Perpetual love triangle is still being played out after hours at historic inn
By Mark Lingard
THERE'S nothing unusual about a pub full of spirits, or even the odd creaking floorboard in a building believed to date back 500 years, but what about a ghostly love triangle?
After months of sleepless nights the landlord at the Buck Inn, Newtown, called in Newtown Paranormal to try and get answers on what exactly is going bump in the night.
"There's been some strange goings-on," landlord Anthony Jenkins told the County Times.
"I have been living here on my own since November.
"I'd been hearing banging and creaking. One night I was on my own and I heard this 'aaah'. It was the middle of the night. I took a photograph of the ceiling and there was this face.
"There's just some strange things that happen.
"We have doors that won't open and then suddenly they do, someone tries to enter and room and they can't, and then someone else tries and it opens first time."
Mr Jenkins told paranormal investigators that often someone will try and enter his bedroom and find the door seemingly locked – when he tries it swings open first time.
During the investigation the team returned to his bedroom after around half an hour and found the bed had been moved, a mark showing on the carpet where it had been dragged.
"I was getting concerned," said Mr Jenkins, "I was not getting any sleep.
"But they told me there's nothing sinister. They said there's lots and lots of spiritings, but they are all friendly, they are not going to do me or anyone here any harm.
"Back in March my youngest (aged two) was having trouble sleeping.
"We had a baby monitor in the room, and we could hear her moaning and groaning. We heard this 'Anna, Anna', and it was not my eldest daughter's voice.
"I had this sixth sense that she was by the window.
"She was out of bed and behind the curtains, and she was screaming.
"When she saw me she thought I was whatever it was that woke her.
"My eldest daughter (four) was just catching flies, she never woke up at all.
"I'd been up there before and thought who are they talking to.
"You could almost hear a voice talking back, but it was muffled, sounded distant.
"One morning I woke up about six o'clock and saw someone standing there in the doorway. I saw this figure, wearing a black top hat, arms folded. I had to rub my eyes to check.
"But it was still there. I got up to move towards it, and it was gone.
"The doors here are black, but the black of the hat stood out against it. That was the only part that was colour, the rest of the figure was almost smokey."
Mr Jenkins says there is a door on the outside of the building that goes nowhere, with just a small space behind it before you reach a brick wall. It is always kept locked.
One day it wouldn't open – kicked in from the inside.
And the main door's latches regularly make noises when no-one's about.
The Buck Inn is steeped in history, but much of it is uncertain and unrecorded.
Believed to be as much as 500 years old, the building was originally nearly twice the size, but around half the building was demolished. That explains why the main door and an apparent central chimney are to the left as you look from the road.
It is almost certain that the building was not originally built as a pub.
Local rumour suggests that beams from the Spanish Armada were used in the building, and there are believed to be at least two tunnels, one to the river and one to the town hall.
They are believed to have been used by smugglers. Bricked up years ago, they allowed goods to be transported straight into the cellars.
Rory Evans, one of the members of Newtown Paranormal, told the County Times the investigation picked up some interesting spirits still lurking within the pub.
"Downstairs someone was hung on one of the beams. People have seen someone hanging, and people have seen two pairs of arms holding up the beams," he said.
One character they 'met' was Morgan, who he believed was perhaps a smuggler and didn't live at the Buck. They also encountered a woman named Anne 'trapped' in one of the bedrooms.
"Anne was from the late 1780s to early Victorians," said Rory.
"She wore a linen dress, powdered blue, with apple blossom flowers on it. The man seen in the doorway with a top hat, we believe he could be her father."
He believed the man in the top hat was her father while the spirit preventing her leaving the room was her husband – John – and intruigingly from the information he did pick up he believes while alive some of the spirits may have been 'unfaithful'.
Rory believes Anne was having an affair with Morgan – which is why John won't let her leave – a ghostly perpetual love triangle.
He said there was also a little girl on the middle floor called Annie, who liked playing with the landlord's daughter – he confirmed his daughter loves playing in that room.
Voices were heard coming from downstairs in the bar area.
And investigators believe they picked up a whole family in one part of the historic pub – three children, a man and woman and even the nan – all still resident on the top floor.
Rory told the County Times there have also been numerous stories told over the years of ghostly horses being heard outside the front of the building.
A man in a peaked hat has been seen downstairs in the bar area.
A previous owner reported that after they moved in everything was okay for a couple of months, then there was a noise in the kitchen and the owner found the cat running around in circles. It jumped onto the units and would not come down for four days.
Another previous owner had a large dog who was in the hallway when the hackles on the back of its neck went up, it ran out of the pub, and wouldn't return for days.
Much of the investigation was done using scientific methods.
One of the Newtown Paranormal team had been checking electro magnetic fields – often a common sign of paranormal activity – but found the pub had high readings virtually thoughout.
A spirit manifesting will normally create a high EMF reading.
But he didn't think the readings were 'spiritual'. He guessed such an old building had been rewired a number of times, with the cabling left in place, and added: "It is said that high level electro magnetic fields can cause people to have hallucinations and they can, if exposed to prolonged levels, have negative health affects."
The team is now trawling through hours of audio and video footage to see what, if anything, it reveals.
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