GHOSTHUNTERS claim to have identified 14 spirits making a historic hotel one of the most haunted locations in Britain.

A team of TV paranormal investigators spent a night in the 350-year-old Old Hall Hotel in Sand-bach, in the hope of making contact with supernatural residents.

The black and white timber-framed building on High Street is renowned for spooky goings-on with guests commonly reporting giggling children and flying objects.

And after staying in the four-star hotel overnight, the team from cult show Most Haunted say they have put names to all 14 of the site's spooks and spectres.

During the shoot, presenter Yvette Fielding watched sceptic celebrity Gaby Roslin become rapt in fear as a renowned psychic made touch with one of the ghouls.

Medium Derek Acorah was led from the hotel by a spirit calling itself Yolanda Smyth to nearby St Mary's graveyard where they found a headstone bearing the same name.

Old Hall Hotel employee Lisa Wynne said : 'Gaby Roslin was terrified. When we started she said she didn't believe in ghosts, but

after cutlery was rattling in the dining room in the dead of night that soon changed.

'And when the crew were packing up to leave in the morning one of them went up to his room and saw a heavy book balanced on top of a pamphlet, in a kind of 'T' shape.

'The book was obviously far too heavy to balance on the paper-thin pamphlet without there being some kind of supernatural force.'

Lisa, 31, has worked at the hotel for three years and says she also doubted the existence of ghosts before she was confronted by a number of strange sights.

She said: 'I see a ghost up to three or four times a week. We often hear a group of children giggling in the dining room in the middle of the night. There's an elderly woman I see walking down the hall when I'm doing a shift behind the bar.'

It is this figure that Derek Acorah identified as Yolanda Smyth before finding her grave in the neighbouring churchyard. His feat was made all the more extraordinary because the location for the show, which will be broadcast on LivingTV later this year, was kept secret until the last minute.

The programme's producers say this meant he would have no way of researching the ghosts or local history before he arrived.

Lisa said: 'There is an old tunnel that was dug as an escape route for monks during the Reformation from the church which comes out in a hidden compartment at the hotel.

'Derek said this is acting as a pathway for the souls of the people that are buried in the graves.'

Most haunted

South Cheshire is a hotbed of paranormal activity. Here are just a few ghouls on our doorstep: Churche's Mansion, Nantwich.

In 1987 the Nantwich Chronicle reported on spooky goings-on at Churche's Mansion on Hospital Street.

The now empty former restaurant was said to be the haunt of a 'saucy spook' with an eye for the ladies!

Female guests often sensed a 'presence' in some parts of the building and felt icy hands caressing their legs and shoulders.

When the building became a restaurant after the Second World War, staff and visitors often saw a figure wandering around. It was described as tall, dark and shadowy but noone could discover the ghost's identity.

A medium held a seance in the building and claimed to have made contact with a young servant girl who lived there in Elizabethan times. Wilbraham Arms, Welsh Row, Nantwich.

In recent years guests have reported curtains opening and closing of their own accord and television sets switching on and off without human intervention. The Swan With Two Necks, Nantwich.

This pub, also on Welsh Row, is the favourite haunt of a ghoulish farmer. In 1994 a barman who was working late claimed to have seen the figure of the man walk casually past the bar before disappearing into a solid wall! Ye Olde Vaults.

The cellar of the Vaults in Nantwich town square is said to be haunted. The Thatch Inn, Faddiley.

Kitchen staff claim to have witnessed poltergeist activity, including knives and forks flying around, and some say they have seen a mysterious dark figure. The Red Cow, Nantwich.

Staff have reported objects mysteriously being moved and a psychic visitor to the pub claimed it was haunted by a former land-lady and her daughter.