Haunted Hotel in Chester
The Summer of ’94
It’s not often one gets the opportunity to stay in a haunted hotel.
Back in the summer of 1994 we wheeled around the world on mountain bikes in search of the world’s best trails. Along the way, we booked a Bed and Breakfast in Chester. It was only when we arrived that we discovered it was a haunted hotel.
We escaped the OJ Simpson murder trial here in America to embark on the video production of “Full Cycle: A World Odyssey.” This documentary took us around the world to nine different countries with our mountain bikes. We spent a memorable couple of days in Chester, a walled city known as the Gateway to Wales.
The BTA
The British Tourist Authority was stellar in their support of our project and three crew members. They plotted a line for us from London across Britain to Chester. Then we wended our way throughout the charming villages of Wales that bumped up against Mount Snowdon, Wales’ highest peak. We captured the beauty on videotape as we frolicked there on our mountain bicycles.
The Redland Hotel
We spent two nights at the Redland Hotel only a mile from the city of Chester. And yet it felt like a couple of hundred years ago in terms of its Victorian era ambience.
We enjoyed our stay there and slept fitfully on the comfortable beds that first night. Even after we learned that the room where my husband and I stayed was thought to be haunted. “We’ve had reports from guests about seeing ghosts in there,” our hostess mentioned at breakfast. Maybe we were just too exhausted from all the travel. This is not to mention moving 900 pounds of video and bicycle gear from destination to destination. So maybe we just slept through any ghostly action.
Mr. Suit of Armor
Climbing up and down the stairs past “Mr. Suit of Armor” after our hostess’s news flash raised the spookiness level up a few notches. But our two evenings at the Redland Hotel passed without murder nor mayhem.
We gathered some wonderful stock footage of the Haunted Hotel interior while there and remember the place quite fondly. If ever we found ourselves back in the neighborhood, we would book accommodations there again and high-five “Mr. Suit of Armor.”
And if there are any ghosts, we will probably seek some back-up from a local video production crew…..
Patty Mooney is a VP, Video Producer, Sound Technician, Teleprompter Operator and Video Editor at award-winning San Diego Video Production Company, Crystal Pyramid Productions. For more adventures, enjoy our blog, Diary of a Video Production Crew
