The Wem town hall ghost is one of the region's best known hauntings. A photograph taken in 1995 during a fire at the building appears to show a young girl standing in the flames, but the photographer insisted there was no-one there when he took the picture. Some people believe the girl is the ghost of Jane Churm, who legend has it, was responsible for a previous fire at the town hall in 1677.
But just a few miles away in a quiet country hotel, staff have had more than enough spooky sightings of their own at the 200-year-old Old Rectory Hotel.
A Varied History
The Old Rectory was built in 1804 to provide accommodations for the church rectors. Seventy years later, a wing was added to the building to provide more space for the residents.
The last rector lived in the building from 1931 before the building was requisitioned during World War II and turned into a hospital for American soldiers. In 1961, the rector returned to the building after buying it from the church and used it as the family home until it was sold in 1981 and converted into a restaurant.
In 1991, the restaurant was closed and the building fell into disrepair, but in 1996 the it was bought by the Hanmer family, who re-opened it as a hotel in 2005.
Ghostly Encounters
Legend has it that during the hotel's previous incarnation as a rectory, a nanny employed to look after the rector's children became filled with despair and hanged herself on the top floor of the building. It is said that the children later died of grief, and ghostly children have been heard laughing by several members of staff. Meanwhile a "child-like scrawl" was found on the wall in one of the hotel bedrooms, but upon being cleaned off, it promptly reappeared.
It is also thought that at least one of the rectors who used to live at the hotel in its previous incarnation as a rectory still visits his former home as an apparition of a gentleman, who has been seen on several occasions on the stairs leading to the kitchen.
Other strange incidents which have been reported include a smell of tobacco smoke in the reception area - despite a ban on smoking in public places in the UK - and sounds of objects being thrown around a room on the top floor; a room hat housekeeping staff refer to as "The Scary Room." Rumour has it that the room once belonged to the nanny who died so tragically.
Visiting The Old Rectory
The ghosts of the Old Rectory have now gained such a reputation that staff have invited a team of ghost investigators in to try to learn more about the hauntings. A team from Eerie Evenings were expected to visit the hotel in June 2009, accompanied by keen ghost hunters from across the UK.
More information about the staying at the hotel can be found at its website. Although there have been so many reports of hauntings, the hotel still maintains its quiet country atmosphere and has not yet been taken over by ghost fanatics hoping to investigate the building's strange history.
 |
