What is the secret of the Devizes ghost room?

Before taking over the Black Swan Hotel last month new proprietors Mike and Yvonne Wright were sceptical about ghosts and hauntings. But they are not so sure now after a series of uncanny events at the pub, which has a reputation for being haunted.

Mrs Wright said: “I’m not a believer in this sort of thing but so many people have been phoning up about doing late night vigils, we agreed to continue them.

“Last week we had a group in from 11pm to 4.30am. Most of the time was spent in the cellar but then we visited room 4. One of the girls in the party said she felt a presence next to her. She reached out her hand and she said she felt it getting very hot.

“She was getting quite distressed so we turned the light on. Her hand was dripping with sweat. Michael Murphy, our daughter Charlotte’s partner, held a thermometer into the spot and it went up from 17 to 27.6 degrees Celsius as we watched.

“There was no heat source in the room. We just can’t explain it.”

A few days later a film crew making a documentary for Wadworth brewery booked in. When they were offered room 4, they turned it down.

Mrs Wright said: “They said they had been on the filming of the TV programme Most Haunted when it visited the Black Swan a few years ago and they didn’t want to spend the night in room 4.”

But it has not discouraged others. Mr and Mrs Wright are now inundated with requests for bookings for it.

Mrs Wright had an uncanny experience at the Black Swan even before the family moved in. While staying at the hotel one night Mrs Wright woke up to find herself trying to get out of a non-existent door in the wall of room 12.

She did not think too much of it until she watched a YouTube clip of ghost show Most Haunted and saw medium Derek Acorah filming at the Black Swan and saying he could feel a door there had been sealed up.

Mrs Wright said: “There are just too many incidents for anyone to dismiss it out of hand.”