The Black Swan Inn
The Black Swan Inn is located in the historic market town of Devizes, which is within Wiltshire, England. Very little is known about this location aside from a handful of owners and that it seems generally accepted that the current building dates back to 1737. The Black Swan Inn has also been called the Black Swan Hotel, and one of it's previous owners may have been a highwayman. The ghost of this highwayman is said to haunt the building, as is a young woman that is believed may have died in a fire. The cellars and room 4 seem the most active parts of this building and, in the cellar, people have reported hearing the sound of a horse galloping. There is debate as to how legitimate the hauntings of this location are; especially as it has been said a previous owner may have made up the hauntings for publicity, only to then end up believing their own stories.
History
The Black Swan Inn was previously called The Black Swan Hotel, and current Google images dating from 2025 have the location appearing under the name of 'The Black Swan Inn'. It's unclear when this name change occured, but it seems a renovation did occur when it was taken on by new management during 2021. As for the building itself, there is mixed information regarding how far back it dates. The source 'Weird Wiltshire' has claimed the building dates from 1732 and that it's cellars are thought to date from the 15th century, also known as the 1400s. However, it has been said that the hotel's brick cellar may date from the early 17th century, also known as the early 1600s, and that the existing building dates from 1737. The source 'Historic England' says that the year 1737 is on a strap of cast lead rain water pipe to the left hand of the building; however, the addition of this pipe does not mean the whole structure was built during 1737, and so it could be older.
It's also been said that the location was a private residence until 1737 when it became a coaching inn, and that a hostelry has been on the site for longer than the 1737 date. Again, it's unclear if the current building has stood for longer than the 1737 date, and if so when it was built. One source has said that during the year of 1700, the original building on the site was rebuilt and renamed to the Sergeant's Head. This source has also said that the proprietor at the time was Francis Paradise the younger, a former sergeant of the mace to the town's mayor. Apparently, during the 1700s, the current function room was used to serve as a court of judgement and then later as a meeting place for the local freemasons and traders.
It is said that a man called Ambrose Saintsbury was one of several proprietors of the inn during the early 1700s. He was a horse dealer, acted as the inn's landlord, and it's been speculated that he was a possible highwayman during the night. The building overlooks Market Place and it served as a traditional coaching inn. It's also been said that the building stands opposite to where the town gallows once stood. Regarding the cellars, it's said that they predate the current building and are from a time when the site was occupied by the 'Nags Head Inn'. There are five Chambers in the cellar leading off from the centre, and one appears to have been deliberately bricked up.
John Girvan, a local historian and author of several books on Devizes' underground tunnels, gained permission to remove several bricks and found what he believes is a labyrinth of secret tunnels which run beneath Market Square. It's thought these tunnels possibly connect to other buildings such as Devizes Castle. It's believed that the cellars were where Ambrose Saintsbury kept his horse and a change of clothing. There has also been speculation that Ambrose may have used the tunnels for his nocturnal transgressions. It has been said that during 1789, the building was leased to Walter Flay and in the same year, it was struck by lightning which caused severe damage to the stables.
A Gazette & Herald article from the 20th of January 2005 has said Pam Lugg was a co-owner of the property during that time. Pam's husband was called Colin, and it can be assumed he was the other owner at the time; although, the article does not state this. Bones were found in the cellar, and Pam took them to the Wiltshire Heritage Museum. Katie Hinds, the liaison officer at the museum in Long Street, said that her and her colleagues believed the bones to have been from an animal; possibly a sheep. During the March of 2009, Mike and Yvonne Wright took over the hotel. During the year of 2014, it was rumoured that the celebrity chef Marco Pierre White would take over the location, but instead the antique dealer John Chapman took over.
An article from the 10th of July 2021, from the Wiltshire Times, discusses that Kev and Steph Chandler took on the pub during 2021 and begun to renovate it's interior. As discussed earlier, this could be when the name of the location changed from 'The Black Swan Hotel' to 'The Black Swan Inn'; however with so many changes of hands, it's incredibly unclear exactly when the name change occured. As Kev was the head chef at Rick Stein's restaurant in Marlborough, it's expected that this location should serve some good food. The Black Swan Inn is a grade II listed building, and it first gained this listing on the 9th of April 1954.
Hauntings
One of the most prominent hauntings of this location revolves around room 4. It's been said that guests have left this room in the middle of the night due to a yong woman in a flowing dress who haunts this room. This woman has long blonde hair, and it's suspected that she was trapped and died in a fire which occured during the mid-1700s. Some sources have disputed this by claiming the fire occured within the building during the 19th century, also known as the 1800s. This woman apparently materialises from a wall, glides to the chair by the window, and then sits in the chair to gaze out into the night. She then rises from the chair, floats across the room, and disappears into the wall behind the bed. Some sources have said she sits at the window crying. People have said a lady died of childbirth within room 4, so it's unclear if this is that same lady or if it's seperate.
The bed of room 4 is said to shake, the taps run in the night, and the toilets flush. When one of the hotel managers spent the night in room 4, they heard scratches as though someone was trying to escape the room. Stomach cramps and nausea have also been experienced within room 4, and people have claimed to feel a pressure around their necks as though strangled. Two paranormal researchers have apparently caught a misty form floating in the vicinity of the chair the woman is said to sit in on camera at around 1:15am. The woman of room 4 is also said to haunt the other rooms and is seen in these rooms by guests. There has been brief mention in a source about a murdered woman who haunts the location, but this spirit is rarely discussed and is accompanied with no detail.
When people have investigated the building, they've had tape recorders pick up strange knocks and bangs, thermometers show drops in temperature, and orbs have been caught on video. While investigating the cellar, investigators have thought they've caught a face emerging through a wall. People have reported hearing horse gallops within the cellar. They have also reported seeing a man dressed in black sitting astride a horse within the cellar. It's been speculated that this man in black is Ambrose Saintsbury, and it has been said that this apparition is often accompanied by a woman whose identity is unknown. It's also been said that it's possibly the ghost of Ambrose who goes into the bar and chats with customers. On several occasions, people have been surprised by a man wearing dark clothing and a tricorn hat. This man engages in conversation with people and then suddenly, and abruptly, disappears.
An investigator has felt their throat be cut within the building, and a tablecloth has been consistently moved. Plus, a light has been experienced turning on and off seemingly on command. A boy aged between five and nine has been reported to haunt the cellar by people who have attended vigils, and it's said a man in a top hat and shabby coat has been seen sitting in the corner of the restaurant. When seen, staff think this man is a normal person waiting to be served as his apparition is so vivid. A previous owner, Mrs Wright, has been interviewed about the location's ghosts. Her quote comes from the Wiltshire Gazette & Herald newspaper in an article published on the 23rd of April 2009. She has said the following:
"So many people have been phoning up about doing late night vigils, we agreed to continue them. Last week we had a group in from 11pm to 4:30am. Most of the time was spent in the cellar but then we all visited room 4. One of the girls in the party said she felt a presence next to her. She reached out her hand and she said she felt it getting very hot. She was quite distressed so we turned the light on. Her hand was dripping with sweat. Michael Murphy, our daughter's partner, held a thermometer at the spot and it went up from 17 to 27.6 degrees Celsius as we watched. There was no heat source in the room. We just can't explain it."
Mrs Wright has also spoken about a film crew who wanted to stay at the hotel. The film crew were making a documentary for Wadworth brewery so booked themselves into the hotel, but they turned down room 4. Mrs Wright said the following on the matter: "They said they had been on the filming of the TV programme Most Haunted when it visited the Black Swan a few years ago and they didn't want to spend the night in room 4."
The source 'Hayley is a Ghost' has provided a great insight into the hauntings of the Black Swan Inn; particularly those around the lady in white, who Hayley says was named Elizabeth, and Ambrose. This source is describes itself as an "Award-Winning Science blog about spooky things written by Hayley Stevens", and it describes Hayley as "a Wiltshire-based paranormal investigator using a science-based methodology to solve spooky mysteries". I will link this source at the end of the article, so do go and read it in it's entirety, but it is incredibly important to feature some segments of Hayley's conclusion and commentary here. She had investigated the property, and she has said the following:
"I should add that it’s been a while since this investigation took place and I don’t have the case files available to work from anymore, but I remember it being a typical ghost investigation, only, as the evening went on it took an unexpected turn as they landlady made an unexpected confession. The story about the haunting was completely fabricated.
She confessed to us that when they heard that the hotel was said to be haunted (as most old buildings are), they realised that the “Most Haunted Pub in Wiltshire” claim was marketable and they wanted to catch people’s attention. This inspired them to work with a local amateur historian (who I will not name here) to create a ghostly back story to tempt ghost hunters in and give them something to work from on their overnight visits.
She told us that none of the historical details were completely accurate and had been cherrypicked to fit with the story of the haunting. It was this false information that they had provided to the then-historian working on the TV show ‘Most Haunted’ which was presented to camera by the crew while at The Black Swan Hotel. Later, Richard Felix would be seen sat among piles of paperwork used to fact check information the alleged psychics Derek Acorah and Uri Geller relayed to Yvette Fielding. I have no reason to believe that those involved in the show knew that the information was fictional."
"The landlady was now genuinely terrified of ghostly happenings in the hotel and told us how she would regularly be in the bar area on her own only to spot a tall, ghostly shadow loitering at the end of the room which would move towards her menacingly. She was too scared to venture into the basement on her own – the basement which for years was marketed to ghost hunters as being a hotspot for paranormal activity. The same basement that I had been terrified in all those years earlier.
In fact, during our visit, she was too afraid to walk around the building to turn off lights while locking the building up and a member of our team had to hold her hand and walk around with her. Upon exiting the building, we realised that the basement lights had been left on and she refused to go back into the building because she was so afraid of what waited in there. It would be easy to judge her as faking this too, but over the years I have come to know what a person in the grip of terror looks like, and she was genuinely afraid."
"Looking back, it is my professional opinion that the only ghosts at The Black Swan Hotel are those which were created by an ex-landlady and her amateur historian friend. Yet, this fictional tale coupled with many years of witnessing ghost hunters at work (who can look very convincing and scary if you don’t know the dodgy reality of their methods and claims) had scared this woman so much that she was now haunted by the ghosts she herself had created.
I don’t know if ghosts are still said to roam the corridors of The Black Swan. It has recently been renovated and given a beautiful facelift, now marketed as an The Black Swan Inn rather than as a hotel, and the current management were certainly not involved in any of the dubious claims that I encountered all those years ago. However, fictional hauntings of this nature have a tendency to linger, so who knows for sure."
Summary Of Hauntings
1. Young woman, blonde hair, flowing dress (Elizabeth?) - Mostly room 4
2. A man dressed in black, possibly Ambrose Saintsbury - Mostly cellar
3. A woman (?), appears with Ambrose (?) - cellar
4. A lady, died of childbirth (?) - Room 4 (?)
5. A murdered woman (?)
6. A boy, aged 5-9 (?) - cellar
7. A man in top hat and shabby coat - sits in corner of restaurant
8. Strange knocks
9. Strange bangs
10. Horse gallops - cellar
11. Temperature drops
12. Orbs
13. Stomach cramps - room 4
14. Nausea - room 4
15. Pressure felt around necks as though strangled - room 4
16. Bed shakes - room 4
17. Taps run - room 4, night
18. Toilets flush - room 4
19. Scratches heard - room 4
My Thoughts
As you can see from the amount of question marks included in the summary of hauntings, I feel very few pieces of reported phenomena in this location are legitimate. As said by the 'Hayley is a Ghost' source, a previous owner of the building has admitted to spreading falsified about the hauntings in order to boost the location's popularity. It sounds like this individual was the owner while Most Haunted investigated the property and that this team were provided with false information about the location; whether that be either history or hauntings. As always, I will say I feel there will be spirits residing within this location due to my own beliefs on how spirits work; however, I feel what has been discussed in this article I've written is likely mostly down to a hoax. Very little is known about the location's history, and the hauntings seem to either come from falsified peddled a previous owner, or they've come from other teams and vigils likely involving dubious psychics.
This is quite possibly the first location I've written about where I've reached this part of the article and I honestly cannot say I know what to believe out of what I've written. Due to this, my advice to you if you are wanting to investigate the property, is to investigate it as a blank slate. Do not attend any public gatherings here where you will likely be told what haunts the property, and do not attend anything here which discusses the location's history. I feel previous owners have sadly dampened the truth of this location so much that the tourism angle of this building cannot be trusted. So, instead try to investigate the location with those you know and trust. Investigate it as a blank slate, and try to uncover the truth of any hauntings based on the results of your investigations; not based on what anyone has told you.
Thank You!
Thank you for reading this article! I want to reiterate here that my conclusion is not a reflection on the current owners at all, and they may be more than willing to share the accurate history and hauntings with people. However, because so little is to be discovered about this location, my conclusion had to agree with Hayley as that's all the information I had on the legitimacy of it all. I also want to apologise to anyone reading that this article was out a week later than I had intended. I had family matters to deal with, and so I needed to push the schedule back by a week. Hopefully, everything can get back on track; but there may be more delays. If all goes to plan, the next article will be published on Friday the 7th of March and it will document a paranormal influencer.
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Sources I Have Used
8. BBC Home
10. Wiltshire Times
11. The Black Swan
13. Fandom
18. Haunted Hovel
19. UK Paranormal
24. Life Can Be Toff
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