The Paranormal Database

Mind the Edge

Location: Allihies (County Cork) - Cliff near old copper mine, Beara Peninsula
Type: Legend
Date / Time: Mid-1850s-1930s?
Further Comments: After working late one moonless night, a local man returning from the copper mine took a shortcut across a hill. He became lost, and in his confusion fell over the edge of a cliff and died. For many years following the accident, travellers crossing the hill would pause to throw a stone over the edge of the cliff, fearing that failing to carry out the ritual would result in them experiencing the same fatal accident.

A phantom miner.

Old Miner

Location: Bakewell (Derbyshire) - Magpie Mine
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Late 1940s
Further Comments: A survey team in the mine spotted a man holding a candle who vanished down a shaft. A photograph taken by the team reportedly shows a figure standing on top of a deep pool of water.

Victorian Miners

Location: Barnsley (Yorkshire) - Area of the Lundhill colliery
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Twentieth century
Further Comments: The ghosts of several miners killed in a disaster in the 1850s were reported when the surrounding pits were in operation during the twentieth century.

Short Swordsman

Location: Bedworth (Warwickshire) - Coal Pit Fields, exact location not known
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Late 1950s / early 1960s
Further Comments: A young girl witnessed a man of short stature and dressed in Cavalier clothing carrying a sword. The phantom was surrounded by a green glow and beckoned the child to approach. Her reaction to this is undocumented.

Cries for Help

Location: Benthall (Shropshire) - Benthall Edge - area of former limestone pit
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: A man carrying the week's wages for his mining crew was robbed and buried alive in this area in the late nineteenth century. Cries and screams are still reported coming from his living grave.

Kobolds

Location: Bodmin Moor (Cornwall) - Goonzion Down mine
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: One tin mine shaft was nicknamed the Roaring Shaft after the many bangs and thuds heard emanating from the empty tunnel. Kobolds or Bucca were held accountable.

A ghostly miner within a cavern.

Miners

Location: Castlecomer (County Kilkenny) - Deerpark Coalmines
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: Local folklore says that phantom miners still walk to the pit.

A phantom coal miner.

Miners

Location: Chapelhall (Lanarkshire) - Area around former coal mine
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: A local story says that if you stand in the same place where miners loitered, you could see their ghosts.

Marren

Location: Chesterfield (Derbyshire) - Williamthorpe Colliery
Type: Post-Mortem Manifestation
Date / Time: Early 1960s
Further Comments: A road man spotted a figure walking along a shaft in the dark. Throwing his light up to illuminate the figure, the road man recognised the figure as a person named Marren, who had died a few days previous. The witness ran screaming from the site and terminated his employment. Another story from the mine concerns two senior electrical apprentices working on a pump. The men forced themselves through cobwebs which completely covered the tunnel for hundreds of yards to reach the pump. On completion of the tests, one man asked, 'is the pump running right?'. Before the other man could reply, they both heard a voice say, 'yes it is'. They searched the area to ensure that they were not victims of a joke but were totally alone.

Simon

Location: Coniston (Cumbria) - Simon's Nick rock face
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: Simon was shown a secret seam of copper by fairies - he mined it, but bad luck followed - he was blown up when a keg of gunpowder exploded. Simon's shade is said to hang around the rock face that now bears his name.

Faceless Miner

Location: Cotgrave (Nottinghamshire) - Cotgrave Colliery
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: October 1987
Further Comments: Gary Pine, while at work in a mine shaft, watched a man dressed in black clothing wearing a helmet walk through a wall. Pine said that the figure had no face.

Glowing Figure

Location: Dylife (Powys) - Old mine tunnels
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: 1980s
Further Comments: A man exploring the tunnels watched a blue glowing light, the size of a small person, moving around ahead of him. Old miners once told tales of balls of light which moved around the tunnels until they reached the surface, where they floated off into the sky.

Dick the Devil

Location: Ettingshall (Staffordshire) - Mine (exact location not known)
Type: Legend
Date / Time: Circa 1800
Further Comments: Dick the Devil was the nickname given to a miner who worked alone at night, capable of digging up more coal than any other man. When a curious miner looked to see how Dick could work so hard, he observed the man smoking a pipe while several knockers (mine spirits) worked away around him. The observing man gasped and ran off; the knockers enraged at being seen turned on Dick and killed him.

With a Spade

Location: Eyam (Derbyshire) - Hanging Flatt Mine
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: Overground, underground, this elderly phantom carries a spade slung over his shoulder. He is said to mumble to himself. A lady living close to the mine reported hearing picks at night once everyone had left the mine.

Man in Donkey Jacket

Location: Glapwell (Derbyshire) - Mine - Number Three pit
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: 1964
Further Comments: A figure wearing a donkey jacket was seen within this mine - he walked through a piece of machinery before disappearing.

Lamentation

Location: Glyncorrwg (West Glamorgan) - Cwmcos Glyncorrwg Colliery
Type: Crisis Manifestation
Date / Time: July 1902
Further Comments: Miners stopped work after hearing the lamentations of women and children emerge from a nearby disused colliery, believing the wails to be a warning of impending disaster. Strange lights were also seen around the mine.

Walking Boots

Location: Goldthorpe (Yorkshire) - Colliery
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: July 1985
Further Comments: A worker fled this coalfield after he watched a pair of disembodied boots moving towards him deep underground.

Heavy Footsteps

Location: Hednesford (Staffordshire) - West Cannock Number 5 Mine
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: 1995
Further Comments: Working alone in the offices of the converted mining engine house, a witness heard heavy footsteps coming up the metal fire escape staircase. They went to unlock the door to let the visitor in, but the staircase was empty and the bottom door to the staircase was locked. The witness was later told of the deaths of some workers in the mine in 1933.

Foul Language

Location: Helston (Cornwall) - Poldark Mine
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: 2005
Further Comments: Mostghosts, a Helston based team of paranormal investigators, claimed to have recorded a phantom voice which curses while telling people to leave the mine.

A sketch of a pair of eyes by Wayne Lowden.

Eyes

Location: Leigh (Greater Manchester) - Platt Lane, Pretoria Pit colliery area
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: 1980s
Further Comments: It was reported that dozens of pairs of eyes would look out of bushes along this lane, and that they belonged to the 368 people who died in an accident at Pretoria Pit. Prior to this disaster, miners on route to work would sometimes encounter the sound of an invisible horse which ran past them.

Pony in a Pit

Location: Littleburn (Durham) - Littleburn Colliery
Type: Unknown Ghost Type
Date / Time: 31 December 1919
Further Comments: A worker on night shift reported seeing a phantom pony walking in the pit, which was grabbed by a disembodied arm - exactly fifteen years previous on that very night, a worker had been killed in the pit by a runaway pony.

Miner

Location: Llay (Clwyd) - Llay Miners Welfare Institute
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: This site is said to be the home of a miner who perished in an accident at the nearby colliery.

Drunken Miner

Location: Maltby (Yorkshire) - Quarry near local mine
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: September 2005
Further Comments: Two lads walking by here came across a semi-naked man drinking from a cider bottle who warned the pair to be careful. The figure entered a nearby shaft and vanished. One of the witnesses later found out that a former miner with a drinking problem was found dead in the area, his body discovered in the slurry pit.

Dragon's Mine

Location: Manaton (Devon) - Unknown tin mine
Type: Dragon
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: A winged lizard set up its lair in an old tin mine and its hissing heard for miles around. The dragon was killed in the pit, but no one appears to have wanted to take credit.

Highwayman

Location: Moulton St Mary (Norfolk) - Callow (or Caller) Pit
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: A phantom highwayman would ride around this pit before heading towards Callow Spong (where he would vanish). The pit itself was said to be the home of the Devil, who dragged one man down into its waters after he tried to fish out a chest of coins.