LAST week we investigated whether the former inmates of Claybury Lunatic Asylum were haunting the residents of the Repton Park housing estate. Since our article, we have discovered more about ghostly goings on at the site. Two stories in particular stand out, one of which suggests the spirits were active even before the hospital was closed. Charlie Stong reports.

SPIRITS were haunting Claybury Hospital well before it became a housing complex.

Last week the Guardian ran a story telling of ghostly goings on at the Woodford Bridge estate during the past year, but this week the newsdesk was contacted by a former administrative worker at Claybury Hospital, who said a ghost had come to "check her out" when she moved into a new building.

Pamela Beasley, of Woodford Green, worked in the admin department of the hospital between 1990 and 1996.

She said: "I worked in the welfare office in the main building. There was a ledge where the patients could lean over and speak to us and one day I heard some heavy breathing coming from outside where the ledge was, but I went outside and there was nothing there.

"Some time later we moved into a smaller office as the whole place was beginning to close down and one day I clearly saw the outline of a person who quickly disappeared.

"I mentioned it to another lady who worked there, who was also a medium, and she said that had happened before. She said the ghost was probably that of a former patient and, as a new person in that building, it was checking me out."

A YOUNG woman and her mother moved out of Repton Park just one year after moving in following a string of spooky happenings.

The 20-year-old, who only wanted to be identified by her first name - Rea, and her mother lived together at Repton Park's Sutherland House building - the former juvenile ward of Claybury Hospital.

One night, while sleepwalking, Rea went into her mother's room and told her that a young girl had jumped out of the window.

She said: "My mum didn't even tell me I'd said it until after we moved out because I would have been too freaked out. I did some research and a girl had indeed committed suicide there but I don't know if she had jumped out of a window."

The sleepwalking episode was just one in a long line of scary events to happen to Rea and her mother during their time at Sutherland House between August, 2003 and last summer.

Rea said: "My stereo and shower used to turn themselves on and off at random times during the day. I often had a very strong feeling that I was being chased up the stairs and my mother saw a girl of 18 or 19 on the entry system.

"Taps would turn themselves on and off and one time I came home from work on my own, went into the kitchen and all the doors, cupboards and drawers were open and everything was all lined up really neat and tidy."

At the end of the lease Rea and her mum moved out of Sutherland House and Rea says she will never even think of going back.