Friargate Railway Bridge & Station.

Many of the people who pass beneath the old railway bridge which straddles the busy road of Friargate are unaware of the abandoned and almost vanished train station which stands close by. The buildings are long gone and only the ghost of a signpost stands on the central platform where grass and weeds have taken the places of waiting passengers. From time to time, sightings of a phantom steam train puffing over the bridge have been reported by amazed members of the public.      

The Friary Hotel

Not far from the bridge, the elegant Friary Hotel stands upon the site of a medieval Dominican monastery. The building is haunted by both black robed monks and the tormented spirit of a man who killed himself there.

My mother worked at the hotel as a waitress in the early 1960's. One day she was upstairs - taking a meal to an elderly female guest who was an invalid. The door to one of the rooms was ajar; she looked inside - a man sat silently on the bed with his back to the door. He was semi-transparent and plainly not a living guest; when he began to turn around, she literally ran. The other employees were amused by her fright - many of them had seen the apparition too...some of the staff were so accustomed to the presence of this earthbound spirit that they had several irreverent nicknames for him. They believed that he was visiting the room where he committed suicide. The owners of the hotel didn't encourage anybody to discuss the man's sudden death or the haunting; they thought that nervous customers might be deterred from staying at the Friary.  

View From Friargate Bridge.