Every newspaper office has its resident ghost.
It might have something to do with a combination of late nights, old machinery, spooky corridors and a touch of alcohol… or it might be a genuine haunting.
But not every publishing company goes to the trouble of trying to find their ghost.
The Burnley Express went that extra step and got a team of six investigators of the paranormal to give their premises the once-over.
Reporter Barry Ayrton joined them in a bid to locate “Old Ned”.
He said: “Over the years people have complained of feeling a “presence” watching them, and in February one member of staff left in a hurry after a frightening series of moans and groans, tapping sounds, and noises of what appeared to be furniture being shifted while he was working on his own in the building.”
Ghostbusters firm Paraquest was brought in to take a look at the more earthly possibilities of all the evidence, before moving on to less easily-explained alternatives.
Pre-press was tackled first, because that’s where the noises were coming from and there was also a suspicion that big changes there could have unsettled Old Ned, otherwise known as Mr Edward Fishpool, a former machine room foreman who died in 1928.
Stopwatch timings, digital photographs and tape recordings were made in several areas, with the result that circles of unexplained white light were found in all areas.
In pre-production there was also a sudden drop in temperature – of six degrees – a phenomena associated with spectral activity.
The findings and data have all been taken away for further investigation, so staff are still in the dark over the ghost stories. The paper will publish the findings when analysis is complete.
But Paraquest’s Stewart Greenslade said: “We have discovered that Burnley lies at a large intersection of a group of ley lines that could be triggering not only the strange goings-on at the Express but throughout Burnley over the years.”
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