The Paranormal Database

The Devil's Shovel Full

Location: Coxbench - Circular earthworks
Type: Legend - Old Nick
Date / Time: Still present
Further Comments: This barrow was created by Old Nick after he lost his shoe and was forced to drop a shovel full of earth with which he intended to dam the Derwent in Derby.

Protection Symbols

Location: Creswell - Creswell Crags
Type: Other
Date / Time: Still present
Further Comments: In 2019, dozens of witches' marks were (re)discovered in the caves. The apotropaic marks are likely to date back hundreds of years and used to trap evil forces and protect people nearby.

Floating Head

Location: Creswell - Creswell Crags, lake and general area
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Head unknown, hooded figure seen in 1821
Further Comments: The floating head is thought to belong to a witch and is seen among the thickets on the water's edge. The hooded figure was watched as it emerged from a cave armed with a sword - the witness ran. Returning to the site later, the witness was not able to find the cave.

An evil tree in Derbyshire.

Crooker

Location: Cromford - Bridge over River Derwent
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: Crooker was an evil spirit which took the form of an Ash tree by the Derwent. It would attack travellers as they crossed the nearby bridge, until one man managed to thrust a stick of St John's Wort into the spirit as it tried to kill him. Crooker was never heard of again.

Turning Stone

Location: Curbar - Eagle Stone
Type: Legend
Date / Time: Still present
Further Comments: When the cockerel crows, this stone is said to rotate. A local custom says that men must climb to the top of the rock before being married.

Prior Henry

Location: Dale Abbey - Area around the ruined abbey
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: Wayne Anthony, in Haunted Derbyshire and the Peak District, writes that after it was discovered Prior Henry was involved in counterfeiting money, he committed suicide and was doomed to haunt the former abbey grounds. Plainchant has also been reported from the area.

Peddler

Location: Darley Dale - Ghost Lane, runs past the churchyard
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: A phantom peddler who haunts this lane is said to have been murdered on the spot during the Seventeenth Century.

Some people just want to see the pub burn.

Pyromaniac

Location: Darley Dale - Quiet Woman Inn (no longer standing)
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Pre-1966
Further Comments: An aging legend says that the inn was haunted by a woman with a taste for fire - the inn burnt down several times over the years, and after the final blaze in 1966, no one rebuilt the structure.

Fireman

Location: Darley Dale - Rail station - area around the sheds
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: The ghost of a fireman reportedly haunts the sheds at this aging station.

Hob Hurst

Location: Deepdale - Thirst House - cave below Topley Pike
Type: Legend
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: Hob Hurst, the generic name for a helpful yet sometimes mischievous entity in this region, is said to have watched over a healing spring here.

Sad Man

Location: Derby - 2 Brick Street (original building no longer standing)
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: October 1936?
Further Comments: Reportedly as only appearing during the day, this phantom was described as a sad-looking man wearing a black cape and wide-brimmed hat. Just before the demolition of the building, locals descended on the site, throwing stones and fireworks through the windows, perhaps trying to motivate the ghost to manifest (it did not work).

Chained Man

Location: Derby - Agard Street (Court Four?)
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: Thought to be the shade of Richard Thorley who murdered a woman here, his victim's ghost is also seen around the area, dressed in blue.

Sounds of a Running Battle

Location: Derby - Alvaston area, near the castle
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Twentieth century and 2009
Further Comments: Three girls reported listening to the sounds of a small battle here in the early twentieth century - gunfire, galloping horses, and men shouting. Four people also heard the sounds while out late at night during the 1980s, as did two brothers passing through the area in 2009.

Decapitated Man

Location: Derby - Ascot Drive
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: A headless gentleman walks around this road.

Children Playing

Location: Derby - Assembly Rooms, the Darwin Suite
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Twentieth century
Further Comments: This suite is reportedly haunted by a group of spectral children, singing and dancing. Elsewhere in the same building, a Victorian woman has been seen walking.

Maid in Derby

Location: Derby - Bell Hotel, Sadler Gate
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: A former employee at the hotel, the maid dressed in eighteenth century clothing continues to work post-mortem. A Victorian woman has also been reported as she slowly fades away before witnesses.

Lady in Blue

Location: Derby - Bell Inn
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Late twentieth century
Further Comments: One of three entities purported to lurk within these walls, the lady in blue is dressed in Victorian clothing, while a phantom maid wears a uniform which dates her back to the eighteenth century. The third presence takes the form of a poltergeist that throws small items around when distressed.

Alice Wheeldon

Location: Derby - Guildhall, tunnels that run underneath the building
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Twentieth century
Further Comments: A suffragette accused (likely falsely) of attempting to poison a Prime Minister, Alice has since been seen lurking in these tunnels. Workers down here have also spotted a ghostly young lad passing though.

Soldiers

Location: Derby - Hair salon, Sadler Gate
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: 2010s
Further Comments: The owner of this salon claimed that the sound of marching soldiers could be heard in the shop, the sounds perhaps connected to the legend of secret tunnels running from the area to the cathedral.

Monk

Location: Derby - Jimmy's public house, St James Street
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: While the sound of plainchant haunts this pub, outside a ghostly monk heads towards his monastery that was demolished many years ago.

Black Clad Figure

Location: Derby - MacDonald's restaurant
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Twentieth century
Further Comments: This entity, wearing a long black raincoat, reputedly emerges from a wall after first appearing in Miss Selfridge clothing store.

Cloaked Man

Location: Derby - Manufacturing site, Alfreton Road
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: 1999
Further Comments: During a nightshift, a worker at the site spotted a black cloaked figure glide by a glass door. The figure turned to look at the witness, who said she recognised the ghost as male because she could see his Adam's apple.

Black Clad Figure

Location: Derby - Miss Selfridges clothing store
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Twentieth century
Further Comments: This entity, wearing a long black raincoat appears in this store before vanishing into a wall, only to reappear in MacDonald's.

Old Soldiers

Location: Derby - Normanton Barracks
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Twentieth century
Further Comments: Squadies tell tales of seeing strange people in the newer buildings who vanish if approached, while outside a phantom horse and cart are occasionally seen.

Drink Obsessed

Location: Derby - O'lafferty's public house (once known as The George), Sadlergate
Type: Poltergeist
Date / Time: 2000s
Further Comments: This entity, which enjoys switching the barrels off and causing general mischief, could be related to the thousand year old skull discovered in the basement.