THERE'S not much Ken Goor doesn't know about Leeds. As the only official Leeds tour guide – he runs over 40 different walks across the city on everything from pubs and parks to mills and markets – he is a living encyclopedia.

When someone asked him if he was starting a ghost tour, he was stumped.

He said: "One of my tours is called 'the darker side of Leeds' and it was during one session a few years ago I was asked about doing a ghost tour.

"I would always say there's no evidence for it. I was very much a sceptic.

"But then I came across some reports of sightings through books and newspapers and then started talking to people who'd seen things. After a short while, I had enough evidence for a tour."

Ken, 57, of Morley, is an engineer by day and has been a volunteer at City Varieties – the country's oldest working music hall, which dates back to 1762 – for years.

When he broached the subject of ghosts with regulars at the famous venue, the floodgates opened.

He said: "There have been several ghost sitings at the Varieties – people have seen a man in a bowler hat and old-fashion attire standing on stage near the piano; there's another story of a TV producer, who was once locked in the Circle bar accidentally overnight. After a while trying to raise the alarm, he resigned himself to his fate and made himself a bed for the night... he was woken by a crinolined lady actress staring at him. He shouted in terror and watched as she appeared to walk through the fireplace."

Phantoms

A dozen or so other strange-goings-on have also been recorded, including anecdotes of phantoms, strange sounds and keys going missing, then turning up again.

The sceptical reader will no doubt scoff at these reports, but Ken himself was a doubter.

He said: "I like to keep an open mind. The people I have talked to have always seemed to me as down-to-earth types, very grounded and professional.

"After a while doing the tour, I was approached by a publisher with a view to putting a book together."

His book, Haunted Leeds, which is being reprinted, chronicles dozens of sightings and strange phenomena throughout Yorkshire.

One theory which recently came to light (and which is not in his book) was that many of the sightings appear to follow lines.

Mr Goor said: "It was a lady who came on one of my tours who first suggested the idea. She had some research which suggested three lines, all of which appeared to converge at Quarry House, colloquially known as the Kremlin. That used to be Quarry flats, the largest block of flats in Europe, before that it was hovels.

"I looked at my own sightings and I did find a line, I suppose lay lines have to cross somewhere."

Starting with Kirkstall Abbey, there are sightings in Armley, then the town hall, City Varieties and a little off the line at BBC headquarters on Woodhouse Lane. The line then appears to extend out to Cross Gates, Scholes, Barwick-in-Elmet and points to York and Scarborough."

The theory is, as Ken admits, one which needs more investigation.

Perhaps a man well suited to that job is Duane Ellis.

He is stopped regularly by the police on his way home from a job. He's normally dressed all in black, with several 'kit bags' chucked on the back seat. When the police ask him what he's doing at six in the morning, he's got one of the best excuses going.

When he tells them, they normally look like they've seen a ghost.

"I tell them I'm a paranormal investigator," says the 36-year-old, a gardener by day.

"It got to be a bit of a routine at one point, mainly on the A65. They would stop me, I would be dressed completely in black with all my kit in bags on the back seat and they'd ask me what I was up to.

"I'd say, 'do you really want to know?' and they would say, 'yes, we do.' So, I'd tell them I was a paranormal investigator and had just come back from Marsden Moor.

"At that point, they would look at me oddly and say, 'ok, right' and send me on my way."

Investigators

Duane is the founder of Leeds-based Paranormal Activity Research Team (Part for short).

Joking aside, Duane takes his hobby seriously and he's not alone. He has a dedicated team of investigators, among them practising psychologist Graham Ramsden and head of the National Railway Museum in York Tom Griffin.

The team have visited a number of venues in Leeds and the surrounding area and they stage public investigations regularly.

He said: "I've always had an interest in it and I spent a couple of years working with another group before founding my own in 2003. We're five years in and we now have quite a lot of serious equipment, including infra red cameras and analogue and digital voice recorders.

"Whenever we go somewhere, we start recording from the minute we get there, as it's sometimes when you're not looking for something that you find it."

But what do they find?

"We try to remain scientifically based and we are always open-minded. We're all sceptics when it comes to analysing a new experience.

"Before we go on an investigation, we have a stress test; that gives the psychologist the chance to see what's going on, then if we do experience anything, he can judge that against our stress level.

"We can all be influenced by things around us and they can all make a difference to what you think about. If you're going through a particularly stressful time or you're emotional, then that could mean you are more open to seeing things. Or in a state where you can see things. We also look at whether people have any foreknowledge of the site and things like the weather conditions.

"The more we find out about these influences, the more questions it throws up. I do believe there are spirits there but I think you need to be privileged to be in the right place at the right time to see and experience them. Some people may go their whole lives without seeing anything."


FACTFILE


Ken Goor runs over 40 guided tours of the city (and beyond), most of which are listed in the Yorkshire Evening Post. He can be contacted on 0113 252 6807; or 07742 223926. His book. Haunted Leeds (Tempus Publishing, 2006), is available from Borders, Waterstone's and WH Smith, among others.

Duane Ellis founded Paranormal Activity Research Team (Part) – www.partuk.co.uk – which is available for hire and is always on the lookout for new venues. They are holding an investigation at The Golden Fleece, York on April 4, starting at midnight. Call 07751 802 320.