The Paranormal Database

Lychgate

Location: Rostherne - St Mary's Church
Type: Curse
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: Newly married couples avoided passing through the Lychgate as it was believed the marriage would fail, either by discontent or death.

Howard Pyle, The Mermaid, 1910.

Mermaid

Location: Rostherne Mere - General area
Type: Cryptozoology
Date / Time: Easter Sunday (reoccurring)
Further Comments: Her reasons unknown, this mermaid returns once a year to ring a bell hidden deep underwater and sing.

Musket Fire

Location: Rowton - Rowton Moor
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: Belonging to Civil War soldiers, the exchange of small arms fire still echoes around the area where a battle once raged. The sound of a crying child has also been reported at night.

Big Man

Location: Runcorn - 1 Byron Street
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: 17 August - November 1952
Further Comments: A seven foot tall ghostly figure had been seen at the site. Poltergeist-like effects were also felt here, including many household items being found broken, banging, and tables violently shaking without anyone near. After ten weeks, the entity left the property and never returned.

Former Foreman

Location: Runcorn - Castner Kellner plant
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Circa October 1971
Further Comments: A foreman who died two days after retiring in the 1960s manifested and knocked a pot of tea from the hands of a worker. Both the assaulted man and a witness were treated for shock. However, a spokesman for the plant said there was no evidence that the event had occurred and no record of any visits to the infirmary. Another story claimed that the number 14 boiler was also haunted.

Medieval bestiary dragon.

Cattle Eaters

Location: Runcorn - General area
Type: Dragon
Date / Time: Before the town's construction
Further Comments: Before the town was built here, legend says the area was home to a huge fire breathing dragon that was slain by a local blacksmith annoyed at the large number of cattle he and his friends were losing.

Choir

Location: Runcorn - Norton Priory
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: 1972
Further Comments: A trespasser on the site claimed to hear beautiful singing while on the site, as well as seeing a couple of glowing monks.

Pigs

Location: Runcorn - Pool Farm (demolished, replaced by Spur Road bridge)
Type: Other
Date / Time: August - November 1952
Further Comments: Fifty-three of the Howard Crowther's pigs died over two weeks in August. While swine fever was initially suspected, forensic tests could not detect the disease. Around the same time, a black cloud, around ten-foot (three metres) high began to be seen moving around the farm, on one occasion vanishing through the wall of the pig shed. The cloud was last seen in November, moving away from Howard as he approached it. As a side note, folklore said the farmhouse contained a secret passageway leading to Norton Priory.

Knocking

Location: Runcorn - Private residence, Castlefields
Type: Poltergeist
Date / Time: February - March 1972
Further Comments: After moving away from their home in Liverpool to escape a poltergeist, the Morgan family found themselves once again experiencing strange activity in the form of knocking on their bedhead and a 'presence'. A vicar began to regularly visit the property to help the couple.

Superhero

Location: Runcorn - Town Park area and a location close to the Royal British Legion
Type: Other
Date / Time: September 2012
Further Comments: On two occasions witnesses claimed that a figure dressed all in black with red glowing eyes had prevented crime. The first instance the figure had prevented a motorbike theft, and in the second had taken on a gang of six young people, disarming them before disappearing into the night.

Whispers

Location: Runcorn - Tricorn Hotel
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: 1973
Further Comments: Customers at this site would hear whispering close to their ear and footsteps walking across the ceiling. One story claimed that a farm once stood on the site; a mother locked her daughter in a barn for punishment. The barn burnt down, killing the daughter and driving her father mad with grief - he locked his wife in the farm's attic for a decade.

You

Location: Sandbach - Lower Chequer Inn
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: The only thing known about this spooky entity is that is named only 'You'.

Sir John Radcliffe

Location: Sandbach - Old Hall Hotel
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: 2004
Further Comments: A sixteenth century owner of the building, Sir John is said to be only one of fourteen entities which have been reported on site, including a lady dressed in a beekeeper's outfit.

Monk

Location: Sandbach - Private house along Park Lane
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: 1930s onwards
Further Comments: This phantom monk was said to have manifested to Christmas Carollers during the 1930s, and although not malevolent, continues to wake people who sleep in the house. The figure is said to wear shoes which curl upwards at the toe.

Scots

Location: Sandbach - Scotch Common
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: A battle occurred here between Scots and locals in 1651 - the shades of the defeated Scottish troops are reported to be still at unrest.

Boots

Location: Sandbach - Territorial Army Drill Hall
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: 1965
Further Comments: A large door would be heard closing itself, while others reported the sound of heavy boots coming from the empty hall. It was reported that locals believed the sounds to be created by the ghost of a sergeant who had died some time previous.

Traffic Deadlock

Location: Shocklach - Area around the church
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: Once a year, the Brereton family return from the grave to rendezvous at this church - their phantom coaches are reported to create tailbacks!

Moving Island

Location: Siddington - Redesmere Lake
Type: Legend
Date / Time: Still present
Further Comments: A knight was convinced that his girlfriend was seeing another man and told her he would never see her again until the island in the lake moved - it promptly started drifting and has done so ever since.

Floating Bowl

Location: Smallwood - Private residence
Type: Poltergeist
Date / Time: 1990s
Further Comments: A former occupier of this property reported witnessing mild polt-like effects while here, including a bowl floating in mid-air, the pulling of hair, and sounds of crashing plates in the kitchen.

Headless Kidnapper

Location: Spurstow - Dead Man's Lane
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: A member of the Spurstow family was beheaded as a kidnap attempt that he had masterminded went wrong. His headless shade now walks along the road that the body was taken.

Former Workers

Location: Styal - Quarry Bank Mill
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: The National Trust named the mill in their top ten most haunted locations, claiming a gang of former workers were still residing there.

Old Man Marriott

Location: Sutton Lane End - Rossendale wood (known locally as Marriott`s Wood)
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Unknown, said to occur around midnight
Further Comments: A ghostly figure of Old Man Marriott is said to walk down the road with his sheep dog and his gun.

Elizabeth

Location: Sweattenham - Sweattenham Arms public house
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Summer 2013
Further Comments: A visitor sitting with their back to an alcove spotted something black behind them. Expecting to see someone standing there, the visitor turned around, but there was nothing there. A member of staff told the visitor that the site was once a nunnery and that the pub was haunted by a nun by the name of Elizabeth.

A headless ghost.

Cromwellian Victim

Location: Tarvin - Bridle path near The Headless Woman inn, running from Hockenhull Hall
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: An old servant woman was decapitated by agents of Cromwell, after she refused to hand over the location of her master's fortune. The woman's ghost made so many appearances that they named the nearby public house after the entity.

Aging Woman

Location: Thurstaston - Thurstaston Old Hall
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: The artist Reginald Easton reported waking during the night and seeing an old woman standing by his bed when he spent a night at the hall. He was so impressed he spent a further week at the hall, drawing the ghost when he saw it. She is believed to have murdered a child in the hall.