Lyme Regis, a quiet and picturesque seaside village on the southern coast of Dorset, England, is an unlikely place for a haunting. The Angel Inn, which carries the most famous haunting in the region, seems even more unlikely. But with so many reports of strange presences, apparitions and ghostly goings on, Lyme Regis and The Angel in particular have themselves a reputation.

The Angel Inn has had reports of their resident ghost for some years now. There are a few variations on the original story behind this spirit, but all seem to agree that the ghost of the former landlady, Mrs. Langton, is the one responsible for all the eerie sightings and mysterious moving around of objects. Mrs. Langton was the landlady of The Angel in 1926. Some say her daughter was an alcoholic which brought Mrs. Langton much distress and, presumably, was enough to cause her spirit such unrest once she was dead. Others say she used to dress as Queen Victoria, hoping to bring herself an air of royalty, which sounds a bit bizarre, but one witness insists that the ghost they saw in The Angel was indeed that of Queen Victoria. The general feeling though, is that Mrs. Langton was very put out at being forced to leave her pub while she was still alive and even placed a curse on the place, exclaiming that if she couldn’t run her beloved pub no one else would do so successfully.

Another pub in Lyme Regis, this time in Uplyme, that claims to be haunted is The Black Dog. The story goes that in a nearby house in around the 18th century a man was haunted by the ghost of a black dog. In the end the man got so fed up with seeing this dog all the time that he chased it into the attic with a poker, where the dog disappeared through the roof and the man disturbed a stash of gold coins while still trying to poke the dog with the stick. After that the man used his wealth of gold to build an inn which he named after the dog. The black dog was then seen haunting Haye Lane, which used to be known as Dog Lane. People and especially dogs were said to disappear while walking down the lane at night and to this day locals won’t go down the lane at night and dog walkers are warned not to let their animals loose in the area after dark.

Chatham House, formally known as The Great House, in Broad Street is supposedly haunted by ‘the hanging judge’ Judge Jeffries who earned his reputation by being a ruthless lawman, sending everyone to the gallows from stable lads to seventy year old women. He’s said to have been very enthusiastic about hangings and enjoyed watching them himself. Jeffries dined in the great house in Lyme Regis where he saw to it that twelve people were hung. Sightings of his spirit include him wearing a black cap and carrying a bloodied bone.

The harbour-side fresh fish shop claims a haunting too, as does the home of Catherine and Laurence Anholt, the children’s author and illustrator who also live right by the sea. The couple live and work in an old farmhouse which is reportedly haunted by the ghost of an old woman. Although no one seems to know who this woman was she stirs a pot in the kitchen.

Sceptics will say that all this is a bid to attract more tourists to the area, but Lyme Regis probably doesn’t need this particular tool to do that. Boasting a coastline littered with fossils, Lyme Regis is part of an area known as the Jurassic coast and sees many visitors flock to its shores every year who have no inclination towards ghost hunting. Besides, with reports and sightings of ghosts and strange happenings dating back hundreds of years and still persisting today, who are we to argue?