Built in the late 18th century, the inn has remained a public house/B&B since it was first built. Research tells us that it's cellar, which is split into many rooms, was used as a holding area for prisoners when they were being brought down to the courthouses in London.
It seemed as though many of the prisoners held here, never actually left alive. Katherine's investigation also led us to believe that many of them were actually killed here. The owners told us about the ghost sightings and paranormal activity that keep them awake at night.
Glasses being thrown off tables, people seeing shadows, tables and chairs being moved in the night, but the thing that interested the team the most, ghostly screams being heard from down in the cellar. The workers at the inn refuse to go down there alone AND often don't go down there at all in the evenings.
We began out ghost investigation in the bar of the inn. We placed a glass in the middle of the table surrounded by flour. When we would check back later, we would see clearly if it had been moved. Motion detectors were placed in the hallways, particularly between the bar and the cellar, to see if any ghost activity can be detected by the 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 a short break, Annabel returned, and told us that while she had been talking about the energies in the bar, a spirit ghost had whispered in her ear telling her "Those that will be judged will be done so here."
She then saw a visual image of a man being tied up to a pole in the basement and whipped to death. So shocking was the image that Annabel had needed to take five minutes out just to clear her head.
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.