Halloween Post - The Black Swan, Devizes

It's that time of year again - pumpkin mazes, ghoulish shop window displays, Beetlejuice and the Adams Family getting an airing on TV, and Halloween parties galore.

I'd spent the previous night in Bournemouth, finishing the evening in the Goat and Tricycle, where the staff costumes were superb, and a big chap dressed as killer-doll Chucky did a shuffling dance to the cover band's version of 'Chelsea Dagger'.
Which would probably have made for a better Halloween post, but I do like to find a pub with a ghost story.

For this I found myself in the town of Devizes where I stayed the night in this rather smart old inn...

Black Swan Inn (25-26 Market Place, Devizes, SN10 1JQ - web)

The current building dates back to 1732, although it's thought the cellars are even older.  Pub ghosts like an old cellar and down in the depths of the Black Swan the odd paranormal TV show and ghost-hunting enthusiasts have investigated strange lights, eerie noises, and mysterious sudden drops in temperature. 

The ghostly goings-on in Room 4, in the top corner, above the coaching archway, are what have secured this Devizes inn a place as one of Wiltshire's most haunted pubs.

Reputedly, the figure of a young woman materialises through the wall, takes a seat by the window, gazes out for a short while, then wisps out by way of another wall. Could this be the spirit of a woman fatally trapped in the room when the pub suffered a fire in the 19th century?

She's said to appear at 1:15am, but I suspect the drunken revellers spilling out of the Halloween karaoke party at the Pelican Inn across the square would have deterred her from sitting by the window for too long on the night I was there!

Fair to say the pub itself is not very spooky...

In fact it's positively posh and 99% restaurant.
I'm sure the food is great - breakfast sure was.  But you've lost all your pub credentials when you randomly place cookbooks by celeb chefs on ledges around the place.
I waited until after 10pm when many of the respectable diners had finished, so as not to lower the tone too much as I sat on a small table by the bar with my pint of Wadworth's.
Decent pint of 'Horizon', in good condition, though.

I would have loved to have reported on apparitions in the middle of the night - or possibly the lack of them.  But I was allocated Room 2 rather than the haunted Room 4.
And the 6% ABV Hop Kettle 'Festbier' I was drinking in the British Lion would probably have ensured that I slept right through figures appearing through the wall anyway!

One year I'll find a good old traditional inn with real cobwebs and dimly lit corners to feature at Halloween, rather than an upmarket establishment with a ghost story.

More on Devizes later, when I get around to catching up with the blog - something I've not been very good at recently.
I'll leave you the skeletal decoration nearby in the White Bear...happy Halloween!