Local creepy old places

We keep coming across really old buildings close to where we live when we do our regular grocery runs to Tesco and Morrisons etc.  This place, the Scole Inn, was built in 1655 - three years after Jan Van Riebeeck landed in the Cape  - that gives you food for thought hey?!  It's about 10 miles from our house.  It was weird as we left the street where the Scole Inn is, I mentioned to Hayzel that I could imagine coaches and highwaymen riding up and down this road back in the day, when the road wouldn't have been more than a cart track.  I could almost 'see' the highwayman on his horse thundering down the road, trying to hijack the coach.  I didn't, at that stage, know anything about the history of the Scole Inn.

 The Scole Inn - built in 1655

 A bit of history about the Scole Inn (gleaned from a couple of websites after a Google search)


John Peck was a wealthy Norwich merchant who wanted the inn to be the finest in all England.  At first the Inn saw good business (probably due to curiosity), but it`s reputation soon declined, as at the time it was built, there was insufficient traffic on the roads to support such a grand establishment. Today the inn retains many of its original features, including the hand carved staircase and the original hand painted sundial, the Scole Inn provides all the comforts demanded by the modern traveller wrapped up in Jacobean charm.

The Haunted History of Scole Inn

Scole Inn is haunted by ghost of a woman named Emma, who was murdered by her jealous husband while they were staying in a room at the inn in the 1750s. Poor Emma was innocent of any infidelity, despite the amorous advances of a notorious highwayman also staying at the inn. Her pale form, wearing a long robe, is seen most frequently descending the staircase, though she has also been spotted in one of the rooms on the first floor and at the hotel bars.

Cool!   We must book a stay here and do our own GhostHunt, hey Kevin?  


If you follow the road past the Scole Inn (it used to be an old Roman road and runs parallel to the A140 - the main Ipswich/Norwich road), you also come across a very old wattle and daub house that is currently undergoing major renovation and repair.  I was taking a picture of the side of the house (below) and there was a chap in the window on his phone, he looked down at me and smiled - I motioned to him if it was okay if I took a photo and he put up his thumb and moved back from the window, so he's not in the shot.   This house looks like something from the Old Woman who Lived in a Shoe nursery rhyme.  All the windows have leaded glass panes. 

I wasn't able to find anything out about this place on the web but I'm sure it also has a colourful history.