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Station
Hotel is situated in Castle Hill below the ruins of Dudley Castle. There
is said to be a hidden tunnel that still connects them. The hotel was
converted from a manor house in 1910. The hotel is in the centre of the
West Midlands so it is easily accessible by the motorways of England. This
hotel offers a great atmosphere. The hotel was constructed in 1910 but was
then demolished in 1936 to extend the hotel. When it was completed it
became used by the artists at the "Dudley Hippodrome Theatre" (opposite
the hotel) which included Laurel & Hardy (1947), Bob Hope, Bing Crosby and
George Formby who have all stopped at the Station Hotel.
The
opposite site which used to be the "Dudley Hippodrome" was
situated on was part of the Earl Of Dudley's Estate then purchased by John
Clement in the 1890's. John Clement was born and bred in Dudley in 1840
and had also worked at the Earl Of Dudley's estate office. John Clements
passion was amateur dramatics, by the 1880's he owned two music shops in
Wednesbury and West Bromwich working as a theatrical agent. In 1889 he
developed his first theatre "The Colosseum" which was originally an old
circus building in Trindle Road. He then opened "The Dudley Opera House"
in 1899, sadly it closed due to lack of popularity and John Clement had to
change it to the same thing as the other theatres did with variety acts
such as a young Charlie Chaplin in 1906. When the building was burnt down
in 1937 the site was bought by the local theatre enthusiasts, the
"Kennedy" family, who also owned the plaza cinema next door and they
opened the "Dudley Hippodrome" in 1938. The immense size of this building
meant it held 1,700 seated people so it was one of the largest venues in
the
Midlands
for that era. Comedy was the favourite through the 1940's - 1950's which
included acts of Chico Marx, Bob Hope, Harry Secombe, Morecambe & Wise and
Dudley regular Ken Dodd. 1951 was the first televised christmas pantomime
of Cinderella. Unfortunately with the decline in live variety acts the
Kennedys were forced to sell in 1958 and it became the bingo hall to
present.
There
was a railway line in the 1960's which used to run by the bingo hall hence
the name "Station Hotel". The station was by Dudley Zoo. On 1849 the
Wichnor Junction line to
Dudley was opened and went up to the Bescot to
Walsall
section. The last time this line ran was on 29 July 1962, five years later
Dudley station was no more.
What
also makes the Station Hotel interesting is that many of the hotel
archives records are missing, making research for the place very
difficult. The hotel keeps its own records of activity in a "Spook Book"
where accounts from staff, guests, ghost hunters and general guests to the
hotel going back to 2003. Some entries mentioned include: the story
regarding a murder in the cellar, various spirits which visit the hotel
are children and a woman who fell from the stairs to her death.
The
hotel has been visited by "Most Haunted" and they found that the hotel
holds dark secrets such as down the cellar. The story told is of a hotel
manager who took a servant girl down there but she shook off his advances
and threatened to tell his wife. The girl was murdered by the man because
of this and is said to wander around in the hotel. Could this be the body
that is told of being in a beer barrel and rolled out through the cellar
chute before being buried at the front of the building? Could
be........... A crew member (Cath) got ghost scratched on her face in room
217. This is classed as typical poltergeist phenomena.
The
main location rooms are: rooms 214 & 217, the cellar, restaurant but there
are a further 9 rooms where activity has been reported including the
corridors, stairs, the bar & ballroom. One of these reported is a smell of
smoke in one of the rooms.
One
of the most active is rooms is 214 it is said to be the most haunted
bedroom in the hotel. The bed and chair move by themselves which was
caught on film by Most Haunted, guests woke and find somebody watching
them, children run through the room and along the corridor before
disappearing into a wall. Spooky lights float around. A white mist was
seen opposite the mirror on the wall during an investigation in January
/February 2006.
A
male spirit is said to haunt room 217 who is said that took his own life
due to the financial problems that he was experiencing at the time.
The
rear hotels staircase has a Victorian lady who runs up the staircase in a
large Victorian dress, people have sighted this lady and have wondered why
she was in the hotel but when they have investigated the lady was no where
in sight.
In the
restaurant poltergeist activity is known to take place, where cutlery has
been thrown from out of no where to the shock of the unsuspecting staff
that has witnessed this activity.
The Cellar
has a great amount of activity including people being touched, pushed and
slapped. The orbs have been seen everywhere in the cellar. An Elemental
is also present here in this room.
Medieval
music has been heard throughout the hotel, many light anomalies, severe
temperature changes, apparitions seen walking the corridors, people having
scratches on their body and not knowing how it was done or where they have
come from, various technical difficulties especially with phones both
mobile and landlines.
If
you decide to stay in the Station Hotel make sure you ask for a room on
the haunted landing but you wont be getting any
sleep........................
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