Ghosts and spooky stories from The Ship Inn

The Ship Inn landlord, Stewart Whiffen, tells of a ghostly presence - which he refers to as The Fish Lady. Stewart says that the presence of his 'ghostly visitor' can be felt most often in the area outside the kitchen. The Fish Lady is also not adverse to letting Stewart know if she disapproves of a particular visitor by giving him a sharp dig in the back.

Stewart says that The Fish Lady has not been as active over the last few years as she previously was - and he believes that is because she is very happy with the way the pub is being run now. Stewart believes the Fish Lady was once the landlady of the Ship Inn and that she died in an outbreak of cholera.

Account of meeting The Fish Lady from Kurt - former barman at The Ship Inn
Having been in the wilderness for many years (Folkestone) I have now moved back into Sandgate and checked out your superb website. One problem however is with the passage below regarding the ghost at the Ship. Your site says…

“One sighting was late at night when the bar staff were locking up for the night. The barman went into the back of the pub to check that there were no late drinkers on the premises. And when he returned to the bar area Rachel asked who was the person she had seen him standing with (she had been monitoring the security cameras) the barman said he had checked the premises and found it empty. Nobody could have let themselves out as the keys to the door had been on the bar in Rachels sight the whole time!”

The problem is that whilst you are close the true story is as follow… Oh before I tell you I should say that I was that barman that night!

I used to work at the Ship Inn whenever Stewart would have a night off. On the particular night in question me and my fellow barperson – a girl called Nikki – had closed up and were cashing up the till. Above the till is a CCTV monitor that looks down the corridor towards the toilets. As Nikki and I were at the till I noticed someone on the CCTV standing just outside of the kitchen door. To be honest the image was not clear but Nikki confirmed that there was someone standing there. I asked Nikki to watch the CCTV as I went to investigate. Firstly I looked out of the bar door and noticed the corridor was empty – damn who ever it is has disappeared into the kitchen and to be honest with the amount of knives etc. in there I wasn’t really looking forward to going in after them.

Anyway, puffing out my chest and standing my full 5 foot 6 inches I proceeded down the corridor. As I approached the kitchen I prepared myself for the worst when I heard a scream coming from the bar. Worried that this intruder had somehow managed to nip into the back bar and was busy stealing Stewarts money or ravishing the barmaid I rushed to the bar where Nikki was standing as white as a – dare I say it… ghost – and I asked what was the trouble?

With a huge tremor in her voice she said that she watched me on the CCTV monitor and apparently I walked straight through the person stood in the corridor!!! With that we left the pub… pretty quickly… Oh and I even left my house keys behind and had to wake Wendy the following morning at 6am so that I could get into my car and go to work!!!

The Ship Inn dates back to 1798 and was once a manor house. During a pre-event visit the Ghost Watch medium came across three active spirits – one of which performs poltergeist activities and isn’t fussed about who might see this. Another spiritual presence was also identified that likes to touch people, as well as push and bump into them – and a further spiritual energy lets you know it is near by giving off an awful smell of fish!! However on this all night filmed paranormal investigation in October the three residential sprits did not make an obvious appearance.

Despite the resident spirits not ‘showing up’ on Ghost Watch night - what was witnessed and recorded was extraordinary and mystifying.

The medium and guests, amongst which were two other ‘sensitive’ gentlemen, sensed an oppressive atmosphere that swept through The Ship Inn. Guests were able to ‘feel’ spirit near them, and at these times very high readings on the E.M.F meters were recorded – there was also a dramatic drop in temperature. At 4am local KM reporter Rebecca, using her own camera, took a photo in the area where the high E.M.F readings and temperature drop occurred and when this photo was later developed the image of an orb had been captured.

Whilst ‘working’ in one of the top rooms the medium ‘met’ an elderly male spirit which she vividly described to the guests present. Shortly after this she went into a trance – and the elderly male spirit spoke through her. He said his name was Thomas Becket – but stressed he was not ‘The’ Thomas Becket. He gave his age upon death as 76. Thomas also said that he worked three doors along as a cobbler and that he died in 1851 when a horse and cart ran him down. A few days after the Ghost Watch night this fact was confirmed by the owner of the premises three doors along – who said that his father had seen this same ‘ghost’ many times. He went on to confirm, that according to information they had uncovered whilst doing research, that his premises had indeed once been a cobblers and that the cobbler had been killed - knocked down by a horse and cart. Although this research did not reveal the age of the cobbler it did confirm that the man had been in his mid seventies.

As mentioned earlier Rebecca - reporter from the KM also attended this event – and at 10.30pm she took some photos outside The Ship Inn. At this time the other guests were in the back bar watching recordings of previous investigations on a DVD. At exactly the same time the picture started to break up and became unviewable as an unseen energy force entered the building. The KM reporter had no idea what the picture would contain until she looked at them in her office the following Monday. There were then sent for verification which took a few days before they were released – but they clearly show numerous orbs surrounding and entering The Ship Inn.