(Original headline: Our dream home is being haunted by ghostly guests )
The sound of children's toys whirring around in a bedroom would not normally be a cause for concern - unless, of course, there was no one in the room.
A Worcestershire couple has become so used to the noise of spirits playing with their children's electronic gadgets that they no longer take any notice.
John and Nicki Beavan, of Kyle, near Bromyard, live in a 14th century parsonage that is a half-way house between this world and the next. Their recently renovated family home - the subject of a TV series - is a place where ghosts gather. Unfortunately for the Beavanses and their eight children, some decide they like it so much, they stay.
Mrs Beavan, aged 39, said: "Since we moved in four years ago there have been many incidents of spirits playing with the children's toys or making a noise. Sometimes it is like Piccadilly Circus.
"At first we thought our twins Woody and Willow were sleepwalking and we'd jump out of bed. But we'd always find them in bed, or if they were awake, looking at the same spot. The dog would come in and he would look at the same thing."
Cut off from the world, the couple have little company, with the exception of their children and a modest smallholding of cows, pigs and chickens.
But they have had other, more unusual guests, to contend with since they started their restoration project.
The enterprise set them back £40,000 and involved them rebuilding a detached timber-frame kitchen, which stood next to the parsonage.
Much of the work was carried out by John himself, who owns his own business making bespoke furniture, and involved such bold undertakings as a thatched roof and underground heating system.
Their ambitious building work has featured in the current series of Project Restoration, on Discovery Real Time.
But as if this was not enough, the family of 10 also had to contend with unsettling the world of the paranormal. Last month, they resorted to calling in a medium to deal with a spirit who kept setting off a smoke alarm.
Mrs Beavan, who has seen ghosts since a child, added: "She was becoming a bit of a nuisance and the medium told us that in the 1500s a mother and her twins died in a fire here.
"She was unable to move onto the next life and believed Woody and Willow were her own babies. When the medium finished, I felt a wave of cold leave the room and the warmth rushed in.
"I am quite used to spirits. When I was about nine we lived in an old school house and the headmaster used to sit on the end of my bed.
"I'm open-minded about such things, so it is alright. If they are quiet, we don't mind them that much. If they make a noise they have to go."
