Sue St.Clair and Matthew Didier's Paranormal Blog

Okay ... I admit to being disturbed by this one ... but then who wouldn't be .... if there is one place on Earth we wish to be left alone it's got to be the loo!

GHOST-hunter Darren Johnson-Smith makes no bones about it: the paranormal tale of the Low Valley apparition that scared the life out of a Barnsley pub landlord is one of the best he's ever heard.

Paranormal investigator Darren went to the Low Valley Arms in Wombwell when he heard that landlord Roger Froggatt had confronted a ghostly woman in white with half her face missing - and police backed up his story.

Roger, aged 49, said he felt fear like never before, as he was hunting for what he feared was a burglar in the early hours.
He came face-to-face with a grotesquely disfigured woman dressed in white.

Roger was speechless with shock and his wife Kathryn called the police, believing he had confronted an intruder.
Officers found no signs of entry, although the alarms had been tripped and all the TVs had been turned on.

Officers were left shaken and baffled by a toilet in the ladies, repeatedly flushing by itself.

Darren, who runs Steel City Ghost Tours, said: "Usually I wouldn't be interested. There are a lot of pubs that have their own ghosts. But the flushing of the toilets witnessed by two police officers makes it.
"I know Roger saw something and the police back up his story. This is not made up.

"It is one of the first times I have known an apparition do something physical. This is not some half-asleep person who has had a dream. It's one of the best, if not the best, paranormal incidents I have heard of.
"With the building being refurbished the owners have been through a stressful period. The spirit has picked up on it and followed the track of it and manifested itself in the toilet."

Darren spent yesterday performing a meditation in the toilet and came up with a name for the lady: Mary Quantrill.

He claimed she was an early 19th century traveller, murdered by a man with a hoe, on or near the site of the pub.

Kathryn said a police officer asked; 'Is your toilet supposed to flush itself on its own?'

The handle was going up and down of its own accord, and the bowl filling and overflowing. Officers could not find an explanation. It went on until 5am.

Kathryn said: "The police wanted to call an ambulance for Roger because he was in deep shock. They said they'd never seen anyone so scared.
"But they looked a bit shaken themselves after we witnessed the toilet flushing itself. I even lifted the lid on the cistern but there was nothing to see. I didn't feel too scared because I was with two police officers."

It is the culmination of a string of spooky incidents in their year in the pub. Barrels have been heard moving in the cellar, bottles have smashed, the fridge defrosted while switched on and the gas pressure has inexplicably failed several times. There are regular cold spots, mostly in the toilets.

Roger, a former steel erector, had been sceptical about ghosts until he faced with one.

Wringing his hands, he said: "I'm a level-headed man and nothing like this has ever happened to me before. This was the single most terrifying experience of my life."

A police spokesman said: "Officers saw the toilet flushing but could not explain it."