The facade of the Mermaid Inn, Rye.
The Mermaid Inn is a historical Inn located on
Mermaid Street, once the town's main road in the ancient town of
Rye, East Sussex, southeastern England.
Mermaid Street of present day must have been the Middle Street of 1670.
The current building dates from the year 1420 and has 16th century additions of Tudor Style, but its cellars erected in 1156 still survive.
Rye, East Sussex
Rye has an incredible wealth of architecture for a small town.
Medieval, Tudor, Georgian, Victorian...There is timber framed stone, red brick, all accompanied by cobbled streets.
Lined with crooked cottages and half-timbered houses, the narrow, cobbled Mermaid Street is one of the Rye's most photographed views.
The Mermaid Inn, Rye.
The
Mermaid Inn was established in the 1620 and it has a long, jagged and captivating history and attracts everyone from Shakespeare historian to ghost hunters.
During the 18th century, the Mermaid Inn was the watering hole and hideout of the notorious Hawkhurst Gang, a 600-strong crew of ruthless and often murderous smugglers ferared throughout the South Coast.
Secret passageways, winding tunnels and snugs with crooked, low-beamed ceilings, mullion windows and strange wall carvings depicting Catholic priests fleeing the continent during the Reformation, it is hard to find a more charismatic Inn.
The cellar at the Mermaid Inn, Rye.
The
Mermaid Inn is strongly associated with the Notorious Hawkhurst Gang of Smugglers, who used the building during the 1730s and 1740s as one of their strongholds. At the time, Rye was a vibrant port town.
Smugglers, their mistresses and other characters' spirits are alleged to haunt the Mermaid Inn.
The Rocking Chair in the Mermaid Inn, Rye.
Reputedly amongst the most haunted historical inns in Britain, the
Mermaid Inn is a medieval mantrap of smugglers' tunners, priest holes and spooky residents' spectres.
Notwithstanding, in the two AA starred restaurant and a heart rum in the Giant's Fireplace bar will offer a spook-free night beyond doubt.
The Giant's Fireplace at the Mermaid Inn, Rye.
The 31 rooms all have different characteristics. Room 17 is reminiscent of Ebenezer Scrooge's office, while the ominous-sounding Dr Syn's Bedchamber is named after author
Russell Thorndike's fictitious villain in his novel about the Hawkshurst Gang. Apparently the inn's most haunted room, it has a secret passageway hidden behind a bookcase
which leads down to the bar. Once during a séance, Judith and others witnessed various spooky encounters, including the clashing swords of two men fighting. It is, however,
rather noisy; wattle and daub are not known for their soundproofing capabilities. Its long, narrow bathroom is cramped and a little out-of-date, which didn't put the Queen
Mother off when she stayed here in 1982.
The Elizabethan bedchamber in the Mermaid Inn, Rye.
Later History
The inn functioned as a club in 1913, after it came under the ownership of May Aldington, mother of the novelist Richard Aldington.
It was then a popular locale for many artists like Dame Ellen Terry, Lord Alfred Douglas (Oscar Wilde's "Bosie"), A.C. and E.F. Benson and Rupert Brooke.
In 1945, during World War II, the inn functioned as a garrison for Canadian officers.
It was later purchased by Mr L. Wilson, a Canadian, who had been garrisoned there.
The Mermaid Inn had the honour of hosting a luncheon to Her Majesty the Queen Mother when she was named as the Lord Warden of the Cinque Ports during her visit to Rye in 1982.
Under the name Mermaid House and The Mermaid Hotel, the Mermaid Inn was listed at Grade II* by English Heritage on 12 October 1951.
This defines it as a "particularly important" building of "more than special interest".
As of February 2001, it was one of 75 Grade II* listed buildings, and 2,106 listed buildings of all grades, in Rother—the local government district in which Rye is located.
The Mermaid Inn is presently owned by Judith Blincow and Robert Pinwill, who bought it in 1993.
In late 1982, the exterior of the inn was used in the post Monty Python film Yellowbeard, alongside its neighboring church square and infamous cobbled Mermaid Street leading
to the inn. The film turned out to be Marty Feldman's last ever project, after he died in Mexico during production.
Interior of the Mermaid Inn, Rye, Sussex.
One of the oldest pubs in the UK.
Haunted
The Mermaid Inn is well known for its hauntings and has been subject to an investigation by Most Haunted. The events in one room have been described as "one of the most well-
organised ghostly scenarios anywhere".
Room 1 (James) is said to be haunted by a lady in white or grey who sits in the chair by the fireplace. Guests have reported waking up in the morning and finding their clothes
on the chair wet, despite no windows or pipework being near the chair.
Room 10 (Fleur de Lys) is said to be haunted by the ghost of a man who has terrified guests by walking through the bathroom wall into the main room.
Room 16 (Elizabethan) was said to be the scene of a duel involving two men "of unknown date and origin" (although they have also been described as wearing "16th-century clothing").
After fighting through some of the nearby rooms, one of the men was killed, dragged into the adjacent room and thrown through a trapdoor into the dungeon below.
Many unexplained light anomalies have been recorded in the middle of the night. On one occasion an employee was tending to the fireplace when all of the bottles on the bottle shelf at the other end of the room fell off; the experience caused him to resign.
The ghost of a maid is said to be present in the inn; she was the girlfriend of one of the smugglers of the Hawkhurst Gang and was killed by his fellow gang members as they feared she knew too much and would expose them.
Room 17 (Kingsmill) is named after Thomas Kingsmill, a Hawkhurst smuggler who inhabited the inn. It is said to be haunted by the ghost of a woman who was said to be the wife of the Hawkhurst gang founder George Gray. She was said to haunt a rocking chair in the room; guests would wake up in the middle of the night and see the chair rocking on its own, and found the room icy cold.
The chair was eventually removed from the premises because it caused so many disturbances with guests.
Room 19 (Hawkhurst) is said to be haunted by a gentleman in old-fashioned clothes. One American guest reported seeing him sitting at the end of her bed: in terror, she spent the night in the adjacent room with a mattress pulled around her head.
Judith Blincow, who owns the inn and has worked there since 1980, states, "Although I have not personally seen ghosts, I certainly have met some very convinced and frightened guests."
A bookcase in the Mermaid Inn, Rye.
The Entrance to the Mermaid Inn.
References
https://www.telegraph.co.uk
https://play.google.com/books/reader?id=NIcJAAAAIAAJ&hl=en_GB&pg=GBS.PP13
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