Steve Holloway

Rooms such as the one discovered by builder Jim Sparks would have been the sleeping quarters for maids or housekeepers.

And it is the story that involves a housekeeper which could shed light on why the paranormal events began to escalate at Flitwick.

Around the time of John Thomas Brooks, his wife Mary and their daughter Mary Ann, a housekeeper was employed to help with the upkeep of the manor.

This housekeeper was a stern elderly woman who was accused of trying to poison a visitor who was staying at Flitwick.

She was immediately fired from her position and told to leave the property.

The story goes that when she eventually died, her spirit returned to the room hidden away in the roof.

By that time, the room had been bricked up and not used, so theoretically, her spirit was trapped inside, until the room was rediscovered and opened back up.

Maybe the release of her spirit enabled the young Mary Ann to wander the house, as well as her mother.

The spirit of the stern housekeeper has been seen and felt by many people, but they may be confusing her with the ghost of Mary Brooks.

It seems as if they didn't approve of the renovations which took place at the manor, and that they also prefer a quiet atmosphere, not a lot of loud noise or music.

This can be difficult if the hotel hosts an event, for instance.

On a number of occasions, the housekeeper or Mary Brooks have made their presence known, in a few different ways.

It seems that they can flip between that of a full-body apparition and a poltergeist,

During one event, a band had been hired to play, and as they went through their set, they all started to notice an old woman staring at them.

It became quite uncomfortable, and at the end of the night as the band were packing away, they asked about the identity of this woman, as it seemed obvious that she disliked the music.

Diane Rance, who was the restaurant manager in 2002 when this event took place, listened to the description of the woman the band gave, and they matched exactly with other witnesses' accounts who'd encountered the spirit.

Another incident which took place around the same time involved a disco.

Guests were dancing and enjoying themselves when suddenly the electricity went off, plunging that room only into darkness.

After around 10 minutes, the power came back on and the party continued, but as the guests continued to dance and drink, the staff knew only too well who was behind the power outage.

One of these spirits was also seen by the whole family who were the first owners of Flitik when it became a hotel back in 1986.