The Owd Betts Inn sits on the moorland road between Rochdale and Edenfield in Greater Manchester, an isolated public house perched on the edge of the Pennine uplands. The inn has served travelers crossing the moors for centuries, and its most enduring resident is one who has been dead for well over two hundred years — Betty Ashworth, known locally as "Owd Bett," the former landlady whose ghost has become inseparable from the building's identity.
Betty Ashworth ran the inn during the late 18th century and was, by all accounts, a formidable character. She is said to have been a large, stern woman who tolerated no nonsense from travelers and locals alike. The circumstances of her death are unclear — some accounts suggest she died in the inn itself, others that she died nearby — but what is consistent across generations of testimony is that she never left.
The ghost of Owd Bett has been reported by staff and customers for as long as anyone can remember. She is most commonly seen in the bar area, standing behind the counter as though still presiding over her establishment. She has also been encountered in the upstairs rooms, where guests have woken to find a large, solid-looking woman standing at the foot of their bed. Her demeanor is described as watchful rather than threatening — she seems to be checking that her pub is being run to her standards. Glasses have been known to slide along the bar counter, taps have turned themselves on, and the temperature in the bar drops sharply and without warning on calm, windless nights. The inn leans into its haunted reputation, and Owd Bett has become something of a local celebrity — a ghost who, in the tradition of great Lancashire landladies, refuses to retire.