R
RedDevilMikee
Guest
There was one night in 2007 that I will never forget. I still struggle to come to terms with what happened that night even now. I stayed over at a pub in the lakes. Id been staying at a b and b with some mates near Coniston but felt they were doing my head in so I made up an excuse that I wasn’t feeling well and I had to go home. On the way back I stopped for some tea at the pub and after a couple of pints I thought sod it im gonna stop over instead of driving back as it was about 8.30. The landlord said there was a room I could have for £10.00 for the night. Bargain I thought so he gave me the key and took the tenner.
The pub was called the brown horse or bull or something and it was on the edge of grizdale forest in the lake district. It was a large imposing old pub which sat on a hill top. To the rear was the forest and at the front a windey lane which wove through the forest out to windermere. It was November and it was one of those crisp, cold, clear nights. The pub was full of very local people, clearly the types who lived in the immediate area, farmers, etc. They weren’t overly friendly but by no means rude.
I had a couple more pints, Lancaster bomber I think it was, lovely stuff. Before going up to bed I thought I’d nip outside for a quick fag as the smoking ban had come in a few months before. I nipped out of the side door and had a slow walk around the back, trying to light my cig in the strong cold wind. As I walked round the corner I came across this old bloke sat on the wall, smoking a pipe. He was about 70, had a scruffy beard and hair and wore a quite tatty old suit. He gave me a light with his lighter and we got chatting. Turns out he’d lived in the area all his life and he used to deliver milk and eggs to the pub from a farm down the road.
He asked me where I was from and I said Manchester and that I was staying over in the pub that evening. Once I’d told him this his behaviour changed. Why are you staying son? He said, cant you get back to Manchester tonight? I explained that it wasn’t a problem as the room was cheap, I’d had a few drinks and I was in no particular rush to get back anyway. Still he persisted…No you don’t want to stay in there, theres much nicer places to stay in on the other side of the forest. I told him I was happy with it and wasn’t going to start looking for somewhere else at that time of night. With that he jumped up from the wall, his hand on my chest and almost shouting now wheezed ‘listen son…….go home!! This isn’t a place for you!’ He then stumbled off round the corner, to the front of the pub.
I was going to go after him and have a bit of a go but I thought nah leave it hes elderly and hes probably had too much to drink. I finished my cig and went back in the pub and up the stairs near the bar. I was in number 3 and I unlocked my door and went inside. The inside of the room was very basic to say the least. There was a single bed in the corner, a wardrobe and a stand alone mirror. The floor was bare floorboards with a tatty rug and the curtains were those horrible old net things. The room was proper dim, about 2 watt or something! So all in all I was thinking it was a good job the room was so cheap otherwise I would have been back downstairs to complain. I had a quick look out of the window, which looked out on to the back of the pub and the forest beyond. To my surprise the old man was back outside on the wall again smoking his pipe. I noticed him look up at me at the window. I stood back quickly hoping he hadn’t seen me but I was sure he had.
It was really cold in the room and there was no radiator so I got straight in bed and under the covers. I must have fallen asleep pretty quickly as I don’t remember much else then.
What felt like about half an hour later I was awoken by a bang. I just rolled over onto my other side as I thought it must have been somebody going into one of the other rooms on the landing outside. A couple of minutes later I heard something to make me frozen with fear. It was a cough. Nothing scarey about a cough you might think but the thing is the cough came from what sounded like inside my room, probably not much further away than the end of the bed. It was very dark in my room and I sat up quickly and grabbed my mobile from the side of me on the bed. It was one of those slide front ones that lights up when you slide it open. I slid it open quick to shed some dim light on the room. I looked straight ahead to the foot of the bed where I had heard the coughing noise come from. There was nothing there except the blank wall. My heart still pounding I looked to the left to the wardrobe. There was nothing there either. I began to feel a little better, thinking that the cough must have come from one of the other rooms and that the walls must be extremely thin.
Just then I glanced to my right where the mirror was stood against the wall. What I saw in that mirror will stay with me till my dying day. Even now when I see that vision in my mind I feel sick with terror. In the reflection of the mirror I could see myself sat up in bed turned towards the mirror, a pale light on my face coming from my mobile. But next to me over my left shoulder was peering a terrifying face of an old lady! A face which was now smiling with the most evil expression I have ever seen, just a few inches from my own face. A gaunt, haggard old face with glinting beady little eyes. At that moment I wanted to die, I seriously just wanted to die and disappear off the face of the earth. Just then the light from my mobile went out as it does when its been on a few seconds and I was in darkness again. As the light went out the room was filled with the noise of the old woman’s frenzied laughter. High pitched and uncontrollable, taking over my whole being. As she cackled madly i leapt from the bed and ran to the door in the darkness. I tugged at the door handle desperately but it just shook in the door frame, refusing to open for me!! I pressed the light switch on next to the door and turned round quickly.
Expecting to see the evil old woman coming after me I was surprised to see the bed empty. The insane laughter had now stopped too, and had done as soon as the light came on. I stood there, just in a pair of boxers, shivering uncontrollable but sweating like mad too! I felt like I was going to have a heart attack or faint or something!
I turned back to the door and tried again and this time it opened. I ran downstairs still in my boxers into the bar area. I was a gibbering wreck! There were still some people in the bar, staring at me like I was an alien! I went back up to the room with the landlord, packed up my stuff and left that night. I still have nightmares about what happened now and have to have counseling on a regular basis.
Brown Horse Inn 1920 to 1995
I am writing to add my memories to those posted by my sister Sheila McCormack. My name is Norma (McCormack ) Gibson. Our grandparents ran this hotel in the 1920s.
Their names were Margaret and Cecil Stronnel. They had a daughter Irene Margaret Stronnel. My mother told me about their Manx cats that had no tails. Sha also told me that at that time the beer was served in bottles sealed with glass alleys (marbles). She said that she broke several in order to have the alleys to play with. This of course resulted in discipline. My mother and grandmother left England and came to Canada, first to Hamilton, Ontario where they lived for some time and then to Thunder Bay, Ontario, where my grandmother lived until her death. My mother remained in contact with family members in England and during later years she received a letter from the owners of the inn asking her for information on the inn as they believed it was haunted. I myself wrote in the 1990s to the people who then owned the inn but did not receive a reply. I have a picture of the inn as it was back in the 1920s and also one taken by a friend in the 1990s. As my sister said, the sign used to have a horse on it. I would love to communicate with the current owners. Cheers, Norma Gibson, Thunder Bay, Ontario, Canada.
http://www.francisfrith.com/winster,cumbria/photos/brown-horse-inn-c1960_W500006/