rationality to show there's still unexplained things."

She added that ghost stories could also be a reminder of histories in communities.

"Especially in the case of places and pubs, it's about the past persevering," Passey said.

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