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The Haunting of the Blue Boar Inn
Shortly after Agnes Clarke’s death, the new owners and the locals noticed a white, misty apparition that resembled a woman manifesting about the Inn. The ghost did not harm anyone and quietly glided about the place. It was widely presumed, however, that the mysterious female apparition was the restless spirit of Agnes Clarke. Agnes’s ghost remained peacefully in the Blue Boar for the next couple of centuries. Then, in 1836, Leicester’s authorities decided the old timber medieval building was out of place in the new Leicester of brick and stone. So they decided to demolish the historic Inn.
By the end of March 1836, the Old Blue Boar Inn was no more. However, another incarnation of the Inn was built just a few streets away down Southgate Street. The new Blue Born Inn was no grand hotel. Instead, it was an ordinary, everyday tavern that became very popular with the locals. There was, however, one other thing the two inns had in common apart from their name: The ghost of Agnes Clarke.
For while most ghosts seem to haunt places, it appears Agnes Clarke was haunting the concept of the Blue Boar Inn. When her old home was demolished, and its’ name reassigned, her spirit simply upped sticks and moved with it. Agnes soon became an accepted part of the new Blue Boar Inn, and each successive landlord acknowledged her as such. Until 1958, when Frederick Mason took over. Fred did not believe in ghosts and had no truck with the locals’ stories. However, not long after he moved in, he was subject to a series of unfortunate coincidences.
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Firstly, Fred fell down the cellar stairs and broke his ankle- an accident he attributed to pure bad luck. Then he caught a cold that turned into a hacking cough so bad that he cracked a rib during a coughing fit. Still, Fred put his illness down as one of those things. However, when he woke one night to the sight of a white figure moving towards the foot of his bed, Fred Mason suddenly became a believer in the ghost of Agnes Clarke. Agnes satisfied that the new landlord had finally acknowledged her, never bothered him again.
In the 1960’s, a post-war desire to modernize Leicester meant that much of Southgate Street was scheduled for demolition and redevelopment. So, by 1965, the Blue Boar Inn was abandoned and boarded up. However, Agnes’s ghost remained in the deserted pub. One night in 1965, a patrolling policeman paused outside the abandoned building. Suddenly a volley of stones showered down on him from the empty building. Where a group of local youths playing a prank? Or did the disgruntled spirit of Agnes Clarke perceive that once again she was going to lose her Inn? Agnes’s spirit never located any of the subsequent Leicester pubs that have taken up the name of the Blue Boar Inn. However, the misty figure of a woman has been sighted about Leicester’s Southgate.
Where Do We get this stuff? Here are our sources:
The Little Book of Leicestershire, Natasha Sheldon, The History Press, 2017
Leicester in 100 Dates, Natasha Sheldon, The History Press, 2014
Haunted Leicester, Andrew James Wright, The History Press, 2005