We were not there for a lock in, but to meet the Alfreton Paranormal Group for a ghost hunt.

Over the years there have been many reports of ghostly goings-on at the pub which dates back to the tenth century, including the sensing of the spirit of DJ Darren Hunt.

Darren, 22, was killed in a car crash two years ago and according to staff and friends at the pub his spirit regularly haunts the place.

Pub manager Marc Watson has heard many accounts of spooky sightings and sounds in the pub, adjoining club and upstairs bar.

He said the spirit of a young boy with cigarette burns had been seen by a number of staff sitting on top of a stack of water bottles.

Marc has even seen the boy, who was last spotted a year ago, himself.
He said: "It's like an image, you blink and it's gone."

Marc thinks the presence of the paranormal group, which formed a year ago and has carried out a number of vigils at the pub may have led to the recent inactivity of the ghost.

As the lights were turned down at the start of our search for paranormal activity, one of the members Roy Brown-Lowe showed me a video filmed on his mobile phone at a 2,000 year-old graveyard.

He described what he captured as a surge of energy.
It was like something out of a horror film – the images showed what looked like child spirits surrounded in a green glow chasing each other. Were we going to see anything as spectacular as this I wondered? I wasn't sure I wanted to.

Of course, even if we didn't see anything there was still the possibility of hearing, or feeling something. The most active time for spirits, according to Roy is between the hours of 1am and 3am, so to be honest we were a little early.

Accompanying Roy that night were group members Stephen Walker, Stephen Elliott and medium David Williams.

Stephen Walker operated a EVP (electronic voice phenomonen) device which was constantly recording and was run through a computer and analysed afterwards to see if any noises below the level of those that can be heard by the human ear were picked up.

Although we couldn't hear them at the time Roy told me the next day that the EVP device had picked up some whispering voices.

Stephen Elliott operated a video camera to film the whole night. He was hoping to pick up any unusual spots of light, otherwise knows as orbs.
The medium David's role was to see if he could sense any spirits. On previous occasions he had seen bodies in the cellar and believes that they could be linked to bare-knuckle fighting which took place at the building many years ago.

He has been what he calls 'helping people' for the past five years and first discovered he had 'the gift' at the age of five when he saw a group of people in his bedroom. His mum reassured him it was just a nightmare but when he went to the bathroom the people were still there.

He said: "I have used it all my life in terms of knowing things that are going to happen but it was only five years ago that I decided to do use it for charity through medium nights."

All money raised from events set up by the paranormal group also go to charity. The latest was on Hallowe'en night when they raised £300 for the Queen's Medical Centre, in Nottingham.

Our first paranormal experience at the Cock Hotel was not dissimilar to events on the TV show Most Haunted.

We were in the upstairs bar where Roy began a vigil – asking any spirits to come forward.

Although as far as I could see nothing startling happened Stephen caught a orb on camera.

It had passed right before my eyes but I hadn't even seen it.
As often happens on Most Haunted, it seems orbs weren't always visible to the human eye.

Meanwhile David, who was sitting on a sofa, said he sensed the spirits of two men from rival gangs stood in front of him.

Afterward that brief encounter we headed downstairs to the sofa area in the bar and again Roy asked any spirits to come forward – in particular the spirit of Darren Hunt who was asleep on a sofa in the pub before his tragic death.

There was a definite chill in the air and the temperature, which was being measured by one of the team with an infra red device, dropped significantly in the corner close to where Roy was sitting.

He also felt someone tickle him on the nose and David reported feeling sick.

Halfway through the vigil the medium left the room and another member of the team led us to the DJ box in the adjoining Matrix club where David had sensed a spirit.

The room was freezing and David claimed he was getting messages from the spirit world. There were also noises coming from the back of the room which couldn't be accounted for.

The medium said he had the spirit of a lady with him who gave him a number of signs; the first related to a knee problem; then he asked if anyone in the room had been for an eye test recently.

At first no one answered, then the News photographer Lindsay, who was standing further back observing, replied "yes".

David then continued to tell her lots of things that rang true about her grandmother who died when she was a baby.
Lindsay was stunned to say the least.

She said: "When I got home and thought about it I was a bit freaked out. It was a bizarre experience."
Sceptics would probably give a simple explanation for the weird encounters at the premises.

But the paranormal team believe in what they see and hear.
Stephen Walker said: "We can't make you believe but we believe what we see. It's unique and you always come back with something."

As the evening drew to a close Roy told me about one of the most haunted places they hade visited – a farmhouse in Somercotes where voices could often be heard shouting.

He said: "We stirred things up when we went there so we need to go back for a second visit to calm things down a bit."

As we left The Cock Hotel at 1am Roy told us to say "please don't follow us home", to any spirits. Apparently this has happened to both David and Roy before.

I wasn't sure I believed that, but I muttered it under my breath – just in case.

The Alfreton Paranormal Group will next meet on November 27 at the Seven Stars in Riddings. Visit www.ripleyandheanornews.co.uk and follow the link to the group's website. David Williams will be holding a charity night at Underwood Miners Welfare on December 3.