More than 40 people joined television psychic Ian Lawman and a team from the specialist North West Spirit Seekers to follow at the impressive location, which was home to the Towneley family for more than 500 years.

Following in the footsteps of television's "Most Haunted" crew who had a scary experience at the hall last year, the latest ghost hunt found lots of spirit "activity" from a plethora of "friendly ghosts".

Events manager Miss Tricia Danson said: "Towneley Hall is somewhere we have always wanted to investigate. It was definitely an active location and we are actually going back there on October 24th for a similar event.

"We had a lot of people coming up to us after saying they really enjoyed the experience and wanted to come back and do it again."

So what did the evening bring by way of unexplained activity?

After a psychic demonstration by medium Rob Fortune and Ian Lawman, the groups split into three smaller teams for the actual ghost-hunting with locations investigated being the chapel, family dining room, servants' dining room and the Green Room.

Reports highlighted the chapel as being the "most active" with investigators spotting coloured lights and hearing loud breathing. "We did get some responses to questions with bangs but this could have been attributed to the boiler system in the building," said Tricia. "We did get some movement on the EMF meter and I felt there was a male presence in the room alongside a lady called 'Mary'."

Other groups experienced cold drafts in the chapel, while Ian Lawman felt a male presence, possibly a priest, and later in the evening a small stone was thrown at investigators.

Other groups attempted to use glass divination, dowsing rods and a planchette to make contact, receiving messages from a mischievious character and hearing occasional unexplained bumps and bangs.
Tricia also said EMF reading around the Mummy's tomb located near the servants' quarters werre also unusual.

"We are returning to the hall on Friday, October 24th, as part of our North West Ghost Festival which runs from that date until Sunday, November 2nd. Ian Lawman will be in attendance again and it will again be again a psychic supper and mini ghost hunt, tickets are £65 again and it runs from 7 p.m. until midnight," said Tricia.

For more on the Towneley ghost hunt, visit the North West Spirit Seekers' website - here.

"Most Haunted" at Towneley Hall - click here