The Paranormal Database

Sarah

Location: Chester - Tobacconist, Eastgate Street
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Winter (reoccurring), last encountered 1970?
Further Comments: Staff would be disturbed by the sound of footsteps and a woman sobbing. Poltergeist activity would also occur; doors opened, a picture fell to the floor, and decorative studwork forcefully removed.

Royalist

Location: Chester - Tudor House
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: A headless Royalist soldier is said to haunt the building where he lost his head after a cannon ball hit him during his stay. The site is also reputed to be haunted by a grey lady.

Lioness

Location: Chester - Upton area
Type: ABC
Date / Time: 23 October 1976
Further Comments: A reported lioness was spotted roaming the area, though a police search could find nothing.

Woman in Black

Location: Chester - West Cheshire Hospital campus, Liverpool Road
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: 2010s
Further Comments: The ghostly stories concerning the woman in black who is said to haunt this site are said to go back many years. On one occasion, a guard was said to have seen the figure sitting at a desk, but when he looked again, the entity had vanished. Footsteps have also been heard walking down empty corridors.

Fighting Men

Location: Chester - Ye Olde King's Head public house
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: Two men, who managed to kill each other while fighting over the love of a girl, are said to remain in the upper part of this pub.

Bangs

Location: Chester - Barlow's public house, aka Ye Old Vaults, 28 Bridge Street (no longer operational)
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Pre-2002
Further Comments: Blamed on a former landlord, the haunting here consisted mainly of banging sounds and loud groans.

An old photograph of the Bear and Billet Inn.

Maid

Location: Chester - Bear and Billet Inn
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: A phantom maid, who died of starvation after being locked in a room, is reported to haunt the staircase, and appears only to men. Mild poltergeist activity is also reported at the site, and strange screeching noises have been picked up on a telephone answering machine.

Henrietta

Location: Chester - Blue Bell Inn (currently East Glory Restaurant)
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: Henrietta waited for her Royalist lover to return from the Battle of Rowton Moor, but soon discovered he had been killed. She committed suicide in the cellar. Henrietta's phantom is said to emerge from the cellar and walk to an upstairs window to wait for her lover to return.

Face

Location: Chester - Bombay Palace restaurant, Upper Northgate Street
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: December 2013
Further Comments: Co-owner of the restaurant Aaron Ali claimed to have photographed a strange face in the building after hearing banging on a door. However, the face on the photograph does look very similar to one on a ghost creating mobile phone app.

Dry Man

Location: Chester - Chester Road / Butterbache, Huntington
Type: Unknown Ghost Type
Date / Time: 1991, a Sunday with heavy rain
Further Comments: Walking home soaked after a paper round, a teenage boy spotted a blonde haired man wearing a white shirt, grey trousers and black boots standing by a gate leading to a cycle path. The teenager passed the man, and turned to have another look at his boots, only to find the figure had vanished. After the event, the paperboy realised that the man was completely dry, despite the heavy rain.

Silky

Location: Chester - Chirton Hall
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: A former mistress of a Duke of Argyll, this white woman has yet to leave the bedroom of this house.

Sliding Ashtrays

Location: Chester - Coach and Horses Public House, Northgate Street
Type: Poltergeist
Date / Time: Twentieth century
Further Comments: Regular drinkers at the pub have seen ashtrays move themselves across tabletops and strange blue light flash from the walls.

Footsteps

Location: Chester - Daisy and Tom Toy Shop (no longer open), Watergate Street
Type: Poltergeist
Date / Time: 2003-2006
Further Comments: Former staff from this store reported footsteps, the smell of pipe tobacco, something which rattled the heavy fire door, and a stock room which was blocked by a heavy table from the inside.

Roman

Location: Chester - George and Dragon public house, 1 Liverpool Road
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Twentieth century
Further Comments: These phantom footfalls can be heard as they take a path that now leads through several partitioned walls - it is believed to be either a single Roman centurion on guard duty, or several soldiers who march from the front of the cellar to the back.

Romans

Location: Chester - Golden Eagle public house
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: It is reported that the pub was built on a former Roman camp, which is why twenty Roman soldiers and an officer have been seen marching through a wall in the cellar.

Landlord

Location: Chester - Marlbororough Arms
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: 1885
Further Comments: The misspelling of the pub signage is said to be due to a nineteenth century sign writer encountering the ghost of a former landlord who slit his own throat; in the worker's haste to complete the job, the man failed to spot his typographical error. Since this time, the phantom landlord has been heard gurgling in the basement.

Ghost in a brown suit.

Moving Beds

Location: Chester - Old City Hospital (closed 1991)
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Pre-1991 (noises) and man in brown in 1976
Further Comments: A former member of staff at the site and a colleague heard beds being moved in the ward above them, then realised the floor above was closed and empty. Another time the worker and another person heard voices and footsteps emerging from another empty ward. A man dressed in a brown suit was seen visiting his mother in 1976, although this woman later said her son had died years earlier.

Jack

Location: Chester - Old Fire Station Restaurant, Northdate Street
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: 1960s
Further Comments: Sporting a beard, this phantom fireman wearing a brass helmet was known only as Jack. A fireman who watched the figure sitting on a ladder was so shocked he rang the emergency bell to summon help. Even though the phantom had vanished by the time other people arrived on the scene, the witness quit his job soon after.

Man in Blue Overalls

Location: Chester - Old lead steel works (no longer standing)
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: 2002
Further Comments: This ghost, said to be a workman who died after being hit by a train, may never be seen again: the area he haunted was scheduled for demolition and new flats will be built on the former works site.

Meowing

Location: Chester - Overpool Road, near Charter Crescent junction
Type: Unknown Ghost Type
Date / Time: July 2013
Further Comments: Malcolm Pennicard and his car featured in the news in July after reporting a ghostly meowing coming from his car whenever he drove along Overpool Road.

Herbert & Charlie

Location: Chester - Pepper Street garage (no longer operational, was based next to what is now Habitat)
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: 1960s
Further Comments: These two phantom monks were spotted several times by staff working at the garage shortly after it began opening 24 hours a day.

Man in Cellar

Location: Chester - Pied Bull public house
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: The man in the cellar of this pub is said to date from the seventeenth century, while the upper part of the building is haunted by a Victorian-era maid.

Moving Furniture

Location: Chester - Private residence near Northgate
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: 16 November 2024, approximately 00:00h - 03:00h
Further Comments: Two visitors to this property heard unexplained noises, footsteps, and furniture being moved during their stay. A window would also open and close itself.

Plate Thrower

Location: Chester - Private residence, south-west of city centre
Type: Poltergeist
Date / Time: 2017
Further Comments: Occupants of this property reported plates which flew from cupboards, lights turning on and off unaided, and the sound of banging and running across the landing at night. A strange female figure glimpsed at the top of the staircase which they considered 'sad'.

Little Girl

Location: Chester - Queen Hotel, Station Road
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Unknown, possibly 2010s
Further Comments: In an area thought to be a former nursery, people are said to have their hair pulled by a phantom female child.