The Paranormal Database is regularly updated. New and revised records may be stories from yesterday, last week or may date back hundreds of years...
George
Location: Alderley Park (Cheshire) - Churchill Tree public house
Type: Poltergeist
Date / Time: 2020s
Further Comments: The poltergeist who slams doors shut and breaks the occasional glass has been nicknamed George. Shouting has also been heard, although no source found. It is speculated that the entity is connected to the site being used as a hospital during the First World War.
Crying
Location: Naworth (Cumbria) - Railway crossing
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Late twentieth century
Further Comments: A signalman was left terrified after hearing the sound of two children crying out in anguish. Another worker on the site encountered a man who asked for a light. The worker reached for his lighter, but the man vanished without trace. An accident at the crossing in August 1926 took eight lives, including two children.
Hooded Figure
Location: Newport (Gwent) - Royal Gwent Hospital
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: October 2005, 30 March 2021
Further Comments: One report sent to the Paranormal Database stated that both patients and nurses on one ward spotted a hooded monk-like figure. In 2021 two patients spotted a small hooded form drift in a ward, leaving both witnesses shocked. Another report says a day room is home to an entity which pushes down on people's chests.
Misty Figure
Location: Stoke on Tern (Shropshire) - Road, near the bridge over River Tern
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Summer 2019, mid afternoon
Further Comments: A witness spotted a human-shaped misty apparition along this road. They originally thought the mist was water vapour rising from the road as it was warm, but the weather was also dry and very windy. The witness used the road almost every day, but only once observed the phenomenon.
Reduction in Numbers
Location: Tremeirchion (Clwyd) - Salusbury Arms public house
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: 2010s
Further Comments: It was claimed that this pub once had seven ghosts, but an exorcism reduced the number to three.
Ned King
Location: Hurst Green (Lancashire) - Punch Bowl Inn (demolished June 2021), and general area
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: A highwayman caught at the public house and hanged nearby, Mr King returned post-mortem for several years after the event, knocking on doors and windows late at night.
Quiet Noises
Location: Ilfracombe (Devon) - Chambercombe Manor House
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: A secret room discovered in the mid-nineteenth century also revealed a female skeleton lying in bed - since then, the area around the room has sported strange sounds late at night. Even by the 1890s, the ghost story was considered a smuggler's tale created to explain roughish late night activities. The ghost of Lady Jane Grey is also reported to haunt the building.
Devil's Cheese
Location: Linkinhorne (Devon) - Cheesewring (granite tor)
Type: Legend - Old Nick
Date / Time: Still standing
Further Comments: An old piece of folklore says the Devil would make his cheese using this stack of stones. The tor was created when Saint Tue engaged in a stone tossing contest with Uther, one of the local giants. One of Uther's stones missed the target; Saint Tue picked the rock up and an angel carried it to the top of the tor. Most of the giants promptly converted to Christianity.
Dancer
Location: Lynton (Devon) - Ragged Jack (rock)
Type: Legend - Old Nick
Date / Time: Still present
Further Comments: For the heinous crime of leading a troupe of dancers on the Sabbath, Jack was turned to stone by the Devil.
Young Lady
Location: Woolacombe (Devon) - Beach
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Weather Dependent: Stormy weather (de Tracey), early twentieth century (woman)
Further Comments: This woman dressed in white has been observed drifting along the beach, passing effortlessly over hazardous areas of sand. Sir William de Tracey also spends time on the beach, sorting sand as penance for the murder of Thomas a Becket. When a storm rolls in and blows his work away, he can be heard screaming.
First and Last
Location: Woolacombe (Devon) - Morte Point
Type: Legend - Old Nick
Date / Time: N/A
Further Comments: The peninsula was the cause of many shipwrecks and locals would say it was the place that 'God made last and the Devil will take first'. A well on the point was said to cure poor eyesight.
Actor
Location: Portsmouth (Hampshire) - Theatre Royal
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: 1980s
Further Comments: A brown coloured figure was once seen sitting in the empty theatre. A piano was recorded playing a single note in the building after closing time when all the doors had been closed and locked.. Another story says an actor who cut his own throat here in the 1880's is said to remain earthbound.
Church Dog
Location: Northorpe (Lincolnshire) - Churchyard
Type: Werewolf
Date / Time: Circa early to mid nineteenth century
Further Comments: This churchyard is rumoured to be the haunt of the black shuck, which may have been a shape-changing local wizard. Another tale says the dog's remains were bricked up in the church walls and he is nothing more than a folk memory of the interment.
Riot
Location: Sheffield (Yorkshire) - Cholera Monument Grounds
Type: Other
Date / Time: May 1873
Further Comments: Around two thousand men and young boys gathered at this site after a rumour started a ghost had been seen (although the local press declared the entity was really a 'young fellow of weak intellect'). Neighbours complained, the police arrived, scuffles occurred, no ghost appeared, and people went home. Rumours of a ghostly figure in the area continued throughout the rest of the month.
Tall Figure in Black Shroud
Location: Harthill (Yorkshire) - Road between village and Kiveton Park
Type: Other
Date / Time: 1912
Further Comments: A ghostly tall figure in flowing black clothing that had taken to haunting this road was found to be a woman out for night-time walks. Police reported the woman to her parents.
Apprentice
Location: Sheffield (Yorkshire) - Barker's Pool
Type: Other
Date / Time: 1875
Further Comments: Around a thousand people assembled on the street to watch a glowing figure, named as the ghost of an apprentice, in the window of a building. A police officer pointed out that the 'entity' resembled a light being reflected in a window moving in the wind. Once the window had been secured, the ghost could no longer be seen.
White Thing
Location: Todwick (Yorkshire) - Todwick Road / Kiveton Hall area
Type: Other
Date / Time: 1920
Further Comments: A white entity was said to haunt this area after dark, although a large white owl was identified as a possible culprit.
Postman
Location: Consett (Durham) - Wooded area, Consett Lane / Pemberton Road
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: 1950s onwards
Further Comments: A phantom postman in 1950s clothing was said to wander this area.
Monk
Location: Brentwood (Essex) - Shop in Chapel High Shopping Centre
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Circa 1986/7
Further Comments: While in the shop stacking shelves, a worker visited the upstairs storeroom and spotted a semi-transparent, hooded monk floating a couple of feet above the ground. Not feeling threatened or scared, the worker approached the monk and came within a metre of the entity before it vanished. The worker later discovered a monastery once stood on the site.
Accidental Discharge
Location: Gosport (Hampshire) - Barracks (no longer standing)
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: 1899
Further Comments: After a 'ghost scare' at this barracks, a marine was found guilty of unlawfully shooting another man. The marine claimed to have been 'unnerved' by the ghostly report, and accidently opened fire at his relief. The 'ghost' incident which preceded the shooting was said to have been reported by another guard who had watched a dog leap over a wall. When the guard tried to follow the dog, he discovered that the dog's footprints turned into human prints which led into a creek.
Large Dog
Location: Swindon (Wiltshire) - Old canal bridge between Shrivenham Road and Drakes Way
Type: Shuck
Date / Time: 1988
Further Comments: It was reported that a large dog with red eyes was seen by three people over a two day period. The hound appeared unable to cross an old metal bridge.
Young Lad
Location: Swindon (Wiltshire) - Private residence, Old Town
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: 1991
Further Comments: A child aged around ten years old dressed in an Edwardian school uniform was spotted by several people walking around this property.
Tiny Alien
Location: St Helens (Lancashire) - Balker Drive
Type: Other
Date / Time: 26 February 2021
Further Comments: A local woman took several photographs to test the camera on her new phone. The photographer later realised one of the images showed a tiny, 'grey' alien-like figure apparently walking along the road.
Headless Woman
Location: Bowshaw (Derbyshire) - Unknown road (led to Hullat Hall (likely no longer exists))
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: A second headless woman was said to haunt another road in this area.
Dancing
Location: Calver (Derbyshire) - Stocking Field
Type: Fairy
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: People once believed the fairies came out at dusk and celebrated by dancing around a blindfolded midwife (also a fairy) in this field.
Three Women and Their Friends
Location: Coal Ashon (Derbyshire) - Common
Type: Crisis Manifestation
Date / Time: Nineteenth century
Further Comments: A piece of folklore says that a man once spotted a series of entities on this common land. Three tall, thin women each held an hourglass, a tall man stood carrying an oak tree, and another man stood holding a scythe. The sighting was a potent that someone would die within three hours, with the age of the oak tree denoting the age of the deceased.
Multi-Winged Bird
Location: Coal Ashon (Derbyshire) - Exact area not known
Type: Cryptozoology
Date / Time: Nineteenth century?
Further Comments: More paranormal than a physical cryptid, a large white bird the size of a goose but with multiple wings appeared before a girl in the village. She circled the creature nine times and it vanished.
Older Woman
Location: Coal Ashon (Derbyshire) - Unidentified wall
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Nineteenth century?
Further Comments: A small, older woman was seen sitting against a wall. When engaged in conversation, she vanished.
Headless Woman
Location: Dronfield (Derbyshire) - Place 'where three roads meet' between village and Coal Ashon
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: Not much more is known about the phantom headless woman who haunts the junction.
White Rider
Location: Eckington (Derbyshire) - Moss valley, between town and Ridgeway
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: 24 August 2002
Further Comments: Two women out walking their dogs reportedly watched a white female figure on horseback in the woods. The entity vanished as it rounded a non-existent corner. A local piece of folklore says the area is haunted by a white horse, although traditionally riderless.
Invisible to Some
Location: Holmesfield (Derbyshire) - Bury Hill ('three lane ends'), although cannot find on modern maps
Type: Shuck
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: The barghast, a demonic dog with saucer-sized eyes, was considered a death omen. The creature which lurked here was spotted by a woman, but remained invisible to her sister who walked besides her. The sister died a month later.
Kindly Fairies
Location: Holmesfield (Derbyshire) - Moorwood's Farm (aka Morewood's Farm)
Type: Fairy
Date / Time: Unknown, possibly pre-nineteenth century
Further Comments: A woman who lived at the farm returned from her daughter's funeral to find her home had been tidied and a fire burning in the hearth. The woman believed that the little folk had been at work.
Peggy Whooper
Location: Kneesall (Derbyshire) - Common on the road between village and Ossington
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: The road was said to be home to a phantom woman who would make her presence known after sunset.
Holes
Location: Stoney Middleton (Derbyshire) - Isolated house outside of village
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: A story told claimed the ghost of a murdered woman would appear in the house and poke holes in bread. The couple living here stayed up to witness the phantom, and even though they did not see her, large holes appeared in their loaves.
Rings
Location: Sheffield (Yorkshire) - Dead Man's Lane (aka Dead Lane), Ecclesall (lane may have been renamed, but in Greystones area)
Type: Fairy
Date / Time: Nineteenth century?
Further Comments: An overgrown lane in the village (now a Sheffield suburb) was said to be home to fairies, with distinct fairy circles spotted in the grass. A headless woman also haunted the lane.
Black Bird
Location: Whirlow (Yorkshire) - Lane close to Whirlow Hall (no longer standing)
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: A member of the family which owned Whirlow Hall was said to haunt the lane, taking the form for a black bird with a white tail (or wings). It was capable of paralysing people; in one instance the entity froze the rider of a mule in the air as his mount continued walking along oblivious to its master's predicament.
Pins
Location: Bradwell (Derbyshire) - Wells in the village
Type: Fairy
Date / Time: Easter Sunday (tradition died out nineteenth century?)
Further Comments: Children in the area would drop pins in the village wells for luck. Each well had a fairy protector who would know whether a child had not performed the ritual. The following day, children had glass bottles tied around their necks on string; if a child had not dropped a pin, the fairies would break their bottle.
Different Gates
Location: Kneesall (Derbyshire) - Churchyard
Type: Other
Date / Time: Nineteenth century
Further Comments: The church was said to have two gates. One was the lychgate (or corpse gate), the other being the bride gate. The bride would never enter via the lychgate.
Monk
Location: Great Gaddesden (Hertfordshire) - Roman Road and Devil's Bridge
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: This old road is reputed to be haunted by a monk who once resided at a nearby Benedictine monastery. The bridge along the road has gained an 'occult' reputation, although there does not appear to be any older folklore attached to the location.
Best at the Bottom
Location: Austwick (Yorkshire) - Unidentified deep pool
Type: Other
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: A man with a group of friends either jumped or fell into a deep pool in the village. The man did not return to the surface, but a series of bubbles emerged from the water, the popping forming the words 'It's best at the bottom'. The man's friends all jumped in to see whether the words spoke the truth. None returned from the pool.
Sunken Village
Location: Baslow (Derbyshire) - Road from village heading towards Sheffield, was fenland known as Leachfield
Type: Legend
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: A village which once stood here was said to have quickly sunk into swamp while watched by an occupant who stood on a nearby hill.
The Fish
Location: Bradwell (Derbyshire) - Lumley Pool and nearby wells
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: 25 December (reoccurring)
Further Comments: A local wiseman by the name of Master John transformed the spirit of a murdered girl who had taken to haunting the neighbourhood into a fish. This ghostly fish would appear in nearby waters on Christmas Day.
Bend by the Devil
Location: Chesterfield (Derbyshire) - Church - Crooked Spire
Type: Legend - Old Nick
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: The Devil, resting against the church, was so taken by the beauty of a bride that he spun around to have a better view, warping the spire in the process. Another story says the first couple to be married in the church were so innocent that they caused the spire to warp. This will not be undone until another innocent couple are wed on the site.
Moved Building
Location: Clowne (Derbyshire) - Church
Type: Legend
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: The church was said to have once been located on the opposite side of the road, but unseen hands moved a few dozen metres.
Turning Stone
Location: Curbar (Derbyshire) - Eagle Stone
Type: Legend
Date / Time: Still present
Further Comments: When the cockerel crows, this stone was said to rotate. A local custom says that men must climb to the top of the rock before being married.
Thyme
Location: Drunfield (Derbyshire) - Footpath between Stubley and Drunfield
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Nineteenth century?
Further Comments: A woman who was murdered by her partner along the path was carrying a bunch of thyme. The smell of the herb was said to denote her presence.
Wish
Location: Farhill (Derbyshire) - Wishing Stone (aka Ashover Rock, aka Faybrick)
Type: Legend
Date / Time: Stone still present
Further Comments: Anyone who sat upon this rock and made wished three times would have that wish fulfilled.
Secret Passage
Location: Holmesfield (Derbyshire) - Holmesfield Castle
Type: Legend
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: A piece of local folklore said the castle and Holmesfield Hall were connected by a secret passage. Contained within the passage sat an iron box filled with treasure, but it was protected by a cockerel which would crow if approached.
Sister
Location: Peak Forest (Derbyshire) - Unnamed farmhouse
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: Two sisters once lived here and fell in love with the same man. One sister murdered the other, but before dying, she said that she would never rest in any grave. The dead sister's bones were stored in a container on the property and if moved, strange noises could be heard at night and the farm's cattle would die.
Woman and Small Boy
Location: EC4 (Greater London) - Private residence, Primrose Hill
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: 2020s
Further Comments: Sharleen Spiteri, vocalist in the group Texas, claimed her home was haunted by a woman and a little boy. Spiteri would often see the female entity sitting at the end of her kitchen table, occasionally joined by the child.
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