The Paranormal Database

The River Trent is reputedly home to a water elemental.

Water Spirit

Location: Swarkestone - River Trent, near Swarkestone Bridge
Type: Legend
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: The water elemental which frequents these waters is said to require three lives annually to remain pacified. The bridge was built, they say, by two young ladies who saw their lovers taken by the spirit and acted to ensure no one suffered the same loss.

Sisters

Location: Swarkestone - Swarkestone Bridge
Type: Legend
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: The sisters who built this bridge are said to haunt it, while others say phantom horsemen from Bonnie Prince Charlie's army can be heard crossing.

Isaac

Location: Taddington - Taddington Hall
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Isaac 1940s, farmer said to be seen every Monday at dusk
Further Comments: Isaac and his brother ran a Hessian production line in the hall's saddle room, until Isaac's body was found with his throat slit - the sibling was found guilty of the crime. Isaac's phantom voice was heard trying to calm a panicked horse down near the stables, many years after his death. In addition to Isaac's ghost, a phantom farmer rides home every Monday - in the dim and distant past he fell off his horse while drunk and broke his neck.

View from within Calke Abbey, copyright Phil Willis.

Maid

Location: Ticknall - Calke Abbey
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Sightings unknown, log in 2018
Further Comments: Several entities are reputed to haunt this site, including a maid in the kitchen and another figure in the entrance hall. Voices are said to emerge from empty rooms. In 2018 a ghost hunter claimed to contact a spirit which had taken up residence in a wooden log; the spirit was named as a former resident of the abbey.

Halifax

Location: Ticknall - Skies over the village
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: 2014
Further Comments: A witness watched a low flying, four engine aircraft from the Second World War fly overhead. The witness later realised it was a Halifax bomber - there are no operational Halifaxs left.

Blonde Woman

Location: Tideswell - Churchyard
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: This phantom fair-haired lass rises from her grave and travels towards Wheston Hall, where she concealed her husband's body after murdering him.

Sarah

Location: Tideswell - George Hotel
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: 1980s
Further Comments: Sarah was a fifty-five year old Victorian barmaid whose husband went missing. She continues to search for him. One story suggests that her appearance during a party in the 1930s successfully scared all the guests away!

Hymns

Location: Tideswell - Stone Chapel
Type: Crisis Manifestation
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: This old oratory was haunted by the sounds of singing, normally before the death of an important villager. The voices would sound as if they moved down the archway and faded away once reaching the church porch.

Mina FitzHerbert

Location: Tissington - Tissington Hall
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: 1862 onwards
Further Comments: Young Mina set herself alight with a candle and later died from her injuries. Her ghost is said to make itself known to members of the family.

Headless Rider

Location: Tunstead - Manifold Valley
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Nights of the full moon (reoccurring)
Further Comments: A beautiful white horse carrying a headless rider gallops across the valley when the night sky is right. The phantom is either a peddler or a soldier, depending on the legend.

Way In

Location: Tunstead - Thor's Cave, Manifold Valley
Type: Fairy
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: Wayne Anthony, in Haunted Derbyshire and the Peak District, writes that hidden within the cave is an entrance to the fairy kingdom, though one needs to possess second sight to find it. A ghostly Roman centurion is said to stand guard at the mouth of the cave.

Homely Skull

Location: Tunstead Milton - Flagg Hall
Type: Curse
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: The home of another screaming skull, the building would echo with the sounds of cries and moans if the morbid item were removed.

Large Dog

Location: Turnditch - Unnamed lane, and Carsington Water
Type: Shuck
Date / Time: 02 September 2008
Further Comments: During a thunderstorm, a driver spotted a large black dog cross the road ahead and move down a residential lane. The driver stopped to look for the hound, but it had vanished. A phantom black dog is said to haunt the nearby Carsington Water.

Oppressive Mist

Location: Unstone - A61 Unstone/Dronfield Bypass, and Monk Wood
Type: Other
Date / Time: 2000s, 2010s
Further Comments: It was said that there is an oppressive misty atmosphere which affects people driving by the wood, creating the sensation of being dragged towards a steep embankment where several accidents have occurred.

Intangible Hound

Location: Upper Booth - Exact area not known
Type: Shuck
Date / Time: 1930
Further Comments: Out walking during the evening, a girl watched a phantom black dog pass through a wire fence.

Brighter than Daylight

Location: Uppertown - Cullumbell Lane
Type: UFO
Date / Time: 07 May 1978, approximately 02:00h
Further Comments: Driving through the area, two people suddenly became aware of an unusual light coming from within a nearby barn. The people initially thought the light belonged to a man who would collect milk from farms in the area. As the people drove closer, three beams of brilliant light shone down from a disc shaped craft hovering above the field to the right of the car. As they passed the lane, the lights shut off and the craft flew northwest, leaving the area in complete darkness. The following day, the people returned to Uppertown and visited a farm. They noticed that all the produce had been dumped in the yard, as though the milk collector had quickly fled from something.

Strangulation

Location: Wardlow - Road near the Three Stags Head
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Mid twentieth century?
Further Comments: A cyclist who paused for breath just down the road from the pub felt himself being strangled by a pair of unseen hands. After the sensation had left, he hurried to the Three Stags Head where he was told the story of how a toll keeper had been murdered near the spot.

Watcher

Location: Whaley Bridge - Co-op Store, Buxton Road
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: 2015
Further Comments: A story in the national press claimed that CCTV footage showed shadowy shapes moving around the store, a door violently shaking, and objects being moved around when the store was closed. Store manager Leanne Williamson reported that staff members would often report an eerie atmosphere and the sensation of being watched or followed. The shop closed early on Halloween 2015 to avoid distressing staff members.

Dicky of Tunstead

Location: Whaley Bridge - Tunstead Farm, located at Combs Edge, between Whaley Bridge and Chapel-en-le-Frith
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: Dicky is the name given to the skull that resided in the farmhouse (now thought to be buried on the grounds). The ghost of a girl that appeared in the 1880's was blamed on Dicky, as was the large black dog that followed locals around the farmland after dark.

Monks

Location: Whaley Bridge - Whaley Hall
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: 2010s
Further Comments: It was reported that it is not unusual for the cats to watch as a figure walks through a bricked up door. Monks and the smell of frankincense is also reported.

Woman in Poke Bonnet

Location: Wheston - Wheston Hall
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: 1918
Further Comments: For three consecutive nights, the son of the hall's owner watched a ghostly woman wearing a poke bonnet and crinoline dress enter his bedroom. On the third night, he shone a light on the entity, which disappeared. The boy switched bedrooms, and never saw the phantom again. Wayne Anthony writes that a Cromwellian fighter in armour, nicknamed 'Soldier Dick', haunted the entrance hall, and a woman in a nightdress ran outside, while tearing out her golden hair.

Roger Manners

Location: Whitwell - Old Hall
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: 1902
Further Comments: An old newspaper report stated that the ghost of High Sheriff Sir Roger Manners had appeared in his former home

An old postcard of Wingfield Manor.

Mary's Lights

Location: Wingfield - Wingfield Manor
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: The spirit of Mary Queen of Scots is reported to have taken a liking to the ballroom (or another story says she looks out from a window in the highest tower), while it is debatable whether spheres of light seen floating around the site after dark relate to Mary's ghost or a phantom Cromwellian soldier looking for a lost ring.

Sounds of Assault

Location: Winnats Pass - General area
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: The sounds of several miners attacking and murdering Clara and Allan, a young eloping couple, can be heard in this Derbyshire area. One version of the story the miners died or went mad one-by-one, with the final miner confessing to the crime and claiming the ghost of Clara followed him everywhere. Clara may also be seen riding her horse through the area

Headless Bride

Location: Winster - The Angel
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Twentieth century, particularly active around Christmas
Further Comments: The decapitated ghost caused one witness to faint as it ascended the staircase and headed towards the viewer. A local legend states that the ghostly woman and her lover both committed suicide the day before she was due to be married to another man. The building has a history of phantom footsteps and doors that open themselves.