Mr Evans, 68, and his wife Maria, 62, moved into the house, a few miles from Leighton Buzzard, in 2018 after it had been vacant for four years.

A retired couple first realized their new home might be haunted when their grandchild befriended the ghost of a little girl.

Mr Evans said: “We thought he was tricking us. He was two years old when we moved in but other people have caught the same ghost with the same name.”

She said her grandson’s new friend’s name was Olive.

“Olive was working as a scullery maid where she died of scarlet fever when she was nine years old,” Mr Evans said.

“He’s a bit of a brat; he would often leave handprints on the mirror and we would tell the grandchildren off.”

However, when the children were no longer there, handprints began to appear, he said.