Preston Manor asks visitors to write down their ghost sightings

Visitors to Preston Manor are being invited to record unexplained experiences in a new Spirit Ledger. Anyone who sees or hears something unusual in the house can write it on a “Ghost-it” note for the ledger.

Brighton & Hove Museums^1,2,3, the charitable trust that runs the Manor, says staff kept hearing about strange happenings from visitors and from colleagues. The ledger gives those stories one place to live. The accounts will also feed research for a ghost stories book and events next year.

The house has plenty to start with. There is the Lady in Grey on the staircase, a White Lady, and reports of unexplained activity in the bedrooms. One of its most famous stories dates from an 1896 séance in the Cleves Room, when the medium Ada Goodrich Freer is said to have spoken to a spirit calling herself Sister Agnes. A year later, workmen were said to have found a woman’s skeleton under the terrace.

Kate Turnbull, project lead at Preston Manor, said: “Whether visitors have seen something, heard something or simply felt that they weren’t alone, we want to give them the opportunity to share their experiences in their own words.”

The Manor is open Friday to Monday, 10am to 5pm, until 30 November. Admission charges apply and members get in free.