Is spooky Shropshire the most haunted county?

Last week paranormal investigators spent a night at the Boycott Arms in Claverley, where manager Ben Triance – a self-confessed sceptic – said he had awoken freezing cold in the middle of summer to find finger marks around his neck.

In recent weeks there have also been reports of strange goings-on at the White Lion in High Street, Wem, where Melanie Benbow and parents Malcolm and Angela Davies witnessed taps turned on when there was no-one there and voices from the attic and cellar.

Now Martin Wood, Shrewsbury's town crier, who leads regular ghost tours around the town, has said Shropshire can lay claim to being top of the charts for ghostly-goings on.

Mr Wood, who has spent decades collecting ghost stories from the region, said: "Shropshire is not just 'one of' the most haunted counties in the country, it is the most haunted. I think we can claim that – in fact I know it.

"I do a lot of tours around Shrewsbury but also get people from outside Shrewsbury and other parts of Shropshire on the tours. We get hundreds of stories coming from all over, from places like Nesscliffe, Cosford, and Bridgnorth. They can't all be made up and you can tell when someone is trying to pull the wool over your eyes."

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Shrewsbury-based journalist Violet Fenn agreed, saying Shropshire had a greater claim to being Britain's most haunted county than most, with stories associated with Shrewsbury Castle, Ludlow Castle, Moreton Corbet Castle, as well as reports of the ghost of a 16th century highwayman at Kynaston's Cave in Nesscliffe, a young girl accused of arson in 1677 at Wem Town Hall and a bomber pilot at Cosford Air Museum.

She said pub and hotel hauntings included Ye Old Punch Bowl Inn in Bridgnorth and Shrewsbury's Prince Rupert Hotel, The Dun Cow and The Nags Head, the latter which she had personal experience of, having previously worked there as a barmaid for nearly a decade.

She said: "Almost everyone who's ever worked there has a tale to tell about strange goings on – jukeboxes switching on in the middle of the night, furniture being shifted when your back's turned and the sound of barrels being moved around in the cellar."

She said there were supposedly three ghosts of people who had committed suicide there over the centuries. She said: "Legend has it that all three died after looking at a painting that is hidden on the inside of a cupboard in one of the upstairs rooms and indeed that anyone who sees it will be dead within the year."

Other reports include CCTV footage of a shadowy figure making a mess shifting boxes at Wellington Indoor Market in 2013 and another "pub poltergeist" throwing glasses around on CCTV at Bassa Villa in Bridgnorth in 2015.