The spooky goings-on at one of Preston's famous haunted houses will be the focus of a new television programme about haunted places and things that go bump in the night!

Television makers will descend on Samlesbury Hall next week as part of a new six-part series, called Into the Unknown, about some of the north west's finest buildings and its past inhabitants.

Fronting each programme will be Lancashire ghost tour guide, Simon Entwistle, from Clitheroe, who will examine the ghostly happenings at the 14th century manor house.

"There are three famous ghosts at Samlesbury," said Simon, 50, who has conducted ghost walks across famous haunts in Lancashire since 1996 and regularly hosts tours at the hall on Preston New Road.

"During medieval times there was a priest called John Southworth who was murdered in the hall while he was knelt in prayer. At that time it was used as a safe house for Catholic priests but it was on the orders of the King that he was executed.

"They kicked open the door and killed him there and then. The blood stains remained on the floor of the Priest's Room until 1898 when the then High Sheriff of Lancashire, Frederick Baines, ordered they be removed."

But Samlesbury Hall's most famous ghost is believed to be that of Lady Dorothy Southworth, know as the Lady in White, who committed suicide following the murder of her lover, Gareth Hoghton, of the neighbouring De-Houghton family.

Dorothy, a Catholic, was caught by her brothers having a secret liaison with her Protestant beau under a yew tree at Samlesbury Hall. They killed him and buried his body at the hall. She was sent to France where she killed herself.

"In 1967 she even stopped the Preston to Blackburn bus after the driver saw a woman on the roadside who then disappeared," said Simon.

"The third famous ghost at Samlesbury is William Harrison who shot himself in the auction rooms after losing a lot of money in the 1878 Scottish bank crash. Recently I saw a photograph taken by a spiritualist medium at the hall which features a strange figure. I believe it is Harrison."

Manchester-based programme makers, Dreamscope Productions, say the half-hour show, due to be screened on Granada TV in November, will be full of historical facts, legends, myths and supernatural stories relating to the hall.

Darren Hutchinson from Dreamscope Productions said: "The series is a tourism show combined with the history and supernatural aspects of some of the greatest places in the north west."