Interview by Kim Frankish - 16th September 2006

High Street, Avebury, Wiltshire, SN8 1RF
www.redlion-avebury.com

Introduction

Richard Bounds has been the manager of the Red Lion, Avebury now for 8 years, and kindly agreed to do an interview with Kim Frankish as part of our CaSPIR UK investigation.

Kim... Richard, you’ve been working here a long time now, do you know of any deaths that might have happened here or been associated with the Red Lion itself?

Richard... Yes I do. In 1854 the landlord was bludgeoned in the cellar, and to my knowledge he’s still buried down there. Also numerous murders have taken place here, there were a few children who were poisoned upstairs, and I guess the most famous of all is the woman that had her throat slit and was thrown down the well. Also we had an old man who died in his sleep upstairs. There are loads associated with this place!

Kim... Do you yourself believe in the existence of the spirit world or the paranormal?

Richard... Yes. I definitely do!

Kim... Have you ever experienced anything unexplainable at the Red Lion, and if so can you please tell us about it?

Richard... Quite a lot of things. The first one was when we first moved here. I kept on getting a ghosts name wrong and all the light bulbs went out except one in the restaurant. I checked everything, switches light bulbs everything, and everything was fine. I apologized and 20 minutes later they all came back on again. I’ve seen a little girl upstairs and always hear kids running up and down. One time we’d been up training in the private room, we used it as a training room back then and we’d been up there for about two hours. We came down for a coffee and when we went back up we couldn’t get back in the room. The boxes in there had been stacked behind the door! So we managed to get our hands in and get the boxes out the way, and went in. Somebody said 'we’ll have to try it again' so we did. So 5 minutes later we came downstairs, and when we went back up again we couldn’t get in! The same thing had happened again. And there are loads of stories like that in here.

Kim... Do these occurrences happen just at night or in the day as well?

Richard... Mostly at night, you can feel and hear kids running passed and they tug on your apron and everything.

Kim... Do you ever feel afraid or concerned when alone in the Red Lion?

Richard... No.

Kim... Have any of the staff experienced anything strange while working in the Red Lion?

Richard... Loads again.

Kim... Have any of the customers’ experienced anything odd while here?

Richard... Yes definitely. The residents in the rooms.

Kim... Can you remember when the last reported occurrence was in the Red Lion?

Richard... Last Wednesday. Do you remember I was telling you in the Swindon Room about a man who was asleep in there and kept being woken up being smothered? It was that! Whatever is in there does not like men. He was out of there ringing the doorbell, he wanted to check out at 4:30am or change rooms. We put him next door and he was fine with that!

Kim... Where would you say is the most active part of the building?

Richard... It’s hard to say because it depends things happen everywhere.

Kim... Was it just one building?

Richard... Yes, well you see the main bit it was like just that little bar and it used to be one room up there you see, where the brass lion is was a stair way going up and the Kieler Room was where the stair way came up to. So that’s 400 years old, this Well Room and the restaurant is only about 100 years old so…

Kim... What time of the year would you say the Red Lion is most active?

Richard... Mainly in October, November and December. Once we have all of our Christmas decorations up the spirit kids down here keep my kids awake, or wake them up and want to play with them. It was actually my daughter that gave us the little boys name here. She was like 'This little boy keeps coming up and prodding me and waking me up'. I said to her 'What’s his name?' and she said 'Jake'. She was only 2 when she said that so I went to the records office and it was that little boy who used to come and play with the kids here and was killed on the way over here!

Kim... Wow! Well thank you Richard for your time it has been lovely talking with you and we’re sure to have a good night!

The Red Lion opening times are: Monday - Saturday 11am - 11pm (late license until Midnight available at managers discretion), and Sunday 11am - 10.30pm. The Red Lion serves a traditional breakfast, lunch and dinner which are worth tasting and also have a specialty board. Accommodation is £40pp per night and comprises of 1 Double, 1 Twin and 1 Family room with 2 being en suite. We had a very comfortable night and would thoroughly recommend a stay at the Red Lion.

For more details telephone 01672 539266 or email the Red Lion 7928@greeneking.co.uk

© County Society for Paranormal Investigation and Research - 2008


Last Updated 27/07/2008