MAY IS not a month usually associated with ghost stories but one made the front page of The Hants and Sussex News in 1957.

Under the headline ‘A quiet “ghost” at the Sun Inn’, the Post’s forerunner reported mysterious goings on at the pub, also known as the Green Dragon, in Dragon Street, Petersfield, which is now the JSW restaurant.

“Customers in the public bar of the Sun Inn, Petersfield, looked up from their beer mugs and stared. There on a shelf, one of several beer jugs had begun to swing to and fro on its hook. The others were not moving.

“To the licensee, Christopher Hamilton, and his wife this was just another incident which has led them over the past 18 months to believe there is a ghost in the inn.

“They have heard strange noises, like footsteps, coming along the corridor from the spare room at the top of the stairs. Mrs Hamilton is convinced that the ghost is that of a small child.

“Recently, she heard a noise at 2am. ‘I heard a noise like someone playing marbles on the floor of the spare room. When I got to the door it was securely fastened and I was too scared to go in.

“’Never before in our whole lives have we experienced anything like this,’ she and her husband agree. Mr Hamilton does not really mind the ghost. ‘It’s a very quiet one, really,’ he says.

“’As long as it does not come along and stick a cold, clammy hand on my neck in the middle of the night, I don’t care.’

“Does he believe in ghosts? Mr Hamilton shrugs his shoulders and admits the noises are very distinct.

“A Scotsman – he came here with his wife and family about 18 months ago – he talked quietly about the habits of the being.

“‘It generally happens about 8pm or 8.30pm. We hear footsteps which sound just like a lively child running along the corridor from the spare room at the top of the stairs.

“‘Thinking the kids were out of bed my wife has run upstairs to find them sound asleep – and you always know when a child is shamming – and the passage is completely empty.’

“The couple have not told their twin seven-year-old daughters that they believe the house is haunted.

“Roderick aged 12 has heard the noises. Until one night he used to sleep in the room from which most of the noises came. He woke up terrified at a loud banging on the wall, appearing to come from the inside of the room.

“Customers, like Mr E Mells, a Petersfield baker, and Mr K Marshall, have also heard the noises and seen the beer jug swinging on the hook of its own accord.”

The building’s street frontage dates from the Regency period but behind it the structure is partly late 16th or early 17th century and originally timber framed. The first Green Dragon was on the opposite side of Dragon Street, now occupied by Handmade Happiness, and the business transferred in about 1790.

The inn was renamed The Sun before 1828, a name it kept until 1976 when it reverted to the Green Dragon.

If you’ve heard of the pub’s ghost, contact the Post: [email protected].