TELEVISION SPOOK SQUAD FOCUSES ON 17TH-CENTURY PUB'S GHOSTS
15:00 - 18 August 2004
Creepy goings on at a 17th-Century pub are under the TV spotlight after a visit by a team of top ghosthunters. It is thought that up to 18 ghosts have made The Choughs in High Street, Chard, their local since it was built in 1644.
To prove that the spooks exist, former Blue Peter presenter Yvette Fielding and spirit medium Derek Acorah of Sky's Living TV show Most Haunted, spent the night with their investigative team to capture film footage of paranormal activity and experience the building's atmosphere for themselves.
Landlords Jason and Marie Baker, both aged 31, bought the pub two years ago to set up home with their daughters, Shannon, seven, and Carlie, four.
But they claim that they soon realised they were not alone.
Mrs Baker said: "It is a very old, traditional pub with historic features, like the priest's hole in the fireplace where people used to hide or stash away stuff that had been smuggled.
"We soon found out that the place was full of ghosts, men, women and children. They move things around and love hiding our keys, which is annoying, and we are always hearing footsteps in the corridor."
Research showed the building, which was a brothel before being transformed into a school and then a coaching inn, that a man had hanged himself in the attic and someone had been stabbed in the room now occupied by Marie's parents.
The couple say that one frequent trick played on them by their unwelcome guests are phone calls when they are trying to sleep - sometimes up to five a night.
Mrs Baker said: "They wake us up all through the night, but when my husband called BT to trace the number, it said it did not have one. It was a mystery."
Most Haunted will be the second time the pub has been investigated. Ghost investigators stayed overnight last year and reported many bizarre occurrences, including meeting the spirit of 15-year-old Elizabeth, who had poisoned herself in 1844 after her mother, the madam of the brothel, tried to force her to become a prostitute.
They also picked up the presence of a girl, aged about six, who, claim the Bakers, regularly plays with Carlie.
Although Marie has never seen anything herself, she said her husband and her father have both seen the same long-haired female figure wearing a long black skirt.
Everybody who can access the channel can make up their own mind when the programme is aired in September.
Until then, Mr and Mrs Baxter hope that a £200,000 renovation on the listed building will not disturb the ghosts.
Work on the Punch Taverns-owned pub, which it is hoped will be finished by the end of September, has been funded by the Bakers and includes a new function room, skittle alley and a bigger bar.
Mrs Baker said: "I do not really know what our customers like about the place, but we will not be changing much. It is going to stay an old traditional pub, ghosts and all."
