not really a ghost story but..i work part time in one of the oldest (and cheapest) pubs in central manchester, it's called sinclairs and is one of the two pubs that was moved following the redevelopment of the city centre after the IRA bomb went off in '96. Anyhoo where the pub is now is off a little bit of exchange square (which popped up in the argentina england match last year) called hanging ditch. Which as you can probably guess was the old execution site for manchester. It then transpires that when they were rebuilding the pub at it's present location they were building it on a mass grave full of dead ye olde manc scallies. They were so many that they put a concrete lid on the whole thing just so in the future they could carry on the dig and pull out the rest of the bodies.
Anway this has lead to various stories at the pub generally centred around the cellar and kitchen, (which is next door to the cellar)like when the pub was being rebuilt a security guard refused to go down there after hearing voices and plates smashing behind a wall. One of the assistant managers has a distinct feeling of being watched and followed through the kitchen after closing.
My story is a little more mundane. I was down in the cellar getting a couple of bottles of spirits (no pun intended) when i swear i heard the door at the top of the cellar stairs open and somebody walk down the stairs. Naturally I shouted Hello to whoever it was, but there was no reply. There then was an almighty bang as if someone had hit an empty keg with a hammer. I bricked it grabbed what i needed and pegged it back upstairs.
when i got there i started having a go at chris, the permanent assistant manager and colin one of the bar staff about trying to scare the shit out of me. They swore that they didn't do anything. We got talking about it and figured out what had happened.
1. Some punter and stumbled into the cellar stairs door rattling the lock and making it sound like it was opening.
2. Immeadiately after some one had come down the stairs from the upstairs bar. Th stairs are wooden and are directly above the cellar steps. Therefore i'd heard someone comedown another set of stairs and interpreted it as someone coming down the cellar stairs after hearing the door open.
3. After i had shouted hello, some one had walked across the metal plate covering the beer hoist hatch making it bang and causing it to reverberate around the cellar.
Three little coincidences scared the hell out of me. Just goes to show if your mind is primed to interpret something one way then it will do given the circumstances.
(,
Mon 3 Nov 2003, 12:08,
archived)
Anway this has lead to various stories at the pub generally centred around the cellar and kitchen, (which is next door to the cellar)like when the pub was being rebuilt a security guard refused to go down there after hearing voices and plates smashing behind a wall. One of the assistant managers has a distinct feeling of being watched and followed through the kitchen after closing.
My story is a little more mundane. I was down in the cellar getting a couple of bottles of spirits (no pun intended) when i swear i heard the door at the top of the cellar stairs open and somebody walk down the stairs. Naturally I shouted Hello to whoever it was, but there was no reply. There then was an almighty bang as if someone had hit an empty keg with a hammer. I bricked it grabbed what i needed and pegged it back upstairs.
when i got there i started having a go at chris, the permanent assistant manager and colin one of the bar staff about trying to scare the shit out of me. They swore that they didn't do anything. We got talking about it and figured out what had happened.
1. Some punter and stumbled into the cellar stairs door rattling the lock and making it sound like it was opening.
2. Immeadiately after some one had come down the stairs from the upstairs bar. Th stairs are wooden and are directly above the cellar steps. Therefore i'd heard someone comedown another set of stairs and interpreted it as someone coming down the cellar stairs after hearing the door open.
3. After i had shouted hello, some one had walked across the metal plate covering the beer hoist hatch making it bang and causing it to reverberate around the cellar.
Three little coincidences scared the hell out of me. Just goes to show if your mind is primed to interpret something one way then it will do given the circumstances.