WHITEHILL and Bordon town, district and county councillor Adam Carew was joined by more than 40 guests on Sunday, when he launched his book of historic hauntings.

Sites of folklore and spooky tales, in Mr Carew’s Ghosts of East Hampshire, include Hollywater’s The Royal Oak in Hollywater, where the book launch took place.

This book will be followed by a much larger edition in Mr Carew’s Historic Hauntings series - Ghosts of Hampshire: Volume One will be released at Christmas. Of the pub’s ghost, Mr Carew said: “The ghost is of a man in a blue boiler suit with a 1940s haircut.

“He has been seen in the cellar, on the cellar steps and I discovered last night he also walks across the bar and vanishes through the west wall, where a door used to be leading to an outside lavatory. Who he is, no-one knows.

“The exciting thing about these Historic Hauntings talks is that people always come up to me afterwards and tell me new stories or confirm what I have already researched. Last night two people told me they had seen the Rider in Black on Weavers Down and he had been seen elsewhere near Hollywater clump. Another person told me she had seen the Roman Legion of Longmoor no less than four times, which is great as my previous witness sadly died a few months back.”

For copies, e-mail [email protected].