'The awakened nun that is still in torment'
This old and inviting public house is known to be one of the oldest public houses still standing in Hereford, the pub is in Hereford's city centre and is tucked away on King Street. The inside of the inn is quite impressive as its original look is still there, there are old wooden beams and you can see how old the inn is has one part of the pub's ceiling is unleveled and very low and gives off a sinking look, original wood paneling and the old fireplace is also on view. The pub as been on the receiving end of some ghostly activity of it's own for quite a long time now and paranormal investigations have been held at the inn, the pub's creepy disturbances as also appeared in Hereford's local paper.
Many ghostly happenings take place at The Orange Tree, footsteps have often been heard walking from one room to another late at night when nobody is upstairs and lights also turn themselves on and off but these are not the only strange occurrences, objects seem to move on their accord and on one occasion a pack of flour fell off the side in the kitchen and after being found all over the floor an onlooker saw what he could describe as hand made footprints that seemed to have been purposely been made in the flour. Among many other stories that circulate the most known story of the ghost of the pub is apparently the ghost of a nun who is looking for her baby , about 500 years ago a young nun was having a secret affair with a monk who was from the Greyfriars Priory which was situated by the River Wye , the nun became pregnant and the baby was taken away from her, the monk apparently drowned himself in the river and when the nun died she was buried in St. Nicholas church which stood in directly outside the building which was then known as The Apple Tree Inn, the church was later moved in 1840 ,apparently brick by brick along with it's burials, however when road diggers and workers were digging up just outside The Orange Tree they were soon astonished to find an old crypt in the ground which they mistakenly disturbed with their drilling equipment, that grisly incident occurred over a decade ago and since then The Orange Tree as experienced a lot of ghostly activity, the nun as been rumored to be the course and people say that she as come back looking for her long lost child. The nun was also seen a couple of years ago in the old DSS building which is on the corner of St. Nicholas street and Berrington Street and is a minute walk from the pub, now it is the jobentre, a cleaner was cleaning the toilets and she saw a young nun in the mirror.
The Orange Tree has had many landlords and occupants over the years, in 1840 alterations took place and the half timbered facade was removed and was replaced with plain brick, in 1829 Thomas Price was in charge who was followed by Edward Addis who was the victualler in 1859 and when Josh Lewiston was landlord in 1859 the address of that time was St. Nicholas Square, this name was kept up until the 1870's when it then became King Street. Hereford Brewery had The Orange Tree and it was soon later sold in 1898 and was let to a Mr. C. S Morgan who had a 30 pound weekly rent charge, Mr. Morgan kept the service of the inn up until 1907 when Hereford Tredegar Brewery became the new owners of pub, at this time they under took alterations which were to re-face the pub and they put in bay windows on the first floor and larger windows on the ground floor, the owners also covered the ground floor in cement and it was lined to give a stone effect, even tho the inn as gone through many renovations it still keeps up it's historic appearance and the interior inside The Orange Tree is of an original date with its old wooden floors and timbered frames, the inn does give off that 'haunted feeling' to any visitor.