THERE may be more than meets the eye to even the most respectable of towns, according to a Hampshire ghost investigator.

Now John Harvey has turned his knowledge of Fareham's chequered past into a fund-raiser for a local children's charity.

Once a month a group of people spend an evening having the living daylights spooked out of them as John leads a tour of the town's supernatural hot-spots.

An office clerk by day, 53-year-old John has been interested in the supernatural for years and decided to make the most of his expert knowledge.

According to John the whole area is full of tales of the unexpected as former residents make their presence felt.

"Most of the reports can be explained away logically but a few always can't."

The tour takes in highlights including Frenchman's Alley, near Lower Quay, where a phantom First World War soldier has appeared.

According to reports, the elderly soldier rises out of the ground wearing a peaked cap and khaki greatcoat and charges with bayonet extended - straight through a wall.

John says the whole Lower Quay area is one where plenty of things go bump in the night.

"It is a part of Fareham that was very busy and legend has it that William Shakespeare landed there.

"There are also three burial grounds in the area where there was a hospital for prisoners of war during the Napoleonic wars and some of the houses there have reported problems.

"People say there is a great deal of sadness and resentment in the area."

The eighteenth-century Roundabout Hotel near Fareham Creek has also had unexpected guests.

Staff members reported seeing a fair-haired boy who made the temperature of one particular room drop in the hotel, built on the site of an orphanage.

But since a fire in the early 1980s which destroyed the area the boy haunted John says there have been no more reports of unwelcome visitors.

John's tour raises money for the Rainbow Centre in Fareham, which helps children with cerebral palsy, but he says he could never cover all the area's legends in one walk.

One of the most famous hauntings around Fareham is near the church of St Edmund the Martyr in Crofton and around Titchfield Abbey.

An ancient monk has been seen drifting around the village but since a burial ground was disturbed by building the village by-pass things have taken a more sinister turn.

John claims several motorists have reported feeling an icy chill as they passed the church late at night and then seeing a cowled figure in the back of their cars that seemed extremely angry.

John says that he could run a dozen ghost walks and not run out of stories and is happy to arrange special trips on request.

Anyone interested in joining the walks, normally on the first Saturday of every month, should contact John on 01329 312993.