SPOOKY noises and haunted vacuum cleaners have been sending chills down the spines of cleaning staff at a town centre building.
Staff at Warrington Masonic Hall were on the point of refusing to work upstairs because of their vacuums being mysteriously switched off as they worked, plugs flying out of electric sockets and strange noises coming from 
storage cupboards.
Could it be the ghost of Elias Ashmole, politician and antiquary, who was made a freemason in Warrington in 1646 and who is reputed to haunt the hall in Winmarleigh Street?
Cleaner Sasha Dodd, 22, said: “Before I started, someone mentioned the ghost. Then the cleaner kept being unplugged while I was working. It was a bit of a giggle at first but then it became quite scary.”
Tony Rowbottom, the buildings and services director, said: “These girls were quite frightened and were on the point of refusing to work upstairs.”
Mr Rowbottom decided to investigate – and was quite unnerved when he experienced the “flying plugs” himself.
“One minute the vacuum was working OK – the next it was switched off and the plug was lying on the floor 12 inches from the socket.
He decided to call in an expert – electrical, rather than spiritual, in case there was a technical fault.
The electrician solved the problem. Springs in two of the main sockets used by the cleaners had jammed and caused another set of springs to force the plugs out, making it appear as if someone had taken them out and thrown across the room.
Mr Rowbottom said: “Somewhat sadly it would appear the ghost of Elias is not to blame. Or is he? Strange noises in the storeroom have again been heard by the cleaners.”
Elias Ashmole was the founder of the Ashmolean Museum at Oxford. He was a celebrated antiquary, politician, student of alchemy and astrologer and an entry in his diary in 1646 is the first written account of anyone being made a Freemason in the country.
Pictured: Tony Rowbottom at the problem socket with Sasha Dodd and the cleaner which stopped working.
