The Paranormal Database

White Figures

Location: Bainbridge - Semmerdale Hall
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Pre-nineteenth century
Further Comments: It was written that if this building were passed while travelling along an old dirt track from Bainbridge, white ghostly figures could be seen wandering around.

A Man

Location: Barmby Moor - Private garden, was known in nineteenth century as the Quakers' Burial Ground
Type: Manifestation of the Living
Date / Time: 24 April (St Mark's Eve) (reoccurring)
Further Comments: A nineteenth century piece of folklore says that by turning around seven times in this garden on St Mark's Eve would result in a man appearing just behind you...

White Lady

Location: Barnsdale Forest - Robin Hood's Grave
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Late twentieth century
Further Comments: The area around the site thought to be Robin Hood's final resting place (one of them!) is said to be haunted by a white lady who drifts around the area.

Victorian Miners

Location: Barnsley - 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.

Falling Items

Location: Barnsley - Barnsley Antiques Centre
Type: Poltergeist
Date / Time: 2014-2020
Further Comments: Several poltergeist-like events have occurred in this shop, formally a funeral parlour. Items have fallen from shelving without a 'normal' explanation, while the occasional strange mist appears on CCTV.

Sally

Location: Barnsley - Barnsley District Hospital
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: Said to be built on the site of a poorhouse, the sounds of children wailing can be heard on the Infectious Diseases ward. A ghost nicknamed Sally haunts another area of the hospital and reportedly touches the side of anyone who enters the side room in which she died, while an area of offices is home to a friendly phantom old lady who sits in a rocking chair.

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.

Woman and Child

Location: Bawtry - Crown Hotel
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: 2004
Further Comments: A manager at the hotel called in a ghost hunting group after a phantom woman was seen walking along the upper corridor, and a ghostly young child was reported sitting in the corner of the restaurant.

Butter Makers

Location: Baysdale - Unidentified spring or well in the area
Type: Fairy
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: The little folk would use water in this area in the creation of their butter.

A strange figure in woodland.

Misty Figure

Location: Bedale - A684 road, leading to Leyburn
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: The road leading west from Bedale is reputedly home to a grey misty figure. The mist is also said to haunt a nearby wooded area.

Flying Lamp

Location: Beighton - Beighton Station
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: 1960s
Further Comments: Two men were walking along the platform one night. The paraffin lamp one man was carrying was wrenched from his hand and flew several metres in front of him. After picking up the lamp, the event repeated itself again. Both men retreated.

Walking

Location: Beighton - Cumberland Head Hotel
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: The sound of phantom footsteps moving across the bedroom at night was too much for one landlady, and she relocated to another part of the building.

Housekeeper

Location: Beningbrough - River near the village
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: Murdered in a house that no longer stands, this lost shade has migrated to the nearby river where she walks along the bank.

Bogie Goose

Location: Berry Well - General area
Type: Other
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: The village is home to a mischievous spirit that has taken the form of a large white goose.

Simmon Beeather

Location: Beverley - Gaol (no longer operational)
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Pre-1880, before gaol ceased operation
Further Comments: This ghost was said to be a prisoner who committed suicide while incarcerated.

Strange Haired Man

Location: Beverley - Old Friary (currently a private house)
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: The jolly old man haunting this building apparently has an unusual hairstyle and is believed to be several hundred years old.

Jocelyn Percy

Location: Beverley - Roads in the village
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: Sir Jocelyn has been reported driving his coach and four headless horses around the streets of this otherwise quiet neighbourhood. Another version of the legend says he flies above the street, pausing briefly over an unnamed house.

Beer Barrel Mover

Location: Billingham - Black Horse public house
Type: Poltergeist
Date / Time: 1998
Further Comments: This spirit is heard moving things around in the cellar. It is thought to be a murder victim from the early 1990s, who has become lost trying to find 'the other side'.

Hording Lizard

Location: Bilsdale - Exact location not known
Type: Dragon
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: A dragon was said to reside in a tumulus, protecting its hoard.

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.