WELCOME to Haunted Wirral, a feature series written by world famous psychic researcher, Tom Slemen for the Globe on the run up to Halloween.

Tom is a renowned expert on ghostly phenomena and is well-known locally, having written a best-selling series of books about Merseyside hauntings.

This week, Tom tells the ghoulish tale of Faydra, the witch of Bidston Hill and a ghostly encounter which will leave the hairs on the back of your neck stand on edge.

The Old Religion – what some now call Wicca – refuses to die, and just as the Christians have their cathedrals, the adherents to the Old Religion have their sacred sites at places such as Stonehenge or Pendle Hill and Glastonbury, and locally, sites revered by the real witches and warlocks of today include Camp Hill, Bloody Acre and Bowring Park on one side of the Mersey, and Thurstaston Common and Bidston Hill on the other.

Bidston Hill is a major spiritual nexus – a supernatural hub and a portal to another reality for those who are versed in the ancient ways and powers of Mother Nature – but to the mundane geologist of today, the hill is nothing more than a sandstone outcrop with a peak that soars to 231 feet – 100 acres of heathland and woodland which features some archaic carvings of horses and cat-headed figures upon its rocks.

It has a windmill and a world-famous observatory which even in 1906 had the technology to record the ominous seismic signature of the San Francisco Earthquake 5,000 miles away.

In times past, the seismograph would have been branded as an instrument of the Devil, and today there are Wiccans, Druids and assorted occultists who are labelled Devil-worshippers because they carry out “unchristian” rituals upon Bidston Hill – especially around Hallowmas (known to us as Samhain and Halloween – and if you’re a more mature reader – Duck-Apple Night).

The Wiccans and pagans acknowledge the mysterious forces of nature more regularly than Christians attending Sunday Mass nowadays, and on Bidston Hill on the next night of the full moon – November 4 – some followers of antediluvian cults will congregate and tune into invisible earth energies, as well as beings and deities that date back to the era of the mysterious megalith builders.

Many years ago, when I had a spot talking about the paranormal on BBC Radio Merseyside’s Billy Butler Show, I investigated sightings of an alleged “Old Hag” known to the locals as “Faydra” who had been seen on Bidston Hill at Halloween.

At the time, a sceptical listener to the show - a man in his forties named Geoff - volunteered to help me investigate the paranormal.

Geoff was a complete non-believer regarding ghosts and the supernatural, and he accompanied me to Bidston Hill to video this so-called witch.

We spotted a woman in a long black hooded robe one dismal afternoon during a vigil, and she was seen to leave something on the hill.

Next thing we knew – she was gone – vanished.

Geoff went to see what the woman had left and found a corn dolly covered partially by a stone.

It looked like the matchstick figure of the Saint from the old TV series, and was made up of plaited strands of straw.

Geoff put the dolly in his satchel and we both heard a moaning voice cry out “No!” We left the hill and that woman in the black robe followed us.

Geoff videoed her but the camera inexplicably went dead.

We made it to the ferry, and Geoff said the woman was an old crank.

When we got off the ferry at the Pier Head, she was seen near Water Street.

Geoff went home and telephoned me a dozen times that night to say that the weird old woman was following him everywhere.

He ended up walking the streets all night, and even reported his stalker to the police.

I arrived at the reception to Radio Merseyside, as I was due on air that day – and Geoff was already there, but he handed me the corn dolly and said he’d had enough.

He said he had just looked through the window which allowed visitors to see into the studio to observe live broadcasts – and there was “Faydra” – standing behind Billy Butler, who evidently could not see the eerie figure.

Geoff said the face of the “witch” was ghastly and heavily wrinkled, and she seemed fascinated by all of the modern equipment in the studio and wore a creepy grin as she prowled about.

I handed the corn dolly back to Geoff and told him to return it to Bidston Hill, but he shook his head and said he was going to throw it in the nearest bin.

I duly appeared on Billy’s show and saw nothing of Faydra, but Geoff said she had followed him up to the point when he threw the corn dolly into a litter bin on Church Street.

I have since learned of an ancient ritual which involved leaving a “Corn Mother” – an effigy made from the last sheaf of the harvest – at a certain point on Bidston Hill under stone until it is solemnly placed in the earth in the following sowing season.

I wonder if Faydra is still active on Bidston Hill...

Over the forthcoming weeks Tom will tell you more tales of the mysterious and the uncanny in the Globe.

His latest novel, Haunted Liverpool 28 is another dazzling collection of supernatural stories by Tom Slemen, arguably England’s greatest writer on the paranormal.