It’s not uncommon for travel agencies to inhabit historic buildings, many of them being based in the UK’s most ancient market towns and cities. And whilst this can create a quaint and cosy atmosphere, some agents claim their premises come with more than just extra dust and dodgy plumbing.

Jennifer Lynch, general manager at ArrangeMy Escape in Worcester, recalls one memorable evening when her hip hop music seemed to ruffle a few phantom feathers.

The agency is housed in a 16th century Grade ll-listed building with an imposing “old and crooked, but beautiful” central staircase, which planning forbids they tamper with. The shop stands on a historic square in which hangings used to take place.

“I was working here by myself one day during the pandemic, and I fancied listening to a bit of music, so I put some hip-hop on,” says Lynch.

“Before I knew it, the brochures started coming off the shelves.” Lynch adds a similar episode occurred when customers were in, and they even got hit (gently) by some of the levitating literature.

Lynch isn’t too concerned about her creepy colleague though. “It feels like a calming presence here,” she smiles.

Over at Ashdown Travel in Sevenoaks, branch manager Hayley Noon says colleagues have seen everything from shadowy figures to a globe spinning on its own.

The branch is located in an area called The Shambles which is where the medieval market would have been in Sevenoaks. Where buildings have disappeared, the probable medieval plan is preserved in sharp corners and odd angles.

“We’re on the site of an old girls school attached to a 15th century church, and we are also steps away from the medieval jail, courthouse and gallows,” shares Noon.

“The basement and upstairs are the spookiest places in the shop,” she adds. “Staff refuse to go into the basement alone – some of the school girls used to sleep down there apparently.

"But upstairs is where most creepy stuff takes place. While the shop was refurbished I had to stay here on my own until past 9pm, and I had the heebie-jeebies. I just felt like someone was watching me.”

Whilst Noon hasn’t seen anything else herself, travel consultant Jane Chappell witnessed a globe move on its own upstairs – she was sat having lunch and it started to rotate. On another occasion the same globe crashed to the floor while all the staff were downstairs with clients “as though it had been thrown across the room”.

Another time, travel consultant Dhara Treadgold was late leaving and said she could hear children laughing as well as footsteps and banging coming from upstairs.

“Previous staff have said they have heard groaning, footsteps, had the sensation of being touched by unseen hands and they have seen shadowy figures upstairs, says Noon. “I have yet to experience any of this thankfully!”

Further north, Perfect Getaways’ Neston branch actually features in local ghost tours.

“I know the shop is haunted,” says store manager Leanne Carr definitively.

“There are underground tunnels, and apparently a child once died in here and her mum wails out for her.

“I haven’t experienced anything personally, but some of the other girls have when they’ve been here late.”

Very creepily, Carr explains there’s a bible on the windowsill of the shop that has been there for years which “no one is allowed to touch”.

“No one knows who put it there,” she adds.

Over in Haverfordwest, while Ocky White Travel managing director Mark White “categorically does not believe in ghosts”, the agency did have an interesting encounter with the afterlife when a medieval burial site for some 240 people was discovered beneath its former location in a department store, just 20 yards away from its current premises.

Well-known throughout Pembrokeshire and much of Wales, the department store was owned and named after White’s grandfather, Octavius White, who moved into the building in 1918.

The travel agency had its premises there until the building closed in 2013. At that point, Ocky White Travel – established in 1963 – moved down the road, keeping the name alive on the high street.

Archaeologists were working on the remnants of a medieval priory at the site of the department store – which is undergoing a multimillion-pound redevelopment – when the discovery was made.

“There were many, many evenings when I was late out of the old department store, on my own, and I never experienced anything remotely ‘spooky’ or out of the ordinary on any occasion,” insists White.

“If I’d known then though about the 200 bodies underneath, I might have felt a little different!”

Have you experienced spooky goings on in your store? Let us know in the comments below or email Editor-in-Chief Sophie Griffiths at sgriffiths@ttgmedia.com