A December evening in Minchinhampton

December is a month which can encompass mild weather along with freezing cold, the nights are becoming ever darker. The valleys of Stroud are full of swirling fog, adding a ghostly presence to the month of good cheer. The perfect backdrop for one of the area’s best known ghost stories.

The Ragged Cot Inn situated on the road out of Minchinhampton toward Aston Down is the scene for a night of December tragedy. The Inn - once the home of a notorious highwayman named Bill Clavers – is frequented by patrons from near and far, was the scene of two tragic deaths.

It was the year of 1760 that the then landlord of the Ragged Cot, Bill Clavers, decided to rob the midnight London coach. It was a snowy December evening and Clavers decided to gain strength for his dastardly deed by over indulging in rum. The over indulgence caused him to leave his bedroom staggering with loaded pistols upon his person.

Clavers’ wife fearing the worst desperately tried to persuade him to come to his senses. Despite the fact that his wife was carrying their young child he pushed them roughly aside. His anger was such that his wife and child fell to the hallway beneath. In an almost drunken stupor he fled from the Inn.

The stupefied landlord was still able to carry out the robbery successfully and returned to the Ragged Cot a satisfied highwayman. Now returning to a more sober and sensible state he was mortified to find his wife and child lying dead at the bottom of the stairs.

Clavers’ problems were now compounded and in sheer desperation he bundled the bodies into a trunk. Local constables who had been alerted by the highway robbery were now in pursuit of the beleaguered landlord following his tracks through the snow.

Receiving no reply when they called at the Ragged Cot they forced open a window. Clavers immediately opened fire at the officers. One of the constables returned the fire from his pistol. However, it was not the pistol fire that caused Bill Clavers’ terrified scream! For at that precise moment a ghostly apparition of his wife and child silently crossed the floor and disappeared upstairs!

It was several moments before the startled constables and Clavers recovered. Obviously, after the spooky scene he had just witnessed the landlord was beyond any resistance. The constables secured Clavers to a chair. They began searching the Inn for the stolen goods and it was in entering the bar parlour they were confronted by the apparition sitting on the oak trunk. Scared out of their wits they hurriedly slammed the doors to the bar.

It was daylight before the bodies of Clavers’ wife and child were recovered. The doomed landlord was tried at Gloucester Assize Court, found guilty and was sentenced to death.

For those who visit the hilltop inn, the story can be found in the bar, for it hangs framed for all to peruse. Phantoms and spirits pervade the winter gloom but nowhere more so than the swirling December mists that descend on the hilltops and valleys of Stroud.