Raising a Glass to the Unseen, Across the Grid

When you say “haunted pub”, most people think of a spooky old half-timbered building dating back centuries, and stories of dark misdeeds whispered long after closing time. There’s something about these spaces where people gather that draws stories to them. Pubs hold celebrations, confessions, arguments, heartbreak, and laughter – the full, messy weight of ordinary human life. They become repositories of local memory, outlasting landlords and regulars alike, absorbing the echoes of those who passed through. If any building were going to feel as though it remembered, it would be one where generations have leaned across the same bar and told the same tales – and perhaps, where not all of them ever truly left.

We’ve got our fair share of spooky pubs here in MK – I’ve written about The Black Horse, but The Swan at Woughton has its legends too, and I’ve had several people tell me about The Swan Revived in Newport Pagnell, just slightly outside my grid. But the local authority on haunted pubs round here is definitely Claire Evans – her brilliant article for Spooky Isles was my go-to last year when I was looking for somewhere to go out for my birthday 😀

So, it was a particular honour to be invited to take part in her ambitious new project to find out just which one is the most haunted – across the city, we’re sure that there must be many stories that no-one’s heard yet – Claire and her expert team will run investigation at the spots that people identify, and look to establish once and for all – just which of our pubs is the most haunted?

I’ll be writing about it all, and adding each of the pubs that we look at to my map, of course!

Claire’s hoping to have a definitive answer by Halloween, and is keen to cover Wolverton, Newport Pagnell and Stony Stratford as well as the city itself – so, how can you get involved? Claire says: “If you work in, or manage somewhere where NUMEROUS unexplained activity or sightings have taken place, and you feel it’s worthy of the title please email Natparauk@gmail.com.”

I can’t wait to see what we discover!

To find out more about Claire and her team, visit guidedbylightevents.com or search for National paranormal investigators uk on Facebook.