The Haunting of … the Duke of Duckworth: The eerie incidents at a St. John's pub
‘Bizarre’ occurrence caught on tape in September
It's a beloved local haunt in downtown St. John's for pub-goers, lovers of fish and chips — and a ghost named Fred.
Colin Dalton worked at the Duke of Duckworth when it opened in McMurdo's Lane in 1987.
He said strange occurrences have been happening there ever since.
"I have felt creeped out here lots of times," said Dalton, who became a co-owner of the pub in 1990. "Just funny things keep happening."
Dalton said the building's history might have something to do with it.
It used to be a part of White's Clothing Company, which took up several civic numbers on that block of Duckworth Street.
He said he's heard many stories.
"The fella that owned it was called Sam White — or one of his sons or something like that. [He] hung himself in this part of the building," Dalton said.
"Can you prove it? Who knows. That's just stuff that's been told to us over the years."
Dalton said the first ghostly appearance happened more than 30 years ago, when, one night, a bartender saw a face in the back wall.
Now, a mirror hangs in that spot over the banquets, to mark where the apparition appeared.
"I don't think [that bartender] ever worked here again after, actually.… We have a couple of people that won't work here because of it. Cleaners and stuff like that, that don't like being here at all," said Dalton.
"They just get this weird feeling in here … like somebody's watching you."
'Odd things' happening
Dalton said "odd things" have happened at the Duke over the years.
"Just little things that throw you off," he said.
Like years ago, when ashtrays were placed on each table — a bartender would turn around, and all of a sudden, all the ashtrays would be moved to one table.
Or doors that have been closed, and upon coming back into a room — they're open again.
Watch: See the first episode of our "The Haunting of..." series:
Dalton said the staff blames these strange happenings on "Fred," the resident Duke ghost.
"Anything goes wrong, suspicious, curious, that type of way, we have to ask Fred," Dalton said.
He said the personal experience that freaked him out the most happened back in the 1990s.
"I turned off the TV, went downstairs, came up — TV's back on. And I remember even the next day, asking, 'How could that be possible?!'" he said.
"That one's never been explained to me."
Caught on video
One of the strange occurrences was actually caught on tape in mid-September.
When Dalton got to the bar, the bartenders asked if — when he'd left work the previous day — he had laid a stick that looked like a cracked-off pool cue on the floor.
Puzzled, Dalton said no. The workers seemed uneasy.
They noted the time it happened, and Dalton headed downstairs to the Duke's small office, to check the security cameras.
When he reviewed the tape, he couldn't believe his eyes.
"Sure enough, something bizarre was happening on the camera," Dalton said.
From the camera's angle from behind the bar, you can clearly see a stick that moves out of a shelf near the ceiling — "like somebody pushed it out," Dalton said — and it falls to the ground.
"Then [it] rolls around — which is the freaky part for me, when it starts rolling," he said.
Dalton said he doesn't know what caused it to move — since it wasn't busy at the bar when it happened.
"Everybody blames it on Fred, though," Dalton said with a smile.
"It's just the time of year everybody kind of gets freaked out by that sort of stuff.… But it's a great video to watch!"
Dalton said Fred is a mischievous, not mean, spirit — who just likes to be noticed.
"When... most bartenders leave here at the end of the night, they say: 'Good night Fred!'"
Stay tuned for more ghost stories in our series "The Haunting of...," on Thursdays in October.
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