CLEANER-turned-ghost-duster Brenda Hill today relived the moment she came face to face with a spook in Blackburn's most haunted building.

Blackburn Telephone Exchange has been plagued by things that go bump in the night since it opened in the early 1960s.

Simon Entwistle, who hosts regular 'ghost walks' around Blackburn town centre, is to explain the history of hauntings in the Exchange building for a new TV series. Simon will be seen on ITV's Lunchtime Live in the autumn.

Now Brenda, who has worked at the Exchange for 21 years, has relived her scary lunchtime moment.

"I was coming through a door on the fourth floor when I saw this person standing by the lift," she said.

"She had blondish mousey hair, with sunken eyes and was grey-looking in the face. She turned to look at me with a frown and then shot into the lift really fast.

"I thought to myself, 'She's in a rush' and when I went over to the lift the doors were closed and the lift hadn't moved. I opened the lift doors and there was nobody in there. I had a quick look around the place but there was no-one about. I knew I'd never seen her before and that she didn't work here. I thought it was very strange."

Brenda, 59, claimed a colleague had once been washing her hands at the sink in the fourth floor toilets when she felt something brush past her -- but when she looked round there was nothing to be seen.

An operator who works in the building, who did not give her name, told another story of ghostly goings-on in the same toilets.

"About eight of us had been working through the night and it was three o'clock in the morning," she said. "Two of us went into the toilet cubicles and while we were in there the taps outside came on by themselves.

"Nobody else entered the toilets while we were in there. We flew out and went straight down the stairs."

The 'Tele-ghost' was believed to be William J Murray," explained Simon. "He was the last owner of the Grand Theatre before it was demolished and the Exchange building was built in its place.

"Murray committed suicide in 1957 after the final performance in the theatre and it is believed he haunted the building for some time after."

Simon said there had been stories in the past of exchange workers hearing the sounds of a piano playing late at night, and it was thought this was Murray tinkling the ivories to lament the loss of his beloved theatre.

He said other workers used to complain of hearing the sound of a heavy shoe walking around the floor late at night when no-one else was about.

The current staff at the Exchange think the tale of the 'Tele-ghost' is harmless fun and certainly Brenda Hill does not appear at all scared by recent events.

"I've heard all the stories about the building and they don't really bother me," she said. "But after what I saw, I believe in ghosts even more than I did before."

Simon repeats the tale of the Tele-ghost on his next 'Heroes and Villains' guided tour around Blackburn on Monday May 13, starting from the Queen Victoria statue on The Boulevard at 7.30pm.

Tickets for the tour are available from Blackburn with Darwen Borough Council Tourism Department on 01254 53277 and cost £3 for adults and £1 for children under 13.

For more information on Simon Entwistle visit www.tophatproductions.i12.com.