Ghost 'freaks out' staff at Old Star pub in Kilham

LANDLORD Dan Webb often walks over to a gentleman sat in his snug bar – only to find there's nobody there.

After running the Old Star in Kilham, near Driffield, since May, strange things have started to happen in the pub – and Dan has had to call on a local ghostbuster to investigate.

He says his staff are freaked out after seeing the figure of a man waiting to be served and they avoid walking down the spooky corridor leading to a dining room in a converted barn.

Dan, 33, said: "I'm not really a believer in ghosts but too much seems to have happened that I just can't explain.

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"I've seen the figure of a man sitting in the bar a few times and even one of our bar staff, who is a law student and very sensible, just cannot understand it.

"I even find it difficult walking down the corridor late at night when the lights are switched off, especially as I live upstairs."

The pub in Church Street dates back to about 1421 and its features include a tunnel running underneath the building to the local church.

The scary goings on haven't stopped in the bar, as Dan says they've followed him into his flat and caused him to jump off the sofa.

"Last week, I was sitting in my living room after locking up and it was coming up to midnight," he said.

"Something pushed the cushion behind me and I leapt up and had a look around to find out what it was.

"I'm a clever bloke and was being logical, thinking it might have been a mouse or something. But I couldn't figure out what it was and all of the windows were locked at the time.

"I sat back down and it happened again, it caused me to shout out 'that's it, I've had enough now'.

"I'm usually sceptical about these things and I was trying to understand it for a while but it did mess with my head and freaked me out.

"It's an old building with sash windows, so I know there can be a draft every now and again but this just seemed ridiculous."

When Dan began to retell his spooky story to punters he was met by a mixed response. While some of the farmers who drink regularly in the bar passed it off as "nonsense", others told their own stories of previous landlords seeing ghosts in the pub.

Dan, who is chef and has worked in a number of venues over the years, is originally from York and hopes his wife and two children will move to Kilham.

He said: "Thankfully, my wife Tracy doesn't believe in any of this and we haven't told the children because they're only young and it might scare them."

Dan said he went online to try to find a paranormal investigator living in the local area to visit the Old Star and find out if the pub really is haunted.

He called ghostbuster Steve Kneeshaw who visited with two other paranormal investigators one evening.

Dan said: "They had a look round the place and before I even told them about the ghostly figure they mentioned a man being in the bar.

"Some of the things they were saying about the gentleman not wanting to leave did freak me out.

"I'd heard a few of ghost stories in other pubs but not experienced anything like this."