It's a creepy building at the best of times but graveyard shift workers say it becomes decidedly spooky during the hours of darkness.

Former police constable Paddy Rea was at Malling House, the Sussex force headquarters in Lewes, in the early hours when he felt the presence of the mystery phantom.

Almost everyone who has ever worked at headquarters has heard the legend of Annie, the grey lady or the lady of the rose garden, but he remained sceptical, until that night in 1981.

Paddy, now a force press officer, was answering night calls at a time when part of Malling House served as the communication's headquarters.

He was on the phone when the spectre made an appearance.

He said: "I caught the feeling of someone standing nearby from the corner of my eye. I looked up to say hello but there was no one there.

"I was eight feet from my colleague and I could see him looking up as well. Both of us felt the presence of someone close by."

Later that night Paddy saw a figure walking past the door to the corridor.

With very few people working nights, this was unusual and he decided to investigate. No one was there, apart from a co-worker who, like him, had spotted the figure and had dashed into the corridor to see who it was.

Paddy considers himself down-to-earth and not prone to apparitions or delusions and he knows that what he saw and felt were not his imagination.

Paddy has spoken to others who have "seen" the wandering spirit and believes Annie was a maid who became pregnant by the householder's son and, prior to giving birth, "accidentally" fell down a flight of stairs and died.

Paddy understands Annie's rose garden title comes from the fact she was often seen tending such a garden outside Malling House when she was alive.

Paddy hasn't told his story publicly before but interest in the story has been rekindled by 13-year-old Lewes Priory School student Stephanie Wood who is doing a project on the subject. Her mother works at police headquarters and put her in touch with Paddy.

Stephanie is canvassing other headquarters staff and has already unearthed two other sightings.

One secretary told how her office suddenly went very cold seconds before she saw a woman wearing a long, greyish white dress and frilly cap.

Asked by Stephanie whether she was afraid, the secretary replied: "No, I just thought she was a real person."

A cleaner refuses to go into one particular cupboard because the door has slammed shut behind her so many times - when no one else has been around. She found herself shouting to be rescued on one occasion.

Stephanie hopes other tales will lead to uncovering more about Annie.

Malling House, said to creak and "speak" on windy days, is the perfect setting for a spectre.

The building is believed to stand on the site of an earlier dwelling that served as a resting place for Archbishops of Canterbury.

Legend has it that the four knights who slew Thomas a Becket in Canterbury in 1170 stayed at this house on their journey back from Canterbury.

It was pulled down during Henry VIII's dissolution of the monasteries and the present house is thought to have been built around 1660. It was rebuilt to its present style in 1720.

For a century or more it remained in the ownership of the Spence family, whose Puritan forbears are said to have done rather well out of the Civil War.

Future tenants included the Dowager Countess of Chichester and during the Victorian era it was home to the Crofts family, including the Rev Peter Gearing Crofts.

At the turn of the century it was owned by a local banker and in 1923 by Sir George Boughey.

East Sussex County Council bought the property with 13 acres of surrounding land in 1947 and part of the land was developed as police headquarters.

Stephanie, like Paddy, is intrigued by stories of Annie and is quick to affirm her strong belief in ghosts.

But she is biased. She was just three years old when she was heard "speaking" to her grandmother who had died years earlier.

She quipped: "I'm not frightened by ghosts and, who knows, I might become one when I die."

l Anyone with information on Annie should write to the newsdesk, Argus House, Crowhurst Road, Hollingbury, Brighton, BN1 8AR.