The Anchor Inn 28 June 2008

On Saturday I was on an investigation at the Anchor Inn in Hartfield.

The pub is believed to date back to around the 15th Century. The building used to be known as Broome Manor House and was kept as such until 1777 when it became a workhouse. The building was owned by a charitable trust which housed the paupers whose keep was funded by a tax on the rest of the community. The builidng remained a workhouse until 1861 when it was acquired by William Garrett and turned into a public house. It was known as The Old Workhouse until 1891 when it appeared in the census as The Anchor Inn.

The investigation didn't start until 11pm as we had to wait for the public to leave the premises.
It was a very nice building with comfortable atmosphere inside. After setting up the equipment in various areas of the bars, we split into teams and sat in vigils for around an hour or so.

I was sat in the small bar with my team. The small bar turned to be fairly interesting. I was looking towards the doorway of the dining room and thought I saw a shadow walk across it. At first I thought it was a teammate moving until I realised the person I thought it was, was sat down and nobody was near the door! We also heard various bangs on the door which had a corridor behind it (and nobody was in the area!) and also a sound of what we thought could have been keys jangling. We had motion detectors placed at the entrance to the bar and some at the entrance to the restaurant. A couple of times the detectors went off which was strange given nobody was near but we then discovered a moth flying about which answered that one.

After a break, we swapped areas and my team investigated the main bar. That seemed very quiet although we all wanted the bell in the corner to ring but unfortunately it didn't. There was a table in the corner where I had the vision of an elderly man was sat. One member of the team thought she heard footsteps from above; unfortunately we did not have access to the area but I believe it was the living quarters for the owners as well as b&b.

After another break, both teams took part in a vigil in the Dart room; I was drawn to a corner for some reason I have no idea about. Strange!

We finished the investigation around 3am as it had reached it's natural conclusion. All in all, it was a fairly good night though there were several knocks and rattles we couldn't explain. I just hope they've been captured on film/dictaphone!