Quote from Angela on February 3, 2020, 2:16 pm

The Mermaid Inn in the heart of the quaint fishing town of Rye, East Sussex, is one of Britain's oldest and most haunted locations with a rich history of highwaymen and ruthless smugglers who regularly stayed here.

These characters have today been said to be the equivalent of the Peaky Blinders characters who ran by their own rules, shed much blood and were feared greatly.

Current landlady, Judith Blinko, says one paranormal team conducted investigations and claimed they saw an actual apparition in the inns most reportedly active room, room 16. One investigator physically reached out to touch the apparition and his arm would disappeared and became engulfed into its transparency, from which he quickly withdrew.

One couple awoke in the night at 2.20am to see a vision of two knife clad gang members fighting, she could hear the metal on metal of their blades clashing together. The ladies husband also experience the same phenomena.

The following week, within in the very same room one guest left his video recorder on throughout the night, and at exactly 2.30am, one half of the room suddenly became intensely darker and a strange light anomaly shot across the room. Also the sound of scraping metal could clearly be heard.

Could this have been the same two ghosts residually haunting the property today replaying their disputes of yesteryear.

In another room a young man says he saw a couple walk straight through the wall, he hurried downstairs and immediately checked out of the hotel. 

Heritage Officer, Peter Cosstick states that naturally the hotel will make noises for example squeaky old floorboards etc, as it is a very old building, the walls are not very thick. However he personally does not believe it is anything to do with the paranormal.

During the 1800s the majority of guests belonged to the notorious and ruthless Hawkhurst Smugglers Gang they were no strangers to every day murders. The apparitions have been aptly named the Peaky Blinders ghosts. There was no form of law and order back then so the gang basically ran by their own rules and executed people on their own terms.

Communities were literally afraid to walk down Mermaid Street at night as the streets would be filled with cold blooded killers.

A servant girl was murdered by the gang, she had betrayed them and many guests report seeing the servant girl dressed in a grey dress, crying in the corner of the room. 

A fascinating place, in a beautiful romantic village with a great historical past.