The Haunted Rooms website tells us:
The Golden Fleece, 16 Pavement, York
Reputedly the most haunted pub in York, this early 16th century inn is certainly one of the oldest, having first been documented in 1503.
It is believed that no fewer than 15 spirits haunt this quaint unsuspecting pub. The most notable of these reports is the spirit of Lady Anne Peckett, the wife of the one time mayor of York, John Peckett. Many guests and staff have reported the sighting of a woman wandering the corridors of the inn, moving things around, and walking up and down the staircase in the dead of night.
Other ghosts include a man dressed in red coat uniform and holding a pistol. He’s known by people as One Eyed Jack, whether this is because he has been seen to wear a patch or is missing an eye is not known. He is also joined by a grumpy old man, both of whom are often sighted in the bottom bar area. A young boy is also seen in the top bar. It’s believed he is the ghost of a boy who was trampled to death by horses outside the inn sometime during the Victorian period.
The pub's website tells us:
The Golden Fleece is believed to have been named for gild members of the nearby Merchant Adventurers' Hall who used to drink in the pub. The Gild traded in fleeces and wool. During the English Civil War, Siege Tokens were issed for the pub. When currency was in short supply, tokens for certain trades were issued instead - the inns and hostelries were deemed important enough trades to have their own tokens produced! The token for the Golden Fleece was created for the landlord, Richard Booth, its vaule being a halfpenny.
A pub on this site was first mentioned in the city archives in 1503, a Fleece or Golden Fleece is frequently mentioned in the city archives since then. The building has also unfergone many structural changes over time, but essentially has remained the same. One major change is that the front used to be a big open archway, which can still be still be seen in the brickwork, with the pub itself being accessed down an alleyway, which is now the corridor to the back of the pub. The pub is said to be built on stilts, with no real foundations, which could explain some of the weird angles of the floor and ceilings!
An 1827 sketch be George Nicholson shows Herbert's house with three gables (the current building only has two), the Golden fleece appearing to be part of the same building.
In the Victorian times there was an enforced reduction in the number of liscensed premises in York resulting in The Fleece and The Queens Head Hotel (no longer in existence), Fossgate, sharing a licence, the yards or both pubs would have joined.
The Golden Fleece has a reputation of being the most haunted pub in the country. In 2005 the Golden Fleece was visited by the Most Haunted team including Yvette Fielding, Derek Acorah and Ciarán O'Keefe, accompanied by Radio 1 Scott Mills and his team.
Possibly the most famos ghost is Geoff Monroe, a Canadian airman who was staying at the pub in room four when he died in 1945, by throwing himself or falling out of one of the windows. People staying in his former room have been frightend in the night by his figure, in full uniform, standing over them, his icy touch having woken them from their slumbers.
Customers have complained of bedclothes being removed of bedclothes being removed, clothes had been taken off the rails and thrown on the floor, the sound of footsteps were frequently running across the passage ways and The Lady Peckett's Dining room.
During a ghost hunt in 2002 a numbern of people including a (now former) skeptic, saw a man walking through the wall of the front of the bar, Dressing in late 17th century clothes, he walked of a wall adjoining Herbert's House, across the corridor to the Shambles bar. The most chilling aspect of the sighting was that the ghost paused as he crossed the corridor and looked straight at the horrified ghost hunters.
The building is Grade II listed with the entry at the English Heritage website telling us:
Public house. c1840 rebuilding of earlier structure; refurbished 1926 by Biscomb and Ferrey.
MATERIALS: pink-grey brick in Flemish bond, rear in stretcher bond; inn front of glazed tile and ashlar: timber cornice; roof tiled at front, pantiled at rear, with brick stack. Wing and outbuilding of orange-red brick in English garden-wall bond with orange gauged brick dressings and tile and pantile roofs with brick stacks.
EXTERIOR: 3-storey 1-window front. Ground floor framed in keyed elliptical arch of ashlar on tiled pilasters with moulded ashlar capitals; deep frieze and modillion cornice above, between gableted grooved brackets. C20 board door to right of narrow paired canted bay windows with small-pane glazing. First and second floors have tripartite windows, with 8:12:8 sashes on first floor, squat 3:9:3 sashes on second floor: both have painted channelled wedge lintels and painted sills. Moulded mutule eaves cornice with moulded rainwater head at right end. Rear: 3 storeys and attic; 1-window gable wall, with 2-storey 1-window wing to right. Ground and first floor have tripartite windows with 2:4:2 sashes, that on ground floor breaking into wing to left of doorway with divided overlight. Second floor has two 12-pane sashes, attic 2-light casement, all with flat arches. First floor of wing has narrow 4-pane sash window. 1-storey 3-bay projecting outbuilding has tripartite window with 2:4:2 sashes and cambered arch, and 2-light large-pane horizontal sash and 4-panel door, both with flat arches.
INTERIOR: passage incorporates massive post with moulded head and first floor jetty of the adjacent Herbert House (qv). Keyed round arch on sunk-panelled pilasters with moulded imposts leads to rear of passage.