York ghost tour wars: Guide slams rival for ‘making a mockery’ of the walks
One of York’s original ghost tour guides has ripped into a rival for “making a total mockery” of the spooky walk business.
Trevor Rooney, who steered his first party around the haunts of York fully 30 years ago, now runs Ghost Walks York, starting from Stonegate each night.
But one evening recently he brought his walk to Goodramgate and was dismayed to see The Ghost Hunt Of York‘s crowd included a hen party, complete with offensive inflatable.
He told YorkMix:
All I could see was this row of people stood opposite Caesars Restaurant, and there’s this great big inflatable penis in full view of everybody and our crowd.
This woman said to me, ‘That’s absolutely disgraceful having that kind of thing on the street.’
Trevor took to Facebook to say the Ghost Hunt Of York, operated by Andy Dextrous from Shambles each night, was “making a total mockery out of a beautiful and well established style of walk”.
He added: “If I could run this guy out of business right now I would not have any hesitation in doing so.”
Many took to Facebook to agree with him.
– Denise Brownlee
– Linda Baker
‘All over the shop’
Trevor told us he wouldn’t allow the same thing to happen on one of his walks. “I will refuse hen parties carrying offensive objects, and anybody trying to get on my ghost walk with a bottle of alcohol in their hand.
“That guy should know better.”
He felt that York’s tourist scene had changed since he first started his walks in 1985.
There are at least seven regular ghost walks in York which was “definitely breaking the crowds down,” Trevor added.
There have been previous “ghost tour wars” in the city.
The people deserve a little bit more than what I saw last Saturday. Those people should have been with me.
It’s not a jealousy thing, it’s not just about money, it’s more about integrity.
Silent as the grave
Trevor said he has tried to speak to his rival about this. “You can never get hold of Andy. I’ve tried a number of times to call him.”
We have contacted Andy Dextrous numerous times for comment but he has not got back to us.
His walk has a score of 4.5 out of 5 on TripAdvisor, with a recent review calling it a “brilliant evening”.
But we did speak to Mark Graham, who runs the Original Ghost Tour Of York, from the King’s Arms each night.
He told us:
However we do lots of hen parties privately every year. Most are wonderful but a few can be difficult.
The trick is to have a word when they call to book ie no drunks no inflatables – and if possible an early start.
Is this a photograph of ghosts under York Guildhall?
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