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| Ghosts Archive 1981 |
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 Ghosts news, views, gallery and archive brought to you by Weird Wiltshire Introduction Latest News News Archive Longleat House Sign of an Angel Bewley Court Red Lion Westbury Pool Maud Cunnington Wardour Castle Manor House Hotel Devizes Castle Kings Arms Malmesbury Abbey Lacock Abbey Avebury Manor Littlecote Manor Lydiard House Gallery Postcards Wallpaper Forum Links |
First Published October 31 1981 Share a night watch with Charlie and meet his ghostly monk LUCKILY for Charles Anderson, ghosts know no terrors for him. He is on good terms with the apparition that occasionally shows up during his night watches at an hotel. But some of his predecessors, and even one or two hotel guests, have found the ghostly presence of a monk-like figure just too much of a good thing. Some of the night staff have preferred to part company with the ghost and their jobs although there is no report of a guest actually leaving. When Charlie took over as night security man at the King's Head Hotel, Cirencester, eight years ago, he met the ghost after only ten days. 'I'd been on duty for about ten nights on my own,' Charlie recalled. 'At about 2.45 in the morning I thought I'd make myself a cup of tea. 'As I came out of the restaurant I saw this figure on the landing just up the main staircase. I thought: 'Hello, what's he doing there? 'I put my tray down and as I went up to the landing - you're not going to believe this - I saw this figure go through the wall. 'I thought it was impossible. Well, it is, isn't it. I came downstairs and thought no more about it.' Charlie's style in dealing with ghosts is one of casualness. 'Off course I'm not afraid,' he said. 'The dead can't hurt you.' So when he told the day porter next day about his encounter with the disappearing monk, there was alarm at first. 'He grabbed my arm,'Charlie said, and asked me if I was going to pack up. He told me the ghost was the reason they couldn't keep anybody.' Charlie stayed on and he is still there. But he had met a ghost before - a blacksmith at the old forge where he lived for a time in Gloucester Street, Cirencester. Strange events continue to happen as he patrols the hotel. A few years ago Timothy, the son of the hotel manager, asked to stay up with Charlie on his nightly rounds. But the night security man did not tell anyone that sometime he senses a cold atmosphere and a chill up the spine. As he patrolled the hotel with the youngster, Charlie felt that sudden chill. 'The boy walking with me suddenly said: 'Charlie it hasn't half gone cold,' the night security man recalled. One hotel guest suddenly appeared at 3.34am. Charlie asked him is he was ill, but the man said that he had to struggle with some invisible adversary to get out of bed. Charlie told him about the ghost, made him a cup of tea, and the re-assured guest returned happily to his room. Bert Parker, another former porter, said that he saw a man sitting on a settle early one morning. When he spoke to him the man disappeared. Charlie says that a thousand people could come into the hotel and not notice anything. But one evening a man come in, put down his suitcases and Charlie picked them up and began to take him to his room. 'He stopped and said: 'Just a minute, young man,' which I thought was very nice of him,' said Charlie who is 67. 'He asked: is this place haunted?' Charlie asked him what he meant, so he repeated the question. So Charlie told him that it was an old place. 'The man said he sensed it as soon as he came in through the door, some people are psychic,' Charlie explained. There have been other strange happenings such as the mysterious opening of doors, and other sightings. But the most dramatic was Charlie's second encounter with the ghostly monk. One evening when Charlie was about to set off on his rounds, which included looking in on the Monk's Retreat, a tunnel-like cellar which reputedly had an underground passage leading to the nearby abbey, four of the barmaids asked if they could come with him. 'Sue, one of the girls, walked a little in front of me,' Charlie said. 'As I opened the door into the Monk's Retreat - there he was sat on the stool. 'And did that girl scream! You've never heard anything like it. From then on they pulled my leg about what I'd been up to with the girl. They thought it was me. They all laughed and that made it worse for the girl.' The girl went off duty sick for a fortnight, returned to her home in Northumberland - and sent a telegram to say that she was not returning. Some nights later Sue rang Charlie and asked for her belongings to be sent home. She said she was still having medical care. The doctors said that they did not know what was wrong with her. 'Why don't you tell them that you've seen a ghost?' Charlie suggested. 'I can't do that,' Sue said. Charlie believes that a connection with the nearby abbey could explain the ghost. One other explanation can be rule out - Charlie is a teetotaler. Charlie's ghost, and others including the one at the King's Head Inn, Cirencester, are mentioned in a recent book: Ghosts and Witches of the Cotswolds,' by J A Brooks (Jarrold Colour Publications, Norwich). Back to 1981 index |
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