Golden Fleece

From a paranormal perspective the Golden Fleece Inn has a reputation for having ‘spiritual’ residents, so much so that the Most Haunted TV crew visited this location to try and make contact with them. Many guests have reported seeing a lady wandering the corridors and staircases. Other ghostly apparitions have been seen moving furniture, it is said that there are five resident spirits that still reside at the Inn. One in particular is a WWII airman who fell to his death out of a window and onto the pavement below after a heavy drinking session. He is said to still wander the Inn and touches people who are asleep, which wakes them up only to see him by their bedside. Will the 'Lady' of the Inn or the unfortunate Airman make themselves known to us when we investigate York's famous Golden Fleece Inn?

To the paranormal community, the Golden Fleece raises mixed reactions. Some believe it is haunted, others believe is it just an old pub with a nice and unique atmosphere that plays on its ‘ghostly’ reputation to draw in the punters.

Prior to my visit to the Fleece I had no opinion of it either way, but I did want to tick it off my ‘places to visit’ list. So when I found myself driving to York on a freezing cold February evening to answer a distress call from NGI, I felt my opportunity had arrived.

The Sat Nav weaved me through the confusing maze of streets of York until I eventually found the pub. I parked my car at the back. My first thoughts were that it didn’t appear to match the quaint exterior of the front. It seemed as though the rear consisted of a newer extension to create quite a sizable but unrelated building.

I entered the pub via the rear bar. It was quite crowded but thankfully smoke free, the only thing that filled the air was the sound of people chatting, eating and drinking. I quickly glanced around the room. It was a typical English pub with a dark wooden bar loaded with pumps and rear shelves packed with bottles. Tables and stools were set around the room and pictures of old York and the pub covered the walls. Dark beams crossed the ceiling giving the impression that the ceiling was lower than it actually was. The air smelled of food and beer – as a pub should do. I could have murdered a pint but decided to locate the rest of the team. It was about 7.30pm. I was quite excited to think that in a few hours NGI, some guests and myself would be exploring this pub in the dark. I hoped the journey was not a wasted one.

I met Jay and Claire and was given an update of the evening’s events. I had a look around the guest rooms to orientate myself and try and see if I could feel anything prior to the investigation. Each room had a different feel and all were unique.

Pre-Investigation Walk About - 8pm
The first room is St Catherine’s. The uneven floors, cracked plaster walls and en-suite toilet/shower created in the ‘missing room’ made me feel like I was on board a ship. Twin wooden beds and a few items of furniture was all that was in this room. Claims of a dark figure walking around and the feeling of oppression have been made about this room.

The next landing took you to the Shambles. As the name suggests the view from the window overlooks the Shambles. This room was much bigger, had a four-poster bed and large bathroom. It felt darker somehow. Lady Peckett is said to visit this room.

Up the next flight of stairs is Lady Peckett’s Yard. This room was very small. The en-suite takes up a lot of the floor space. The twin beds take up the remainder of the floor with a wardrobe and chest of drawers squeezed against one wall. There are a number of stories that claim Lady Peckett often visits guests while they sleep and they awake to a pleasant smell of lavender.

Finally on the top floor is the Minster Suite. This room is the biggest of all, overlooks the Shambles and has a view of the Minster. This suite has a separate living area, bathroom and bedroom. It also felt the coldest of the four rooms. There is a four-poster bed, wardrobe and large mirror on the wall. There have been claims of a dark entity in this room and numerous sightings of dark shadows. When Jay lay on the bed soon after he first arrived, he said he felt as though he was being pressed down onto it by some dark entity. Claire said that she noticed the black shape on top of Jay as she stood in the passage.

Our base for the night was the function room. This large room is above the bar and has claimed its share of sightings too.

Guests Arrival
By 9.30 all of the team, Jay, Claire, Pam, Derek and myself had arrived. Others were expected but various events had put pay to their coming. The 18 guests would all be here soon. Jay quickly re-jigged the plans and created four groups with a NGI team member in each. The locations were sorted into areas;

• St Catherine’s and Lady Peckett’s Yard
• The Shambles
• Minster Suite
• Function Room

Once the guests were all together in the function room, Jay gave a talk about the investigation and the Golden Fleece. Guests were then divided into the four groups Jay had planned earlier.

My group consisted of:

• Paul
• Joanne
• Edward
• Amanda
• Carol

Before the investigation went ahead, Pam did a walk about with half of the guests while the other half listened to Jay talk about the equipment we use and some history of NGI and previous investigations. I went with Pam on the first walk about to take notes.

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The Shambles
Pam began her talk in the Shambles bedroom. In here she said that a happy, nun-like figure watched us. A lady in a grey dress and white hat was likely to touch you in this room. Also in this room, a man of about 6 foot with sideboards and black hair was angry that people were here. Pam’s final comment on this room was that a man called George regularly searched here for his wife, was also present in this room, but never at the same time.

Lady Peckett's Yard
It seemed that the nun and George had followed us to this room. Pam came up with the name Sister Ann. A guest called Helen said she could smell Lavender, which is what previous guests have claimed on awakening!

The Minster Suite
On the top floor is the Minster Suite and in here Pam said that Mary, George’s wife, roams about looking for George. Pity he didn’t follow us to this room and that would have been one problem solved!

St Catherine’s
The walkabout ended in St Catherine’s Room. Pam said that there is a lot of activity in this room and that spirits run about frequently in here. One of the guests thought they saw a flash over by a large mirror in the room. This room also contains the bathroom that was created from a room that had been bricked up and lost for almost 200 years. The smell in here was musty like old damp wood and plaster!

Function Room
Pam said this location is probably one of the busiest even though nothing much was going on at the moment. As the rest of the guests prepared to go on their walkabout, a man called Liam said he could sense a Victorian woman in a long blue dress who walked through the door of the function room and out of the window. This has been claimed buy other people in the past!

At 11pm Jay talked about ghosts, history of the fleece and the equipment we use to the guests from the first walkabout. We answered questions and had an interesting time hearing about the guests’ experiences. Pam arrived back with the rest of the guests and after a quick chat we split into our respective groups ready to begin the investigation.

Investigation Time - 11.30pm
St Catherine’s and Lady Peckett’s Yard - 11.40pm
I explained to the guests about the EMF meter and how it worked. Levels of EMF were within normal range except around light switches as expected. Temperature and humidity was low – but then it was freezing outside!

To start the ball rolling we tried various communication techniques. Our first attempt was glass divination. After a few minutes of staring at a motionless glass we tried calling out. This produced no results either. I sighed with the prospect of another eventless night.

We all felt comfortable in this room and sensed nothing unusual. Lady Peckett’s Yard upstairs was included as part of our first location. Maybe there we’d have some luck.

This is the smallest of the rooms and it felt claustrophobic, as floor space is minimal. Amanda said that she had a tingling feeling down one side while she sat on one of the beds. I asked if it could be the way she sat sideways on the bed. Once she moved the feeling stopped.

I noticed that the TV screen appeared to have a dull glow. I pulled the plug out incase it was to do with that. As expected the screen faded black. Plugged it back in and it returned to a slight glow. All TV’s in the rooms had this effect I found after comparing them.

We split up between the two rooms so people could do their own thing. Back in St Catherine’s Amanda said she felt a tingle run down her spine and the pen in her pocket came out. She could not rule out the possibility of it falling out.

Before the location ended, we attempted table tipping. The table did shake a couple of times but I felt we rather than anything else might have influenced it.

Minster Suite - 12.35am
This room was a lot colder than the rest. Saying that it was on the top floor so it didn’t have the insulation effect of the other rooms. It was the largest room too and the fact that the heating was off would also influence the readings.

I was aware that this room is supposedly one of the most haunted. The imposing four-poster bed and dark wooden furniture gave it a dreary and austere atmosphere.

To gets things going we tried calling out for a little while, but got no response.

Edward used the large mirror opposite the bed to try scrying. As expected nothing happened. A previous group had success with glass divination but our attempt produced no results. We endeavored to get something to happen so we chose to use the pendulums I’d brought along.

Edward tried it first and after determining yes and no directions we asked these questions and got the following answers.

• Are you Male? – Yes.
• Are you Female? – No.
• Are you called William? – Yes.
• Did you die in this room? – Yes.

• Joanne at this point said her ears felt like they were popping.
• Were you murdered? – Yes
• Are there other spirits with us? – Yes
• Are there two? – Yes
• Will you use the glass to talk to us? – Yes
• Are you strong enough to effect or touch someone? – Yes

The temperature dropped two degrees at this point (over a minute or so) and then nothing more occurred. Edward’s hand did shake a number of times so I can’t take the answers to those questions seriously as they may have been effected by Edward.

The EMF meter clicked a couple of times then stopped.

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Break Time
It was time for a break so I took the opportunity to sit by myself in the bar. In the front bar all was quiet except for the hum of the cooler. I could smell old smoke and a relaxed feeling came over me as I sat in the darkened room, lit only by the street lights outside. I was surrounded by many old photos of the pub and York as well as adverts for future Ghosts hunts by other people. I took a few photos, called out for something to happen but all remained quite and still.

Break Over
My group headed back to the function room but when we got there the group in this location were in the middle of glass divination and appeared to be having some success. The glass moved quite quickly to answer the caller’s questions. I joined the group for a few minutes and indeed the glass did appear to move. The man they were in contact with was called Daniel McIntyre.  The group asked if it was children messing about but the glass said no. When asked if it was Daniel it indicated yes. Apparently Daniel McIntyre was a former landlord who was only in his 30's when he killed himself. The conversation faded away and so the investigation was concluded in this room.

Function Room 2am
We all got together in the function room to participate in a séance. Everyone sat around a long table and linked up. I remained outside of the circle in order to document and record anything that occurred. After a few moments Pam said that she sensed a woman with black eyes walking about the group. Pam expressed that there was a temperature drop, but the thermometer did not detect this.

Jay then called out. People said that they heard bangs and knocks but as there was a flat that belonged to he landlord above this room it was hard to rule out natural or direct causes. Pam sensed a lady in a grey dress and some guests said that they had aches and pains in various places but nothing became of it. This could have been posture or psychology at play as people wanted activity to occur and Pam had suggested that spirits should effect or touch people in the room. The séance ended at 2.30am.

The Shambles 2.35am
In this location we tried glass divination, calling out and taking turns sitting alone in the bathroom. No one sensed or felt anything in this location. A few creaks were heard but this sounded like natural settling.

Function Room 3.45am
Our final location was the Function room. We tried glass divination and calling out with no success. We all felt that the energy in this room had been depleted from having so many people here. We all decided to go down to the bar at 4am.

Front Bar 4am
We sat in the bar for a while and chatted about the night and other experiences.

Some interesting things occurred out on the street as clubbers flagged down taxis and ate fast food on the steps of a shop on the other side of the road. A lot of shouts and laughter could be heard as people walked past the windows, some peeked in and probably wondered why a group of people just sat there in the dark. As time was almost up, we decided to regroup in the function room.

Investigation Over - 5am
In the function room at 5am we shared experiences of the night. A number of guests left straight away to catch various transport home. Others stayed back for a few minutes to tell us about some of the experiences they had in some of the rooms and thanked us for a good evening. Some agreed that they had an excellent time with glass divination and others said it was a good experience but felt the Fleece was totally over rated. Slowly but eventually all of the guests left.

At 5.30 the team went to their own rooms to grab a couple of hours sleep before the journey home. I slept in Lady Peckett’s room. I managed to have 3 comfortable and undisturbed hours of sleep – the hope for something paranormal to occur in my remaining hours went by unfulfilled.

Time To Go
I left the fleece at 8.30. Everything was frosted white and at -4 degrees it felt like Christmas as I drove through narrow streets, then roads lined with white fields and trees then eventually back on to the A19.

On this occasion I did not experience anything that I would consider paranormal and therefore I’m disappointed that active spirits as far as I’m concerned do not haunt the Fleece. Other teams members and guests claimed to have got something from the evening but as always its down to the individuals’ perspective.

Links
Golden Fleece Photo Gallery
Golden Fleece Website


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