Landlord gives up ghost
AFTER 19 years pub landlord Phil Skelton is selling up.
But he wants whoever takes over to get on well with his regulars as well as Colonel John Bright and the three other ghosts which haunt South Yorkshire's spookiest pub.
"Have I ever been scared? No. They don't seem to be nasty although the one behind the bar can be troublesome," says Phil, at Carbrook Hall on Attercliffe Common.
You can say that again. Once a bottle jumped out of the chiller cabinet and made a graceful arc through the air witnessed by eight or nine regulars.
Phil is 51 and reckons it's time to take a gap year, or six months at least, on the sunny island of Cyprus. He's selling on the lease he holds with Punch Taverns but reckons the new boss could strike a decent bargain.
It will also give the ghosts the chance to get to know who's new.
"There are four ghosts. They are being quiet at the moment but we tend to find when we go in for changes we get a lot more activity," says Phil.
He's been told the troublesome ghost behind the bar was walled up in the building which dates back at least to the time of Queen Elizabeth I. He's met Col Bright, a Roundhead soldier, on the stairs.
"He brushed past me and went through my arm and then turned and looked back at me. The hairs on my arm stood on end," says Phil.
Then there's the spook in the pool room - once the hall's kitchen and brewhouse - which is only ever glimpsed out of the corner of his eye.
And there's something in one of the bedrooms which used to send a pub dog barmy.
"Carbrook Hall has been my home and I've done a lot here. I want people to keep it as it is and not turn it into a gastro-pub and knock the soul out of it. I've got a loyal band of customers," says Phil.
The pub, voted South Yorkshire's spookiest building - and the third in Britain - by the Most Haunted TV show, has had some famous customers over the years.
"A few years ago I got a call from Delia Smith saying she'd been recommended it and wanted to bring a party of directors. I thought it was a joke and put the phone down. But she rang back and it really was her."
When Delia and co arrived they more or less went right through the menu prepared by Phil's partner, chef Mark Turton.
Delia had a lot of history to look at. Some think there was a building on the site as far back as 1176. The hall's surroundings, now industrial, have profoundly changed but the Oak Room, oak-panelled from floor to ornate ceiling, is still much as it would have been.
Phil had never heard about the pub's reputation when he first moved in. "I'm from Norton. It wasn't until I had been here a few months that I realised it wasn't normal. But as we started changing things we got more and more activity."
Whoever takes it on must not upset the customers - or the ghosts!
n Phil can be contacted on 0114 244 0117.
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Friday 25 May 2012
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