Welcome to Haunted Wirral, a feature series written by world famous psychic researcher Tom Slemen, for the Globe.

In this latest story, Tom tells the eerie tale of the ghost that hated Christmas...

In December 1980, a rich architect named Vincent Romaunt purchased a seven-room detached house at the Caldy end of Telegraph Road and from the moment Mr Romaunt and his 18-year-old daughter Tanya moved into the house, strange things started to happen.

The divorcé was awakened the first morning he’d moved into the house by the slow rhythmic thumping sound in the cellar which seemed to shake the very foundations of the dwelling.

Tanya was awakened by it too, and she and her father went to investigate the origin of the strange sound.

They went down to the cellar – where the thumps seemed to be coming from – but as soon as Mr Romaunt entered the cellar the noise immediately ceased.

Days later, Tanya awoke one morning and discovered her bed had been turned 90 degrees.

Not long after this, Vincent Romaunt – a keen archer – mounted a target at the end of his back garden and began to fire off arrows at it.

At one point a little wren landed on the fence above the target, and in full view of Tanya, her father put an arrow through the bird, killing it instantly.

Tanya screamed and told her father he was cruel and that she was going to live with her mother.

Mr Romaunt claimed the killing of the bird had been an accident but Tanya knew her father had deliberately killed the wren.

As Tanya ran into the house there was a mighty crash somewhere upstairs on the first floor, and when Mr Romaunt went to see what had happened, he could not believe his eyes.

His grand piano was hanging out of the window. Something had lifted the 320 kg instrument, turned it on its side and rammed it halfway through the Elizabethan window.

As Mr Romaunt was trying to take in what he was seeing, he heard a noise to his left, and saw his chesterfield sofa upend on its own so it touched the ceiling.

Then every Christmas decoration on the ceiling was torn down by some invisible force.

Tanya appeared at the doorway, surveyed the scene of surreal pandemonium and then she and her father heard what can only be described as a choir of wailing voices accompanied by atonal music.

As this mournful racket erupted in the living room, the Christmas tree toppled over and one of the windows was smashed – by an arrow fired from the back garden.

Tanya screamed and told her father not to go near the window but he did and looked out – and he saw his bow levitating down in the garden, and something was firing arrows up at the windows with it.

Another arrow zinged into the wall, missing Mr Romaunt’s head by a few inches.

Father and daughter fled from the house and sought the advice of a reverend.

The holy man came to the house and saw the aftermath of the alleged poltergeist in the living room. "Depart from here unclean spirit," the clergyman started to say when a switched off colour TV lifted up and hurled itself at him.

The reverend jumped out the way in time as the television set smashed against a wall.

The wailing choir kicked off again, and the reverend ran out of the house, never to return. That evening at 7pm Tanya’s 20-year-old boyfriend Robin, a spiky-haired singer in a punk-rock band, called at the house in his Mini.

He was supposed to be taking Tanya out but she met him at the door in tears and said she couldn’t see him this evening.

"Why?" Robin asked, looking so disappointed.

Mr Romaunt came to the door and over his daughter’s shoulder he said to her boyfriend, "Hasn’t Tanya told you? A poltergeist has almost demolished this house!"

"A poltergeist?" asked Robin with a faint grin. "You’re kidding."

"Oh no, I threw a grand piano through the window!" replied Mr Romaunt, sarcastically, and he turned and walked to the kitchen, grumbling unintelligibly.

"I’m into all that, Tanya, ghosts and stuff," said Robin, excitedly, "I’m a bit psychic. What happened?"

"You’d better come in," Tanya told him and stepped aside. Normally, Robin was not allowed even into the hallway, and he stepped into the grand residence.

Tanya told him everything and took her boyfriend upstairs.

He gasped at the sight of the grand piano lodged in the smashed frame of the window, at the arrows embedded in the wall, the torn down decorations and the smashed remnants of furniture and a TV set.

All of a sudden, Robin said, "I’m picking something up Tanya – the ghost."

"What? That’s not funny, Robin," Tanya replied with an annoyed expression.

"I’m serious," Robin told her, "he’s here, and he’s real old. He hates Christmas, and he hates your father because he killed some bird. Does that make sense?"

Tanya recalled the wren her father had shot with the arrow and she told Robin about the incident.

"Tanya, the ghost is a Druid. He doesn’t like the way your dad put mistletoe up – that’s a sacred plant to him, and the wren is a sacred bird to the Druids." Robin then turned and said, "He’s standing there now – a fellah in a beard and a white robe. He’s connected to that Thor’s Stone not far from here." Robin was referring to an ancient sandstone outcrop 500 yards away on Thurstaston Common.

"He intends to kill you and your father if you stay here!" said Robin. Tanya became so afraid, she begged her father to leave, and when he refused, the thunderous thumps in the cellar started.

Eventually Romaunt moved out the house and Tanya went to live with Robin.

The dwelling on Telegraph Road is still haunted today, and they call it the Druid’s House.

Every Winter Solstice supernatural havoc breaks out at the house.

The identity of the ghostly Druid remains unknown...

All Tom Slemen’s books are on Amazon.