HAS the ghost of a tragic trooper had a hand in developers losing an appeal to build homes on his old stomping ground?

Trooper Joe McGurk of the Eighth Lancers shot himself dead in Mitcheldean’s George Hotel enroute from Abergavenny to Gloucester to face a court martial in Gloucester 190 years ago.

And his restless spirit was said to haunt the historic inn for decades to come, moving glasses and bottles around the bar, until the 400-year-old building burnt down in 2019.

Developers then applied to build homes on the conservation zone site, but a planning appeal has now been turned down, leaving Joe in ‘soul’ possession again.

Its the latest of several failed bids to develop the site, since the inn called last orders in 2009. A 28-apartment care home scheme floundered, and now the plan for the demolition of a remaining building and its replacement by eight new homes from Hellier Homes of Lee-on-Solent has been scuppered, prompting thoughts that Joe may be holding things up.

The site is opposite the village’s Grade I-listed church and near other protected 15th to 19th century buildings.

The appeal said the council had refused to consider a revised scheme, claiming: “This premature refusal in the midst of the applicant working to overcome the various barriers to an appropriate development is very disappointing.”

But inspector Helen Davies has backed the council, saying it would “cause unacceptable harm to the character and appearance of the surrounding area”.

She also said the case had not been made to demolish an L-shaped barn protected by the council’s housing allocation plan to make way for the homes.

While the area where the George stood was unsightly and overgrown, she added that a development ”needs to be in keeping with the surroundings”.

Trooper Joe’s spirit can rest in peace for now, nearly two centuries on from the dramatic event in October 1833 that saw him take his own life.

He had been charged with a drunken attack on a sergeant who tried to wrestle ‘a bottle of grog’ off him, and having travelled to Monmouth on foot from Abergavenny, the detail moved on next day to Mitcheldean in the Forest and stayed at the George that night.

But next morning as they prepared to move out, the trooper – fearing the death sentence or transportation – grabbed a carbine, pointed it at his chest and pulled the trigger, dying some three hours later.

For the next 175 years, visitors would gasp as bottles moved on their own, only to be told by regulars: “Oh, that’s only Old Joe, ‘e’s allus doin’ that.”

Originally built as a private house, the four-storey gabled building was a coaching inn by the mid-1700s. The top floor was removed in 1947, and it finally closed 14 years ago, falling into disrepair.

Villagers then woke to see flames billowing from the building around 3am on Tuesday, December 3, 2019, but nothing could be done to save it.

The cause of the fire was never firmly established, and although the building’s walls were left standing, the bulldozers levelled it several weeks later.