YET another ghostly apparition has been seen at a Devizes public house after ghosthunters photographed what they believe to be a spirit at the White Bear in Monday Market Street.

Members of the Swindon-based South West Paranormal Group spent the night in the pub cellar on February 18.

One of the group, medium Billy McLeod, was aware while being shown round the pub by landlord Bryan Smith-Dowse of a young woman in a 1960s-style floral dress and a young man in a butcher's apron, whose name was Mark and who died in 1989 at the age of 29, possibly having taken his own life.

In the bar area, Mr McLeod became aware of a young boy and a man dressed in highwayman's clothing.

This man, said Mr McLeod, was about 30 and may have been called David Robson or Robeson. He seems to have been a real ladies' man. He showed Mr McLeod two photographs, one of young blonde woman and one of a woman dressed as a man.

In the cellar, Mr McLeod sensed a young woman being pinned up against the wall and a man, about 6ft 2in, with a moustache and a ferocious temper. The group held a sance and came up with the name Lucy.

As far as the cameras and other equipment set up by the group were concerned, it was all fairly quiet, but about 1.30am things started to get interesting, as Mr McLeod recalled.

He said: "Orbs, glowing balls of light, started appearing and another member of our group, Martin Oxenham, started snapping away with his camera.

"We thought he had got some interesting footage but when he started to examine it, something really interesting started to emerge.

"He thought he could make out an image and by enhancing the picture, an image that was recognisable as a human emerged."

Mr Smith-Dowse was taken aback by the findings.

He said: "I don't really know what to think of it. I work in this place at all hours of the day and night and I have never seen anything. But one of my cleaners won't go into one of the bedrooms upstairs. She hasn't seen anything, but she doesn't like the atmosphere there."

According to local historian John Girvan, the White Bear has a strange history. Originally known as The Talbot, it was an old drovers' inn. Once it was visited by an old lady who wanted to stable her horse.

On leading the horse through the front passage, it slipped and fell into a cellar, the door of which had been left open. The horse died and the owner disclosed she was a witch and would curse the cellar, vowing it would always be dark, dank and useless.

The landlord circumvented the curse by growing mushrooms in the cellar.