Pub spirits cause a stir
Apr 25 2006
 
IT'S a freezing April night in the early hours of the morning on the
Chipstead borders. In an ancient pub a group of researchers quietly sit
in trepidation, waiting for signs of the paranormal.
In contrast to the daytime buzz, there is an eerie silence in the
heavily-beamed bar.

The kitchen door is shut and the room is empty, save for a piece of
sensitive recording equipment designed to pick up sounds not usually
picked up by the human ear. When the tape is played back later, the
sound of footsteps walking across the flagstone flooring can be heard
clearly.

The investigators are excited, and the manager is relieved that the
spooky happenings at the pub are genuine. She is not imagining it -
there is a ghost - and we think his name is Harry.
Staff and visitors to the 16th Century Well House Inn at Chipstead have
reported intriguing but non-threatening activity for years. And the
ghost of Harry Monk's shadowy spectre is legendary with locals and
staff, who tell of uncanny happenings and unexpected encounters.

St Margaret's Well (the name of Mugswell is derived from this) was
mentioned in the Domesday Book in 1086. Today, this 100-foot deep well
still enables our local Sutton and East Surrey Water company to monitor
the water levels in the underground aquifers that provide 85 per cent of
the company's supply.

The three farm cottages dating from 1560s, and from which the pub was
converted, are thought to have 14th Century origins.
In the 1920s it became a tearoom and, following a petition by locals, in
1956 it gained a drinks licence.

Sharon Ballard has been the live-in manager at the pub for
two-and-a-half years, and recalls one occasion when her door, propped
open by a bottle, was found closed with the bottle standing up on the
opposite side of the room.
"I was the only one in this side of the house - there was no one else
who could have moved it," she said. "It must have been Harry the ghost."

On another occasion, grieving for her dog that had been run over, Sharon
went to where she always left her mobile phone, in the kitchen on the
window sill.
"I never ever left it anywhere else, but this day I couldn't find it,"
she said. "Eventually we heard a vibration and found it pushed right to
the back of one of the shelves. Again, no one else would have done
that."

And, soon after, Sharon was working in the kitchen when a tall shadowy
figure walked past her.
"I turned to see who it was but there was no one," she said. "I have
felt him brush past me too. I'm not frightened of him."
All the staff are aware of Harry, who disrupts a little but does not
cause too much trouble.
Sharon explained: "Only recently I'd cleared up after everyone had gone
home, and left everything in the bar clean and perfect, with rubbish
tied up neatly in black sacks.

"The next morning there were bottle tops and screwed up serviettes
strewn around the bar. But the bags were neatly tied, exactly as I left
them. There was no other explanation than Harry."
Pub owner Stewart Brink-worth says several customers have reported odd
happenings. He said: "I've never experienced any sightings myself, but I
have heard some genuine stories told by my customers."

He has been told that pictures and lampshades have moved and cellar
doors have suddenly opened at 2am or 3am. The storeroom door has also
been found opened, having been left shut tight.
And one day in the early morning, Sharon heard the front door being
unbolted and then slammed shut.

"I thought it must have been the cook - the only other person living in
that night," she said. "But when I got up she was still here. She had
heard it as well, and thought it was me."
This is just the sort of mysterious stuff that David Willey and David
Witchell are used to. David Willey founded North Surrey Paranormal Group
(NSPG) two years ago, and was joined by researcher David Witchell.

Since then they have undertaken many paranormal investigations,
including Warwick Castle, Polesden Lacey in Bookham and an ongoing one
at Ham House, Richmond.
While studying parapsychology at college in Egham, a group member
suggested the ancient Well House as a possible site for researching
paranormal activity. And on Friday April 7 at 11pm, they started their
hunt for Harry.

They began by trialling new ghost-hunting equipment, testing for
temperature drops and using laptops with motion sensors, portable CCTV
cameras with night vision, and equipment that showed unexpected orbs and
light anomalies.

David Willey explained: "There is speculation that these 'orbs' are
actually spirits recaptured on camera. We had two independent
researchers take pictures and we were very interested to see an orb turn
up on each of their pictures - just a short distance apart."
David also included a "sensitive" in his group who picked up the names
of the people who used to live in the cottages before it was turned into
a tea-room.

Said David: "We had deliberately kept her in the dark about the whole
history, and it took me days researching archives to find out about the
families that had lived in the cottages. But within a short time of
entering the pub she came up with two names of people that had lived in
the cottages.

"She also felt there was a lady who had lived there who had been
secreted away and spent a lot of time in a cupboard upstairs. There are
a number of cupboards upstairs where this could have been."
Many things happened on Friday to give reason for David and his group to
return, but none more convincing than the sound of someone walking in
the kitchen.

And even Stewart Brinkworth, who is fairly neutral about the presence of
a ghost, is becoming more convinced .
He said: "It certainly appears to have been a very constructive evening
and the NSPG are welcome to come back."