HAVE you ever felt a ghostly presence in your home or think you may have seen a strange object in the sky?

Did your friends and family mock you when you tried to tell them about these strange happenings? Well, help may be close at hand, writes Craig Manning.

Wirral Paranormal Investigations (WPI) looks into stories about the supernatural in a bid to find out the truth.

The group, set up in May 1994, is now run by Nancy Foster. "We take it all very seriously, but we're light-hearted. It's a hobby to us and we enjoy doing it," Nancy told the Globe.

Dave Sadler, from Bebington, has been an investigator with the group for just under two years. His special interest is UFOs and he holds regular skywatch sessions on Bidston Hill, believed to be a UFO hotspot in Wirral.

According to research and reports from local people, there is a lot of paranormal activity in the area, says Dave. "There are hundreds of documented cases of ghostly appearances. There's a white lady who has been seen on the bridge near the Dibbinsdale Hotel in Bromborough. At Thurstaston Hall there is the spirit of an old lady in distress wringing her hands. On Bidston Hill, apparently, there is an old miller who is quite a nasty spirit.

"The figures of a man and a boy have been seen in Leasowe Castle and there is, allegedly, a mermaid on the beach behind the castle, who is said to have called many people to their deaths years ago. In St Andrew's Church, Bebington, there's a monk and outside the Three Stags pub stands a phantom hitch-hiker, who has been seen by a lot of people over the last 20 years."

Although Dave takes his investigations seriously, he believes in the 'sandstone theory' which, he reckons, may explain many of the ghostly appearances.

"The stone acts a kind of recorder for certain events in the past. Take, for instance, the battle of Marston Moor in Cheshire, where a stream passes over it and acts as a battery, recording it and replaying it. A lot of hauntings could be just that. Bidston Hill is just pure sandstone, so the apparition of the old miller could very easily be down to the sandstone theory."

The group (motto: 'open eye, open mind'), has 70 members who meet twice a month. Many are from Wirral and anybody over 14 can join.

They use the latest technology to track down those visitors from beyond: tape recorders, still and video cameras, remotely controlled digital thermometers. Then they've got a master thermometer and three slaves which are set up around a target house to detect any heat drops which could indicate that a spirit is around, explained Nancy.

But the group do not use digital cameras for investigations into any phenomena because the pictures taken using these cameras could be tampered with and cause people to question the picture's authenticity.

Research is an important part of the team's work and members are encouraged to do as much research as possible.

Apart from ghosts and UFOs, WPI also investigates cases involving extra sensory perception (ESP), spontaneous combustion and many other types of phenomena.

The group currently meets twice a month in Ellesmere Port and is looking for a venue in central Wirral. Their activities have attracted the attention of television and film companies, who plan to make a film on the team. If you are interested in joining, contact Nancy Foster on 355-5355.

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