Pub’s 99 per cent proof spirit.
By Joyce Haworth.
There’s a strange kind of spirit at the Queen’s Arms Hotel in Rawtenstall – but far from warming you up it will probably send shivers down your spine! For the spirit in question will not be found in a bottle. He’s called Walter and it’s more than likely he’ll be found wandering through the building, scaring staff half out of their wits! But the one member of staff who has actually seen him, Paul Fieldhouse, isn’t worried by Walter’s presence at all. He said: “I’ve seen him or had the feeling he was there several times. He came into my room once and everything went very cold, even though it was summer. When he left, the room went warm again. All I see is a sort of misty-type figure with a vague outline, but I can see it’s an old man with a beard. I was scared the first time I saw him, but not now.”
That’s more than can be said for Grace Bell who works behind the bar at the Queens. She and Kath Cartwright were working one afternoon when suddenly the lager tap switched on. She said: “We knew it was Walter. We were both too frightened to go anywhere near it to switch it off. Then, after a few minutes, it switched off by itself.”
Rita and Pete Ski took over at the Queens last October and already have numerous stories to tell of Walter’s pranks. Pete said: “We were reopening the disco upstairs just before Christmas and I had been sanding down the floor. I came down for a drink and when I went back the floor had been neatly swept and all the rubbish was in a pile. I know no one else was up there. It must have been Walter.”
Little is known about Walter other than he was a caretaker at the pub for 40 years and that he committed suicide many years ago. Rita said: “I think on the whole, he’s friendly but he doesn’t seem to like a lot of noise. When we have the disco upstairs he seems to move down here and then, when there is noise downstairs, he moves upstairs!”
Spooky happenings at the pub are numerous. Staff say they have: Watched a glass smash from a shelf for no reason; Been startled by lights flashing on and off, even though an electrician said there was nothing wrong with them; Found dishes and plates broken on the kitchen floor; Heard moans and footstpes when the pub was empty; Seen a mysterious face at a window; Discovered ovens and gas jets switched on behind locked doors; Been called by a buzzer to an empty tap room; Seen and smelled pipe smoke when no one was there.
Rossendale Free Press, 12th April 1986.