Haunted Pub
© in-cumbriaHaunted: Old Mill manager Tom Armstrong (second left), with bar manager James Cowan, and paranormal investigators Nicola Wallace and Amanda Oakes
A Dearham pub is vying for the title of the area's most haunted venue after paranormal investigators spent the night there.

Lakeland Paranormal Investigations spent five hours at the village's Old Mill on Saturday night.

Investigator Amanda Oakes said she had never been anywhere before where the psychic energy was so off the scale.

She said: "I believe I was contacted by a Presbyterian woman who told of a secret tunnel from the Old Mill, which was a mill, to the nearby church and how she used to lead people to safety from the marauding Scots.

"We also contacted a young boy who said his head had hurt and then he drowned."

Ms Oakes said she learned of a precious lost necklace and said the investigation team planned to return to the pub to see if its location would be revealed to them.

Landlord Tom Armstrong said he was used to peculiar light variations and temperature drops at the pub.

He said: "I never feel alone here. I always feel as though I am being watched but, funnily enough, I have never felt threatened."

He said things happened for which he could find no logical explanation.

He said: "I've heard the upstairs toilet flush and the door open and close but nobody is there.

"You walk into a certain room in the pub and the temperature just drops.

"The strangest thing, though, can only be explained by the amount of energy in the pub. Our cordless phones will not remain charged for more than an hour.

"We have had BT engineers out to see if there is anything wrong with the phones or the connections but they can find nothing. Yet about an hour after they are fully charged the batteries are completely drained."

Mr Armstrong said he will try and use the ghostly doings to his advantage and added: "I am looking at how we could run haunted weekends."