A HAUNTING photo of a woman at a window gave demolition experts a fright after they spotted the ghostly figure in a derelict guest house.

The team say the image made their ‘hair stand on end’.

Their eerie photo appears to show a lady, with earrings, stood at the ground floor window and was taken on a job being completed by Blackburn demolition expert Stuart Shan.

Former resident David Grimshaw claims the ghostly woman is his late mother, Frances, who died almost a year ago.

Stuart, who works for demolition firm Hancock, was carrying out the work at Meadowbank House in Kendal.

He said: “The day before we took the photo we were stripping the building inside and I noticed the chandelier swinging on its own. We said at the time the place felt strange.

“My hairs were standing on end when I saw the photo. I believe it is a ghost.”

Mr Grimshaw, a 59-year-old managing director, who now lives in Bedford, said: “That is my mother. I’m totally convinced – no one else looks like that.

“She had glasses and big earrings and she used to wear a dress with a bow at the front.

“She used to stand in that room for hours on the phone – it was the guest house reception and she took bookings from there.

“She would have been horrified if she had known the house was being demolished because it was beautiful, so maybe that is why she’s turned up.”

The five gabled building, which was originally a dentist’s in the early 1900s, has been taken down to be replaced with a new commercial property.

Demolition supervisor Robert Johnson, 38, took the photograph of the house shortly before it was knocked down, earlier this week.

“It wasn’t until I got home and showed my wife that we spotted the woman,” he said.

“You can see the jewellery on her and everything.

“I’ve always been a sceptic but I’ll have to believe in ghosts now.”