Arnos Court was built in 1760 for William Reeve, a wealthy merchant and copper smelter, and came with its own chapel. According to Spooky Isles, the main house was extended in 1851 to take in a Victorian nunnery that also ran a school for girls. The building became the Arnos Manor Hotel in 1959.
The legend is that one of the nuns fell pregnant and took her own life. Her sisters, fearing scandal, are said to have bricked her body up in a wall or alcove rather than give her a burial. During the Second World War the building was damaged by bombing, and workmen carrying out repairs are said to have found human remains. One retelling adds that the builders hid the bones again rather than report them. None of the sources names the nun, the date, or any record of the discovery, so the core of the story is unverified tradition.
The reported activity is the usual hotel mix. Guests describe a soft female voice whispering or weeping and calling them by name, a figure in brown seen about the building, being pinned down in bed with pressure on the chest, and figures climbing a staircase that is not there. Spooky Isles also repeats claims that bath taps fill themselves and toiletries fly through the air. Most of it is said to happen in Room 160.
The site is in the Brislington end of Bristol, close to Arnos Vale Cemetery. The nunnery story is separate from the cemetery ghosts covered in other records. The hotel has long been promoted for its ghost, which is a reason to treat the witness accounts as mostly secondhand.
Comments