THINGS that go bump in the night don’t just happen on Halloween at a Newton Abbot pub.

Andrei Slipzenko, landlord of the Saracens Head, believes there are spirits both sides of the counter at his pub on Fairfax Terrace.

Televisions turn themselves on and off, balls are released from the pool table when no one is in the pub and customers and staff have reported being tapped on the shoulder when they are on their own in the lounge bar.

And when Mid-Devon Advertiser photographer Steve Pope took pictures to accompany this story, his flashgun started firing by itself.

Andrei hopes Mid-Devon Advertiser readers can throw some light on the haunted happenings, which have been puzzling him for several years.

‘The first thing that happened was the television in the pub turned itself on late at night after I had locked up and closed the pub,’ said Andrei.

‘Something similar happened on the pool table, again when there was no one around, when all the balls were released as if someone was there to put money in.

‘During lockdown last year – and there was definitely no one in the pub then – I went to check everything was locked up. I had a look round and on my way out said: “Thanks very much and goodnight” and the answer I got was a large block crashing over that had been propping open a fridge door to stop the inside going mouldy. It made me jump out of my skin.

‘Steve was only able to take the pictures by moving from the lounge bar to another part of the pub. It is all a bit weird…’

Andrei said almost of the unexplained incidents have taken place in the lounge bar of the pub, which makes him wonder if there is a link between the room and something spooky in the past.

‘Staff and customers have felt a tap on their shoulder when there is no one within two metres of them – and some say they can feel a chill in the room,’ said Andrei.

‘I think if we have got a ghost it is that of a mischievous young boy who just wants to have some fun. Staff say they have seen a faint image of someone – possibly a woman – walking through the lounge bar.

‘It has made me wonder about the history of the pub and what was here before it opened which might explain our ghostly goings-on?’

Andrei has been able to trace the history of the pub back to the early 1920s, but prior to that he knows very little.

‘I have seen an item on the Internet that says the pub was built in the middle of the 19th century, but can’t find anything to verify that,’ said Andrei, who has been mine host for eight years.

‘Our address is 2-4 Fairfax Terrace, which makes you think it could have been two houses that became a pub at a later date.

‘Our cheeky ghost is largely active in number four, which may be relevant to something that happened long ago. Perhaps he – or she – would like to join us for our Halloween party on Saturday night and tell us their ghost story?

? Do you know anything about the early history of the Saracens Head pub in Newton Abbot? If you do then contact Conrad Sutcliffe via the Mid-Devon Advertiser news desk on [email protected]