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Ghosts, Folklore and Forteana from Police & Fire Stations

Pacing

Location: Outer London: Greenford (Greater London) - Greenford Police Station
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Footsteps 1960s onwards, figure spotted summer 1984
Further Comments: Heard from time to time walking along the upper floor, these phantom footsteps start at midnight and continue until dawn. One night duty station officer reported seeing a figure in an old fashioned police uniform sitting in the tearoom. When the sighting was mentioned the following morning, the witness was told the ghost was probably that of an inspector who hanged himself upstairs in the 1930s.

Old Lady

Location: Oxford (Oxfordshire) - Radcliffe Infirmary (closed 2007)
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: December 1999 / January 2000
Further Comments: After several nights of experiencing something bump against his bed and feeling as if 'someone' was there, a patient mentioned it to nurses. They told him that the room was haunted by an old lady who would sit by the side of the bed as if giving her support. The heating would always be broken in the room - even after repairs, the system would break within the day.

Officer

Location: Paignton (Devon) - Police station
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Mid 2000s
Further Comments: A phantom policeman was said to have been seen along the first floor of this station.

Napoleonic POW

Location: Plymouth (Devon) - Freedom Fields Hospital (no longer operational)
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: 1976
Further Comments: A third year student nurse spotted a short man in blue uniform running down a staircase. Phoning security, they reassured the student that the figure was the resident ghost, a Napoleonic prisoner of war.

Policeman

Location: Plymouth (Devon) - Old Police House
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: 2010
Further Comments: A phantom police office in an old uniform, complete with handlebar moustache, was spotted here.

Sounds

Location: Potton (Bedfordshire) - Potton Fire Station
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Post-1974
Further Comments: Built in 1974 on the site of an old tannery, it is unsure whether the strange noises and other odd events are connected to events from the previous building or the current one.

Footsteps

Location: SE1 (Greater London) - British Transport Police Station
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: 2013
Further Comments: More than one officer working alone has heard the distinct sound of footsteps walking along and stopping a short distance away. One witness reported the sound of footsteps was followed by a loud bang and the floor shaking. One detective spotted a shadowy figure running through the area, while a builder on the site walked past a lady who was not actually there...

Fireman

Location: Sheffield (Yorkshire) - Old Fire Station
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: Perhaps unsurprisingly, the male entity said to haunt this building is named as a former fireman.

Policeman

Location: Sixpenny Handley (Dorset) - Spots Green, between village and Upwood
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Early 1910s
Further Comments: A phantom policeman was observed walking along the road before vanishing.


A smoky, ghostly warning.

Pungent Cigars

Location: Sunderland (Tyne and Wear) - Royal Infirmary Hospital (Ward F62, no longer standing)
Type: Crisis Manifestation
Date / Time: 1980s
Further Comments: This was a palliative care ward. A doctor who worked there would smoke very pungent cigars. After he died the smell of cigars would fill the air a few minutes before a serious medical event occurred. So many staff experienced the smoke that it became unofficial procedure to check every patient and call in resuscitation staff if anyone detected the smell.


An illustration of a ghostly woman wearing a veil, by Wayne Lowden.

Woman with Veil

Location: SW1 (Greater London) - New Scotland Yard
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Woman unknown, other events 2010
Further Comments: Some say that the entity which haunted the old New Scotland Yard moved along with the exhibits of the Black Museum (aka Crime Museum) and can now be found within the walls of this famous police station. More recently, it has been reported that perfume can be detected in a fire escape near the museum, while a new recruit encountered the ghost of a former staff member.


The old New Scotland Yard building, London.

Hooded Female

Location: SW1 (Greater London) - Old New Scotland Yard, Parliament Street
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Twentieth century
Further Comments: Haunting the Black Museum, this ghost is thought to be that of a woman whose body was found on site as the building was erected. The remains had no head, and the void beneath the spectre's hood reflects this. In the early part of the century, the Reformatory and Industrial Schools unit was haunted by something which opened windows and slammed doors.

Woman

Location: Swindon (Wiltshire) - Fire Station
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: 1960s, 1970s
Further Comments: Footsteps were heard in the upper parts of the building when no one should have been there, and strange footprints appeared on freshly polished floors, stopping abruptly halfway across. One firefighter awoke in the dorm to see a grey shadowy figure standing over him, while another followed a figure into the toilets, only to find them empty. One fire officer suggested it was the ghost of a woman who drowned in the canal, over which the fire station was built.

Officer

Location: Thorpe-le-Soken (Essex) - Police Station
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: Dressed in an old fashioned uniform, this ex-officer is said to haunt his former station. It is also said that whispering voices can be heard in the cells when they are empty.

Presence

Location: Totnes (Devon) - Police station
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: 2002-2007 (approx)
Further Comments: After the old cells at this police station were closed, they were used as storerooms. In these storerooms a few police officers reported feeling they were not alone, and the door to the rear car park could be heard opening and closing.

Sergeant

Location: W1 (Greater London) - Former Vine Street Police Station
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: 1969
Further Comments: This officer of the law, who killed himself in a cell in the nineteenth century, keeps an eye on workers at the site.

Victorian Nurse

Location: W2 (Greater London) - St Mary's Hospital
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Victorian nurse unknown, Sister Thistlewaite 1970s
Further Comments: A Victorian nurse is said to occasionally appear and reassure patients that an experienced nurse will tend to them soon. A different tale from the 1970s states that a phantom known as Sister Thistlewaite would helpfully move bedpans and drop empty IV bags.

Mrs Abercrombie Walking

Location: W4 (Greater London) - Chiswick Police Station, Chiswick High Road
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Twentieth century
Further Comments: The site of a grisly murder in 1792, when Mrs Abercrombie's son-in-law hit her several times with a large axe. The woman is now said to haunt the building; when not heard pacing around, she materialises in the upper regions.

Whistling

Location: Watford (Hertfordshire) - Oxhey Police Station
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: 2008
Further Comments: Reputedly built on the site of a gallows, the empty corridors are said to be home to disembodied whistling after dark.

Two Thirds of a Man

Location: West Malling (Kent) - Police House, West Street
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: June or July 2006
Further Comments: A police officer spotted the bottom two thirds of a figure on the staircase of this building. The figure wore soft leather boots, a long black cape and a silver doublet with a sword hanging from it. The figure disappeared up the stairs. The officer gave chase, but no one could be found - the only way out was back past the officer.

Nurse

Location: Whitacre Heath (Warwickshire) - Halloughton Grange Lane
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: 1930s and January 2010, around 20:45h
Further Comments: During the 1930s a cyclist heading towards Kingsbury along this road swerved to avoid a nurse as she stepped out in front of him - he failed and passed straight through her. The encounter left him shaken, and when the cyclist finally spoke of the incident, he discovered a nurse had been killed in an accident on the spot several years previous. In 2010 a transparent figure in a cape seen standing by the roadside where the road forks once again left witnesses shaken.

Tall Figure

Location: Wigan (Greater Manchester) - Fire Station (old building)
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: April 2015
Further Comments: A tall grey figure was reportedly seen by several people at different times, moving down the corridor by the watch office. Disembodied footsteps were also heard in the kit room.

Flying Plates

Location: Wigan (Greater Manchester) - Private flat, Woodford Street, Pemberton (former police station)
Type: Poltergeist
Date / Time: Late 2010 / early 2011
Further Comments: Wigan Today reported that poltergeist activity in this flat ceased after Dead Connections paranormal team exorcised the site. Occupier Holly Taylor had experienced plates flying around, disembodied footsteps and other strange activities. The site also had a reputation of being haunted when it was a police station, with a former officer claiming that bangs and footsteps were heard by staff.

Tall Officer

Location: Wrexham (Clwyd) - Wrexham police station
Type: Unknown Ghost Type
Date / Time: Summer 2003
Further Comments: While refuelling a van in the yard, Special Constable Mark Davies spotted the reflection of a tall policeman standing behind him in one of the windows. Davies turned to speak to the officer, but there was no one there. It was speculated that the ghostly figure was a motorcyclist who had died a few months earlier.

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