IT’S nearing midnight and there’s a howling wind accompanying my arrival at the ancient Red Lion Inn in Avebury.
I’ve been invited down to the pub by Newbury ghost-hunter Chris Aldis, a member of a nationwide paranormal investigation group known as Spiritseekers.
I check my mobile phone and I’m slightly spooked to find there’s not a trace of signal at the pub, which is surrounded by the looming outlines of the Avebury standing stones.
The pub has begun to empty as the Spiritseekers arrive and lashing rain begins to rattle the windows of the timber-framed building. I’m starting to feel like I’m about to enter a scene from American Werewolf in London.
Chris and one of the group’s founders, Paula, give me a quick tour of the pub, and tell me some tales of the guestrooms and the eerie happenings people have witnessed.
One room is kept as a junk room because guests refuse to sleep in it – and all of us sympathise as there’s something distinctly unnerving about its atmosphere.
Another bedroom, The Swindon Room, feels like something out of a fairytale with its low ceiling and exposed beams – but apparently children sleeping in the room have been scared witless after something tried to leave a message in sugar sachets…
And that’s not to mention the ghost of Florrie, who is believed to have been murdered and thrown down a well inside the pub, or the bloodstreaked face of a man recently captured in a mirror by a press photographer.
Tonight is just one of a number of nationwide outings for the Spiritseekers, who were founded in April 2004 by Paula and Brendon, from Suffolk.
The group have already recorded some strange encounters in their time together, including a violently tilting table at Derby jail and a very eerie tape recording at a church in Suffolk.
“The church has the most activity of anywhere we’ve visited,” said Paula. “One of our group members, Sue, believes that something has happened to stir-up all the energies there. It seems spirits from different eras are aware of each other’s presence, which shouldn’t happen.”
They play me an excerpt of the dictaphone tape recorded at the church, in which a young voice chants: “Are you a Catholic? Mary, Mary, can you help me…”
And I’m left hoping that nothing quite so spooky happens tonight – I still have a long drive home alone along a deserted A4.

To see what happened when Spiritseekers investigated the Red Lion, click the view video link. The video is three minutes long, so please be patient.


VIDEO CAN BEEN SEEN

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