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Submitted By Allan Treherne

Like many natives of Newquay, I found my first job at a hotel. Back in the 1980’s I was hired as Assistant Night Porter at The Headlands Hotel. You’re probably asking yourself what an Assistant Night Porter actually does; the answer to that question is: anything that the Night Porter himself considers too menial, dirty or boring. But don’t get me wrong, it wasn’t a bad job at all. The fact is, it was a really good job that required me to do very little - which was only fair because the pay wasn’t great - most of the time I sat with the Night Porter and talked or read a book or listened to the radio. From time to time, one of us might have to get off his backside to let in a guest who’d arrived after the main doors were locked, make a pot of coffee for somebody who couldn’t sleep or (on rare occasions) call the police if prowlers or vandals were seen on the grounds. But, in the main, we just sat and passed the time in a pleasant enough manner.

The Night Porter was called Robert, he was middle-aged and had worked at The Headlands for about five years. He knew a lot about the history of the place; partly because he was an avid reader who used the local library intelligently; partly because, during long, quiet nights, he sometimes poked around out of the way places in the hotel and uncovered old account books, advertising literature and the like. One of my cousins told me that the building was haunted. When I asked Robert if he’d ever heard of such a thing, he told me all about The Headlands Poltergeist.

Some time during the Great War of 1914-18, The Headlands Hotel was taken over by the Army and used as a hospital for officers. At the time, Newquay was still only half-way through its transformation from fishing village to holiday resort, plus few tourists were taking seaside vacations whilst the slaughter was going on in France and Belgium. So The Headlands was more or less empty; the Army just moved in and altered any parts of the place as they required. In a short time, they had a grandly appointed hospital with sweeping sea-views!

The main dining room has high, floor-to-ceiling windows which allow guests to enjoy those wonderful views at mealtimes. All the natural light, space and easy access which the room offered made the room a well-nigh perfect location for the operating theatre. A surgical table was installed in the middle of the floor, thus many casualties from the battlefields were either saved or lost in that room and on that table. After the war, the Army handed the hotel back to its owners - but it seems that one patient never checked out.

From that time forward, the dining room was the centre of strange, ghostly happenings. The haunting would sometimes play itself out in small and subtle ways; other times it would surge to vivid, violent paranormal heights. The ghost reacted to the people who worked or stayed at The Headlands; he was also sensitive to any changes made to the dining room. If he disliked any of the staff or guests who entered his domain, if he objected to something new in his lair, that would be the signal for smashed plates, cups and glasses. Very often the morning shift would have to tidy up broken crockery and upset furniture. I think that breakable stuff was removed when the ghost was at his most furious; if that was the case, maybe the lack of easily-smashed objects caused him to switch his attentions to the curtains.

For several years before Robert’s arrival, the Poltergeist regularly tore down the curtains which covered the dining room’s long picture windows. They were fixed to large wooden rings that ran over thick wooden curtain poles; they were pulled with such force that the rings either snapped or were ripped clean off the top of the material. The hotel owners refused to believe that such widespread and repeated destruction was the work of a ghost. They suspected unruly employees were responsible and hired extra security staff. But the damage continued; two of the security men fled the building, never to return, when they saw the curtains being dragged down and flung around by unseen hands.

A succession of Night Porters came and went - it’s difficult to say how many saw the spirit in action or how many were upset by accusations that they’d fallen asleep and allowed a vandal to misbehave in the dining room. It was always possible to replace them; a high level of unemployment made that possible. But the owners began to worry in case potential customers got wind of The Headlands Poltergeist. Robert seemed to have a calming affect on the turbulent spirit. He told me that he made a point of speaking to the ghost every night; of acknowledging his presence and treating him like an old friend. The curtain ripping stopped soon after he arrived and never came back whilst he was the Night Porter.

However, the owners of the hotel were tight-fisted misers and their mean ways rocked the boat. One day, rather than hire a builder, they sent two young porters on to the roof to fix some broken slates. One of them complained about the dangerous nature of this task; he told the boss that it was stupid to go up on a high, sloping roof on a windy day without even a safety rope. The boss went to his office and got a ball of thin parcel string; he handed it to the porter and told him that he could use it to tie himself to one of the chimneys!

Robert started work 3 minutes late one night. The boss said nothing at the time; but, later that week, Robert discovered that a portion of his wages had been deducted for ‘tardiness’. When the boss refused to restore the removed amount, Robert quit. That night, as I was sitting with his replacement, there were loud noises in the dining room. The new Night Porter rushed to see what was happening, I followed him at a much slower pace. I knew exactly what we’d find. The curtains had been ripped down.

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