Tuesday Topic, with Christine Rutter

"WELCOME, folks, to the most haunted part of Clitheroe," boomed our Clitheroe Ghost Walk guide Simon Entwistle.

His chilling words echoed off one of the most eerie-looking houses in the vicinity.

It was just a plain two-up-two-down in a backstreet with painted white brickwork and wispy lace curtains but there was a sense of foreboding about the place.

Maybe it was the location, resting in the shadows of the street with a view over a graveyard.

Perhaps it was simply that the paintwork was badly in need of refurbishment . . . but something just didn't feel right about the house.

The building awakened a sixth sense. It put you on your guard, almost as if someone was watching you.

"The people in these houses have really suffered from ghostly-goings-on. They have heard creaking, screaming in the night, footsteps, everything," whispered Simon.

"One man opened his door to be confronted by a monk. The monk just walked straight through his body and disappeared."

Before Simon had finished speaking my gaze was irresistibly drawn to an upstairs window and what I saw there turned my blood to ice. A ghostly figure appeared in the corner of the window. It looked like the upper body of a man. His arms crossed, one elbow propped up on the window ledge and his haunting eyes staring into the soul of each ghost-hunter.

For a moment the members of the party held their breath at the spectral sight before one brave lady cracked the mesmeric silence.

"It's a cardboard cut-out," she said in disbelief. The creepiness was shattered as the party broke into nervous laughter, tempered with relief.

Bemused Simon had never been in the house, so whether the cut-out was a joke by the owner to spice up the ghost trail or an adornment to please the room's inhabitants remained a mystery.

The phantom figure of fun broke up a dark story-telling trail of murder, suicide, fatal accidents and public beheading.

With a wave of his walking stick Simon, clad in Victorian costume, transported the group back to the year 1197.

And what unravelled from there was more than 800 years of tragedies whose phantoms have haunted the public over the generations.

Each story was chillingly brought to life by Simon, who is a well-known impersonator.

The human sound machine from Clitheroe recreated the creak of ghostly bones in the graveyard, haunting noises by the river and the blood-curdling scream of a man being murdered in an alleyway. The animated spectral stroll took in Clitheroe castle, back streets, a hairdresser's shop, churches, pubs and, of course, graveyards.

There were stories of tough builders turning to jelly at the sight of a child phantom; a man who haunts the area where he was killed by a home-made gun; the chanting of "God Save the King" from days gone by as Royalist prisoners were beheaded; and the German bomber pilot who haunts an old mill. The tales came thick, fast and felt spine-tinglingly real.

Simon spent months researching his walk, using archives, books and a wealth of supernatural knowledge and experiences of people in the Ribble Valley.

"It was really intriguing," said Simon, who clearly loves his new hobby, which is a world away from his day job with the local council. He lives with wife Pamela and son Guy and is so prolific with his vocal chords that he has appeared on TV and toured the world with his talent. But he now practises closer to home with the walks, which have attracted scores of ghost-hunters.

He said: "Using sounds helps to recreate the atmosphere of days gone by. Some people have said that the hairs stand up on the back of their necks."

But does the he believe in ghosts?

"I have never seen one but I have talked to so many people who have had supernatural experiences that it has convinced me ghosts must exist," he said.

Ghost-hunters can join the walk by meeting Simon at Clitheroe Castle gates at 8pm every Wednesday and Sunday. Simon can be contacted on 01200 426821.

Converted for the new archive on 14 July 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.