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Carbrook Hall
Carbrook Hall, on Attercliffe Common in Sheffield, is proud of its haunted history and is Sheffield’s self-styled ‘most haunted public house’. Its name stems from the Saxon or Celtic ‘brook on the carr’, or ‘meadow stream’. Visitors to the building, which has 12th century foundations, will be delighted by the Tudor-style panelling in the parlour area and the beautiful plasterwork on the old ceilings. And if you do believe in ghosts, the current landlord is a wealth of information concerning the many strange sightings which have occurred here.
The Parliamentarian John Bright resided at Carbrook in the mid- 1600’s, being one of Cromwell’s most distinguished soldiers during the Civil War. As can be seen from the small stone-framed windows in the parlour, the thickness of the walls is more than two feet... a safety measure in a building which has seen many anti-Royalist meetings, and even welcomed the mighty Cromwell himself. The Hall remained in the Bright family for several generations, eventually being sold in 1819. Later records describe Carbrook as a ‘common beer house’!
There are rumours of a secret tunnel which is said to run from Sheffield Castle to Carbrook Hall. Mary Queen of Scots was imprisoned for many years in the Castle, and it is said that whenever it was thought to be under siege, she would be transported underground to the safety of the Hall. If this was ever the case, then it would seem that Carbrook had Royalist sympathies at some point in its history.
Members of the Society for Psychical Research have visited Carbrook Hall on several occasions, hoping to witness some of the supernatural activity for themselves. A former landlady reported
seeing the spectre of a Roundhead in a black cap and white collar accompanying the researchers on one of their tours. The current landlord was surprised one evening by the stocky figure of a man wearing heavily draped clothing, who appeared at the top of the stairs as he was climbing them. As the landlord moved aside for the figure to pass, he felt it brush his arm and his hair stood on end. The apparition reached the bottom of the stairs and vanished.
The historic Black Oak Room is to be found upstairs, although this is not open to the public. It was closed many years ago when paranormal experiences frightened previous tenants, although the current landlord now uses it as a bedroom! In the early 1990’s, the landlord remembers being woken at 2.30 am by the sounds of children playing outside. On recounting this experience to a local, the old gentleman described how, in the 1920’s, the area of land outside Carbrook Hall had been a recreation ground on which the local children used to play. Had he heard a ghostly ‘tape-recording’ of the past?
The Black Oak Room was once a function room, and was used by local lads for band practices. This abruptly came to a halt one evening when the spectre of a gentleman wearing Civil War uniform approached them, and just as suddenly, disappeared. One of the young men who had experienced this later described the apparition to the current landlord, who was amazed that the description tallied exactly with the ‘stranger on the stairs’ who he had experienced more recently.
Several of the bar staff have seen a shadow pass through the bar area from the door and disappear into a corner - while the outside door remains unopened and nobody else is in the area. The outside lighting switches are housed in a cleaners’ cupboard which is kept locked,
although the landlord has turned this off and locked the cupboard on many occasions, only to find the lights back on again as he lets the last person out of the pub. Objects have been seen to move themselves in the bathroom: a bottle of shampoo recently moved across the windowsill and jumped into the bath! The ladies’ toilets have the habit of locking their occupants in from time to time, and several terrified women have
only been able to escape when another person has entered the room. Canine visitors have the habit of barking at one particular corner in the upstairs living room, and appear to watch something which none of the human occupants can see. An elderly lady in 1920’s clothing has been spotted sitting in a chair in one of the upstairs rooms, and both the landlord and his wife have been approached by phantom footsteps while lounging on the sunbed. Each time they have assumed that the other one was creeping up to surprise them... before getting up to find the room empty and the door still locked.
One ‘sensitive’ visitor to Carbrook Hall believes that some of the disturbances were caused by the finding of several cauldrons which were once bricked up in the wall, at the very point in the bar at which bottles were hurled out onto the floor by an unseen hand. More recently, a hooded figure resembling a monk has been spotted passing through the building.
Carbrook Hall would seem to have a valid claim to being the ‘most haunted pub in Sheffield’, and current staff and visitors alike report unusual happenings on a fortnightly basis.
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