Dean Court Hotel, York

Built by the architects J.B. & W. Atkinson in 1865, the Dean Court Hotel was originally three separate houses for Clergy from the nearby York Minster. On 11 March 2011 The York Press published the following story entitled ‘Ghost’ pulls leg of York hotel guest Marc Richards’ concerning a strange experience in the Dean Court Hotel.

A GUEST claims a ghost may have pulled his leg while he was lying in bed at a hotel near York Minster.

Marc Richards, 44, from Manchester, said, apart from his partner, he was alone in the Room 25 at the Dean Court Hotel when, in the early hours, he felt something tugging at his leg. He has written to the hotel to say: “Something grabbed my foot quite hard and pulled, as if to pull me out of bed. I was lying awake at 2.50am when my foot was grabbed and pulled with such a force I moved down the bed several centimetres.”

He said he had spent a week trying to rationalise what happened, but could not, so he was wondering whether other guests had experienced anything similar.

He said: “I would really like to know whether I am a bit mad or that it was something else.”

A hotel spokesman said the Dean Court, built in 1850, was investigated five years ago by a paranormal group, which reported speaking to a ghost named Annie and another named Dorothy, and also spotting the spooky spirit of an ex-army officer in a bath chair. He said: “Another paranormal group is visiting the Dean Court in a few weeks to spend an all-night vigil seeking things that go bump in the night.”