The Paranormal Database

Not a Ghost

Location: Sheffield - Hill between Solly Street and Allen Street
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Circa 1820s
Further Comments: A Barghast was said by children to have taken up residence on this hill, which at the time was common land. It later emerged that the ghost was a hoax.

White Figure

Location: Sheffield - House along Campo Lane
Type: Unknown Ghost Type
Date / Time: March 1855
Further Comments: After a lodger spotted a ghostly white figure in the kitchen, this house was visited by many people hoping to see the entity. One of these visitors, a Mrs Rollinson, collapsed after witnessing a white female form dash past her. After briefly regaining consciousness and sharing her encounter, Rollinson once again fell unconscious and died soon after. It is worth noting that other people were with Rollinson at the time of the encounter, but they did not see the reported ghost.

Peering Face

Location: Sheffield - Industry public house, Darnall
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: 1997
Further Comments: When the Sheffield Paranormal Society carried out a vigil of this property, photographs were taken inside the back room. When they came back from being developed, a face could be seen peering through a window, even though nothing was seen at the time.

Highwayman

Location: Sheffield - Mail Coach public house, 149 West Street
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: 1984
Further Comments: Wearing the clothing of a robber, this figure was seen lurking in the shadows prior to mysteriously disappearing.

White Figure

Location: Sheffield - Manor Castle public house
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: 1983
Further Comments: The landlord of this public house moved out after only three weeks, claiming that his child and pets had been constantly upset by a white human form.

Mary Queen of Scots

Location: Sheffield - Manor Lodge (aka Manor Castle)
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: 2015
Further Comments: Folklore says that Mary, wearing a long black dress, appears in the Turret House and glides along corridors and passes through walls. In 2015, a visitor to the site watched a glowing white figure of a woman wearing a long dress run towards and vanish behind a building.

Old Lady

Location: Sheffield - Middlewood Hospital
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Twentieth century
Further Comments: This old lady has been seen wandering around the former Ward Eight, where she disappears when she walks through a wall. There are also stories of disembodied footsteps running on the stairs.

Governess

Location: Sheffield - Mosborough Hall
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: Now returning to the hall in the form of a white lady, the governess had her throat slit by the hall's Squire after she threatened to tell his wife of their affair. The sounds of their final argument can also be heard drifting around the hall at night. A man staying here also reported a phantom hound which awoke him at night.

Cain

Location: Sheffield - National Emergency Services Museum
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: 2020s?
Further Comments: A former police and fire station, the building is now a museum and used by ghost hunting groups. The site is home to a former prisoner named Cain,

Illustration by Arthur Hughes

Devil or Other

Location: Sheffield - Nicker Wood
Type: Legend - Old Nick
Date / Time: Pre-1880s
Further Comments: Sidney Oldall Addy, in a book about the local area, assumed that the woods took the name from a monster, water sprite, a goblin or the Devil.

Matron

Location: Sheffield - Northern General Hospital, Vickers Corridor
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: 2003 ('dream'), October 2012 Victorian man
Further Comments: At least two members of staff have reported the same 'dream' while sleeping in the staff room - they have awoken to see an angry matron-styled nurse with one hand over the witnesses' mouth and the other hand around their neck, trying to strangle them. One witness kicked and screamed before the apparition vanished in the blink of an eye. In 2012 two witnesses spotted a man in Victorian clothing drift past them while on the bell tower staircase.

Line Lion

Location: Shepley - Railway Line
Type: ABC
Date / Time: 06 November 2011, around 15:30h
Further Comments: Trains were delayed for around two hours after police received a report of a lion (and possibly a cub) on the rail tracks at Shepley. After searching the area with twelve officers and a helicopter, nothing was found, and rail travel resumed.

Coach and Four

Location: Shepley - Roads around the Shepley War Memorial
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Winter (reoccurring)
Further Comments: Appearing at night, this phantom coach pulled by four horses would move at breakneck speed along the roads in and around the village.

Elizabeth Smith

Location: Shepley - Sovereign Inn
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: Elizabeth is said to sit in a room upstairs and can be seen watching from a window. The cellar is also said to be haunted by a man who died down there in the 1960s.

Housekeeper

Location: Slade Hooton - Slade Hooton Hall, orchard
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: 1980s, 1990s, 2007
Further Comments: When this property appeared for sale in the local press, the article mentioned that a phantom housekeeper from the eighteenth century was supposed to haunt the orchard. The pale figure is said to have been seen in the late twentieth century, and by two teenagers in 2007.

Children Playing

Location: Stocksbridge - Pearoyd Bridge
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: September 1987
Further Comments: Seen playing around an electricity pylon, the children faded when approached.

Cowled Figure

Location: Stocksbridge - Stocksbridge bypass
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: 1990s, 2000s
Further Comments: The scene of many accidents (over 120 since 1988, with 23 dying since 1998), the area is said to be haunted by several ghosts; a hooded man has been seen here, as have Victorian children who are thought to have died in a mining accident.

Shadowy Figure

Location: Swinton - Ship Inn
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: 1980
Further Comments: A dark insubstantial figure was blamed when the landlord moved his family out. Glasses would also break without reason, and doors would lock and unlock themselves.

Soldiers

Location: Tankersley - Tankersley Moor
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: Phantom soldiers reputedly walk the moor, the scene of a long forgotten skirmish.

Headless Man

Location: Thorne - 1920's cinema
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: The story of the ghost of a headless cinema commissionaire reputed to wander the lower floor was said to be nothing but a rumour by the people renovating the building.

Coach

Location: Thorne - Thorne Gyme, (on the site where the roundabout at junction 6 of the M18 now stands)
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Unknown, but prior to the construction of the M18
Further Comments: It was said that a stagecoach left the road during a storm, running into the deep hole which had filled with rainwater. The accident drowned the driver, passengers and horses. The coach was said to have been seen several times after this, re-enacting the event.

Hooded Figure

Location: Thurgoland - Wortley Arms public house
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: August 2011
Further Comments: Photographer Paul Cocker claimed to have caught a phantom hooded figure in a doorway of this public house, although the image published online by a local newspaper looks slightly suspect.

Coach

Location: Tickhill - Wong Lane
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Late twentieth century
Further Comments: This ghostly coach has been observed dashing down Wong Lane before fading from view.

Highwayman

Location: Todwick - General area
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: A phantom highwayman has been sighted in this village.

White Thing

Location: Todwick - 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.