Entrepreneur Paul Hurst has restored one of the county's oldest coaching inns, the Old Bell Hotel in Derby's Sadler Gate, to its former glory but he could never have envisaged the problems or strange experiences he would face. Jill Gallone reports.
DOWN-to-earth Derbyshire businessman and modest entrepreneur Paul Hurst did not believe in ghosts when, through his passion for history and determination to save one of Derby's oldest buildings, he bought the Old Bell Hotel in Sadler Gate. "I thought it was all rubbish," he swiftly points out.
Not any more. He has witnessed so many paranormal experiences – as have some of his contractors – since his £1 million transformation of the venue got under way earlier this year, it has opened his mind to the unknown.
Paul was having a particularly stressful time with problems sparked by the project when the strangest experience of all occurred, albeit one which did not frighten him at all. It soothed him.
"I'd been having a really bad week. In fact it had been horrendous," admits the likeable, say-it-like-it-is Paul who, despite making his fortune by his early 30s – after being described as "a plodder" at his local comprehensive, West Park – still lives in Spondon.
Here is a man who respects his roots. That's what drew him to take on the Old Bell Hotel, which dates back to around 1680.
To put that into context, the hotel had already been around for 65 years when, in 1745, it offered lodgings to soldiers from Bonnie Prince Charlie's army. They would have stayed in the top storey where poorer folk shared basic amenities.
One of the prince men is believed to have committed a murder there, which is one reason why room 29 is believed to be its most haunted.
"This place is so awash with history it is incredible," says Paul. "I get angry when I see buildings like this going to rack and ruin."
However, when he first got the keys to this historical gem, which had fallen into disrepair, the mess was mind-boggling. He explains: "It was 100% worse than I had anticipated. The place was full of rubbish – everywhere.
"We had to move 48 tonnes of rubbish out, and because we're on Sadler Gate (a narrow pedestrianised street) I couldn't have skips.
"It also cost £15,000 just to rid the place of pigeons, and buying the place was so complex it cost £65,000 in professional fees."
Add to that planning wrangles over changes to a listed building, banks "not wanting to know" and the enormous work required to bring the hotel back to its former glory and you can understand why Paul, who lives and breathes this project 24-7, has at times felt overwhelmed by the enormity of what he has taken on.
Which brings us back to that spine-chilling moment in the Tudor Bar. Paul says: "I was sitting down with an old painting in my hands of the powerful men who used to come here in the 1950s.
"The painting shows them in the Tudor Bar. I put my head in my hands and said out loud, 'I've taken on too much here. I don't know how I am going to deal with all this'.
"I looked up and the strangest thing happened. There was a newspaper on the bar and a page of it lifted up very slowly, as if someone was turning it. There was no wind.
"The same thing happened three more times, as if someone was slowly leafing through the paper. But I felt totally calm. It didn't frighten me. It was as if the men in the painting were saying, 'It's going to be all right'."
The Old Bell's reopening has generated huge interest, particularly among people who remember it in its heyday.
As Paul and I chat, an elderly man wanders through the arch where the stagecoaches once entered. "Is the Tudor Bar open yet?" he asks Paul. "And is it still men only?"
Paul replies with a wry smile: "We can't get away with that these days."
Step back a few decades, however, and men dominated its snug inner sanctum, which boasts a magnificent 18th-century fireplace, high ceilings and beams. Paul has restored it all.
It was because of the bar's high profile that Derby soft-drink manufacturer Burrows and Sturgess decided to use it as a setting when it commissioned the aforementioned painting to mark its centenary in 1950. The dark, smoky atmosphere and camaraderie of the venue are clear to see.
Paul says: "I heard that two judges were in here one day discussing whether to hang a man. After a long chat and a few whiskies they decided they would. All sorts of key decisions relating to Derby must have been taken here.
"A programme about the Old Bell being one of the top 10 most haunted places in the UK has been on American TV and every week I get an inquiry from someone in America who wants to stay here to experience paranormal activity."
Their dreams will soon come true. Paul plans to open eight to 10 boutique hotel rooms and hopes to renovate the spooky top storey "rooms for the poor", said to have witnessed tragedy.
"The story goes that a young pregnant woman hanged herself there because her soldier boyfriend had to go to war," says Paul. "I'd like to dress the rooms to look how they did in the 17th century."
However, he won't be spending a night there. "No amount of money would make me stay on my own here overnight. Even if someone offered to pay for the entire renovation, I'd say no."
Spooky events include contractors seeing a ghostly figure, footsteps on the stairs and loud bangs when there is no one there ... and the axe.
"One morning I got here and an axe was carefully balanced on a pot. I was the last person to leave the night before and the first person back in the morning," says Paul. "The contractors took the axe off the pot and no one could get it to balance again.
"Sometimes you arrive and a load of random items from all over the hotel are stacked up in a pyramid. One of the contractors said his mum used to work here and complained that it took her ages to close the bar at night because the poltergeists would keep moving things when she was tidying up.
"Ghost hunters Derek Acorah and Richard Felix have been here and paranormal groups say it's a very active place. We found a coffin under the floorboards in the Tudor Bar. It's wedged in holding up pipes so we can't open it. We think it's empty."
For Paul restoring the Old Bell to its former coaching inn glory – "it was never meant to be a nightclub" – is his driving force. "This place is part of Derby's history. Before trains, the Old Bell Hotel would have been the place to stay. It was a prestigious building taking in many of the 40 stagecoaches a day which arrived in the town.
"When the railways came, a massive part of the hotel was pulled down but the ground floor was extended and includes a ballroom."
That is now being restored along with the many bars. Paul says: "There used to be the Dilly Bar, Tudor Bar, Front Bar and the Monk Bar, and upstairs is the Belfry Bar where Derby County players liked to go.''
The fascination with The Old Bell's resurgence is gaining pace. A delighted Paul says: "I offered tickets to tour the place on Facebook and we have already sold 1,000."
"We had 89 requests for tickets in the first minute. People tell me they have always wanted to see inside the building. Others want to come back here because it played such a big part in their lives in years gone by.
"I hope to start a micro-brewery here, too.''
The Old Bell was on the Derby pub circuit when Paul hit the night scene as a young man in the 1980s.
"I want to restore it all. It used to be the best place to be and I want to make that happen again. I love this part of the city. I suppose it's my way of putting something back."
Paul is able to do so thanks to his business brain and, as his Old Bell project demonstrates, the ability to think big and take a chance.
He says: "I went into engineering after leaving school but left that to go into the printing industry for 20 years. I set up my own printing company and then went into property developments and restaurants."
The "plodder" who studied business at Loughborough University has done well.
