'A haunted hotel'
This eye catching old hotel can be found on the A49 on the way to Ross-0n-wye which is just outside Hereford, the hotel is in the heart of the Herefordshire countryside with magnificent views and valleys all around, and with its beautiful and rather elegant appearance it can't be missed by any driver by.
The inside of the hotel is also breath taking, the Georgian restaurant holds a warm atmosphere and in the furnished bedrooms an old wooden beam structure surrounds you with fine antiques on show. Pengethley also has its own vineyard in one of the three original Tudor walled gardens and the first vintage was pressed in 1995. Regardless of its haunted reputation business is always blooming at the 14th century hotel, it is a very popular retreat to tourists with guests arriving and leaving daily, but the ghost of the hotel never leaves and still continues to wander freely around the manor startling the staff and guests. The ghost of the hotel is of a young little girl named Harrriet, in 1816 the hotel was nearly burnt down in a bad widespread fire, the family that was living at the hotel at the time had a little girl named Harriet, Harriet got trapped and couldn’t free herself, tragically she died.
There is also a rumour of another ghost at the hotel; this is a ghost of an old lady. The part of the hotel that was burnt down was the old house, the ruins of the old house are listed and they are at the rear of the hotel, sadly all that remains of the ruins is the cellar and it is there that the ghostly form of a lady as been seen, she has been seen walking across what was the floor of the house and she was sighted wearing a long black dress. The old lady's ghost has also been seen in other parts of the hotel, she has been seen walking past the reception area and as also been seen sat in the corner of the library, wearing the same long black dress. There has been other supernatural happenings at the hotel and one occurrence took place when the manager first moved in to the hotel with his wife, renovations and refurbishments were still underway when they moved in, one evening when they were in bed they heard loud footsteps coming along down the corridor, their dog was also in the bedroom and he stood by the door growling, suspecting there was an intruder the manager immediately got out of bed and opened the bedroom door but soon learned that nobody was there and so the hotel was checked throughout, top to bottom ,door to door, but there was nobody there apart from the manager and his wife.
The footsteps have also been heard by the hotel staff and many times guests have also heard the eerie footsteps. The creepiest paranormal encounter was when one of the corner cupboard's outside one of the bedrooms was seen rising slowly up the wall and then slowly back down again. This old hotel surely as a uniqueness and there are many stories and mysteries left to one day uncover.
A few years ago a magnificent work of art was found underneath the old wallpaper, decorators were stripping away the paper when a wall mural covering all four walls was found, the art work was of countryside pursuits such as fishing and farming, the room in which the mural was found is now the office and as a date of 1950 and was painted three years after Pengethley manor became a hotel, unfortunately the work was only seen once as a few days later it was all papered over, nevertheless Pengethley Manor hotel proves to be a fine haunted treat.