The Paranormal Database

Crying Children

Location: Manchester - 16 Wardle Brook Avenue (no longer standing)
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Late twentieth century
Further Comments: Former home of the Moors Murderers, neighbours once reported the sounds of children crying, months after the pair of killers had been sentenced to imprisonment.

Mrs Potter

Location: Manchester - 35 Northern Drive, Collyhurst (no longer standing - area redeveloped)
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: 1972
Further Comments: Two children were taken to hospital suffering from shock after seeing the ghost of Mrs Potter, a widow murdered in the flat two years previous. The presence told the girls to 'wait for me in this room' before touching one of them on the mouth.

Nothing Moving

Location: Manchester - 44 Penny Lane
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Mid twentieth century?
Further Comments: Owners of this establishment called the police when they heard lots of movement in the building when it should have been empty - after a long search, no one was found, and nothing was either moved or removed. The strange sounds continued for several weeks.

Bob Tailed Cat

Location: Manchester - Area around the canal near the Pomona Public House, Old Trafford
Type: ABC
Date / Time: 1990s
Further Comments: Anglers fishing in this area reported a cat the size of a cocker spaniel which often appeared at day and night.

Figures in Jumpsuits

Location: Manchester - Banks of the River Mersey, south Manchester
Type: UFO
Date / Time: 19 August 1979, 21:00h
Further Comments: Walking home with her two daughters, Lynda Jones and the children watched a twenty metre long orange/pink oval craft drop into a field. When they approached to take a better look, the ufo had changed to a grey colour and was hovering sixty centimetres above the ground. They all ran away after one daughter started screaming, and in later hypnotherapy Lynda recalled being abducted by almost human figures in jumpsuits.

Barlow and Others

Location: Manchester - Barlow Hall, Chorlton-cum-Hardy
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Mostly unknown, but servant on clear moonless nights (reoccurring)
Further Comments: Several ghosts were reputed to haunt the hall. Saint Ambrose Barlow is said to walk the upper part of the hall, as is a (sometimes headless) woman. A servant who drowned in the lake after poorly executed practical joke went wrong sometimes returns to run towards the Mersey. A poltergeist-like entity carries coal and moves other items between rooms.

Footsteps

Location: Manchester - Bootle Street Police Station
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Twenty-first century
Further Comments: Footsteps have been heard by officers on the nightshift and an old timecard machine occasionally clangs as people walk past. A former female prisoner is said to haunt the corridor outside her cell.

Brannigans nightclub, Manchester.

Pusher

Location: Manchester - Brannigans nightclub, Peter's Street
Type: Poltergeist
Date / Time: 2000s
Further Comments: This invisible phantom causes trouble behind the bar, while other staff say that the force has tried to push them down staircases within the building.

Fanny

Location: Manchester - Cathedral
Type: Crisis Manifestation
Date / Time: Late 1840s?
Further Comments: A man spotted his sister Fanny standing in the nave of the building - he was quite surprised, as he thought his sister to be many miles away. He called out to the woman, who started to walk but vanished suddenly. The following day, the man received word that Fanny had died in an accident, the timing of which matched his sighting of her in the cathedral.

Headless Hound

Location: Manchester - Cathedral area, & bridge over the Irwell towards Salford
Type: Shuck
Date / Time: 1825
Further Comments: A tradesman spotted the spectral dog outside the cathedral and the creature jumped up at him. The phantom creature was finally exorcised under the bridge over the Irwell.

Murdered Baby

Location: Manchester - Cheetham, private house (no longer standing)
Type: Unknown Ghost Type
Date / Time: 1964
Further Comments: The house was briefly home to phantom cries, sounding like those of a child, and the apparitions of an older lady and a more sinister black figure.

John Dee

Location: Manchester - Chetham School, Audit Room
Type: Other
Date / Time: Circa 1595
Further Comments: Doctor Dee worked from this room, and a scorch mark on a piece of wood is reputed to have been left after Dee was visited by the Devil.

Monk

Location: Manchester - Church Inn, Prestwich
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Mid twentieth century
Further Comments: The phantom monk who haunts the cellar under this public house occasionally cries out 'Hello!' to gain attention.

Bill Benny

Location: Manchester - Cloisters Nightclub, Oxford Street
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: 1970s
Further Comments: The former owner of the club, Bill Benny was said to have appeared on CCTV a few years after his death.

Two Children

Location: Manchester - Entrance alleyway to Chorlton Park, Chorlton-Cum-Hardy
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Circa March, 1979
Further Comments: A witness sitting near the entrance to the park with their cousin watched two young twins in old fashioned school uniforms whistling and walking towards them. One of the twins smiled at the witness just prior to both siblings walking through the railings and disappearing. The witness screamed and fled the scene, although the cousin did not see the apparitions.

Green Train

Location: Manchester - Fairfield Railway Station, Audenshaw
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Varies: Autumn and winter (reoccurring)
Further Comments: Said to appear around sunset and visible from Booth Road, an old-looking green train with several carriages vanishes if anyone moves too close. A tunnel that has been filled in is said to be home to a disembodied voice that calls out the name Mary.

Boggart Hole Clough, Manchester.

Hair Puller

Location: Manchester - Farm (no longer standing) located at Boggart Hole Clough (was also known as Blackley Dell)
Type: Poltergeist
Date / Time: Likely pre-twentieth century
Further Comments: This entity possessed a split personality - it would sometimes help with the washing and cleaning, while other times throw items around, pull bedcovers from people's beds as they slept, and laugh loudly while banging around at night. When the family threatened to move out, the spirit told them it would go with them, so they stayed.

Manchester's General Hospital.

Shadowy Figure

Location: Manchester - General Hospital
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Late twentieth century
Further Comments: Once seen standing by a television set, this shade is more likely to be blamed for flushing toilets in empty cubicles and throwing bed pans around.

Yellow Dog

Location: Manchester - Godley Green
Type: Shuck
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: This large hound of ill fortune is yellow in colour - one story states it was once mistaken for a lion.

White Lady

Location: Manchester - Golborne, Castle Hill
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: August 1960
Further Comments: This female form causes trouble on the roads as she drifts out in front on oncoming traffic. Some witnesses say the entity is more like a monk than a woman and a cyclist who spotted the figure in the road in 1960 said the phantom figure was twice the height of a normal person.

Young Employee

Location: Manchester - Great Western Hotel, Moss Side
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: This figure dressed in grey is often reported in the basement.

Lady Alice

Location: Manchester - Heaton Hall
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: A former resident of the hall, Alice still clings on to the last reminisce of her former life.

Playful Barking

Location: Manchester - Highfield country park, Levenshulme
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: 2021
Further Comments: A dog graveyard, once owned by a farmer and now hidden away in the park, is reputedly home to playful barking which can be heard after dark. Stories say that the haunting sounds began after a local resident buried their dog within the park.

Paddy

Location: Manchester - House at corner of Spath Road and Holme Road
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: 1957
Further Comments: Seen in the garden of this house, this small black dog's grave is only a few metres away from the spot it haunts.

Home Wrecker

Location: Manchester - House in Levenshulme district
Type: Poltergeist
Date / Time: 1933
Further Comments: A poltergeist outbreak caused hundreds of pounds of damage in this house, pulling taps from the wall and flooding the site, and throwing household items out of the windows. A team of people were said to have laid the entity, although their methodology is not clear.