It is difficult to tell if some of the ghost stories I have been told about the house are genuine, fragments of a vivid imagination or too many whiskeys. I know some are true as I, when sober, have experienced them.

When I first came here in 1987, various gadgets where set up by experts to see if the stories were fictional. All sorts of unexplained noises, thumps and doors shutting were heard. The most inexplicable was very faint Harpsichord music being played in the upstairs parlour. Soon after, I discovered in an inventory, mention of a Harpsichord in the dining room in 1717. By closing the right doors and playing a recording in the room we were able to record the same level of sound in the parlour. Odd?

The north east bedroom has a history of being haunted going back at least a hundred years, nobody knew why. About eight years ago I discovered that Robert Revell, the Squire, was “murdered in his bed by two of his servants”. This story had been lost over the centuries and was found on an old family tree. I have heard the furniture being shifted when in the library below; nothing of course had been moved. A recent séance produced some rather amazing results backing up the nervousness of those lucky enough to sleep in this room.

Another group were locked in by an unseen hand while footsteps could be heard outside the door. All occupants of the house had been accounted for so who was it? Spooky!!

Several people related to the 19th century servants have told me of three children in 18th century costumes (two girls and one boy) who play ball on the south lawn and fade into the dusk. Apparently the staff often used to wait for it. I’ve never seen it but presume it is Tristram Revell and his two sisters Mary and Bazina in the 1740’s.

Another story is of a ghostly coach seen in the fields west of the Hall by various servants heading home in the dark to their houses in Alfreton in Victorian times. What they didn’t know was that the Hall was reversed in about 1700 and the main drive to the old front of the house was that on which the coach was seen: Is this Robert Revell’s coach? One lady said her mother had told her it had two huge wheels and two small, a perfect description of coaches of the late 17th / early 18th century.

A small room known as the Red Cross Room (owing to its use in the first war to wind bandages by the local ladies) gives many visitors the jitters. A previous occupant once saw a lady standing over her bed and never slept there again! Clearly something happened here; what, we don’t know.

Various visitors and guests have said they have seen figures out of the corner of their eyes. Personally I have never seen anything but I have heard footsteps and doors closing. A builder here once heard someone walk in heavy boots across the attic when he was painting the parlour ceiling, a few inches above him. He was alone in the house at the time and mindful of burglars had locked himself in. I vividly remember arriving home to be told what had happened.

An amusing local story is that a ghost ball takes place here every year in the great parlour on the anniversary of the ball given in 1700 by Robert Revell when he was High Sheriff of Derbyshire. Personally I have never seen or heard it but some years ago a piece of film showed a shadow of a man’s lace cuff on a shutter in the art of dancing. In the 1960/70’s the police quite often came here, called by concerned passers-by who had seen flickering lights in the windows. It was easy to get in but no one was ever found except the smell of candle smoke. A mark at the end of the drive painted on the wall warned tramps never to stay;presumably one had spent the night and was unnerved, so kindly marked the gate.

I fully intend to come back and haunt the place myself!