An esteemed paranormal investigator is currently writing a book about ghost sightings in the Cotswolds and Gloucestershire.

Ruth Roper Wylde is a partially retired civil servant, who lives Bedfordshire and has spent much of her career as an investigator – firstly in fraud and theft and later in bullying, harassment and discrimination claims.

She has a lifelong fascination with the supernatural and unexplained, stemming from formative years spent living in a house with an active poltergeist in Welwyn, Hertfordshire.

"These incidents happened when I was a teenager, about 12 or 13-years-old," Ruth said.

"They do say poltergeists tend to affect teenagers, and we had quite an active poltergeist who would chuck things about, make loud noises, bang on doors and turn lights and the cooker on and off."

Ruth had a particularly frightening experience one evening.

"Everytime my sister would take a bath or shower she said someone would always bang loudly on the door.

"One day she moaned so much I agreed to sit with her while she was in the bath and sure enough, while she was in there something came and hammered on the door with such violence it was shaking in the doorframe.

"I thought it was my little brother playing a practical joke on her so I shushed her so he wouldn’t know I was in there with her, and I crept up to the door and flung it open while there was this violent banging but there was nobody there.

"That really freaked me out because I thought it was my little brother winding her up at the time."

Ruth's experiences with the spirit, which stopped after she left her family home, and her career as an investigator inspired her to write a book.

She brings a healthy dose of scepticism and desire for scientific explanation to her research and writing, which was instilled by her ever pragmatic mother: who when presented with an inexplicably flying knife in the kitchen, calmly took out a tape measure and measured the length of its flight path.

Three years ago, when the opportunity to take partial early retirement presented itself, Ruth decided to make her idea of writing a book into reality, and has since published four books as an independent author: The Ghosts of Marston Vale, The Almanac of British Ghosts, These Haunted Times Volume One and The Roadmap of British Ghosts.

She is currently writing book five, which will be These Haunted Times Volume Two.

Ruth is currently researching sightings in the Cotswolds and Gloucestershire areas for her fifth book.

"There are two sightings I'm particularly interested in: In Winchcombe there's an area called Rushley Lane and a ghost of a Victorian lady has reportedly been spotted there.

"One person saw a lady in a hooded cape and another saw a lady in this Victorian type dress.

"The other is in Wiltshire – in Stanton Saint Bernard on the Kennet and Avon canal. There's a footbridge running over it and somebody was walking along there and saw a lady in a Victorian dress, but she was apparently almost see through and it was very late at night."

There is also supposed to be a ghost in Avening, on the road between the village and Minchinhampton.

Ruth said: "It's meant to be the ghost of someone who committed suicide who waits along this piece of road. It's difficult from the source story to tell how old this story is, since there is very little detail given. Certainly it was a long held belief that anyone committing suicide was doomed to remain earthbound, so the tale could be quite old.

"Curiously though, I did find a witness who had experienced something very strange along that stretch of road.

"In November 2013, our witness was driving home from Malmesbury, at about 1am in the morning on a clear, cold, typical winter’s night. There was some ambient moonlight, and it was quite a crisp, still night.

"As he drove near Minchinhampton golf club, he suddenly saw a slim, middle aged woman wearing just a dress (no coat or warm scarf for the chilly night) trying to flag him down and looking very distressed.

"He immediately pulled the car over and wound his window down to ask her what was wrong and if she needed help.

"She suddenly wasn’t there.

"His experience has left him profoundly interested in the subject of the paranormal."

She has also heard from people who have seen spirits in Atworth and Pewsham in Wiltshire.

Ruth would like to hear from anyone in the Cotswolds and Gloucestershire areas who believes they may have witnessed any paranormal activity.

Ruth's books are chock full therefore of brand new accounts of the supernatural given first hand by the many witnesses Ruth interviews or corresponds with.

You can find her books on Amazon, available as paperback, e-book, or free download if you have a Kindle Unlimited subscription. Other booksellers also stock them.

To get in touch with Ruth, email her at: Ruth Roper Wylde . @outlook.com>