GATE INN , Mill Street ;- Sutton Coldfield

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GATE INN
Mill Street
Sutton Coldfield
Warwickshire
There are not many serious ghost hunters in the country, but one does spend a lot of time in this sometimes exciting occupation is Colin Smith, founder of the Midlands Association of Ghost Hunters and Author of 'The Haunted Midlands'. A recent case that he investigated was that affecting the Gate Inn which he believes is at least 163 years old. `It could have been a toll house before then` he told me. One of the celebrities who joined Colin in a ghost hunt in March 1975, later reported by Chris Bohn in the 'Sutton and Erdington News', was the well-known guitarist Bert Weedon, accompanied by his wife Margaret. The ghost was first seen by Mrs. Val Bevan, the licensee's wife at 8.30 one morning. 'I turned round think my husband had walked in` she said, ` but saw instead the figure of a man dressed like a cavalier. He stood there for a about 10 seconds and then just faded away. It didn't frighten me at all`. Two people have had some unusual experiences whilst in toilets. One, a man thought he heard someone knocking on the door but found no-one outside, and the other victim, a lady, saw the bolt slide back of its own accord and the door open. A former landlady, Mrs. Gough, told Mr. Smith that her son Paul used to enquire about a man who often entered his bedroom. `He is such a nice man, bigger than daddy, with a read cloak`. Paul was nine years old at the time.
Colin himself carried out a long wait for the phantom to appear and, incredibly, between 4 and 5 in the morning both he and Mrs. Bevan saw 'a hazy, human form about six feet from the table. It didn't move, just stayed there for about 15 - 20 seconds'. He stressed that neither he nor his colleague had anything to drink during their vigil. It was interesting to learn that when Margaret Weedon a complete stranger to Sutton Coldfield, walked into the pub she went straight to the door where the phantom had been seen and said `I suddenly became very cold`, suggesting that she too is sensitive to vibrations`.