IF there's something strange in the neighbourhood, who ya gonna call?

Instead of calling Ghostbusters why not give the ghost hunting a go yourself and head out to see what's haunting the borough?

And that's exactly what my colleague Vanessa and I decided to do.

Darkness was closing in and the rain beginning to fall as we drove up the long, tree lined road to the gates of Ham House. Edging closer, we realised they were locked and bravely Vanessa climbed from the car and pushed the button on the intercom.

Standing in the dimly lit entrance hall to the 17th century house, we were welcomed by Anne Partington-Omar, the property manager and our ghost guide for the evening.

As she spoke, setting the scene with a brief history of the house and its purportedly ghost ridden past, I noticed a very sweet smell of rose perfume.

I had heard that visitors had noticed this smell and attributed it to ghoulish goings on, but looking for an explanation I assumed someone was wearing a potent perfume and said nothing.

Later I was to discover no one else had smelt it.

As we walked through the house, which fell into royal hands in 1626, Anne explained that the ghost of Elizabeth, Duchess of Lauderdale, who inherited the house in 1655, is often seen.

Rumour has it that after passing away in her bedroom she never left the building and has been seen walking the great hall in a black dress and the sound of her footsteps are heard on the great staircase.

But it's not only apparitions of humans witnessed within the walls of Ham House.

"Regularly members of the public report seeing a dog running around the house," explains Anne. "Often they are angry that their dogs have been left outside."

The dog, believed to be portrayed in many of the paintings that adorn the walls, is of course a ghost, often seen running past the foot of the stairs on the first floor into the museum room, where he disappears.

And members of the public are not the only ones to report being haunted by spooks.

"The guides are all volunteers," says Anne. "And three claim to have been pushed off the third step on the second part of the stairs. They only compared notes after the third one mentioned it."

As we passed through the second of the Duchess's closets, decorated in red marble, Vanessa felt her back turn ice cold. Assuming it was a draught, she spun round to see what was there but felt nothing on her front. But as she turned once more the cold returned to her back.

Returning to the front entrance hall Vanessa grabbed her coat with a slight shiver nobody else had felt the cold.

Moving objects, mysterious footprints, smells of perfume and tobacco and the sound of people walking have all been reported at Ham House.

And although we didn't see any ghosts, there was definitely something that couldn't be explained.

My scepticism made me question every ghostly tale we heard that night, trying to apply a logical explanation. But there appears to be something that just can't be explained.

Perhaps my scepticism closes my mind to the possibility of ghosts and that's why I am among the 20 per cent of the population who cannot use divining rods.

Holding them loosely in each hand the rods are suppose to cross as you approach a life force - be it humans or ghosts - but as I walked towards those I knew to be alive there was no movement.

Ham House's ghost tours are attracting an increasing number of visitors. But why are they so popular? "It is a painless way to learn about history," says Anne.

Away from Ham House and reports of ghostly goings on are common throughout the borough.

I met Norman Radley, organiser of Richmond ghost walks and author of Ghosts Murders and Mayhem in Richmond' to find out more.

"The most interesting ghost is of course Queen Elizabeth," he says. "She is reported to have died in her wardrobe at Richmond Palace and on March 24 each year the ghost comes out and walks across the lawn."

Every Hallowe'en as part of Richmond upon Thames' heritage walks Norman leads a ghost tour around the town centre. During the 90 minute walk he talks about some of the spooks in and around Richmond town centre.

For an almost exhaustive list of haunted places a copy of Norman's book is what ghost hunters need.

In it he explains how Hampton Court Palace is haunted by at least three of Henry VIII's wives, how St Mary's Church in Hampton is inhabited by the spirit of King Edward VI's foster mother and how Spring-Heeled Jack jumps from behind bushes on Barnes Common.

So why does Norman invest so much time finding out about the borough's apparitions?

"It's not the ghosts I am interested in but the local history," he explains. "Ghosts are amusing as far as I am concerned and I think they encourage people to come along."