The Express & Star, Monday, October 12, 1998

A lifelong devotee to the study of the supernatural, I must admit to being quite concerned at the detrimental effect the current “ghost tour” craze is having on our country’s paranormal heritage (Express & Star article, September 10).
Speaking as someone who has had first hand experience of both the planning and execution of such excursions, I cannot stress just how factually erroneous and often downright amateurish the bulk of these ventures are.
It would seem that practically anyone can establish one of these tours – regardless of their evident lack of experience in the field concerned. The information used is frequently manufactured – purely for dramatic effect and, unfortunately, once presented to the paying public, such unsound data will inevitably become part of an area’s ghostlore.

Nicholas Duffy,
West Midland Ghost Club.

And the following week...

Replying to Nicholas Duffy (October 12) regarding ghost tours; lighten up, Mr Duffy.
Ghost tours are harmless fun. My friends and I attended one in Dudley. It was an ingenious idea and a thoroughly entertaining evening enjoyed by all.
If we were interested in serious ghost hunting, we would have joined an association to this end.
Don’t be a killjoy. It’s a great way to spend a dull, cold, winter evening.

Pam S,
Pelsall

I take my responsibilities on “The Original Dudley Ghost Tour” very seriously. I never make fun of the subject, and always treat it with respect, and I have taken great pains to get the facts right in every story I tell.

I have never been, nor do I pretend to be, any kind of an expert on the paranormal, supernatural, or whatever you want to call it. Therefore, as the storyteller, I will offer no explanations, or impose any of my own opinions upon those stories.

However, although factually based, “The Original Dudley Ghost Tour” is first and foremost a theatrical company. That is why we cannot allow video cameras able to make a copy of that which people have to pay to see.
You can’t take a video camera into a movie theatre can you?

If you are not interested in local history, myths and legends, and only wish to embark upon a serious search for the paranormal, we are not for you.

But all the stories are true.
Irrespective of whether you believe in ghosts or not, the stories that surround them are still true.
Some of the stories you will find in history books. Some of the more recent stories were told to me directly by those who experienced them. Some stories are of events that happened to me personally.

I have never stopped discovering new information, both current and historical, either deliberately or by accident, to fill the stories out, and keep the tour ever growing and evolving.

Relatively recently, noticeably since October 2002, and with an ever increasing frequency, I have noticed strange things happening to people, myself included, whilst the tour is actually in progress. As a result, in some respects, it has become a tour about itself.

But it has never been, nor will it ever be, my intention to go out deliberately looking for ghosts. Believe me on this point, they come looking for me.

Craig Denston - May 2005

“Nothing is easier than self-deceit. For what each man wishes, that he also believes to be true.” Demosthenes, 384 – 322 BC

Reading that last sentence again, I feel compelled to add a postscript.

Events over the last two years have made me reluctantly face up to the fact that I am becoming an expert on the spirit world in a way I never thought possible.

It has been frightening at times; as it takes a lot of getting used to. But I am comforted by the many messages I have received.

As one of “the residents” said…

"Do not let the machinations of a total buffoon blind you to the fact that the spirits of this place are very respectful of the way you conduct yourself on the tour.”

Craig Denston – December 2007

"As most popular writers of ghost stories use one another as sources rather than go to the trouble of checking back to primary accounts, their stories show little variation apart from a few improvements in what might be called the “mise-en-scene”.

The words of Tony Parker published in 1966 - But is it ever true today!

I myself have been on someone else’s ghost tour round Dudley Castle and listened to one of my own stories incorrectly told back to me!

"You must acquire the trick of ignoring those who do not like you. In my experience, those who do not like you fall into two categories, the stupid and the envious. The stupid will like you in five years time, the envious never.”

John Wilmot – 2nd Earl of Rochester