'My pub is haunted by its former landlord' (From Enfield Independent)

Paranormal team called to the King and Tinker pub to find spirit of former landlord

3:50pm Wednesday 10th October 2012 in News By Hermione Wright

Toni Duke in the pub's kitchens

A landlady is convinced her pub is haunted by its former landlord.

Toni Duke and her husband Barry took on the King and Tinker pub, in Whitewebbs Lane, between Crews Hill and Bulls Cross, in December last year.

The pub’s previous landlord, who took it over in 2004, died of a heart attack when he was in his 60s in an upstairs bedroom approximately six years ago.

Mr and Mrs Duke say they experienced strange goings-on as soon as they moved into the 300-year-old building.

All the staff encountered black shadows roaming throughout the pub during the day and night, although they say the visions appear and vanish so quickly their shape is indistinguishable.

Paintings also fell from the restaurant’s walls without reason. Mrs Duke said when one picture fell, it was replaced, only for another to hit the ground.

Mrs Duke, 47, who describes herself as a “believer and a non-believer,” called in the North London Paranormal Investigation squad, which investigates supernatural activity, to see if any light could be shed on the matter.

Chief paranormal investigator Mickey Gocool and his team carried out an overnight vigil at the pub in April.

Mr Gocool, 46, from Lordship Lane in Wood Green, said: “The first thing I felt was an energy that had recently passed and that there was a man in the upstairs bedroom.

“I felt a presence of a man who had a chest pain, like a heart attack. I described my feeling to the landlord and he said we had just described Paul.”

He said it felt as if the landlord was looking out of the window waiting for a delivery.

He said it is hard to tell if the spirit is happy, and feels he remains extremely attached to the pub.

Mrs Duke, who will not visit the public toilet in her pub alone at night for fear of supernatural activity, is convinced the paranormal investigators are on the ball about the haunting.

She believes the spirit is “definitely” him because a customer asked it through a Ouija board if it liked sausages – the former landlord's favourite food – and it said yes.

Only last week, all of the saucepans in the kitchen fell from their shelves, and as soon as they were put back, they fell once more.

A member of staff is also adamant she plugged in a vacuum cleaner, but as she went to turn it on, she realised the plug had been removed from its socket.

Mrs Duke said: “It doesn’t happen often but there is obvious activity here, although we don’t always see it. It is usually little bits and pieces and you get used to it.

“Why did all these saucepans all fall off the shelves? There was no reason why they all fell. The chef went up to pick them up and they all fell again.”