The Ancient Ram Inn

The story

The Ancient Ram Inn is a former pub in Wotton-under-Edge, a market town in Gloucestershire. It is a Grade II* listed building (list entry 1088885). The listing describes a late medieval building remodeled in the 16th century, and a dendrochronology analysis cited by the historian James Wright of Triskele Heritage in 2023 points to timbers felled in the winter of 1495 to 1496. Earlier property deeds from 1350, held at the Gloucestershire Record Office, mention a building on the site.

Other records give a picture of working life. A 1532 deed mentions clothiers, and hooks for stretching cloth, tenter hooks, from the 16th century suggest the wool trade. Deeds of 1521, 1532 and 1538 record its transfer, and the 1532 deed names yeomen of Wotton acting for the parishioners, hence the suggestion that it was a church house. It became a pub in 1820, according to the website Higgypop, which gives a 99-year lease to a William Stoner (the listing cites a deed of 1820 calling it The Ram), and it closed as a pub in 1965.

In 1968 John Humphries bought it for about 2,000 pounds, according to Higgypop, with a clause barring reopening as a pub. He lived there for many years and died in December 2017 at 89. The building is now used for paranormal events. Wikipedia says it was converted to a guesthouse in 1968, and the official site says it once operated as a guest house; we did not establish when or how it took guests.

The legend

The strongest thing to say about this haunting is how late it is. We found no source dated before 2002 describing the building as haunted. Humphries said he was tormented at night by a “sex demon,” according to the website Higgypop (2023), but nothing we read dates that to his first years there. The 2002 items are an interview with him in Cotswold Edge, cited by James Wright, and a night spent there by Living TV’s Scream Team, reported by Mysteries of Mercia. Press coverage cited by Wikipedia (Metro, 28 October 2013; Stroud Times, 2022 and 2023) was not read.

The lists of ghosts are long, and they are all reported rather than documented. In the bishop’s room: a cavalier, two monks, a shepherd with a dog and an incubus or succubus. Higgypop links the room to a Reverend John Yates, a former Bishop of Gloucester, who it says failed to exorcise the inn; that rests on this one page. The kitchen has crying of a baby, tied to an alleged pagan burial ground, and the staircase has people being pushed. Haunted Britain reports a photograph of mist from June 1999, with no author. Haunted Britain reports an innkeeper’s daughter murdered in the roof space in the early 1500s; Higgypop instead has a woman murdered in the 1500s who haunts the bar and may be buried under its floor, as well as a hooded figure called Edward, a greyhound and a cat. Mysteries of Mercia reports that young investigators found skeletons and an iron object said to be daggers while looking for a cellar; a Bristol museum only said that this was “possible.”

Several foundation claims do not survive scrutiny. In November 2023 the historian James Wright, writing as Triskele Heritage, went through them. The date of 1145 is not supported, as the building dates to 1495 and 1496. No pagan burial ground, supposed to be over 5,000 years old, appears in heritage databases. Slaves building the church are implausible, because slavery had almost disappeared in England by the 12th century. Wikipedia’s claim that church masons lodged there points to an interview that does not say that. Another date, 1290 for a supposed Maurice de Bathe, is also unverified; Wright finds that name in the deed of 1350. The legend may have grown from late stories, perhaps starting with a former owner talking about a cemetery, and the author of Mysteries of Mercia thinks the occult objects with which the previous owner filled the house influenced visitors. Ghost Adventures is mentioned by one web page, unverified.

No hoax has been demonstrated, but no independent early evidence has been found either. This is a case study in a commercial legend: the building is real and old, and the ghost stories, as far as we can trace them, are modern.

What remains today

The building survives as a listed structure, privately owned, and is offered as a paranormal event venue. The old inn’s medieval fabric is the most solid part of the story, and if you want evidence, the listing description and the Triskele Heritage article are more informative than any ghost list.

Visiting

The building is private and not open to wander into. According to the official website, consulted in November 2026, what is offered is paid paranormal events: night-time and afternoon ghost hunts, sessions for ages 10 to 18, and private bookings for investigation teams, booked through the website. It does not list accommodation as such. We have not verified prices, dates or what the events involve. Do not approach the building outside booked events. If you attend, remember that the stories on offer are largely modern and that the dated medieval structure is the part you can actually trust.

Sources

1. Historic England list entry (List entry 1088885) — Historic England · Open Government Licence
2. Wikimedia Commons category : Ram Inn, Wotton-under-Edge — Wikimedia Commons
3. Ancient Ram Inn — Haunted Britain
4. Mediaeval Myth-busting Blog 26: The Ancient Ram Inn — Triskele Heritage, 2023-11-13
5. The Ancient Ram Inn: haunted or not — Mysteries of Mercia
6. The Ancient Ram Inn history — Higgypop, 2023-05-24
7. The Ancient Ram Inn (official site) — The Ancient Ram Inn
8. The Ancient Ram Inn, Wotton-under-Edge (list entry 1088885) — British Listed Buildings
9. Wikipedia article — Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 4.0

Text written by AI from the sources above and checked by a separate AI fact-check (how we work). Images: credits and licenses under each picture.