GaryJJSpate: Created page with "{{InfoboxLocation |name=The Old Queen's Head |type=Pub (15th-century timber-framed building) |location=Pond Hill, Sheffield, South Yorkshire, England |built=c. 1475 (commonly cited); tree-ring dating suggests 1503–1510 |owner=Privately operated pub; Grade II* listed building |status=Open |known_for=Oldest surviving domestic building in Sheffield; reported hauntings }} '''The Old Queen's Head''' is a Grade II* listed pub at 40 Pond Hill in Sheffield, South Yorkshire..."

2026-08-03T22:47:18Z

Created page with "{{InfoboxLocation |name=The Old Queen's Head |type=Pub (15th-century timber-framed building) |location=Pond Hill, Sheffield, South Yorkshire, England |built=c. 1475 (commonly cited); tree-ring dating suggests 1503–1510 |owner=Privately operated pub; Grade II* listed building |status=Open |known_for=Oldest surviving domestic building in Sheffield; reported hauntings }} '''The Old Queen's Head''' is a Grade II* listed pub at 40 Pond Hill in Sheffield, South Yorkshire..."

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{{InfoboxLocation
|name=The Old Queen's Head
|type=Pub (15th-century timber-framed building)
|location=Pond Hill, Sheffield, South Yorkshire, England
|built=c. 1475 (commonly cited); tree-ring dating suggests 1503–1510
|owner=Privately operated pub; Grade II* listed building
|status=Open
|known_for=Oldest surviving domestic building in Sheffield; reported hauntings
}}
'''The Old Queen's Head''' is a Grade II* listed pub at 40 Pond Hill in [[Sheffield]], South Yorkshire, and the oldest surviving domestic building in the city.<ref name="wikipedia">{{cite web |title=Old Queen's Head |url=https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Old_Queen's_Head |publisher=Wikipedia}}</ref> The timber-framed structure is widely dated to around 1475, though tree-ring analysis has suggested a slightly later construction window of 1503–1510.<ref name="camra">{{cite web |title=Old Queens Head |url=https://sheffield.camra.org.uk/2023/10/old-queens-head-3/ |publisher=CAMRA Sheffield & District}}</ref> It is reputed to be one of the city's most haunted buildings.<ref name="star">{{cite web |title=Old Queens Head: Sheffield's oldest pub invites people to join ghost hunt |url=https://www.thestar.co.uk/news/people/old-queens-head-sheffields-oldest-pub-and-one-of-citys-most-haunted-invites-people-to-join-ghost-hunt-4992792 |publisher=The Star |date=2025}}</ref>

== History ==
The earliest known written reference to the building is a 1582 inventory of the estate of George Talbot, 6th Earl of Shrewsbury, in which it is recorded as "the hawle at the Poandes" — the Hall at the Ponds — among the furnishings listed.<ref name="wikipedia"/> Historians generally believe the structure originated as a banqueting or hunting lodge associated with [[Sheffield Castle]], used by the Earl and his guests after hunting wildfowl on the ponds that once bordered the site.<ref name="camra"/> The building is thought to have been constructed for the 4th Earl of Shrewsbury, who developed nearby [[Sheffield Manor Lodge]] into a substantial Tudor estate from 1516.<ref name="camra"/>

Its status declined after being let to tenants sometime between 1582 and 1637, and later records describe it being used for laundry associated with Sheffield Castle and Manor Lodge.<ref name="camra"/> By the early 1800s it was in use as an ordinary house; a three-storey building was added to its rear in 1840, which became a public house initially known as the Queen Hotel — a name generally linked to [[Mary, Queen of Scots]], who was held in Sheffield under the custody of the Earl of Shrewsbury from 1570 to 1584.<ref name="camra"/> The pub was recorded under the name Queen's Head Hotel from 1864.<ref name="camra"/> The building underwent restoration in 1993, during which nails, keys, and locks from its earlier construction phases were recovered.<ref name="atlasobscura">{{cite web |title=The Old Queens Head in Sheffield |url=https://www.atlasobscura.com/places/the-old-queens-head |publisher=Atlas Obscura}}</ref>

There is no firm documentary evidence that Mary, Queen of Scots ever visited the building itself, despite the popular association carried by its name.<ref name="yorkshirepost-2">{{cite web |title=Sheffield's oldest pub started life as a hunting lodge |url=https://www.yorkshirepost.co.uk/business/sheffields-oldest-pub-old-queens-head-5334663 |publisher=Yorkshire Post |date=2025}}</ref> Persistent local claims of a tunnel connecting the pub to Manor Lodge, and possibly Sheffield Cathedral, are similarly unconfirmed.<ref name="yorkshirepost-2"/>

== Reported hauntings ==
The pub is reputed to be haunted by several figures, most consistently a Civil War-era soldier reported standing near the fireplace, and a medieval child nicknamed Pierre, said to tug at the hair of women — particularly blonde-haired patrons — to get their attention.<ref name="star"/> Other reported figures include a hunting hound, a woman in white, and a pub regular from the 1970s.<ref name="camra"/> Staff accounts describe unexplained cold spots and the sound of the building's structure moving.<ref name="yorkshirelive">{{cite web |title=I run a haunted Yorkshire pub and it is eerie, cold and you even hear the building moving |url=https://www.examinerlive.co.uk/news/history/run-haunted-yorkshire-pub-eerie-25683151 |publisher=Yorkshire Live |date=2022}}</ref>

The pub periodically hosts organised ghost hunts for the public.<ref name="star"/>

{{VaultLocationBrief
|category=Haunted Pub
|relevance=Moderate
|connection=Documented as Sheffield's oldest surviving domestic building; long-standing but loosely sourced local haunting tradition
|assessment=The Old Queen's Head's haunting claims are typical of long-established British pubs — multiple named apparitions accumulated over generations of oral tradition, with no single claim traceable to a specific documented incident the way Wentworth Woodhouse's Strafford haunting is. Its historical and architectural documentation (construction dating, ownership records, 1582 inventory) is considerably stronger than its paranormal documentation, which rests mainly on staff and patron testimony reported in local press rather than any formal investigation.
}}

== See also ==
* [[Sheffield]]
* [[Sheffield Castle]]
* [[Sheffield Manor Lodge]]
* [[Mary, Queen of Scots]]
* [[Wentworth Woodhouse]]

== References ==
{{Reflist}}

== External links ==
* [https://sheffield.camra.org.uk/2023/10/old-queens-head-3/ CAMRA Sheffield & District — Old Queens Head]
* [https://www.atlasobscura.com/places/the-old-queens-head Atlas Obscura — The Old Queens Head]

[[Category:Haunted Locations]]
[[Category:Sheffield]]

The Old Queen's Head - Revision history