Ghost stories: Spirit of Christmas at Coventry curry house and other spooky tales from region - The Leamington Observer

Ghost stories: Spirit of Christmas at Coventry curry house and other spooky tales from region

Leamington Editorial 21st Dec, 2018   0

CELEBRATING with the Christmas spirit has taken on a whole new meaning at an Indian restaurant in the heart of Coventry.

The owner of Turmeric Gold in historic Spon Street has created a unique aperitif in honour of “George,” the venue’s friendly ghost.

Diners will be invited to toast George with a tipple that reflects the invisible guest’s nature – light of body, refreshing as a cool breeze but with a cheeky twist. Shaken, of course.

“It’s a fun idea to start the evening, but we hope our customers will take a sip and say ‘By George! That’s good’,’’ jokes Jay Alam, owner and executive chef.




George has made his presence felt at the building, which dates back to the 13th century, many times since Jay founded his upmarket restaurant 17 years ago.

“There is a corner upstairs where there used to be a bar and which is a cold spot no matter what the temperature elsewhere, so we think maybe George enjoyed a tipple,” says the 47-year-old restaurateur.


“On one occasion, we watched in astonishment when our reservations diary, which sat on a lectern, flicked open on a page which then stood up at 90 degrees before gently falling back in place. There was no draught that could have caused it.

“Another time, a new member of staff was cleaning in the toilets when he was convinced someone had brushed past him. I had to tell him it was probably George checking he was doing a thorough job.”

The spirit of George has a mischievous side however. Previous owners of the restaurant recalled a tin of tomatoes whizzing off a shelf and more alarmingly a ten-pound cheese flying across the kitchen.

Jay is heartened by the presence of George and is not in the least spooked.

He may not believe in the comic-book image of ghosts draped in white robes floating above the ground but he accepts there are spirits present and some people are more tuned into them than others.

“We have had customers at the restaurant who are psychics or mediums. Two ladies, who hadn’t heard of George, told me immediately there was a spirit here, but not to be concerned, it was friendly.”

No-one has a clear idea of who George is, or rather was. One theory has it that there is also a Georgina who divides her time between the restaurant and its neighbours.

The medieval sandstone and timber building has hosted many trades in its long lifetime.

It is thought to have once been a weavers’ workshop and may have connections with the famous Coventry ribbon weavers JJ Cash. Later in its life it was a watchmakers’ workshop, and a bakery.

An Indian restaurant, exotically furnished in drapes of gold and ruby red, which sparkles like Aladdin’s cave and has a maharaja’s banquet section for those who like to like to lounge in luxury while dining, may seem an unlikely spot for a ghost.

But Jay, who was raised in the city and attended Foxford and President Kennedy schools, believes George embodies the spirit of Coventry: Welcoming to new ideas and people prepared to put a shift in to achieve their ambitions.

Jay’s grandfather came to England from Bangladesh in 1947 and worked at Dunlop. His father followed in 1960 and later established an Indian restaurant in the City Arcade, where Jay learned his trade before going solo and bringing a dash of theatre to dining out with Turmeric Gold.

His passion for his trade has been recognised in a series of awards: Best Restaurant in the Godiva Awards, Best Ethnic Experience in Coventry & Warwickshire Food and Drink Awards and Best Restaurant in Coventry & Warwickshire in the Coventry Telegraph Awards.

George, having seen so many trades come and go with the passage of time, has obviously raised his glass in approval.

Footnote. In the 12th and 13th centuries many dyers and tanners plied their trades in Spon Street because their work required them to be on the outskirts of the town and near to a source of running water, the River Sherbourne.

Records of the time show that there were also combers, fullers, weavers, cordwainers, saddlers, plumbers, smiths, carpenters and carters in the street and there are references to a capper, cloth dresser, woader, salter, cobbler, fletcher, apothecary and physician. Records of the 14th and 15th centuries mention only dyers, tanners, whittawers and carriers in Spon Street. By the 19th century the balance had shifted away from the cloth and leather trades to watchmaking. At the 1851 census, the Spon district was given over almost exclusively to a branch of the watchmaker’s craft.

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Spirits at the Canley pub

One ghostly legend became so well-known it was commemorated in a pub name – the Phantom Coach.

The Coventry pub, at the junction of the A45 and Charter Avenue, was built in the mid-1930s, close to the site of a stagecoach tragedy on Christmas Eve more than a century earlier.

The horse-drawn coach’s four passengers and its driver reputedly lost their lives when the carriage overturned in flooded marshland which covered most of what later became Canley.

Coachman “Charlie” however is believed by some to ridden again, at least in spirit.

In 1938, a couple driving through the area claimed to have been overtaken by a lamp-lit coach and horses.

A former landlord, Hugh Curley, had a theory that it was Charlie who visited the pub whenever someone new took over to check them out.

“We were in bed one night when we heard footsteps on the landing,” he once recalled.

“Someone came into our room, stood on the far side of the room for a few seconds and then went out.”

Black Hound’s revenge at Leek Wootton

On a lonely hillside just outside Leek Wootton a small copse hides from public view an eerie monument marking the beheading of Piers Gaveston in 1312.

Gaveston, a gay blade in every sense, was a favourite, probably a lover, of Edward ll, and used his cutting wit to ridicule powerful barons, notably Guy de Beauchamp, Earl of Warwick.

Warwick was to have his revenge when Gaveston returned to England after a year in exile.

The man Gaveston dubbed the Black Hound of Arden held true to his oath that one day he would feel his teeth for the insult.

After a mockery of a trial at Warwick Castle the doomed Gaveston was marched in procession to Blacklow Hill and beheaded. The site still retains the power to send a chill down the spine of visitors today.

Imagine, then, the shock of the group of women at the beginning of last century who were walking home in the twilight.

They swore they saw a cavalcade of armed men, their horses adorned by rich trappings, moving silently to the hill crest. And then vanish.

Lady in White haunts Warwick ruin

The stark outline of the ruined Guys Cliffe mansion near Warwick could have been made for a Gothic horror tale. It has had a turbulent history.

Not least the raging fire that nearly accounted for its demise during an over-enthusiastic application of pyrotechnics during filming of a TV episode of Sherlock Holmes in 1992.

It used to be a rite of passage for youths from the nearby housing estates to stow away in the ruins, braving the prospect of sharing a night with a ghostly “White Lady”.

Many were allegedly found wanting. Back home in bed before dawn, somewhat pale and crestfallen.

Much like Felice, wife of Guy of Warwick, who leaped to her death from the crest of the cliff where the old house now stands, and has haunted the place ever since.

Or so legend has it.

But the stories of ghostly goings on was given substance when in the mid-1990s the neighbouring owner of riding stables gave a chilling account.

Standing at the end of a bed she was sharing with her sick daughter was a blonde woman in a white gown, wearing an embroidered head-dress,

“I screamed,” the terrified mum said. “And the figure rose in the air and floated towards my daughter. I screamed again and it disappeared.”

She was left shivering and incoherent when her husband found her: “I was just like a block of ice….but I knew what I had seen.”

Double killer’s penance

Baddesley Clinton, near Balsall Common, may be one of England’s smallest stately homes but it’s among the most notorious for hauntings linked to a bloody past.

Its owner in the late 15th century was the brutal Nicholas Brome, a double killer. In 1492 he killed John Herthill, a steward of the Earl of Warwick, in a fight. Herthill had earlier killed Brome’s father, and this was taken into consideration when the court only imposed a heavy fine. A few years later he found a priest ‘chucking’ his wife under the chin.

He flew into a jealous rage, drew his sword and killed him.

Dispensation was sought from the Pope, and in 1496 he received a pardon, however as a penance he had to renovate the local church.

Brome directed that when he died he should be buried standing up in the entrance to the church, so that all who entered would tread over his head. His grave is still there today, under the doormat just inside the entrance to the church. The stone marking the place is quite stark, just giving his name

The room where he committed the murder, now a library, is reputedly the seat of his ghostly stirrings.

Many visitors to the moated National Trust property have been unsettled by the dark brooding atmosphere. Some report hearing whisperings and and loud thumps.

Old school ties linger on in Coundon

Pioneer of the cycle industry George Singer is reputed to walk the corridors of the Coundon Court old house, The wealthy Coventry industrialist had it built as his family home in 1891, now it is incorporated into Coundon Court School.

Singer died in his bedroom in 1909 of a brain haemorrhage. Fast forward 85-odd years and an English teacher, tidying up after a parents’ evening, is convinced she saw him entering the room where he died.

“I have to admit that it spooked me at first and I shot out the building at a rate of knots,” she recalled. “But on reflection there was nothing frightening about it,” she said.

Some years earlier the then head of English was leaving a staff room at the top of the old house with a colleague when they spotted Singer gazing out a window.

“Neither of said a thing,” he said, “But we rushed back and he was still there for a split second, just turned towards us.

“He was in his late forties and he had a full beard. I knew that face well from old photographs. It was George Singer around the time he was mayor of Coventry in the early 1890s.”

Though a stern taskmaster as a boss, Singer had a soft spot for children. As mayor he was famous for large parties he laid on for poor children in the city.

That may account for the poignant scene which greeted an astonished caretaker at the school when he made a late night security check on the top floor rooms.

In what would have been the SInger children’s playroom he saw logs burning in the hearth, flashing decoration hanging from a Christmas tree and delighted children playing on a rocking horse.

Then in the blink of an eye they vanished.

Murdered Abbot returns to his old haunt at Coombe Abbey

Coombe Abbey’s long and dramatic 900-year history has thrown up many spooky stories.

But the best known is centred on Abbot Geoffrey, murdered in 1345, probably at the hands of one his own monks.

It’s thought to be Geoffrey who throws glasses around in the kitchens and makes his presence felt in the old cloisters..

In the mid-1980s when medieval banquets were popular, staff would dress up in monastic robes and other costumes as part of the theme-night entertainment.

One night a “serving wench” had the shock of her life as she made her way to her post and saw a cowled figure moving towards her from the cloisters – floating some three feet off the ground.

Other spirits at the abbey, now part of a hotel complex, include Matilda, a green-eyed gypsy girl betrayed in love 300 years ago.

She was made pregnant by the master of the house and then spurned. She cursed the family when her child wa still-born.

According to the the legend she laid a curse that all the family’s first born would die before middle-age in tragic circumstances. And with that vow she died.

Though the story has more than a hint of fantasy about it, it is a fact that the Craven family, lords of Coombe until the 1920s, have suffered the premature deaths of many young earls.

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