A lady wearing brown has been seen in the gallery bar, on the stairs and actually in the seats towards the rear of the auditorium. She is apparently there one moment and gone the next. Staff have affectionately named her 'Mrs B'.
Several people have reported irregular activity - lights being switched on again after the (two) members of staff had checked they had all been turned off; fire doors seen opening and closing when there is no one there and no logical explanation; footsteps heard from the auditorium when there is no one else in the building. Other people have sensed her presence behind them.
We surmise that she is the daughter of the Bradfords, a local wealthy family who owned the site of the Arts Centre (originally called The Bradford Hall). When the Bradfords moved to Bristol they paid their former gardener a small retainer to tend the grave of one of their three daughters, which was apparently at Christ Church. This was confirmed by the grandson of the gardener who came forward a few years ago after reading about our ghost.
No one knows why she haunts the Arts Centre, but she is considered to be more active when the Arts Centre is under threat, and in recent years, she has not been very active. However, during the recent building work, there were some unexplained happenings with bricks being shifted, batteries mysteriously draining, and no less than three different people reporting the sense of someone present, just flitting out of sight!
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