The Bowl Inn, Almondsbury

Though the inn dates from 1550 and it is thought that part of the building was originally three cottages constructed in 1146 to house monks working on the Church of St Mary next door. Secret tunnels between the cottages, church and priory are said to exist which offered the monks protection from potential invaders. But it is not the ghost of monks that are said to haunt The Bowl Inn or the ghosts of those poor men who were put on trial here, for during the rebellion of 1685 the Inn was used to try the supporters of James Scott, 1st Duke of Monmouth, 1st Duke of Buccleuch’s (Born 9 April 1649 – Died 15 July 1685) caught by the troops of King James II (Born 14 October 1633 – Died 16 September 1701). The ghost that is said to haunt the inn is that of a young French girl, Elizabeth Maronne (Born 1702 – Died 1708).

Elizabeth and her brother died in the village in the early 18th century and are thought to have been abused by their father. This was possibly due to the wording of the plaque in the parish church and the following inscription, ‘Beneath this place lye the Bodies of John and Elizabeth Maronne, in the Memory of whom their Father caused this Monument to be put up, Elizabeth Died in 1708 aged 6, John Died in 1711 aged 5, their Father a poor Man born in the Province of Dophin, in the Kingdom of France, he believes that his sins were the cause that God took the life of his children’

The sounds of a girl crying and the reciting nursery rhymes were said to have been heard at the pub and around the village in the 1970’s.

There are also references to two other female ghosts supposedly haunting the pub.