The spooky Victorian guest house was enough to spook the demolition team knocking it down

Even before they saw this haunting picture of a woman peering out of the derelict B&B at them, the demolition team were spooked.

When they had started tearing down the empty Victorian guesthouse, the chandeliers began swinging on their own.

So a tingle went down their spines when they saw this snap, taken by their supervisor just before the building was razed to the ground earlier this week.

It shows an elderly woman wearing large earrings staring out of one of the ground-floor windows.

She is believed to be the B&B’s late owner Frances Grimshaw, 87, who died almost a year ago – and who would have been “horrified” at seeing her beloved guesthouse reduced to rubble.

Frances Grimshaw (Pic: Cascade)

Her managing director son David said: “That is my mother. I’m totally convinced – no one else looks like that. She had glasses and big earrings and she used to wear a dress with a bow at the front.”

The 59-year-old father-of-two, who lives in Bedford, added: “Mum used to stand in that room for hours on the phone – it was the guest house reception and she took bookings from there.

“She would have been horrified if she had known the house was being demolished because it was beautiful. Maybe that is why she’s turned up.”

The spooky Victorian guest house was enough to spook the demolition team knocking it down (Pic: Cascade)

The spooky snap was taken by site supervisor Robert Johnson, 38.

He said: “It wasn’t until I got home and showed my wife that we spotted the woman. You can see the jewellery on her and everything – the image is so clear.

“I’ve always been a sceptic but I’ll have to believe in ghosts now.”

Robert Johnson (Pic: Cascade)

The demolition team working at Meadowbank House, in Kendal, Cumbria, had been spooked from day one.

Stuart Shan said: “We were stripping the building inside and I noticed the chandelier swinging on its own.

“When I saw the lady in the photograph, the hairs on the back of my neck stood on end.”

A new commercial property will replace the building, originally a dental surgery.