A FRIGHTFUL PROMISE

Dating back to 1406, Elvey Farm – now a hotel – became a hiding place for rebels in the Civil War, and housed French prisoners during the Napoleonic Wars. The ghost of a soldier in military uniform has been seen guarding the stairs.

In 1900, farmer Edward Brett shot himself in the dairy, after giving each of his children a penny and his wife 15 shillings. Edward’s ghost is said to haunt the hotel building and grounds. Guests have met him walking along the corridors – and one even found him in her bed! Lightbulbs flicker mysteriously and sometimes fly out of their sockets. A former owner was passing the old dairy when he heard a voice whispering, ‘I will.’ Then he found an old newspaper cutting about Edward’s death, which quoted his last, chilling words: ‘I will do it.’

People have noticed a smell of burning hay or wool with no explanation and poltergeists are suspected of moving items.