The Paranormal Database

Mr Rimmington

Location: Almondbury - Woodsome Hall golf course
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: The ghost of Rimmington reportedly takes several forms, including a man on horseback accompanied by two hounds, and the slightly less intimidating form of a robin.

The flying nun of Arthington.

Sister Hylda

Location: Arthington - Skies over the community
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Circa 1200
Further Comments: This nun haunted the area for seven years, zooming around at low altitude and accusing a friar of murdering her. It finally grew too much for the Abbess, who summoned all the nuns from the district and, along with an Archbishop, exorcised the spirit.

The Forgotten

Location: Baildon - Holden Lane (was known as Boggart Loin or Lane)
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: A local legend says this lane was haunted, although the details are no longer remembered.

Webbed Footed Hound

Location: Baildon - Slaughter Lane
Type: Shuck
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: A large dog with eyes the size of saucers once haunted this area.

A ghostly woman with a red veil.

Veiled Woman

Location: Batley - Howley Hall ruins, and surrounding golf course
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Twentieth century
Further Comments: A woman with a red veil has been reported here, sometimes accompanied by two male escorts. It has been speculated that one of these men could be a highwayman by the name of William Nevison. Civil war soldiers are also said to haunt the area.

Rocking Chair

Location: Batley - Jessops Mill
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Twenty-first century
Further Comments: Jessops Mill's ghostly past featured in several newspaper articles when the property was sold in 2022. The site had previously featured on a television programme, and former staff had claimed to have encountered strange shadows and witnessed a rocking chair rock unaided.

Hooded Nun

Location: Bingley - Gawthorpe Hall
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: Murdered by her lover, this nun still walks near the driveway of the hall, still in denial of her death at the hands of the man she loved.

Druid's Curse

Location: Bingley - Ryshworth Hall
Type: Curse
Date / Time: Circa 1990
Further Comments: A sixty centimetre stone head, thought to be Celtic, was deemed to be cursed after several people who encountered it became bankrupt, ill or died.

Landlady

Location: Birchencliffe - Grey Horse Inn, Halifax Road
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: July-September 2007
Further Comments: Staff in 2007 encountered shattering glasses and gas cylinders that were turned off with such force the handles were jammed. A story is told that one landlord during the 1990s encountered a ghostly figure that emerged from the cellar; this entity was a former landlady who killed herself during the 1940s or 1950s.

William Batt

Location: Birstall - Oakwell Hall
Type: Crisis Manifestation
Date / Time: 09 December 1684 (Crisis Manifestation), other sighting in 1987
Further Comments: William's family saw him enter the hall on 09 December (some sources say Christmas Eve or New Year's Eve, according to other accounts); they were surprised as they thought he was in London at the time. However, William suddenly disappeared and the following day the family discovered he had been killed in London around the time of his mysterious appearance. A woman wearing a Tudor dress was spotted here in 1987 by an employee. The ghost stood by a window for several minutes before disappearing.

The Holly and the Ivy

Location: Birstall - White Horse Inn
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: 2000
Further Comments: The landlord of this public house reported that a phantom female voice could be heard singing Christmas carols. A figure resembling a nun has been spotted in the back of the building, near the public toilets.

Grey Lady

Location: Bradford - Bolling Hall
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: 1600s and 2010
Further Comments: The Earl of Newcastle once had Bradford under siege and took up residence in the Hall until the battle was truly won. However, the ghostly grey lady appeared to him several times over four nights and begged him to release the town. The Earl did so. Another ghost here has been named as Richard Oastler, who promised he would return to the hall if there really was an afterlife... In 2010, John Holmes took a photograph which showed a strange female face in a bedroom.

Former Player

Location: Bradford - Bradford Football Club
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: January 1905, around midnight
Further Comments: After spotting a light in the pavilion, groundsman Jennings investigated and spotted a man in the team's colours within the building. Jennings summoned a police officer and upon returning to the site, no light or man could be found, and everything was locked up. Some believed the figure was Jack Hawkcridge, a former player at the club who had died a few days previous.

Man in Grey

Location: Bradford - Club house at the West Bowling Golf Club
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Early 1970s
Further Comments: A ghostly figure in a grey suit was seen by a barmaid in the women's toilet. The caretaker reported seeing balls move around the snooker table late at night, and hearing footsteps in an empty locker room.

Fairy Photographs

Location: Bradford - Cottingley, fields around
Type: Fairy
Date / Time: 1917
Further Comments: Becoming world famous, the handful of fairy photographs taken here by the girls Elsie & Frances are still a bone of contention in the fortean world. The book by Joe Cooper, 'The Case of the Cottingley Fairies', is worth reading for further (and very detailed) information.

'Orbs'

Location: Bradford - Dog & Gun public house, Wibsey
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: January 2015
Further Comments: Said to be 'historically haunted', although by what is unclear, this public house featured in the local press after CCTV caught 'orbs' in the cellar and bar (most likely to be created by dust and a strong light source close to the lens).

Floating Heads

Location: Bradford - Mount Royd
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: 1997
Further Comments: Photographed by a local girl, two bodiless heads can be seen in a night-time image, floating along the street. Due to the blurred image, however, there could be a rational explanation. See Fortean Times issue 123 for the photograph.

Guard Duty

Location: Bradford - Paper Hall, near Church Bank
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: This figure donned in shiny white armour was seen holding a spear and whistling merrily by a man walking past the hall.

The skies above Bradford in Yorkshire.

Big Bird

Location: Bradford - Skies above town
Type: Cryptozoology
Date / Time: 1982 / 83
Further Comments: A large bird seen in the skies above the town was originally identified as an eagle or an escaped condor by its witnesses; twenty years later a few of them claimed it to have been a pterodactyl.

Sir Henry Irving

Location: Bradford - Theatre Royal
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Twentieth century
Further Comments: The location he last played before dying, Irving is still said to walk the floor at the theatre.

Water Spirit

Location: Bradley - White Cross Inn
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: 1980s
Further Comments: This ghost, though to be a former landlord, would flush the toilet late at night, and create puddles of water and beer in places where these liquids could not possibly form naturally.

Reapers

Location: Bradshaw - Field (exact location withheld)
Type: Other
Date / Time: Circa 1977
Further Comments: Strange 'reaper-like' figures were spotted by children. The black-clad, hooded figures herded cattle in a nearby field, causing confusion and upset amongst the children. Adults with the children were unable to see the figures. Thirty years later, one of the witnesses shared the story with a friend who lived near the field, who said that they had also seen the figures.

Riders

Location: Buckstones - A640, near the Nont Sarah public house
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: 1968
Further Comments: A policeman returning home after a late shift spotted a small group of horsemen dressed in Cavalier-style clothing riding along this road. He drove past the figures three times to prove to himself that they were not a figment of his imagination.

Walter Calverley

Location: Calverley - Calverley House (currently called Old Hall?), surrounding countryside
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: A temporary fit of madness resulted in this Elizabethan gentleman killing two of his children and stabbing his wife (who escaped by feigning death). His regretful spirit rides the countryside on a headless horse, although one source says that it had been laid. Poltergeist-like activities have also been reported at the house.

Calverley Rises Again

Location: Calverley - St Wilfrid's churchyard
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: Local boys are said to have once believed that the ghost of Walter Calverley could be summoned by chanting 'Old Calverley, Old Calverley, I have thee by the ears, I'll cut thee into collops, unless thee appears'. After this, pins and crumbs would be sprinkled across the ground before one person would walk up to the church door and whistle through the keyhole.