A WAITRESS in a mediaeval manor house was serving up a ghostly apparition to help launch a ghost tour this weekend.

Natasha Van Leempoel, a waitress at Durham City's Crook Hall, swapped her maids outfit for a second-hand white wedding dress to depict The White Lady - the beautiful ghost said to haunt the mediaeval and Jacobean parts of the house.

Maggie Bell, who owns and runs the hall with her husband, said the idea for a ghost tour came to her after a close encounter of the paranormal kind.

She said: "I was giving one of our conventional tours. But when I told the group that I didn't believe in ghosts, I felt someone tap me on the shoulder. I turned round and no one was there. At the end, a woman came up to me and said she'd noticed the ghost tapping me on the shoulder."

The ghost tours are on Sundays May 6 and 27, July 15 and August 19. For more details, contact the Bells on 0191-384 8028