New Member joined because of experiances

spr5858 · Joined: 16 Jul 2011 Posts: 3 Location: Canterbury, Kent UK

Hi All
My Name is Steve I am 52 and live in a small village just outside of Canterbury UK. I have always had an interest in the Paranormal though I try to view it through the eyes of a sceptic. I do not consider myself very sensitive to this kind of thing, and indeed I had never seen anything that I would have thought of as a ghost though I do believe in them. The nature of my work means I work nights most of the time, I have worked mostly as a security guard in places like Building Sites, Houses, Office Blocks, Factories, Universities and even Cathedrals and in all that time was never spooked by anything.

Then a few years ago I found myself Unemployed, and was having little luck finding work in my normal areas. So I applyed for a job as a Hotel Night Manager which is something I had never done, so I was surprised when I got the job. It was an Old Georgian Hotel just outside of Canterbury. After about a month of training I was left to run the place alone after all the other staff had gone home from 23:00-07:00 but there could be anything up to 70 guests staying so I had to learn quickly.

One night I was walking from the Kitchens to the Bar via the Reception. As I passed the desk I noticed what I thought was a Woman dressed in Black with Grey Hair tied up in a bun sitting just past the reception desk. Turning to face her thinking her to be a guest she just was not there. I put it down to a trick of the light. But shortly after that I saw her again in the Bar by the Fire, on entering the bar to face her she was gone. I saw her a few more times. But there was also the knocking, I would often take my breaks in the bar area if there was no customers about. Then sometimes there would come three loud knocks or taps coming from the reception desk thinking it was a customer I would rush to reception only to find no one. This would happen a number of times, but if a sat at reception it never happened even if I sat there all night.

After sometime I had to leave this job due to illness of my mother she needed care. But a friend of mine took a photo of their dog as it walked passed the reception in the hotel and there was about a dozen floating orbs of various colors just above the desk.

This excited me so much I never forgot my experiance at the old hotel, and now research more, though I have still yet to capture anything like what I saw and heard back then.

Thus I join this group to find out more and share some of your stories and feelings about what happened.

Steve

thecactus · Joined: 07 Mar 2011 Posts: 3196 Location: Northern Ireland

Hi Steve and welcome to the forum Mr. Green

cool avatar btw Very Happy

Interesting story about the hotel - did you do any research to see who it could have been, or did anyone else ever report anything there?

spr5858 · Joined: 16 Jul 2011 Posts: 3 Location: Canterbury, Kent UK

Hi

I did some research. The Hotel had been called the Bell Hotel in the past it had once been the family home of a Vicar and was built on the site of a Bell Foundry. This got me wondering if it was a woman at all. Maybe a Vicar in his gowns?
Others had seen this figure some suggested it was the Ghost of Mary Tourtel the Author of Rupert Bear as she is said to have died in the building. It is certainly true that she lived there in the later part of her life.

As an interesting after note. A few months after I had left the hotel I met up with one of the receptionist for a drink. She was talking about the new Night Manager that had replaced me. And how he had said he had seen something. I butted in and said A women dressed in black, the receptionist went ashen white in surprise, and confirmed he had seen the same figure.
Also guests had seen something walking the corridors one came down and asked where the fancy dress party was as there was a woman upstairs dressed in victorian dress.

Steve

D B Sweeney · Posted: Tue Jul 19, 2011 12:32 am Post subject:

Hi Steve, welcome to the forum and thanks for sharing your experiences.

DB

bitterbuck1 · Posted: Sat Jul 23, 2011 4:32 pm Post subject:

Hello Steve and welcome to the forum.

spr5858 · Joined: 16 Jul 2011 Posts: 3 Location: Canterbury, Kent UK

Hi All

Thanks for the warm welcome I look forward to getting to know you all.

Steve

flossy · Posted: Sun Jul 24, 2011 4:55 am Post subject:

hi steve, welcome to the forum Wink

(better late than never lol)