Ghosts of a mother and son, who are thought to have made a suicide pact and drowned themselves in the early 1900s, are said to haunt the Ship and Royal, on Clifton Street.

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So much so, Lee Jane, 30, and girlfriend Gemma Rogers, 27, are the first licensees in five years to dare live in the building.

The couple report hearing bath water running upstairs in a derelict area of the building which is boarded up and has no plumbing.

Mr Jane, who has run the pub for six months, said: "That area is part of the former Royal Hotel and there are 20 derelict rooms upstairs which don't have any electricity or plumbing.

"Nobody goes up there, it's all boarded up for health and safety reasons.

"But we hear water running, like from a tap. A mother and son who lived here are thought to have made a suicide pact and drowned themselves."

Mr Jane describes other recent spooky moments which have made staff at his pub scurry home in fear, including an internal telephone system which rings by itself.

He said: "There were four of us in the pub one night and we'd just finished cleaning up when the internal phone rang.

"There was no-one there when we answered and there was no-one in the building to ring the phone in the first place.

The office was all locked up so no-one could get to it."

In 1983 The Gazette reported another sighting of a ghost at the pub.

A tall dark figure, thought to be the departed soul of the late Squire John Clifton who died in Tenerife in 1928, was seen on the second floor.

It was not the first time.

In 1978, The Gazette reported: "Ghosts do have their acceptable faces. The case of interfering Charlie is the toast of the Ship and Royal.

"Charlie, thought to be the ghost of squire John Talbot Clifton, likes revisiting his favourite hostelry, orders meat from suppliers and tampers with the inn's files for what reason no one knows."

But Mr Jane says the ghosts won't frighten him and his partner away.

He said: "It's a bit spooky, but I keep an open mind. It doesn't stop me sleeping!"