Elliotts, Workington

The News & Star published the following article by Matthew Legg entitled ‘Cumbrian pub woman claims hand dryer is haunted’ on 7 April 2011. The article concerns a pub in Workington called Elliotts where the staff have had some strange experiences.

Ghostly goings-on have been spooking staff at a Workington pub.

Workers at Elliotts, on Uldale Street, have reported apparitions, deathly chills and even a haunted hand dryer.

Dawn Murray, whose son Darren Dawson is the pub’s licensee, claims to have seen the ghost of a woman in a blue headscarf several times.

She has also spotted ghostly silhouettes shrouded in ‘auras’ and says she regularly feels a cold chill and a sensation of someone standing behind her while cleaning.

“Everyone who works here has seen or felt something,” said Dawn, of Westfield, Workington.

“I see a woman standing there with a blue headscarf on like an old fashioned-type woman.

“When you’re on your own it can be quite scary; you feel a chill from inside you, the air seems to go cold and your hairs stand on end.

“There often feels like there’s someone’s standing behind you.

“I have had a conversation with a hand-dryer in the toilets.

“I was in there cleaning and I jokingly asked: ‘Are you here today?’ And the hand-dryer was going on and off as if it was answering back.

“Dave, who works for us, says he has seen someone in the DJ box.

“I have always believed in ghosts but I had never seen one before now. We’ve all had a laugh about it but we really want to know the history of the building and if people can tell us why it’s haunted.”

The pub is in what used to be the warehouse of the old Workington Brewery.

Dawn says she is keen for people who know what was on the site before that to get in touch.

Mr Dawson took over the venue last May and reopened it last October.

It had previously been empty for about seven years.