HARVEY'S WINE BAR

Kidderminster, Hereford & Worcester:

In 1963 the landlord reported hearing mysterious footsteps in his otherwise empty building. Other inexplicable noises included banging and the sound of doors opening and closing. A customer who was sitting alone in a room at the back saw an interior door open and close, followed by the street door doing exactly the same. A barmaid, clearing up after a lunchtime session, heard strange footsteps. She then saw the figure of a tall, young woman wearing a brown Tudor-style dress walking towards her across the bar. The lady smiled and walked past through a side door. Another barmaid saw the same ghost a few weeks later.

News of the haunting reached the Kidderminster Times, who decided to look into the history of the building. They found that Harvey's Wine Bar was built on the site of the Clarence Inn. In 1851 the stable floor, which was in the process of being repaired, gave way, revealing a vault filled with human and animal remains. Also among the grisly contents of the vault was a black bottle, a glass, a pickaxe and tobacco pipes. Local historians believe it was once the crypt of the chapel of the nearby manor-house.