Beverley Arms Hotel with a Ghostly Twist

On a few trips to England on business I would stay at The Beverley Arms simply because fellow workers recommended it plus I thought it would be interesting to stay in an old inn.  The truth is there are a vast number of old inns in England so it didn’t distinguish itself by being old.

The Beverley Arms Hotel was built in 1794. It mixes original character and traditional furnishings with modern comforts. When it was a coaching house, the building had connections with the famous criminal, Dick Turpin (1738) or so it’s claimed but not proven.  Why connect your business to past criminal, well notoriety of any sort brings focuses attention on you or your business.  I knew nothing about the criminal connection at the time, which doesn’t impact the story or my choice to stay there.

On this particular trip I traveled alone which was the 1^st time I would experience driving on the opposite side of the road.   This in itself was a challenge but fun experience.  After staying a night in a hotel near Gatwick airport, I left early the next morning driving to Beverley, which was an all day trip in the northern part of England especially for an inexperienced driver.  The driving experience was good and I found that people drove fast but they followed the rules on proper passing, slow lanes, fast lanes better than we do in the US plus the motorways were well marked.  The roundabouts were also a new experience and a few times I would circle them more than once to find my way which I'm sure made it obvious that I was a visitor but I managed without incident.  Sometimes driving on US highways is like being in a NASCAR race with cars coming from every direction, which is the way an English (BAe) friend stated it. 

I arrived in Beverley and checked in to the Beverley Arms hotel settled in my room then walked around town, grabbed a bite to eat at a pub which is the way most nights went after working all day.  My room was in the oldest part of the hotel but comfortable and I’ve never have any trouble getting to sleep anywhere.  The floors were noticeably warped both in the lobby and my room but in my mind that just added more charm to the whole experience.

As I've said before I roamed around the city of Beverley prior to going to bed and I noticed that there were seemed to be a strong believe in the afterlife (ghosts) and if you think about it, these older buildings only reinforce that belief with their creaky warped floors and noises.   The English tell many ghost stories and give many ghost tours in most towns which maybe a strong belief or just another way to generate income but one night after my nightly walk I went to bed and experienced a strange incident.  I was lying in bed starting to dose when I heard footsteps in my room walking past the foot of my bed around the left side then a door opened and the footsteps disappeared into the hall, but what’s even more interesting there was no door on that side of the room.  Oddly enough I never felt threatened, but also not brave enough to look or sit up in bed when I heard the sounds. Was this a dream inspired by my walks around Beverley or was it reality, to this day I’m not really sure but it felt real and it validated my opinion that there is more to life than our earthly existence. 

The rest of the week I continued my routine but never heard any more footsteps in my room.  I would go back to Beverley if I had the opportunity not necessarily for the ghostly experience but for the friendly people I met every night in the quaint English pubs.