WELCOME to Haunted Wirral, a feature series written by world famous psychic researcher, Tom Slemen for the Globe.

This week, Tom recounts the creepy tale of death repeating itself...

The maroon pug-nosed Bedford CA van halted on New Brighton’s Albion Street, then reversed around a corner into a badly-lit alleyway that snowy December night in 1962. Davy, Steve, Paddy and Ray - four men in their early twenties - got out of the vehicle, all dressed in leather jackets and sporting Beatle mop-tops.

They walked gingerly across glass-hard black ice to the Witch’s Cauldron, New Brighton’s new coffee club, where the Fabulous Vampires were playing.

Before the four young men got to the club entrance, Davy and Ray said the same words at the same time: "Just got déjà vu."

The two lads smiled at the coincidence, and Ray expanded on his comment: "I feel as if we’ve done all this before – weird."

"That’s the feeling I just got, mate," said Davy, but the other two lads in the gang took no notice of their friends’ possible promnesia.

Inside the club, the four young men enjoyed the live music and Steve and Paddy were soon talking to two girls who hailed from Rock Ferry.

Davy and Ray danced with two Bebington girls for a while, and then, around one in the morning, a beautiful petite redhead named Rosalind Ward came into the club with a man Davy knew well – he was Gavin Parrish, and like Davy, he was a student at Liverpool University.

He was also Davy’s rival.

Davy had had a huge crush on Rosalind since the day he’d met her at college some years ago, and he kept bumping into her.

He knew she liked him but her possessive boyfriend Gavin wouldn’t let her talk to anyone.

"Hey there’s Rosalind," said Ray, nodding at the redhead, and then he turned to face Davy and said, "you really like her don’t you?"

Davy barely nodded. "Go and dance with her then, you clot!" Ray suggested.

"She’s with that Gavin Parrish now," Davy replied with pain in his voice.

"So?" said Ray with a lopsided smile, "you’re just dancing with her, not proposing marriage!"

"Nah, there’ll be a big barney if I even talk to her," said Davy in a resigned voice, but Ray persisted with his matchmaking attempt.

"Look, Davy, what’s that old saying? Faint heart never won a fair lady?"

Gavin Parrish went to the toilet and while he was gone, Davy went to speak to Rosalind, and it was clear that she’d been drinking.

She threw her arms around Davy, kissed him, and said that Gavin had told her she wasn’t to dance with anyone but him tonight.

"Give him the elbow then," Davy advised his crush, "and I’ll take you to a proper club – this one’s dead."

"I would Davy," said a tearful Rosalind, "but I’m scared of what Gavin would do; he’s got one hell of a temper."

"Has he now?" said Davy, hugging Rosalind.

He was just about to kiss her when the knuckles of Gavin Parrish slammed into his jaw. Davy recovered quickly from the blow and he threw himself at Gavin and held him in a headlock as all of the bemused clubgoers chanted “Ooh-ooh-ooh!”

A huge man of military bearing with a buzzcut separated the youths and he growled at them, "Fighting like little girls! If you want to fight properly, do it by the Queensberry Rules in a boxing ring!"

"Let go of me! I want to kill him!" roared Gavin, but the stocky older man had hold of him by his collar.

"You want to kill him, eh?" said the shaven-headed hard-knock, "Then settle it like a man! Put your money where your mouth is big-talker!" he roared, and the band stopped playing and everyone stopped dancing.

"Just throw them out, Burt!" someone shouted to the burly interposer.

Burt shook his head and said to Gavin and Davy, "Come on, let’s go and sort this out with a duel!"And he dragged the young men out of the club.

Paddy, Ray and Steve followed close behind - and a sobbing Rosalind.

Burt took the frightened duo to his old Land Rover and threw them into the vehicle.

He then drove off with Paddy, Steve, Ray and Rosalind following in the Bedford van.

Through heavy snow the Land Drover travelled almost five miles down meandering roads till it pulled up on a secluded Heron Road in Meols.

Here, Burt produced two Army revolvers and gave one to Davy and the other to Gavin.

"There’s one bullet in each of these revolvers lads," he said with a manic smile, "Now, come on, stand back to back!"

The two rivals did as Burt ordered. "Now, take twelve paces, turn, take aim, and fire."

"No, you’ll get done for murder!" shouted Steve, but Burt screamed at him, "Button your lip sonny!"

Davy felt strange; that sense of déjà vu returned – and he realised this had all happened before, a long time ago.

He started to pace and he could hear the footfalls of his opponent crunching in the snow, and when Davy looked down, he saw that his clothing had changed.

He was wearing a velvet jacket and a golden waistcoat; he had on breeches and boots – and the revolver he held was now a flintlock! Burt, Paddy and Ray were dressed in old fashioned 18th Century clothes and Rosalind looked like something out of a Jane Austen novel in her bonnet and ankle-length dress.

Gavin was also dressed in Regency Era clothing, and he turned and aimed his flintlock at Davy, but the latter couldn’t bring himself to shoot Gavin.

Davy dived into a snowdrift, and when he got up he saw that his clothes had reverted back to normal – and the attire of everyone else had too.

Davy threw the revolver into the snowy field and ran to his friends, and Gavin blasted a hole in the tyre of Burt’s Land Rover, and then he joined his rival in the Bedford van and they all left the bizarre scene.

Davy felt that long ago in another life, he had fought a duel for a woman and been killed, and history would have repeated itself tonight if he’d gone ahead with that duel.

Haunted Liverpool 32 is out now on Amazon