GHOSTLY goings on and things that go bump in the night are enough to spook anyone, but the landlords of a haunted pub say their resident ghouls are very friendly, if a little mischievous.

Landlord Murray Thaxton, former landlord Del Mountney with medium Lizzie Falconer.

Since business partners Vicky Fitzgerald–Lombard, 27, and Murray Thexton, 46, took over the Three Horseshoes Pub at Scottow, near Coltishall, three-and-a-half years ago, they have seen some strange goings-on.

And it’s not just them because customers, staff, visitors and previous landlords have all reported eerie incidents.

Dishwashers and kettles turn themselves on, furniture is moved around and stacked up, mysterious mists have been seen and the peculiar patter of feet running through walls has been heard.

Mr Thexton has seen a face in a mirror and doors closing and bolting on their own.

DJ Phil Male has seen a woman on stage during a gig and musician Kym Blackman clearly heard footsteps behind him, but turned round to find no–one there.

Former landlords Del and Margaret Mountney reported seeing a figure wearing a greatcoat and a three-cornered hat sitting in the corner of the barn area of the pub, which simply disappeared when he approached it.

Current landlord Miss Fitzgerald–Lombard, a sceptic until she arrived at the Three Horseshoes, said: “The pub was closed before we took it over, so we didn’t have much information on what went on before.

“But people kept coming in for drinks and asking us if we’d seen anything strange — we didn’t know what they were talking about.” But now she is in no doubt. “You get feelings and you can sense someone watching you and there’s often a smell of perfume wafting about as well.

“Six months ago we were sitting in our function room, the barn, at the end of the night and this mist just came down from the stage. It came half way up the wall and three quarters of the way down the room before it just disappeared,” she said.

Miss Fitzgerald–Lombard said a medium had paid them a visit and told them they had ghosts in the main pub and several in the function room.

The main spook seems to be a man called William Tooke, who was the landlord in the early 1900s, and the pub’s function room apparently has a family with two children dressed in Victorian clothes living there alongside a ghost called George.

Miss Fitzgerald–Lombard said: “William is the dominant one and he’s very cheeky. But I get the feeling they are looking after us.

“When we first moved in a lady came to see us and we really didn’t like her and her chair just collapsed under her.”

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