So Kimberley and Alen Spencer, owners of Dalebrook Guesthouse, called the ghostbusters.

Two elderly ladies from a spiritualist church in Springwood visited the guesthouse recently to conduct an exorcism.

Mrs Spencer said she decided to contact Jenny Green from Springwood to cleanse the house because ghosts were starting to affect the business.

Dalebrook Guesthouse is an impressive National Trust building, built by John Links in 1880. It was originally a bakery but became a private hospital from 1916 to 1928.

Mrs Spencer said a lot of patients died at the hospital, which was part of the reason why there was such an abundance of ghosts.

“I realised there were ghosts in this house the first day I came here because I was drawn here," Mrs Spencer said.

“On the first day I pulled up I saw a lady in the window. I got some photos of the house and showed a psychic friend and she said look in the corner of the window and there were four faces.”

Mrs Spencer said the two ladies told her the lady in the window's name was Ruth and had been connected to her in a past life.

She said guests staying at the house often felt their feet being tickled during the night.

“People [who stayed here] used to say they could feel someone tickling their toes while they slept. Which is interesting because in the old hospital they used to tickle toes to see if patients were still alive,” she said.

Mrs Spencer believed the tickler was the old matron's assistant, who the spiritualists said had come back to the house because she believed she still had a job to do.

She said the house gave her many messages through the two women.

“This house is actually alive. It has got a heart. They said to me this house has a message for you,” she said.

“This house has seen a bit of sadness and also happiness. They said it is now your job to keep it happy.”

Mrs Spencer has many stories about encounters on her property.

“I got home without my husband one night, it was about half past one in the morning,” she said. “I was driving up the driveway and I opened the door and I could hear footsteps walking next to me. They [the ghostbusters] told me he [the ghost] thought I was his wife. They said he wanted to tell my husband the gardens have looked very nice since we moved in

“There is, on a regular basis, a fresh smell of baked cinnamon rolls in the Rose Room.

“There are still children playing in the garden who have passed. They refused to leave, they love it here.”

Mrs Spencer and her husband decided to contact the spiritualists on some advice from friends.

“We contacted them for two reasons. One because we couldn't get our phone lines to work at all and two because of toe tickling at night. There were also a lot of electrical currents in the rooms which affected the clocks and appliances. Not because we were scared,” she said.

There are still ghosts at Dalebrook, but the ghostbusting ladies convinced the more sinister ghosts to move on - including the toe tickling matron, Mrs Spencer said.