After landlord Alan Lindsay uncovered a hidden well in the bar of his pub in north Devon, spooky things started to happen. For decades, the Farmers Arms, in the village of Woolfardisworthy, had a reputation for being haunted – not too surprising as parts of the building date back to the 13th century.

All was quiet when Alan and his family first moved in – but matters took a dramatic turn when the well was opened up.

"It was rumoured there was a well by the lounge fireplace," Alan told me. "I decided to rip back the floorboards to have a look." After removing wooden and metal covers, as well as heavy stone slabs, the top of the well was revealed, about four feet below the floor. It was 21ft deep and had clear water in it.

"There was a distinct atmosphere in the pub after the well was opened," said Alan. "You could really sense there was something strange happening in the building."

Strange indeed. Alan's wife Jenny was thrown off a chair by an invisible force, and found herself stroked by an unseen hand when alone in bed. Their daughter Clarissa, 10, was scared by the apparition of an old tramp walking past the well and disappearing, as well as a ghostly face in an upstairs room.

Doors kept opening and closing inexplicably, there were phantom footsteps, and a member of staff, Nyah Boundy, was hit on the head by a glass bowl which flew off a table in the kitchen, where polter- geist activity seems to be concentrated.

On two occasions, the kitchen clock flew off the wall, while Jenny and another member of staff, Emily Lawrence- Edwards, looked on in disbelief. And just before Christmas, an unknown force shook the pub's festive decorations violently.

Mediums who have visited the pub say that, centuries ago, there was a murder or brutal assault by the well – which could be more than 1,000 years old – and the property is haunted by the ghost of a previous landlord, Roy Chappell, who was there in the 1960s and 1970s and was "a bit of a joker".

Alan had thought of calling in a paranormal investigation team, but added: "I don't feel intimidated, or frightened. It's quite interesting. I don't believe that paranormal activity doesn't take place, and in this case it has."

He is now making a feature of the well, and having a glass top fixed to it. "Some archaeologists were in the pub and thought it might be a holy well, that it could be Anglo-Saxon, and predate the pub," he added. Historically, the main well serving the village was the Ladywell in nearby Back Street.