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The Old Kentish Pubs

 

I've been on this site for some time now and I've read many stories on here and commented on some of them as well. I thought to myself that it's time to share one of mine. This isn't the most potent paranormal experience in my life but I thought it'd be good to write it down. I am a student who lives in Kent in England. Just about a five minute walk away from where my friends and I live we have a local pub. We're good friends with the staff there. I can't name the pub firstly because I do not have permission and secondly for privacy reasons. It's been in existence for over two hundred years and there is a lot of history to it. We get talking to the staff there a lot and one night we got onto the topic of the paranormal.

The landlord who has owned the pub for a few years now told us about a lot of what happens after closing time and many of the staff added parts of what has happened to them. The landlord said to us that when everyone goes home it usually takes them an hour or so to put all the chairs away, collect the glasses and generally make the pub neat again. Sometimes they stop for a drink before going to bed. On several different nights the landlord and a staff member (We'll call him Ryan) do this routine and then sit and have a drink. In the faint distance they hear what sound like glasses being collected. At the time they are the only people in the building. The amount of glasses being collected makes it sound like someone is walking around collecting them off of the tables behind them. When they turn around confused by the noises there's never anyone there, nor are there ever any glasses on the tables in the first place as they had already been collected. This happens quite frequently and the staff believe that it's the work of a previous landlord who may have died there some time ago.

This isn't the only thing that has happened there though, above the bar is a long light. This light always flickers at strange intervals. No matter how much they have changed the bulbs it always does it. They have called numerous electricians in but they all say that the light works perfectly and that there are no circuit problems for the electrics. They have all said that there is no need to replace it. The light flickers in intervals of three at certain points. In actual fact the light flickered in the said intervals when they were telling us the story about the noises of the glasses being collected. This activity has never changed in frequency over time, it's just sort of always been there and the staff have gotten used to it.

This next event actually happened at a separate pub around about a twenty minute walk away from the previous one. I thought I'd add this occurrence in because we do not go to this pub much and it connects with this story in a way. It'd be too short to just put in a singular story alone.

We fancied a change from the usual pubs that we go to so we headed to another one which I will also not name for the same reasons as before. This pub is very old and must've been around from about the Sixteen Hundreds at least. Needless to say there must be a lot of history there. When you first walk in you do not feel a strange atmosphere but you do notice the age of the pub and I immediately noticed that they did not change anything inside of it.

After we had been there for about half an hour I went to the toilet. There was no-one else in there and I decided to use the cubical because the urinals didn't look appetising. I must add that I would've heard someone else coming in as the door to the toilets was very heavy and made a fair bit of noise upon opening it. I was also behind a closed door. Once I had finished up I felt a very distinctive ice cold tap on my shoulder which I will never forget. I felt a shiver almost inside my spine and the whole feeling was quite unexplainable. I turned around behind me and no-one was there. The air didn't even feel any different to when I entered it.

We finished up our drinks and left and I haven't been back since. One day I will go there and ask the staff about the history of the pub though. Thanks for reading my story.

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Comments about this paranormal experience

The following comments are submitted by users of this site and are not official positions by yourghoststories.com. Please read our guidelines and the previous posts before posting. The author, Dan_Paranormal, has the following expectation about your feedback: I will read the comments and participate in the discussion.

zzsgranny (18 stories) (3329 posts) mod
 
13 years ago (2011-08-24)
Dan: I am so jealous...Wow, to have a haunted pub within walking distance!...I'll make it to the UK someday, I swear... Thank you for a great story... I certainly hope there's more to come...
Javelina (4 stories) (3749 posts)
 
13 years ago (2011-08-24)
Dan,
There are just certain times that you know you'll flip out if you see something. For me it's, of course the restroom, anything in the restroom will scare me. The shower curtain? YIKES! Or the mirror? Oh please no! And then there's the stall in the public restroom...NO! NO! NO!
I don't know why, but those are up on the top of my "Scare the crap out of me" list. I can think of others, but it always comes back to those.

Jav 😨
Dan_Paranormal (1 stories) (74 posts)
+2
13 years ago (2011-08-24)
Hello everyone, thanks for reading my story and I'm very glad that you all enjoyed it.

DeviousAngel - I always feel very lucky to live where I do, there's a lot of history here and this place in general is an old important part to British history. Luckily they've remembered that and kept much of the history alive.

Javelina - Thank you for your comment. It was one of the worser places to have something like that happen especially when everything was so distant etc. I did sort of feel like I was in the right place for a haunting though (Haha.) In a way I'm slightly relieved that I didn't turn around to see some creeper grinning at me.

Otteer - Thank you for reading and commenting. I always feel very lucky to be where I am. I will share some more experiences with you all some time soon.

TerriLewis123 - Thank you for reading and commenting, I'm glad that you liked my story.
DeviousAngel (11 stories) (1910 posts)
+1
13 years ago (2011-08-24)
Great story! I love hearing about really old places like that. I would love to visit a pub that has been around since the 1600s. There must be a whole lot of history there... Being bothered by a spirit while in the bathroom would have upset me to say the least. What inconvenient timing!
Javelina (4 stories) (3749 posts)
+1
13 years ago (2011-08-24)
[at] Dan_Paranormal,
It's good to see you put up a story. And it's a good one to boot.
I love haunted pubs and restaurants. Used to work at one myself, so I know how those folks feel when that stuff happens while they are sitting right there. It can really spook you.
The tap on the shoulder would have sent me scurrying out the door in a hot second! I just hate the thought of coming up against something like that in a restroom. Thinking about it give me the 'Heebie-Jeebies'.
Thanks for sharing Dan!

Jav 😊
otteer (8 stories) (398 posts)
+2
13 years ago (2011-08-23)
Luuuuucccky Pup! Oh to live so close to that kind of history. (and within walking distance of a pub lol) My state is baby compared to the history you have in your neighborhood. I hope you can share some more stories about your experiences or others in the area. Love to hear it.

Xxxooo
TerriLewis123 (1 stories) (93 posts)
+1
13 years ago (2011-08-23)
Thank you, I liked your story. Old places are so cool. Take Care.

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