This film is part of Free

Torbryan Hauntings

Torbryan's Church House Inn is one of Devon's most haunted pubs.

Current affairs 1985 5 mins

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Overview

Publican of the Church House Inn at Torbryan on the edge of Dartmoor explains the history of the establishment and the frequent hauntings to news reporter Rene Wyndham. The original settlement at Torbyran was Saxon and the pub dates back to the thirteenth century with a fireplace built from the scrap of a ship of the Spanish Armada. It is unclear how much punters have been drinking when they report sightings of a monk, an elderly man or they hear footsteps and see lights flicker.

The Inn was historically a stagecoach stop on the main Exeter to Plymouth highway. A tunnel links the Inn with Holy Trinity Church which was built around 1450. Author Guy Lyon Playfair discusses his latest book The Haunted Pub Guide writing about over 250 of Britain's most haunted pubs. Playfair was consultant to a BBC production of Ghostwatch in 1992 and has written about paranormal phenomena. The by now ‘Old' Church House Inn was the subject of an investigation by Yvette Fielding and Living TV's Most Haunted team in 2005. Author and newspaper editor Bertram Fletcher Robinson is buried in nearby Ipplepen and may have written the idea for Arthur Conan Doyle's The Hound of the Baskervilles (1902).