To tell this tale a vow of silence has to be broken. In the Fifties it was told that new employees who came to work at the United bus company offices in Grange Road, but always before it was recounted the uninitiated listener had to pledge secrecy.

The United management wanted the whole business covered up so employees could get on with their work without fear of a haunting. The back of the premises was an ancient stately home or convent.

United used the cellar for storing documents. At the end of each financial year all the out of date books were stacked in the fireplace for the caretaker to burn, but no-one would enter the cellar on their own, even with the lights on.

A respected spinster explained this chilling tale to one new clerk: “When the house was a large home of a monied-man, a maid employed by the family was made pregnant by the owner of the house.

“The baby was born and to all intents and purposes it was totally normal, except that it had a birthmark which proved without a shadow of doubt that the master of the house was the father.

“So, at the dead night, the master took the newborn baby to the cellar and burnt it in the fireplace.

“The following morning, the poor mother committed suicide.”

Since that day the ghost of a young woman in servant’s clothes is reported to have been seen walking along the corridor, wringing her hands, as if she were looking for something.

The immediate thought would be that her condition was the advanced stages of waiting for a bus if it wasn’t for the fact that her spooky stroll always terminated at the fireplace.