As a new year treat, I took Mrs DT for a new year’s weakened away to an ancient inn, in rural Suffolk. I tried to book the Crown inn, in Bildeston, which is a well-known haunted pub, but they were fully booked, so we booked into a 15th Century inn a few miles away. I googled the inns name and history, and no ghostly tales were to be found, I thought okay never mind (well not every ancient inn has to have ghosts do they
.)
However, at the hotel and right outside our room, I noticed a small glass display cabinet. The cabinet was empty save for a curios looking thing sitting on the middle shelf. I opened the cabinet and took the object out and discovered it was a small set of binoculars. On looking through them I discovered they were infra-red. It was quite spooky looking up into a darkened hallway in a very old building with those infra-red glasses on. I assumed they were for guests who were caught short during the night and had to nip out to use the bathroom (no ensuite bathrooms you see).
Couple of hours later, I’m sitting at the bar chatting to the barmaid and I’m asking her about the history of the place, and jokingly asked her that as the building was so old, was it haunted..? - all I got in return was a smile and the words “no comment”.
Later that evening, we went off to do a bit of exploring on the upper floor of the pub. We came across a door in a secluded part of a corridor. It couldn’t be a bedroom as the door had no number on it, so I assumed it was a bathroom or toilet, I tried the door handle and it opened and discovered that behind the doorway a set of stairs leading up to the pub’s attic, although it didn’t look as if it ever used. There was no light switch, so I shone my mobile phone up the stairs, but couldn’t see much, so closed the door again, but from what we could see stairwell was undecorated – it must be used for storage I thought.
The next morning the barmaid who has served us the previous afternoon was serving breakfast, and I asked her about the door. Her eyes widened and she asked me to stay away from that part of the pub. I told her that I had opened the door as it was unlocked, and she looked worried. Did you go up the stairs she then asked me, no was my reply as it was too dark, and we couldn’t see a light switch anywhere. She looked relieved when I said that. I’ll tell the caretaker to lock it right now she said. Served us our food and rushed off to obviously to speak to someone about getting that door locked.
Wonder what they were hiding up there…?
In any case as the hotel was in Suffolk, it reminded me very much of the short MR James story “Rats”