'A haunted house at the top of your street is fantastic'

"A haunted house at the top of your street is fantastic," says Pontefract resident Caroline Gibson.

While not everyone would agree with her, Caroline and other residents of the town's East Drive have embraced the paranormal activity for which one property there has become infamous.

The street in Pontefract, a town more famous for the liquorice treat named after it than its ghostly activity, is certainly not your typical setting for a ghost story.

The residential road is made up of former council homes dating back to the 1950s and a community centre built in 2004. It hardly provides the ingredients for a haunting horror tale that will leave you sleeping with the lights on.

But legend has it an aggressive poltergeist lives at number 30, an otherwise nondescript semi, with reports of strange activity dating back to the 1960s.

The house is already popular with paranormal investigators and ghost-hunting tourists, but a new BBC podcast telling the story of 30 East Drive has brought the mystery to a new audience.

Caroline Gibson has lived just a few doors down from the property for the last five years and is a firm believer.

"When we first moved here I walked past and it did look like there was a child stood in the window," the 36-year-old recalls.

Caroline has never been inside the house, but its owner Bil Bungay - who has written a book and even produced a film on its legend - says he has welcomed hundreds of visitors through its doors.

Bil admits he was a "rabid sceptic" until experiencing a paranormal experience inside the property.

While washing up, he says he turned to see an object hurling towards his head, smashing against the wall behind him.

"That was the turning point for me," he says, still able to remember the event in 2016 to the exact day, a Sunday.

"It was real and it was crazy."

The house has not been occupied since 2001. Bil bought it in 2012 and has never lived there himself, but the film-maker maintains the 1970s aesthetic and lets the property to ghost-hunters for overnight stays or day visits.

Other more recent reports of unusual goings-on include people being scratched, pushed and hearing the sound of a "demonic growl", says Bil, who only visits during the daytime.

According to the National Folklore Survey for England, Caroline and Bil aren't alone.

The survey, conducted with a representative sample of more than 1,7000 adults last year, found that more than one third of respondents believed in ghosts.

"It's why we watch horror films or read spooky stories, we are fascinated by what lies beyond or behind our perception or out of reach," explains Dr Diane Rodgers, a specialist in folklore and contemporary legend at Sheffield Hallam University.

"At the heart of it, people love stories."

According to Dr Rodgers, legends like 30 East Drive continue to fascinate audiences because "we can't prove something, but we can't disprove it either".

"People like to think 'Is there life after death?'. It's the biggest question we have."

Caroline says the thought of a ghost just a few doors down left her more intrigued than scared.

"My kids even love the fact they can see something that's so monumental to Pontefract, they've heard about its history - it's fantastic," says the mother-of-five.

"We get visitors parking all the way down the street, it's really good."

Despite the regular tourism, East Drive is an otherwise ordinary street where people are going about their day-to-day lives.

Still, Caroline thinks the alternative attraction is up there with the best Pontefract has to offer.

"It's good because its something in the community that people are interested in looking into.

"You have got the town centre, the castle with the ruins - a haunted house at the top of your street is fantastic."

But where there is spooky activity, there will always be sceptics.

One resident declares himself a firm non-believer, unwilling to entertain further discussion, while the postman reveals he has never seen anything strange there on his rounds.

Another woman who has lived on East Drive for 26 years says she has never seen anything unusual on her street, but is relaxed about others visiting to check it out.

"People like to believe what they like to believe, let them get on with it."

The woman does reveals her father used to tell her about a red glow around the property's windows first spotted by a group of miners, underlining how the story of 30 East Drive stretches back decades.

Now, the mystery and intrigue looks set to live on a little longer.

Listen to highlights from West Yorkshire on BBC Sounds, catch up with the latest episode of Look North.