Spirits in bars
Growing up I lived in a theme park/zoo/holiday camp type place in yorkshire for a good few years in my teens. My mother held a number of jobs there over the time frame and when she left to go and manage a hotel in york (also haunted, but I didn't get to wittness anything there (she claims to have seen the ghost of henry the 8th mind) I stayed on at this cretins resort for a few years as it did tend to be quite a fun place to work.

One summer I was there, i'd slid into a sound tech's job which more or less just involved looking after the house sound systems across the 5 or 6 bar complexs we had as well as looking after any of the shite acts that got booked. Truth be told it acturly involved me sitting at the bar and drinking most the time and it wasn't a bad way to past the summer.

Now i've a few weird storys and my memory just got triggered by another post futher down below involving a mysterious smashing glass. In our case the was 2 of us behind the bar and another sat in front of it, with the manager in the cellor out back. The 3 of us were sat there argueing the toss over somthing or nothing but we were all facing each other with maybe a foot between us. Mid conversation a pint glass dropped between us from midair. The celling above us was all of about 9ft and the was nowhere it could have come from. Needless to say we were stunned, and resorted to a few swift drinks to calm our nerves (any excuse really) but i've still no idea where that came from.

A far better story through in another bar in the same place. Now this bar was in a old converted mansion house on the grounds. It's surposedly quite a haunted building anyhow but I wasn't really aware of this at the time. Well when I say that, it's not quite true. A few years before my mam had spent a season managing it and the's one story that's quite well known dateing back to the 18th centery I think. The grounds have a rather large lake that had been manmade by slaves at somepoint in Englands murkier past. The lady of the house had, had a rather illicit affair with one of these aforementioned slaves which was discovered and the guy in question was strung up from the chandaler in the entry hall way. Anyhow on a said date each year surposedly blood drips from it, and my mam claims to have wittnessed this, so I know a little bit about it's history but the's loads more I never bothered to research.

Anyhow fast forward a few years and I'd been running a party for the end of season for all the regulers which had gone ahead fine. End of the night I retire to the bar with a few of the other staff and we have a couple of drinks. It's only about 1am at this point, and we decide to head down to the central bar to meet the rest of the staff and get newted properly.

Now i'll try and descibe the place. We're sat a long saloon style bar. Behind the bar is all the sprits and normal bar display tack with mirrors from waist height to celling (make a mental note of that, i'm comeing back to it). Opersite the bar is a few tables and a saloon swing door out to the main drinking area and pool tables. At the end of one end of the bar is a wall and the other end another set of swing doors. Out of those doors to the right is a set of toilets in front a load of old games/fruit machines and beyond that the main doors.

So 5 of us sat at the bar. We've checked the building and noone's here but us. Keith the manager is sat with us and decides to go lock up. Now to describe keith i'd say maybe 6ft 5in lanky but toned build, and upto maybe a year or so before a amature kickboxer who was looking to turn pro, before a rather nasty bike accident messed up his right leg.

To put it bluntly, not the sort of man to scare with ease.

Anyhow he walked out the bar, turned right checked the toilets and locked them all up.

None of us had moved.

He walks back out into the section with the games machines and switchs them all off, before heading out of the front doors to lock the porch doors on the other side.

Whilst he's in the porch reception area we (him included) hear one of the arcade machines switch itself back on. The machine was a old pole postion machine (this was the early '90's and yes even at that date it was a decade out of date) and as it did the whole checking rom boot screen it let out a series of beeps that were surpose to sound like the tone's you hear when the lights go green in motorraceing. So he storms back through and shouts at us in the bar and asks us who the smart arse is.

None of us had moved.

So we do a quick sweep of the building and the's noone in there. He walks back into the arcade area and removes the plug from the socket before joining us back in the bar. We sit there downing the last of our drinks only to hear the machine switch itself back on again.

None of us moved.

Well we looked at each other and shoved a rather reluctent Keith back through the door. He took one look at the now switched on machine turned round and came stright back through again. We decided that the best option here were to leave. Quickly via the celler (the door was behind the bar).

So we did. We left and alarmed the building as we took the back door rather quickly out of there. It was only as we stood outside we realised we'd alarmed it but left the keys on the table in the bar area. Now we still thought it was someone messing about at this point so the tactic we deemed best was sit it out a few mins and have a smoke to calm down, and wait to see if the alarms triggered. The chances we thought were that it was some kid dicking about, and which ever PIR sensor went off would indicate where the little dick was hideing.

It was only after we'd made it through half a 10 deck each the realisation was that A. it wasn't going to go off and B. Someone would have to go and get the keys to lock up.

Needless to say Keith being in charge was despatched back in and we choose to watch the door in case someone tried to run out (heh).

So in he goes. Turns the alarm off and walks in through the celler and into the bar. The keys are about 10 ft down the bar at the far end by the wall. So he turns left and starts walking down the bar. Except he only makes it a few steps when something catchs his eye. He turns and notices the second set of swing doors which are faceing him are swinging a little. Odd. He shouts out, and nothing comes back. He turned round to face down the bar towards the keys and this time something catchs his eye in the mirror behind the bar.

He stares into it, to see a lady dressed in white (A tad cliched i know, but i'm not the one who was in the bar) stood by the swing doors. He spins round and the's noone there.

This was the point he turned heel and ran out the door and past the four of us stood outside and did one.

We stood there gobsmacked for a moment and lent through the door and set the alarm again, before shutting (not locking) the door and going home. We did however on our way back pop into another one of the bars to find another duty manager to go up and lock up there place. He himself went in, looked around to find no one there, and simply collected the keys and headed back to Keiths empty flat where he posted them with a note, saying they needed a chat in the morning.

That chat never acturly happened. Keith simply walked into the site managers office at 9am threw his keys down and left the company!

Now reading up a few years later the spirit has supposedly been seen a few times over the years, and ment to be the ghost of the lady of the house, who's illicit lover was strung up. The's a couple of other stories i've heard involving her, but it's the only time i've been involved in any of it. Needless to say I never worked in that building alone again!
(Kaine, Sun 6 Jul 2008, 15:25, 3 replies)

I wish
I had the patience to read all of that. I bet it's a good story.
(cannibalklown, Sun 6 Jul 2008, 16:57, closed)

It is
and you should
( Madam Marlboro wonders if you've found her yet, Sun 6 Jul 2008, 17:18, closed)

.
I personally would have been too drunk to notice any ghosts or machines turning back on.
Or if i did notice a ghost i'd probably demand a kebab and more alcohol from it:)
(Freddles, Mon 7 Jul 2008, 8:46, closed)