The Paranormal Database

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.

Headless Rider

Location: Tunstead - Manifold Valley
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Nights of the full moon (reoccurring)
Further Comments: A beautiful white horse carrying a headless rider gallops across the valley when the night sky is right. The phantom is either a peddler or a soldier, depending on the legend.

Way In

Location: Tunstead - Thor's Cave, Manifold Valley
Type: Fairy
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: Wayne Anthony, in Haunted Derbyshire and the Peak District, writes that hidden within the cave is an entrance to the fairy kingdom, though one needs to possess second sight to find it. A ghostly Roman centurion is said to stand guard at the mouth of the cave.

Homely Skull

Location: Tunstead Milton - Flagg Hall
Type: Curse
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: The home of another screaming skull, the building would echo with the sounds of cries and moans if the morbid item were removed.

Large Dog

Location: Turnditch - Unnamed lane, and Carsington Water
Type: Shuck
Date / Time: 02 September 2008
Further Comments: During a thunderstorm, a driver spotted a large black dog cross the road ahead and move down a residential lane. The driver stopped to look for the hound, but it had vanished. A phantom black dog is said to haunt the nearby Carsington Water.

Oppressive Mist

Location: Unstone - A61 Unstone/Dronfield Bypass, and Monk Wood
Type: Other
Date / Time: 2000s, 2010s
Further Comments: It was said that there is an oppressive misty atmosphere which affects people driving by the wood, creating the sensation of being dragged towards a steep embankment where several accidents have occurred.

Intangible Hound

Location: Upper Booth - Exact area not known
Type: Shuck
Date / Time: 1930
Further Comments: Out walking during the evening, a girl watched a phantom black dog pass through a wire fence.

Brighter than Daylight

Location: Uppertown - Cullumbell Lane
Type: UFO
Date / Time: 07 May 1978, approximately 02:00h
Further Comments: Driving through the area, two people suddenly became aware of an unusual light coming from within a nearby barn. The people initially thought the light belonged to a man who would collect milk from farms in the area. As the people drove closer, three beams of brilliant light shone down from a disc shaped craft hovering above the field to the right of the car. As they passed the lane, the lights shut off and the craft flew northwest, leaving the area in complete darkness. The following day, the people returned to Uppertown and visited a farm. They noticed that all the produce had been dumped in the yard, as though the milk collector had quickly fled from something.

Strangulation

Location: Wardlow - Road near the Three Stags Head
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Mid twentieth century?
Further Comments: A cyclist who paused for breath just down the road from the pub felt himself being strangled by a pair of unseen hands. After the sensation had left, he hurried to the Three Stags Head where he was told the story of how a toll keeper had been murdered near the spot.

Watcher

Location: Whaley Bridge - Co-op Store, Buxton Road
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: 2015
Further Comments: A story in the national press claimed that CCTV footage showed shadowy shapes moving around the store, a door violently shaking, and objects being moved around when the store was closed. Store manager Leanne Williamson reported that staff members would often report an eerie atmosphere and the sensation of being watched or followed. The shop closed early on Halloween 2015 to avoid distressing staff members.