THE mystery ghosthunters who snapped the controversial photograph of the spirit of a nun - said to haunt Vale Royal Abbey at Whitegate near Winsford - made their public debut at the newly opened golf club last week.

Sharon Oliver and Julie Moreton, of Winsford, mingled with more than 200 guests invited to soak up the atmosphere of the lavishly refurbished Great House and to familiarise themselves with the superb conference and banqueting facilities.

However, for Sharon and Julie, it was a chance to take another look at the inside if a building that they are convinced is haunted.

The girls have decided to go public to encourage more letters from people who have experienced strange events at Vale Royal Abbey.

They hit the headlines before Christmas when their photo, taken in August 1996, was made public.

The pair believe it could have been the ghost of Ida Godman, the nun who was said to have been buried under the abbey's High Altar after having tended to the needs of a sickly abbot.

Their snap surfaced shortly after the site was developed as Vale Royal Abbey Golf Club.

At the time the girls wished to remain anonymous, but interest in the subject has been such that they are now writing a book about their spooky experiences within the grounds of Vale Royal Abbey.

And they would welcome any further information from Guardian readers.

"We have seen some very odd things here," said Sharon, who with Julie took the controversial picture when the then empty building was first being renovated.

"Ghost hunting was a bit of a hobby," said Sharon, now a mum of one, "Julie and I used to go all over the place looking for ghosts. It was just a lark. We heard that the workmen on the site had experienced weird events and we decided to go along one evening."

Julie explained: "We didn't see anything odd at the time but when we got the film developed, we thought we could make out a face in the window to the first floor room known as the library.

"We got the shot blown up and loads of people reckoned they could see a face in the window surrounded by a dark hair or a cowl."

The two girls took the film to a professional photographer for analysis but his examination was inconclusive. The girls put away their photograph and forgot about it.

The photograph surfaced again when Sharon's father Frank, also of Winsford, took on the job of handyman at the newly opened Vale Royal Abbey Golf Club.

"We saw some very unusual things during our times at Vale Royal Abbey," said Julie.

"Some of our experiences were frightening to say the least. Now we want to put those detailed events down in book form so that we can share them with the general public."

Converted for the new archive on 13 March 2001. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.