A vision in white - but a little Wearside boy had no idea he'd just seen a ghost

But it wasn’t until he was older that Stanley Bone got to find out the truth - that the person he’d seen was an apparition.

Old memories of the Old Hall

In another of our retro ghostly tales, we are looking back at Washington Old Hall.

It is the ancestral home of the first US President, George Washington.

The Sunderland Echo featured it in 2011 when two former residents - Stanley and Andrew Metcalf - re-lived their childhood days when they played in the 17th Century Old Hall.

The house was partitioned and people lived in uncomfortable conditions but Stan unwittingly got a spooky lesson in the hall’s history from one of its resident ghosts – the Grey Lady.

‘I saw the ghost of the White Lady’

The spirit was also known by some as the White Lady but Stan said: “I saw the White Lady, the ghost. I didn’t know at the time.

“I was three years old and I was standing on the stairs and I saw this woman in a white dress.

“It was unusual because all the women in here wore black Victorian dress. I remember it all as if it was yesterday.”

The frightening truth - but not until years later

The then three-year-old Stan spoke to his mother about the confusing encounter, but it wasn’t until years later he learned the frightening truth.

He said: “When I was 10-years old my mother said to me ‘can you remember the woman in the white dress?’

“I said I could, and she said it was the White Lady – she just didn’t want to tell me when I was three because she didn’t want to scare me.”

Share your own ghostly tales

The Grey Lady is just one of the spectres said to stalk the Old Hall.

The site attracts scores of visitors every year as a key heritage attraction in the region and once welcomed US President Jimmy Carter during his visit to Washington in 1977.

The property features in numerous books and lists of haunted houses.

And did you know, the Old Hall also has its own dedicated page on the Sunderland Echo website. You can find it here.

Tell us about the ghosts you have encountered by emailing [email protected]