The Paranormal Database

Man Shaped

Location: Shirland - Mine (closed 1965)
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Late October or Early November, 1867
Further Comments: Two miners fled the pit after one of them claimed to have seen a man-shaped ghost. Word spread through the camp and almost 200 men refused to work that day.

Lady

Location: Smalley - Former Old Nag's Head public house (closed)
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: November 2013
Further Comments: Walking past this derelict site, a witness spotted a female figure standing by the window who vanished soon after.

Man in Black

Location: Smisby - Forties Lane
Type: Unknown Ghost Type
Date / Time: 1967
Further Comments: Walking the area in silence, this phantom is described as dressed in a long open jacket with many small buttons, a waistcoat, tie, short trousers with matching stockings and a top hat.

Blue Lady

Location: Spondon - Church and Vicarage of St Werburgh
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: 1970s?
Further Comments: The blonde lady wearing a blue dress has been seen (and once photographed) within the church and leaving the building via the vestry door. The vicarage is home to an old lady, monk and bishop.

Devil's Headstone

Location: Spondon - St Warburg's Churchyard
Type: Legend - Old Nick
Date / Time: 1960s, 1970s
Further Comments: A local legend speaks of the 'Devils Gravestone'; from the nearby path you could see the image of Old Nick upon a headstone, but when approached, nothing can be seen. A witness who would walk past the illusion on the way to school in the 1960s said that the headstone was moved in the 1980s, destroying the pareidolia.

Monk

Location: Stainsby - Hawking Lane
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: A group of five people spotted a figure in a monk's habit walking towards them. The figure had no legs which could be seen. One of the witnesses later spoke to a person who lived in the village who said that many people had seen the monk.

The Nine Ladies

Location: Stanton - Moor
Type: Legend
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: A small stone circle, it is said that a fiddler and nine women were turned into these stones for dancing on the Sabbath.

Sarah Harrington

Location: Staveley - The Hagge (aka Hagg) (former mansion, now a farmhouse)
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: Harrington was a former Maid of Honor to Queen Henrietta and is thought to be the phantom woman in white who haunts this building. A mighty oak which stood in the garden was thought to scream and bled when cut; unfortunately, the tree blew down during a gale in 1883.

Holes

Location: Stoney Middleton - Isolated house outside of village
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: A story told claimed the ghost of a murdered woman would appear in the house and poke holes in bread. The couple living here stayed up to witness the phantom, and even though they did not see her, large holes appeared in their loaves.

Hooded Figure

Location: Stoney Middleton - Jacob's Ladder (an old, steep bridle road)
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: 1960s?
Further Comments: A young driver was left in a state of shock after he watched a cloaked figure wearing a hood pass through a stone wall and continue heading towards the Riley slate mine.

Old Man

Location: Stoney Middleton - Sallet Hole Mine
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: Wayne Anthony, in Haunted Derbyshire and the Peak District, writes that an elderly gentleman in flat cap and long coat takes his dog for a walk around the mine. The apparitions quickly vanish when seen.

Harp Player

Location: Stubley - Stubley Old Hall
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: 24 December (reoccurring)
Further Comments: Appearing once a year, the shade of Fatima gently pucks her harp strings. A Roundhead has been reported less regularly, while a young girl skips around the fields outside.

Footsteps

Location: Sutton Scarsdale - Scarsdale Hall (ruined)
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Twentieth century
Further Comments: Wayne Anthony, in Haunted Derbyshire and the Peak District, writes that the sounds of echoing footfalls have been reported coming from this shell of a former grand hall. Strange floating lights have also been seen after dark.

Monk with Golden Cross

Location: Sutton Wood - General area
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Early 1970s
Further Comments: On separate occasions, several people in the area had encountered a ghostly monk wearing a large golden cross.

Maid in Fire

Location: Swadlincote - Gresley Hall (aka Gresley Old Hall)
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: The site is supposed to be haunted by a maid who burnt to death after her dress caught fire.

Figures and Footsteps

Location: Swadlincote - Regent Street
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Circa 2000s
Further Comments: The street featured in a local newspaper, which declared a few properties were haunted by various strangeness. These included disembodied footsteps, a washing machine door which slammed itself shut, a woman in white, a strange man, and laughter.

The River Trent is reputedly home to a water elemental.

Water Spirit

Location: Swarkestone - River Trent, near Swarkestone Bridge
Type: Legend
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: The water elemental which frequents these waters is said to require three lives annually to remain pacified. The bridge was built, they say, by two young ladies who saw their lovers taken by the spirit and acted to ensure no one suffered the same loss.

Sisters

Location: Swarkestone - Swarkestone Bridge
Type: Legend
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: The sisters who built this bridge are said to haunt it, while others say phantom horsemen from Bonnie Prince Charlie's army can be heard crossing.

Isaac

Location: Taddington - Taddington Hall
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Isaac 1940s, farmer said to be seen every Monday at dusk
Further Comments: Isaac and his brother ran a Hessian production line in the hall's saddle room, until Isaac's body was found with his throat slit - the sibling was found guilty of the crime. Isaac's phantom voice was heard trying to calm a panicked horse down near the stables, many years after his death. In addition to Isaac's ghost, a phantom farmer rides home every Monday - in the dim and distant past he fell off his horse while drunk and broke his neck.

Maid

Location: Ticknall - Calke Abbey
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Sightings unknown, log in 2018
Further Comments: Several entities are reputed to haunt this site, including a maid in the kitchen and another figure in the entrance hall. Voices are said to emerge from empty rooms. In 2018 a ghost hunter claimed to contact a spirit which had taken up residence in a wooden log; the spirit was named as a former resident of the abbey.

Halifax

Location: Ticknall - Skies over the village
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: 2014
Further Comments: A witness watched a low flying, four engine aircraft from the Second World War fly overhead. The witness later realised it was a Halifax bomber - there are no operational Halifaxs left.

Blonde Woman

Location: Tideswell - Churchyard
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: This phantom fair-haired lass rises from her grave and travels towards Wheston Hall, where she once concealed her husband's body after murdering him.

Sarah

Location: Tideswell - George Hotel
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: 1980s
Further Comments: Sarah was a fifty-five year old Victorian barmaid whose husband went missing. She continues to search for him. One story suggests that her appearance during a party in the 1930s successfully scared all the guests away!

Hymns

Location: Tideswell - Stone Chapel
Type: Crisis Manifestation
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: This old oratory was haunted by the sounds of singing, normally before the death of an important villager. The voices would sound as if they moved down the archway and faded away once reaching the church porch.

Mina FitzHerbert

Location: Tissington - Tissington Hall
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: 1862 onwards
Further Comments: Young Mina set herself alight with a candle and later died from her injuries. Her ghost is said to make itself known to members of the family.