The Paranormal Database

Jimmie Lowther

Location: Haweswater - Hugh's Laithes Pike
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Unknown, but reputedly appears at dusk
Further Comments: Lowther was a steeplechaser and a drunk; unsurprisingly this combination ended abruptly when Jimmie was thrown from his horse and broke his neck. He was buried in the village, but his ghost caused so much upset that the local populous dug up Jimmie and reburied him at the top of Hugh's Laithes Pike, placing a large stone over the grave that is still present today. His ghost is reputed to appear at dusk, walking around the rock.

Knocking

Location: Hawkshead - Farm near Esthwaite Lake
Type: Poltergeist
Date / Time: Circa November 1935
Further Comments: A seven-year-old boy exhibited a strange phenomenon; when someone knocked on a surface close to the child, a similar knock emerged from the child. The sounds would be heard even as the boy slept. One report stated the knocks ceased when the child's head was held. Debate raged over whether a poltergeist could be held accountable.

Screaming

Location: Hayton - Gelt Bridge (unlikely to be site of current bridge?)
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Midnight (reoccurring)
Further Comments: It was said that several troops loyal to Bonnie Prince Charlie were executed and tortured here, their screams still heard for years after their deaths.

Medieval boar.

Boar

Location: Holmrook - Forest
Type: Cryptozoology
Date / Time: Still present
Further Comments: Wild boar have been reported living in this area of woodland.

Jamaican Woman

Location: Ireby - Overwater Hotel
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: 01 January (reoccurring)
Further Comments: Formerly Overwater Hall, the building was purchased in 1814 by Joseph Gillbanks. Legend has it that Gillbanks had an affair with a Jamaican girl who he tried to drown at Overwater Tarn when she told him she was pregnant. As she struggled to pull herself out of the water, he chopped her arms off. Her armless apparition is now said to appear here once a year, although one report suggests that she could have last been seen in August.

Grey Lady

Location: Kendal - A6 on the Levens Bridge
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: The phantom grey lady is said to have been a traveller with whom a former Lord of Levens had a child. When the Lord grew tired with her, she was denied access to the hall; in retaliation, she cursed the family (although the curse has now lifted).

Child Protection

Location: Kendal - Angel Inn
Type: Unknown Ghost Type
Date / Time: 1745
Further Comments: Highlanders raided the town in 1745 and a couple of the soldiers entered this inn. The owner and his family had hidden themselves, but in their haste forgot about their young child who the Highlanders discovered. As one of the raiders reached to grab the child, a ghostly figure appeared and drove the Highlanders from the building.

Funeral Procession

Location: Kendal - Blease Hall
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: This phantom procession is for a woman who died of a broken heart after her lover died fighting in the crusades. A bedroom in the hall is also reported to be haunted, though it is unclear whether this relates to the same woman.

Faceless Woman

Location: Kendal - Brigsteer Road
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Nineteenth century, 1980s
Further Comments: A woman was killed in a coach accident along this road in the nineteenth century. Shortly after the accident, a man entered a horse-drawn carriage and found himself sharing with a woman wearing a hooded cloak. She lifted the hood, revealing an empty space where her head should have been. The man jumped from the moving carriage. During the 1980s, there was a spot along the road where dogs refused to pass, which was believed to relate to the story of the faceless woman.

Smokers

Location: Kendal - Castle Dairy (currently a restaurant)
Type: Poltergeist
Date / Time: 2010s-2020s
Further Comments: This building's poltergeist activity includes footsteps on the staircase, falling picture frames, and heavy doors opening unaided. A butter knife was thrown at one customer, while another witness reported being grabbed around the neck by an unseen entity. The Roman Road Room appears to be a focus of activity, with the ghosts of three men seen smoking within.

Howgill's Revenge

Location: Kendal - Grayrigg Hall (no longer standing, though some of the original buildings used by a local farm)
Type: Curse
Date / Time: Seventeenth century
Further Comments: The hall's owner, Magistrate Duckett, sentenced the Quaker Howgill to spend time in Appleby prison. The Quaker cursed Duckett, saying his name would vanish from history and his house would be home to owls and jackdaws. Sure enough, Duckett's children died without bearing children of their own, and his home was reduced to rubble, used by only birds.

Levens Hall, from Country Seats by Francis Orpen Morris.

Dog and Two Women

Location: Kendal - Levens Hall
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: Never seen together, a ghostly woman in pink clothing and another woman in grey have been reported in the area - the latter figure has been known to play with the traffic along the driveway. A little black dog haunts the main staircase, while a local legend states that no male heir will inherit the hall until a white doe is born in the nearby park.

Frances Grimshaw?

Location: Kendal - Meadowbank House (demolished 2012)
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: January 2012
Further Comments: The supervisor of the demolition team working on the house, Robert Johnson, took a photograph of the property and noticed a strange figure in one of the windows. The son of the former owner, David Grimshaw, believed the figure to be his mother Frances, manifesting to protest at the destruction of her former home.

John Nowell

Location: Kendal - Prince of Wales Feathers public house (no longer open)
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: 2009
Further Comments: Landlady Jen Bowman claimed to have encountered a grey-haired apparition who resembled an old photograph of former John Nowell. The entity passed through locked doors and could be seen near the gambling machine. Mild poltergeist activity was also reported.

Pint Pusher

Location: Kendal - Ring O'Bells public house
Type: Poltergeist
Date / Time: 2020s
Further Comments: One of the only pubs in England constructed on hallowed ground, the poltergeist at home here can be heard walking or banging and occasionally pushes pints off tables. Voices have been heard, a phantom girl spotted, and the cellar home to a teenage boy who drowned.

Agnes

Location: Kendal - Romneys public house
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: This building is reputedly haunted by Agnes Romney, cousin of the portrait artist George Romney and distant relative of US presidential candidate Mitt Romney (according to the local newspaper). Staff have heard footsteps moving around and spotted an old woman's reflection in a window.

Moving Floorboards

Location: Kendal - Sizergh Castle
Type: Poltergeist
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: While not happening in living memory, it is claimed one room here had its floorboards removed and scattered by unseen hands on several consecutive nights. Sobs of a phantom woman have also been heard, and Catherine Parr is said to haunt the Queen's Room.

Sounds of a Coach

Location: Keswick - A6
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Early twentieth century
Further Comments: A cyclist who paused on the road to relight his lamp heard the thump of hooves and the wheels of a coach pass him, even though nothing was visible. A local legend says that the phantom sounds belong to a couple who ran away to wed, but one angry parent followed and shot them both.

All of Horrors of the Lakes

Location: Keswick - Ambroth House (no longer standing?)
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: 31 October (reoccurring)
Further Comments: A local legend says that all the ghosts and spirits that haunt this part of England meet at the house once a year.

Bassie

Location: Keswick - Bassenthwaite Lake
Type: Cryptozoology
Date / Time: 1961
Further Comments: A humped creature between twelve and thirteen feet (3.7 - 4 metres) long, with a head like a python featured in a couple of newspaper reports. This sighting should not be confused with reports of 'Eachy', a known hoax attached to the lake in 2006.

Uncountable Stones

Location: Keswick - Castlerigg Stone Circle
Type: Legend
Date / Time: Still present
Further Comments: These stones refuse to give up their number, always tallying differently if counted (but I make it 33).

Robert Southey

Location: Keswick - Greta Hall
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: First quarter of twentieth century
Further Comments: Poet Laureate, Southey spent a large part of his life at the hall. His ghost was seen reading a book by lamplight, disappearing when dawn arrived. Another time he was seen looking into a bathroom window (much to the distress of the lady now climbing into the bath).

Shadowy Man

Location: Keswick - Moot Hall
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Circa March 2001
Further Comments: A construction worker spotted a dark, shadowy apparition as it disappeared through the tower wall. His colleague, descending the tower stairs, reported a ghostly touch on his back.

Lost church

Location: Kirkby Lonsdale - Area once known as Fisherty Brow, on site of remains of motte and bailey castle
Type: Legend
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: A church full of people was swallowed by the ground on this spot, and sometimes, if you place your ear to a particular concave piece of ground, the churchgoers can still be heard singing.

Apron Leakage

Location: Kirkby Lonsdale - Casterton Stone Circle
Type: Legend - Old Nick
Date / Time: Stones still present
Further Comments: This stone circle was created while the Devil used his apron to carry rocks - the strings snapped, the stones fell, and the devil just let them lie.