The Haunch of Venison: 700 years of history and happiness

Anastasia Samoilova, 39, who has run the Haunch of Venison for eight years alongside her husband Ilia Klekovkin and her sister Anna Samoilova, said she knew when she knew she wanted to run the pub the moment she first entered.

Anastasia said: “It felt like a time machine. You know, we walked in, it was like wow, we stepped back in time.”

Haunch attracts plenty of attention from around the globe and draws punters from near and far.

Last year, Prestel published a coffee table book by photographer Horst A Friedrichs and author Stuart Husband, which included a picture of the Haunch’s main bar as the cover.

It has now been released in multiple countries and Anastasia has seen patrons entering the pub with the book to cross Haunch off their list.

Anastasia Samoilova, manager at The Haunch of Venison (Image: The Haunch of Venison)

Anastasia said: “People love Haunch, I think, for the mix of tourists and locals, because locals talk to tourists and they’re not bored, because in some other pub, for example, they see the same people all the time.

“You see people from all around the world, from different countries and they love it. I know because they tell me every day.

“Tourists love it because they see locals, they get good advice, like where to go, what to see. They talk about the history of the Haunch, legends, and everything like that. They love it.”

A pub with centuries behind it will have its fair share of ghost stories.

Anastasia said she has never seen anything with her own eyes, there were issues of furniture having been moved around during the night when she first took over management of the pub with her husband and sister.

The famous hand at the Haunch of Venison (Image: The Haunch of Vension)

Anastasia said: “You close the pub and you’re the first person who is coming in the morning, and sometimes you see the furniture is different.”

When CCTV was installed in the pub, the mysteriously shifting furniture suddenly stopped.

On another occasion, everyone in the first floor restaurant heard a glass candleholder explode, at a table where approximately eight people were seated, except for the people at the table, who felt, heard and saw nothing.

Anastasia said: “People who were sitting around the table didn’t feel anything. So they didn’t- because I was scared that some of the pieces of glass would come into their face or something.”

The House of Lords (Image: The Haunch of Venison)

Unfortunately, CCTV’s view of the candleholder was blocked by one of those seated at the table.

The most haunted place in the pub is considered to be the “Secret Bar.” It’s not a very well-kept secret, as it has seen much use during its life and is formally known as the Cloister Bar.

It is not open to the public except on special occasions, including Halloween, but Anastasia said there are new plans for it.

Of course, no discussion of the Haunch of Venison would be complete without mentioning one of its most famous artefacts- the mummified hand.

Though the hand on display is a replica, the existence of the real hand is well documented. The hand was found in 1903 when then-landlord Firmin Bradbeer was having renovation works performed on the area of the fireplace in the room known as the House of Lords (also known as the Smoking Room).

The hand had naturally become mummified from having been preserved in ash, and was holding playing cards.

Firmin brought the hand to the Salisbury Museum, but did not allow them to keep it permanently.

The whereabouts of the hand become obscure after its return to him. Theories include that it was returned to the location where it was found for superstitious reasons, that it was stolen and never recovered, or that the hand was later returned to the museum again but lost during the move to its modern location.

Despite the loss of the hand, the playing cards found grasped within it have survived, and remain in the possession of the Salisbury Museum. They were donated to the museum by Firmin’s daughters after his death.

Anastasia believes the pub has gained its unique ability for comfort and good feelings by being a place of happiness for hundreds of years.

Anastasia said: “It’s very good spirits here. Very good, because we all have in our life up and downs. You come here, you feel peace. I don’t know why. Haunch- maybe it’s the energy which the building accumulated- absorbed, 700 years old.”