The Paranormal Database

Swinging Swain

Location: Liverpool - Lea Hall (or possibly Lee Hall) (no longer standing), Gateacre
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Weather Dependent: Windy nights
Further Comments: A local villager who tried his luck with the squire's daughter found himself lynched from a tree close to the hall. On windy nights, the body could be heard swinging. A murder in the hall itself could be repeatedly heard, the moans of a woman and the laughter of her homicidal husband. A journalist who visited the hall between the world wars looking for ghosts to write about found himself frozen to the spot, surrounded by complete silence; he managed to escape and flee after hearing a clock striking in the distance.

Floating Torso

Location: Liverpool - Lime Street
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: 1990s
Further Comments: Sightings of the ghost of Lime Street are said to go back hundreds or years. One of the more recent witnesses described the entity as being quite tall, though the legs could not be seen, with the mouth silently moving. An unnamed hotel (that later became offices) along the road is also haunted by the figure of a tall woman.

Thomas Campbell Black

Location: Liverpool - Liverpool Airport, formerly known as Speke
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Twentieth century
Further Comments: Black died in an accident on the runway of the airfield in 1936 - his shadowy form has been seen walking around the area where the old hangars stood.

Hitchhiker

Location: Liverpool - Liverpool to Birkenhead tunnel
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Twentieth century
Further Comments: Killed in the middle of the twentieth century in the tunnel under the Mersey, this phantom hitchhiker is still occasionally seen.

The Devil, from an engraving by Albrecht Durer.

The Demons Below See

Location: Liverpool - Monk's Well, Wavertree
Type: Legend - Old Nick
Date / Time: Still present (but a flower bed)
Further Comments: This old well has the words 'Qui non dat quod habet, Daemon infra vide 1414' carved above it. It was said that any traveller passing by would have no choice but to drink the waters and give a donation to charity, otherwise the Devil (chained under the well) would laugh.

Coal Thrower

Location: Liverpool - Myers Street, Smithdown Lane (no longer exists)
Type: Poltergeist
Date / Time: March 1901
Further Comments: Many of the windows along this street were broken by thrown pieces of coal. The breakages continued after police began patrolling the area.

Voices

Location: Liverpool - Newsham Park Hospital
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: January 2015
Further Comments: A team of French film makers reportedly encountered children's voices, and a strange white mist while at this site. The former hospital grounds has a reputation for being haunted by a small child on the top floor, while dragging sounds have been reported elsewhere and small items associated with childhood thrown around.

Screeching Ginny

Location: Liverpool - Old Garston Dock Station, and St Mary's Road, Garston
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: 15 November 1959
Further Comments: The local witch known as Screeching Ginny appeared and gave chase to a group of school children who were playing on the disused tracks of the railway station. Folklore says the witch fell in love with a local boy but it was unrequited; as the boy left the area with his girlfriend on a train, Ginny threw herself on the tracks and died. Although the station is long gone, the witch still haunts the area.

Cloaked Figure

Location: Liverpool - Old Rectory, Walton
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: September 1985
Further Comments: A firefighter tackling a blaze in the former rectory believed he spotted a figure standing by the engine, although no one was there at the time. The building had a reputation as being haunted by the ghost of a cloaked figure.

Screaming Woman

Location: Liverpool - Private flat, West Derby
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: 1994
Further Comments: Two students sought help from a medium after enduring a phantom woman in her fifties who would scream during the night and call out the name 'Shelley Jones'. On one occasion the students returned to find the message 'get out' written out on the floor using their socks.

Upstairs Bangs

Location: Liverpool - Private house along Sackville Street
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Mid twentieth century
Further Comments: The upper part of the building was subjected to multiple bangs and crashes with no apparent source - the entity was also blamed for pushing a woman down the stairs, causing injuries that required hospital treatment.

Man

Location: Liverpool - Private residence (likely no longer standing)
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Circa 1904
Further Comments: An occupant observed a ghostly man standing on the scullery floor, the sight unnerving the witness to such an extent that the area was avoided. The floor would later collapse, revealing a hidden well where the figure had stood.

Murdered Man?

Location: Liverpool - Private residence (likely no longer standing), Toxteth Park
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Circa June 1864
Further Comments: A court case revolved around a maid suing her employer for a month's salary having left her job after encountering a ghost. The maid stated the ghost had not unduly worried her, but stories about bodies being buried under the building had done so. The judge suggested that her former employer pay the outstanding money, although ultimately ruled in his favour.

Thrown Sisters

Location: Liverpool - Private residence, Anfield area
Type: Poltergeist
Date / Time: 1970s - 1980s
Further Comments: A four-bedroom house became home to a prolonged poltergeist occurrence which threw two sisters from their beds and moved upstairs furniture when the family were all downstairs. On one occasion, the eldest sister was locked in the bathroom and engulfed by the shower curtain. Animals refused to go to the upper part of the building.

Young Boy

Location: Liverpool - Private residence, Breeze Hill
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: 2000
Further Comments: A photograph taken by the family here showed a smiling young lad, around fourteen years of age, standing behind the sofa. On a different occasion, the father of the family asked the phantom to make him a cup of tea, after mistaking the entity as one of his sons.

George?

Location: Liverpool - Private residence, Breeze Hill, Walton
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Late twentieth century
Further Comments: A former slave named George may have been responsible for this haunting, during which one man was slapped in the face as he lay in bed. Another person who rented the property left in tears, claiming he had been chased out by some form of angry spirit.

Ticking

Location: Liverpool - Private residence, Calgarth Road, Huyton
Type: Poltergeist
Date / Time: July 1977
Further Comments: A couple left their home after a ticking started in their home. Clocks were stopped and removed, yet the sound continued and would move around the property, sometimes coming from the walls. An exorcism did not help, and after the ceremony, a coffee table was found upturned and pictures removed from the walls.

Moving Ornaments

Location: Liverpool - Private residence, Clubmoor
Type: Poltergeist
Date / Time: 1979 - 1984
Further Comments: A family moved out of their property after enduring many strange events, including lights which switched themselves on and off, doors that opened unaided, and ornaments that moved by an unseen hand. A local press story claimed a vicar and housing officials also witnessed paranormal activity.

Thrower

Location: Liverpool - Private residence, Conleach Road
Type: Poltergeist
Date / Time: July 1985
Further Comments: It was claimed that a poltergeist which started throwing items around in this property was witnessed by both occupants and police.

Former Slaves

Location: Liverpool - Royal Southern Hospital
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Twentieth century
Further Comments: Once held in cells on the site where the hospital was later constructed, many of the slaves still haunt this area.

Edinburgh

Location: Liverpool - Skies above town
Type: Other
Date / Time: 27 September 1846
Further Comments: A white city appeared for a short time over Liverpool - it was thought to be a mirage of Edinburgh, though no one could identify any of the buildings.

Mile Long Craft

Location: Liverpool - Skies over Anfield
Type: UFO
Date / Time: 25 July 2007
Further Comments: Lee Jones, his wife and her mother watched a huge saucer shaped craft hovering in the sky, clouds occasionally covering the object. A passenger jet that passed near the craft enabled Jones to estimate the ufo was about a mile long. Other witnesses reported seeing the craft throughout June and earlier in the year.

Cellar Dwellers

Location: Liverpool - Slaughterhouse public house
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: 2004
Further Comments: Liverpool's oldest pub, the Slaughterhouse is reported to be haunted by a couple of shades who tend to enjoy lurking in the basement and making fleeting appearances in the bar.

Mary Norris

Location: Liverpool - Speke Hall
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Mary unknown, hunting dogs in 2007
Further Comments: Rather than face up to her husband's massive debts, Mary is said to have killed her son before taking her own life. Mary is said once to have manifested during a dinner party, most guests watching her disappear through a wall. Other people have reported the sounds of children crying during the night. A night fisherman at the pond heard a voice ask, 'have you caught anything yet?', but upon turning around, he could not see anyone nearby. Finally, two witnesses out walking after dusk in 2007 could hear the sound from a pack of hunting dogs emerging from dark woodland but were unable to spot the source. A modern myth appears to place a werewolf on the site.

Tablecloth

Location: Liverpool - Springwood Avenue, close to Allerton Hall
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Circa September 1979
Further Comments: Two teenagers jogging along the avenue heard what they thought sounded like a horse a short distance behind. Turning to have a look, they observed what appeared to be a tablecloth and a horse's body without a head running along. Frightened, the pair ran faster and when they turned again, the entity had gone.