“They were brilliant,” he said. “I remember sharing a reel on various sites in Cornwall to promote the events and worried, what if too many people show up? Then I realised I should be worried about whether people would turn up at all! However, all five were sold-out, and the first four exceeded my expectations. They were very well attended.”

Lawrence is a self-confessed believer in the paranormal, and claimed that ‘seeing is believing’. He shares ghost stories rooted in Cornwall and Devon’s heritage with his followers and readers online, following his own paranormal experiences in a haunted Dartmoor pub.

As the manager of the Royal Standard in Mary Tavy, no two days were the same - as to be expected for a busy country pub. However, Lawrence and his staff were never quite on their own as they prepared for the stream of customers each day, or after bidding farewell to the last at night.

“No one told me it was haunted when I first started the job,” he explained. “But we all saw and heard things. On three separate occasions, we saw what looked like a lady dressed in a ballgown. We were astonished!

“We all heard footsteps in the empty flat above frequently, and plates in the kitchen seemed to smash on their own. On one occasion, a chair appeared to be slammed suddenly in fury.”

The Royal Standard closed as a pub in 2015, and has recently been made into homes. We wonder if the residents have had any spooky encounters…

Lawrence was approached by the team at Make Stuff Happen CIC earlier in the year to establish a locally-run ghost tour around Launceston. He knew of the town’s interesting past, and that it is no stranger to the odd ghostly tale.

“I had a friend who was visiting the Eagle House Hotel and I met up with him there,” Lawrence said. “I took him to the Bell Inn, a great pub where I thought a Londoner could appreciate a bit of oldy-worldy Cornwall. He was taking a video of the back room, when all of a sudden a mist materialised by the stove and supposedly turned into a small man, before disappearing.”

With these tales and experiences in mind, Lawrence was keen to start researching other paranormal encounters in Launceston. Tales of ghostly faces appearing in the windows of Dockacre House, spirits lurking in the large rooms of the White Hart Hotel, and even a few ‘bumps in the night’ at various residences in Launceston, captured Lawrence’s attention. It is even said that Launceston has its very own ghoul, known as the Kergrim. Spooky!

It comes as no surprise that when the ghost tours started in the summer holidays, the guests were treated to some peculiar phenomena. One woman claimed to see a man appear on the window ledge in the Southgate Arch - just for a split second, as though he were listening in on the group. Later, while sharing ghost stories in the White Hart Hotel where the ghosts of children are said to haunt the ballroom, one guest said they saw a child’s face peeking around the corner at them, before disappearing. Another guest took a photo while the tour visited a haunted store cupboard, and believed to capture a ghostly face in the window (pictured). What do you think?

Could it be a trick of the light, or the mind doing somersaults? Or could it be real paranormal experiences?

With Halloween just around the corner, Lawrence will be starting the ghost tours up again for autumn and winter, and has some exciting plans in store. He hopes to launch two tours - the first will be for people aged 12+, with a ghost walk around town and the sharing of ghost stories afterwards. The second will cater for people aged 18+ and will be more of a ghost investigation, with hopes of making contact with spirits. It’s important to note that this will be done with a professional paranormal investigator present. Autumn ghost tours are expected to start from mid-October up to Halloween.

If you are interested in attending a ghost tour in the haunted capital of Cornwall, keep an eye on the Launceston Ghost Tours Facebook page. To hear more paranormal stories from around Cornwall and Devon, see Lawrence’s YouTube channel: Dare to visit THE MOST HAUNTED PUB IN THE WORLD?? Cornwall's INFAMOUS Jamaica Inn!!

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