A popular Ryedale pub has a punter who is hanging around for a bit longer than your usual last order "stragglers" - some 200 years longer to be precise.

The punter's name is Hank and, if staff and regulars at the New Inn at Cropton are to be believed, he is the pub's resident ghost.

Stories of how Hank came to be in the New Inn vary, but the main theme seems to be that he was a visitor to the pub in it's days as a trading post, and was hit on the head by a thief.

Tellers of the spooky stories are agreed on two things though - that there have been some very strange goings-on in the pub, and that Hank is a bit of a ladies' man.

Landlady Sandra Lee said: "He does seem to like the ladies, and a lot of the sightings of Hank have been by women. He isn't a threat, instead it's as though he is looking after us."

Sandra then said that two pub guests, who had not been told about Hank, came down one morning to ask if the place was haunted. "They had seen him in their room that night," she said.

Assistant manager Linda Hodgson, who has worked at the New Inn for only six weeks, has already had a couple of close encounters.

She said: "On one of my first mornings here I saw someone standing in front of me, wearing an old trenchcoat. I didn't know there was a ghost in the pub, and when I told Sandra about it she said 'that will be Hank'."

Pub staff now record every strange occurrence in a diary, which is already quite full.

Entries include mirrors falling off walls, glasses flying across the room, as well as several sightings of Hank himself.

However, Sandra said Hank was welcome to stay, and dismisses the idea of an exorcism.

In fact, he is due to be honoured, as the pub has its own brewery and manager Phil Lee plans to brew a beer called Hank's Revenge next year.

He said: "I'm one of life's sceptics, but there's no doubt a lot of strange things have been going on and we thought a beer was a good way for us to recognise that."

A local ghost and UFO expert, who did not want to be identified, said: "I haven't heard of Hank, but I don't doubt he exists. Years ago, just like now, pubs were gathering places and many historic pubs up and down the country have a resident ghost."

malton@ycp.co.uk