Now when you take on a building like this, not only do you inherit the business, you also inherit the tales and the tragic love stories that have been passed down from the generations of landlords that have been here; Here is my explanation of why the children roam the corridors.
It is believed that in the early 1700s the building, which was a residential property, was occupied by a family comprising of a husband and wife and 2 children. The children’s names are believed to be William (Billy) & Sarah. Now all seemed happy in the household and the children were happy as can be in their lives. But an unsavoury secret unfolded, and the wife wasn’t as happy as people perceived, well at least with her husband anyway. The wife was having a sordid affair with a man who occupied the property opposite the building (which is now called `Dollectable’.) Every day she would wait in the window of Room 4 anticipating the nod for them to meet up. The affair lasted for years until the husband become suspicious and began to follow her. To his dismay it dawned on him the reality of the situation, he was devastated and was left with a dilemma, does he confront his wife, break up what seems to be a happy family and be the talking point of the city and lose all credibility. Remember this is a different era where this was unheard of. Or he could take matters into his own hands so nobody knew any different, so that’s what he did. The following day he decided to follow his wife’s lover on his nightly walk down to the river, crept up behind him and slit his throat and tossed his body into the River Dee. Every day the wife waited at the window waiting for her lover to show his face but he never appeared. Weeks went by and the wife become more distraught, it finally dawned on her something
tragic had happened, so much so she ended up taken her own life and joined her lover at the bottom of the River Dee.
To this day the children roam the corridors knocking on the doors searching for their beloved mother.
Now, Sarah & Billy have often been mentioned by guests and the mediums that visit us from all over the country. Sarah is often seen in the women’s toilets with many ladies seeing a young female apparition passing the cubicles, as a result most women go in pairs to visit the toilet. One in particular ripped her tights franticly pulling them up once confronted by the apparition, exited the toilets looking as pale as a ghost herself. When I first took over the building 2012, I would often take pictures on my phone hoping to capture a ghostly image. On one occasion a renowned local medium involved me in a séance in Room 6 where she asked Billy to come forward, enticing him in a comforting and motherly fashion. The footsteps where so apparent it made me believe in her gift a bit more, although she then told me that I had bought the business with illegitimate money which I found slightly annoying. Was this just her view of Scousers? She may have a gift with the dead, but she certainly couldn’t read me. Another medium said I amuse the spirits by taking pictures in the dark, this was very true but I’ll assure you, this doesn’t happen when there’s guests are in the hotel! I’m still very sceptical when it comes to mediums, yet I do believe some people are more sensitive to the afterlife, it’s strange how they all pick up on the13
spirits that reside in the building.
The Madam
For a couple of years now mediums mentioned that the lady of the house was fond of me, I was very flattered thinking that an old landlady approved of what I was doing. Turns out that that the first floor of the building was used as popular brothel, a common thing of Inns of this time. It
dawned on me the lady of the house was the Madam.
The Black Mass
Apparently, her henchman was a grumpy man who is believed to roam the restaurant at night and often seen lurking in the shadows, is this the black mass caught in a lot of the pictures? The dark shadow caught on camera is the first encounter I had witnessed with my own eyes. On this particular night we had a poker tournament on, one thing that I learnt was that the poker players don’t drink much, which resulted in the barmaid and I being pretty bored. Whist talking to Rachel (the barmaid) a black mass approximately 5 foot tall passed in between both of us. The area behind the bar went freezing and Rachel and I heard a high-pitched shriek. “Did you see that?” I asked “Oh my god!” she replied. I thought I would be scared but it was more of a calming sensation. A few years down the line I started holding a paranormal event on a Tuesday night, hosted by paranormal expert Paul Rowland.
Paul uses a scientific approach to the paranormal. The genius builds his own cameras and lighting to capture the afterlife this produced amazing evidence, proving that it’s not just the living that inhabits this building. On a typical night Paul will set up his crystals, cameras and voice recorders to try to capture evidence. On this particular occasion the cameras were rolling whilst in the restaurant. Paul uses ultra-white pulsating light to take these pictures which he thinks provokes manifestations a technique unique only to him. This camera system takes pictures every 10th of a second, so Paul has to scan through hundreds of pictures in order to find anything and obviously he was ecstatic when he came across these images.
You may be reading and thinking what a load of bull, but with many of these stories, the photographs that have been taken could back this up. One particular day I was not feeling the best I decided to lie down on the chesterfield couch that faced the kitchen. Through the door I could see a figure, I decided to take a picture, there is what looks like a lady with ringlets or a bonnet.... this was typical of a prostitute from the Victorian era. So their hair would fall from there `up do’ as it would create a more attractive appearance. Now may this not be the clearest of the pictures from our library but it builds a case for the brothel that was once here. In 2018 Paul Rowland caught these amazing pictures which backs up the brothel theory. Legs crossed
with suspenders pretty clear, I thought.
Roughly a year later, 2 of our previous hotel guests decided to take a selfie as you can see the black mass is in the background. They were kind enough to send the images to us. Could these images be the soldier or the henchman that looked after the brothel? All I can tell you that the footsteps are frequently heard until this day.