Ghost hunters to visit Burnley pub (From Burnley and Pendle Citizen)

Ghost hunters to visit Burnley pub

8:30am Thursday 14th August 2008

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PARANORMAL investigators are set to visit Burnley’s ‘most haunted’ building.

The eight-strong Further On group of ghostbusters will be going to the 300-year-old Swan Inn, which has gained a reputation as one of the spookiest places in Lancashire.

The St James Street pub was formerly a farm house, but has also been a temporary court room and a makeshift morgue.

Now psychic medium and group founder, Todd Hand, is taking a range of specialist equipment, including a crystal pendulum and infra red cameras, to test for ghostly activity.

Landlord Craig Smith, who has worked at the pub for five years, is looking forward to the full investigation.

He said: “I don’t believe in ghosts and that kind of thing but I try to keep an open mind.

“I’ve never seen anything odd but I’ve heard strange noises. But I always put them down to the fact it’s an old building.

“A number of cleaners have seen they’ve seen someone going into the gent’s toilets but there’s never been anyone there.

“When the former landlord was here they had to get a priest to do an exorcism because they thought there was a ghost in here.”

Todd, 31, who works as a policeman, says has been to spritualist classes to learn how to use his ‘gift’ and believes he has had psychic tendencies since he was a child.

Along with his Manchester-based group, he has undertaken a number of experiments at different places around the UK, but is looking forward to his first one in East Lancashire.

He said: “Some people will think ‘yeah right’ about what we do, but people who come along with us on these investigations always go away with an open mind.

“We haven’t looked in depth as to what has gone on in the pub as we want to go in with an unbiased view.

“We’ve got laptops, a dictaphone and infra red cameras to help us record and detect sprits. When we went to the pub on Thursday to set up, I felt compelled to go downstairs. It will be interesting to see what is down there.

If we find anything unusual we will take our evidence to people with higher expertise than us.”

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