Brook Red Lion Hotel

Alice Miller, murdered here in 1633 (or 1638!) soon after she found out that she was pregnant by an influential figure, walks between rooms 5 and 6 through a connecting door which was later bricked up; she is also said to appear as a blur and come up to people and touch them or even talk to them. A guest woke in early in the morning and saw a rocking chair start to move and a lady materialised; when she asked if the guest was all right; he feebly replied "yes!". She nodded and slowly vanished, leaving the chair still rocking. An assistant manager also mentioned waking up at some point to see the chair rocking and a white shape appear. Some identify this spectrally infested room as No.10. There is also a woman in Edwardian costume and a Cavalier who walked through a closed door and then through a window; groups report strange events in the cellar too. There is also said to be an unspecified ghost - perhaps Alice? - in the kitchen. The sound of panicking children have also been heard, a spectral remnant of a fire in the 1970s where people died in the inferno; a small boy has also been reputed to be seen in the parliament room, too. Its mainly children who see him, too but whether he is connected to this fire is not known. Doors opening and closing, items moving, lights swinging, cold spots and other phenomena have been experienced too, including one interesting occurrence in the bar area which is below where Alice used to live; the cushions were found to be stacked up by a nightwatchman - they had been in situ moments before on his previous round. One further phantom is said to be that of a hooded monk, seen in the area near the reception and in the corridors, usually in the early hours of the morning. According to the story, he died trying to rescue children from a fire at the inn "several hundred years ago."

Update: 12/3/20 The hotel informs me that, "We do have regular reports of paranormal activity which can range from televisions switching themselves on to actual sightings." [I should point out that in the summer of 2016 I visited the hotel and heard the bar manager telling a visitor of the ghosts but out of politeness, I did not eavesdrop further; I do remember him pointing out the area where Alice's room used to be.]

During a stay at the hotel with my wife and dog in late October 2024, the hotel provided me with two information sheets. They repeated the story above of Alice Catherine Miller, who had been resident since 1632 when she was "foully done to death" by her wealthy land owner lover, who fled to France (the other sheet said she was murdered in 1638). Stories of her appearances date back to the 1800s and her ghost so terrified the owner that he had the door to her old room bricked up (this door is still visible above the bar but is now sealed up and being so high up, is inaccessible anyway). One sheet talked of Alice being seen mostly in rooms 5, 6 and 10, and in the kitchen and walking to her old room. The rocking chair story above is recounted, but in this version it was an assistant manager who felt a "strong bolt of electricity" through his body which woke him up and then the woman materialised; the room itself was not specified. The information sheets talk of the ghosts of a well dressed man, one or two children (one of whom, a small boy has been seen numerous times in the Parliament room restaurant, mostly by children) and a hooded monk, seen mostly in the early hours and is thought to be the one who saved children from a fire but perished himself.

Conversations with other staff gave some more details.
One of the receptionists said that when he started at the hotel 3 years before, there were lots of things happening but now there is not so much. He had experienced seeing an apparition in mid September 2024 when he heard a cough while eating his lunch. Looking up, he saw an undefined misty grey shape descending the entrance staircase, but the figure, whom he initially thought was a female, was gone when he went to check. In February 2022 he and a colleague were having a smoke outside the main entrance when a black figure passed by them, entering the hotel. My receptionist contact had also felt a static shock and recoiled as if someone had walked through him at some cupboards near the reception.

The bar and restaurant area is reputed to be the most haunted area; a figure has been seen passing the bar, champagne glasses have been found unaccountably broken and the door to the kitchen swings back and forth as if someone is passing through it. In addition to the cushions being re-arranged, the furniture has been found turned around. Also in the bar, there have been sightings of a 6 foot tall man in an "old hat." There also used to be a visitor who would occasionally visit for a small glass of whisky at the bar. Eventually, he stopped coming and staff thought that he had died. After a little while, an employee was passing through the room and saw the familiar man at the bar seated on a stool. Saying that she would be attending to him soon, she turned away and then looked back - and he was gone. There was no where he could have gone. It was found out that he had indeed passed away. A young boy was seen in the ladies toilets adjacent to the bar but staff could not locate him when a visitor emerged, telling them of her sighting. The day manageress was passing through the restaurant and she noticed that despite it being daytime, the room was dark. It lightened up a bit and she turned to look back into the restaurant where she saw a completely opaque black mass between the tables. She spoke out to the "whatever" saying that she meant no harm to "it" and it vanished and the room returned to its normal state.
The kitchen is also the source of odd stories, with the sound of rattling pans; a worker heard a sound behind him to find a pan on the floor. He was on his own at the time. This witness was also alone on another occasion when he went to clear up "The Tudor Room" (a function room next to the main landing) after it had been used by ghost hunters. They had propped the door open with a small stool all evening. After they had left, the worker was tidying up and he saw something out of the corner of the eye and then the door slammed shut. Something had moved the stool.

A multitude of stories have emerged from the rooms, all of them in the older, forward area of the hotel.
Room 2 has had the window fly open "with a whoosh" and one time, a guest arrived back at his room to find the door open and the TV on. Fearing an intruder, the man asked reception to check but nothing was amiss. I was told that Alice has an aversion to "macho men" - and this matches the description of this guest.
Rooms 5 and 7 have an unusual odd feeling, and the coldness has been noted upon. In the former room, a guest reported the sensation of their bed being sat upon. A guest in room 7 was so perturbed by the TV turning on and the bathroom door opening and closing during the night that he slept in the bar area; next door is room 6 (which has a connecting door to 7) which experienced a similar situation and a lady visitor slept donwnstairs when the drawers kept opening during the night.
Guests found their pillows stacked under the window in room 3; when housekeeping had done their work they were in their normal position.
In rooms 6 and 10, guests have reported their belongings moved, only to be found in drawers.
Room 10 is the room where the rocking chair incident occurred, though it is no longer in the room. People stopping in the room found their television coming on by itself with such frequency that they ended up unplugging it. Some staff even claim that the TV turned on even after it had been unplugged! This seems to be a problem with many rooms; although they can turn on spontaneously by themselves at any time, this normally happens between 2 and 4am. Kettles have also been known to activate and boil by themselves too in many rooms.
The day manager also noted that the door to the reception opens by itself. The manageress just issues a cheery "Hello!"

When we stopped at the hotel, we were in room 9, next door to No.10. When we first entered the room, we found that the kettle was constantly clicking by itself but the switch wasn't depressed. We unplugged it after a period and when we replugged it in, this behaviour did not resume. The TV also came on by itself in the early hours of the morning (the remote control was some distance away). Earlier, when we went for a walk we left the TV on for our dog and when we returned it was off. Staff confirmed that the TVs didn't have stand-by timers, and my wife left the TV on that night while she was reading for a long period and it didn't deactivate. We also had problems with our phones too. When they were not plugged in, they drained at an incredible rate while in the hotel. They were also markedly more slower to charge too. (I had seen the same effect in another haunted hotel). On the last night, I was in bed watching TV when the room suddenly became a lot darker. I asked my wife (who was reading) if she had turned the bedside light off and she said it had been off for ages. The main light was out and the curtains were closed.

Link: Great British Ghosts

Link: Essex Live

Link: Essex Live

Link: The Gazette

Link: Essex Live

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