Most haunted place in England – Shrewsbury in Shropshire

The medieval town of Shrewsbury in Shropshire is famous for its black and white timbered buildings, walkable Old Town and scenic setting on the Severn River, but beware – it might be the most haunted place in England. Read on for my Shrewsbury ghostly adventure.

Exploring haunted Shrewsbury

Sprawled on my carved wood bed in the Prince Rupert Hotel on Butcher Row, I opened one eye to see if a headless body had appeared. Nothing so far, but it was still early. Medieval Shrewsbury may look like a postcard, with its half-timbered houses and narrow lanes, but it may well be the most haunted place in England.

The ghosts of the Prince Rupert Hotel

Even the path to my suite in the Prince Rupert was chilling: Along the corridor where the director of photography for A Christmas Carol saw a man in a nightshirt vanish. Turn at the entrance to the Chambers Restaurant where a guest saw a sleeping soldier floating in mid-air. Past the flickering light, up the creaking stairs, and into the Prince Rupert Suite.

When I asked the bellman if there were any ghosts in my suite he said there weren’t, but that Monica Lewinsky of had-an-affair-with-Bill-Clinton-when-he-was-President-of-the-United-States fame had once slept there.

Monica Lewinsky slept here

The haunted legacy

“The rooms that are haunted are six and seven,” he confided. A jilted bride hung herself in one of them, and in the other, a young man committed suicide when his fiancée ran off with his friend.

Fascinated by all these ghostly visitors, I asked my guide about it on a town tour later that afternoon. She nodded as if she’d heard it before. “Someone should introduce those two,” she said.

It may be pretty, but dark secrets lie within!

Shrewsbury, the most haunted place in England?

I soon learned this Shropshire city is dripping with haunted sites: Shrewsbury Library (formerly Shrewsbury School where Charles Darwin was a student), Shrewsbury Castle (a vicious bluebeard one there), and even the 19th-century railway station.

According to a booklet I’d read, The Ghosts that Haunt Shrewsbury, this is because the Devil hates Shropshire more than any other county in England, and Shrewsbury is the major town in Shropshire.

Castle Street – Photo credit VisitBritain

Devil’s claws

“If you look closely,” the guide said, “you can see the Devil’s claw marks climbing up the spire of the 1100 year old St Alkmund Church. He quite often whips up there to see if anyone is sitting in his chair over at the Stiperstones, a rocky hill 24 km from town. Bit of an insecure devil,” she added.

I just wondered why he settled for St Alkmund’s when nearby St Mary’s Church has one of the highest spires in England.

Golden Cross

The eerie Golden Cross Inn

After the tour, I set off to visit the pub at the Golden Cross Inn. Dating back to 1428, the Golden Cross is one of the oldest inns in England. It’s quite upscale, but with its low ceilings, timber beams and white-washed walls, it still looks ripe for a haunting. The owner, however, scoffed at any mention of ghosts – though he did admit a hotel guest saw a monk standing at the foot of her bed.

“If you want to see something, you will,” he said.

Spooky!

The Queen Mother?

Still denying the existence of spirits, he showed me the upper floor dining room and told me that one night while he was alone, a Queen Mother plate suddenly shot across the floor. Questioning the staff the next day, he learned that someone had just polished the cabinet that holds the plate.

“And that’s why the plate shot off the cabinet!” he said. “It was the vibrations of my footsteps combined with the slope of the floor.”

“But,” I said, “you just showed me how the plate rolled lengthwise across the room, but the floor slopes widthwise. Shouldn’t it have rolled downhill?”

Cue spooky music

Shrewsbury Abbey

He had no answer for this, and I was still mulling it over as I made my way across the Severn River that loops around Shrewsbury like a noose. My destination was the impressive Shrewsbury Abbey founded in 1083. It was nearly destroyed during Henry VIII’s Dissolution of the Monasteries, and has every right to be plagued by tortured spirits, but it isn’t.

The cream coloured Dun Cow Pub across the street is.

Abbey across the Severn

Ghosts at the Dun Cow Pub

No one at the Dun Cow denied the presence of ghosts. “Too many things have happened,” said the barmaid.

A pub regular explained that it’s a military ghost, a Dutch cavalier who stabbed an Englishman to death and was hung in the stables outside. As well as knocking glasses off counters and blowing out light bulbs, he’s been sighted in full uniform walking towards a long-gone staircase.

The Dun Cow Pub

The Lady in Grey at the Lion Hotel

Keeping an eye out for ghostly cavaliers, I walked through the twilight to an old coaching inn, the Lion Hotel on Wyle Cop. Charles Dickens once stayed and so did Madame Tussaud. The comfy lounges were filled with people chatting, but I aimed for the rear of the building where the ghost of an elderly woman in grey has been seen lingering between the powder room and the stairs to the hotel’s Adam Ballroom – as if she’s waiting for someone, people say.

A scare when you’re bare

I snuck up the stairs to try to get a peek at the ballroom. The locked door gave an inch, but the wind started to scream like a banshee. Spooked, I scampered down the stairs and ducked into the loo. At a very vulnerable moment I realized I was sitting in what could be a haunted toilet stall. The air seemed to take on an eerie stillness and I hopped up and out as fast as I could.

Is this tub haunted?

Walking down Butcher Row

Unable to shake a feeling of unease, I walked through the misty night along Butcher Row back to the Prince Rupert Hotel. Once the home of Prince Rupert, grandson of King James I, this historic hotel no doubt has plenty of frightening stories to tell. After a bath in my enormous claw-footed tub I checked behind the curtains to confirm no ghostly intruders were lying in wait, then went to sleep – only to wake up with a start, sure someone was in the room. Someone elderly and grey and who looked suspiciously like Madame Tussaud!

Oh, why had I ever gone ghost hunting, I asked myself, looking around fearfully? It’s all fun and games until the elderly woman in grey decides it’s you she’s been waiting for all along.

In desperation I thought of Monica Lewinsky. She might not be anyone’s everyone’s idea of a role model, but she’d slept in this room and that gave me courage – if anyone has been haunted by the past and survived, it’s Monica, the notorious intern in blue.