Vicar, the useful ghost

GHOSTS can be useful (Letters, November 21). The previous owner of our house used to see a vicar vanishing regularly as she went into a room. The father of an earlier occupant had been a vicar so, the next time she saw him, she said quickly: ‘They’ve gone to live at Askham.’ She never saw him again.

When we moved in, there were odd gurgles. Some said it was the central heating, but we thought the vicar had returned, with a new habit of nicking things. If the children ‘lost’ something, it was the vicar— very useful! When we moved to Australia, the vicar seemed to come, too. David Whitaker, Edinburgh