WHAT do merciless highwayman, ghosts, a mysterious hermit and an infamous knight have in common?

The answer is they all appear in a new book called Tales of Old Lancashire.

Blackburn author Elizabeth Ashworth sets out ancient legends such as the sad end of the White Lady of Samlesbury Hall and her murdered suitor and the ghostly horseman of Wycoller, who is seen to cross the 13th century packhorse bridge and into the ruins of Wycoller Hall, said to have been the inspiration for Charlotte Bronte's Ferndean Manor.

Read, too, about the Holy Hermit of Clitheroe, who thwarted the cunning plans of the Dean of Whalley to steal an inheritance and brought about a union from which the Towneley family of Burnley are descended.

She recounts the tale of a statue at Waddow Hall, named Peg O'Nell, which was thought to be the cause of all the Starkie family's troubles and lost her head as a result.

There is also the story of the notorious highwayman Ned King, who terrorised the countryside around Mitton and whose ghost is said to still haunt the scene of his crimes, and the well-known tale of Demdike and Chattox, the witches of Pendle.

l Tales of Old Lancashire is published by Countryside Books at £7.99 and is available from all local booksellers.