Ghostly pub patrons and a 'gruesome execution'

A place not just of history but where history walks the corridors itself?

Centuries of history lie around every corner of an ancient city in Hampshire.

Once the seat of Anglo-Saxon and Norman royal power, Winchester boasts Iron Age forts, civil war sites and a renowned medieval cathedral.

Perhaps unsurprisingly, the city's long and sometimes bloody history has led to many tales of ghostly sightings in its buildings and streets.

Not least at a cosy little 16th Century pub, which is said to be haunted by the ghost of a woman who met a brutal end there more than 300 years ago.

BBC Radio Solent's Rose Lyle went along to find out more.

The Eclipse Inn, a half-timbered building, sits nestled between two shops on The Square, just behind the high street.

The first-floor window Lady Lisle was said to have stepped out of on to the execution scaffold

It was here in 1685 that Lady Alice Lisle was said to have spent her last night before stepping out of the first floor window on to a specially built scaffold in the square outside, where she was beheaded.

As the site of the "rather gruesome execution", Winchester tour guide Erica Wheeler said "it's not hard to see" why the pub has become "one of the most reported places where ghosts have been seen".

Inside the building there have been "lots of sightings of ghosts, apparitions, sometimes just feelings of chill or dread", she said.

But who was Lady Lisle and why was she sentenced to death?

"She was a noblewoman and had been accused of harbouring fugitives from a rebellion that happened in 1685," said Ms Wheeler.

"This was when the Duke of Monmouth arrived on the shores of England, he was trying to take the crown from King James II and it all ended in a big battle, the Battle of Sedgemoor."

When the duke and his men lost the battle, they dispersed through the countryside - two of them arriving at Lady Lisle's New Forest home Moyles Court, said Ms Wheeler.

"They knocked on her door, asked for shelter," she said. "She let them in.

"She claims that she didn't know they were on the run from this battle but the king's men were soon behind and they caught these two men, and they caught Alice Lyle herself, and they brought them to Winchester to stand trial."

Lady Lisle was initially sentenced to be burnt at the stake for harbouring traitors by Hanging Judge George Jeffreys before King James II commuted the sentence to beheading.

The square was a bustling market place at the time and "not generally a place of execution", said Ms Wheeler.

"Presumably that's why they did it here... they wanted as many people to see this as possible," she added.

Kerry Chant said she believes she has seen the ghost of Lady Lisle

Over the years many people have reported sightings of Lady Lisle at The Eclipse Inn, including bar manager Kerry Chant.

"I was locking up one night and wanted to double check I'd closed all the windows upstairs because sometimes customers open them," she said.

"I saw something in the window on the side where she actually got beheaded.

"When I took a step back and had a look, she was just facing the cathedral, just staring out. And that's when I was like, OK, I'm going."

The owner of The Eclipse Inn, Michelle Tempest, said she was not put off by the spooky events.

"Every day I probably get three or four paranormal groups who want to come and find Lady Lisle with all their equipment, which is quite fun," she said.

Michele Tempest said she was not a "big believer" in the paranormal but recalled an interesting experience

"We did let one group in and they dressed in period costume and had brought two clairvoyant ladies into the pub.

"But they came in wearing blindfolds and they didn't come from Winchester and they were asked whether they knew where they were and those sorts of things.

"Well, I'm not sure my husband and I are really big believers in this paranormal world but, what I can tell you is, she knew exactly where she was, the lady in the blindfold.

"And she morphed, if you like, like Whoopi Goldberg [in 1990 film Ghost], into Lady Lisle and was saying, 'oh my God, oh my God, you're breaking my fingers, pushing me through the window'.

"And the room went like a freezer - totally, totally freezing cold."