Ref. 73178-82ON a cold misty evening, lit only by the faint orange glow of the distant moon, dozens of Crick-lade townsfolk gathered.

On the bridge over the River Thames, they came together, holding hands as they heard the scary and ghostly tales of their community.

Leading the way was a mysterious character, dressed in a black cloak, who a possessed a loud voice which boomed into the night but this was no individual from the distant past, but the town crier, Clive Smith.

He took the assembled crowd into the darkness, away from street lamps, towards Blue Bridge at North Meadow.

Here, on a late evening in August 1994, two students, apparently sober, spotted a mysterious brightly shaped object in the sky a flying saucer, half the size of a double-decker bus, just hovering above nearby trees, no-one could explain the unidentified flying object, and no planes were flying about.

Heading back towards the safety of the street lamps, the crowd stood around the Priory of St John the Baptist, where it is rumoured underground passages linking St Mary's church and a hospital on the site of the police station .

Mr Smith, told the amazed crowd about a now bricked up window in the building which spookily was often at a lower temperature to other parts of the same wall.

Soon it was on to the dark graveyard, of St Mary's Catholic church in the High Street where the largest headstone belongs to Stephen Rodway, a local coal merchant and an apparent skinflint, who reputedly wrote down each serial number of every pound he spent. He was murdered with a gunshot wound to the chest by Robert Watkins.

Before leaving the church, however Mr Smith reminded the crowd of the story of highway-man extraordinaire and failed bank robber William Peare, who lived in the house next to the church.

The criminal was hanged in 1783 near Salisbury after being caught in a failed attempt to rob a bank in Stroud. His body remained hanging as a warning to other potential criminals, but one night it disappeared, and rumours abound that it was removed by his family who buried it in an unmarked grave in St Mary's churchyard.

Unfortunately not everyone was convinced.

Nine-year-old Robert Wynne, who lives in the village said: "I really liked the story about the flying saucers, but I am not convinced about the ghosts, I don't really believe in them, so I am not really very scared about living here."

One of the spookiest places of all was in the centre of the High Street at number 45 where current owners claim they have heard the footsteps of what they believe to be a woman walking across the rafters. Probably, according to Mr Smith, to get to the chip shop and the Indian restaurant, the smell from which was wafting eerily across the street.

Although, the fine aroma of Indian cooking grabbed the attention of many, most youngsters, listened intently.

Naomi Moore, 11, from Stratton, Swindon, said: "This is all pretty scary, especially in the church.

"How can people live in such a haunted place. I am glad Stratton is not like that."

The crowd swiftly moved on to St Sampson's church knowing that the end to their scary ordeal a pub drink was in sight.

Here according to legend, the church organ can occasionally be heard playing not only while the church is locked, but also in the parish rooms, where there is no organ, while inside is an effigy of a stone mason, who fell from the tower, bounced off one of the piers and landed on the ground, and the stone effigy was created.

For most, this was as scary as it got in spite of other stories of ghostly pigs and a four-eyed monster, once seen on the site of the Old Bear pub car park over one hundreds years ago.

Soon, everyone had dispersed, suitably chilled ready for a beer or two.

Anthony Osborne