Location: Aberaman (Mid Glamorgan) - Colliery (Dabbinett's district)
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: 18 (?) February 1910
Further Comments: On a Friday afternoon, five men fled from their work area after spotting an entity which had a 'human form'. They refused to return to the area until Tuesday.
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.
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.
Location: Barnsley (South 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.
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.
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.
Location: Bilsthorpe (Nottinghamshire) - Bilsthorpe Colliery
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: 1980s
Further Comments: After the steam driven No1 winder was replaced in 1979, with an electric one, several staff felt a presence in the basement at night which would follow or watch those present.
Location: Blaenavon (Gwent) - Colliery
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: 1904
Further Comments: One newspaper reported that 'uncanny' sounds were unnerving the locals. Smashed and removed windows were also attributed to the ghostly entity.
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.
Location: Bristol (Somerset) - Deep Pit (colliery), Kingswood
Type: Post-Mortem Manifestation
Date / Time: 1880
Further Comments: At an inquest held after a miner named Hudd died in the pit, one witness stated that he had seen Hudd's ghost moments after his death, as it headed up an incline towards the bottom of the shaft.
A ghostly miner within a cavern.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Location: Forest of Dean (Gloucestershire) - Poolway Colliery (no longer operational)
Type: Cryptozoology
Date / Time: April 1926
Further Comments: 'A little, brown, man-like creature' was found at this mine - witnesses used sticks to move it, but it was 'lost' a short time later.
Location: Gateshead (Tyne and Wear) - Site of old Heworth Colliery, Leam Lane Estate
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: 1990s onwards
Further Comments: While little of the colliery remains, dog walkers and children have heard machinery and the shunt of old train wagons. Ghostly figures have also been reported.
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.
Location: Glyncorrwg (West Glamorgan) - Colliery south of village
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Circa 1850s
Further Comments: This mine was thought to be home to an ysbryd (Welsh: ghost), which some miners claimed to have seen, and others heard. A couple of jokers later placed a donkey in one tunnel, the creature's braying mistaken by other workers for the cries of the ysbryd.
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.
Location: Goldthorpe (South 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.
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.