The Paranormal Database

A manifesting water spirit.

Water Spirit

Location: Buxton - Moorland near the Roaches
Type: Fairy
Date / Time: Twentieth century
Further Comments: Appearing just before the witness went skinny-dipping, this thirty foot tall water elemental scared the potential swimmer away.

Headless Shadow

Location: Buxton - Newhaven Inn, between Buxton and Ashbourne
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: One witness described this entity as a black and grey shadow without a head. Thankfully, the ghost is more likely to manifest phantom footsteps along the corridors.

Mary

Location: Buxton - Old Hall Hotel
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: Mary Queen of Scots stayed in room 26 prior to her execution. Some believe her presence is still felt.

Sounds

Location: Buxton - Opera House
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: 2020s
Further Comments: The theatre is supposed to be haunted, with strange sounds unnerving staff after the building has closed for the evening.

Helicopter

Location: Buxton - Skies above Harpur Hill area
Type: UFO
Date / Time: 1973-1974
Further Comments: A phantom helicopter was reported flying around the area at night several times over a two year period. Press and police were unable to discover who or what was behind the mysterious craft.

Jenny Greenteeth

Location: Buxton - Unidentified pits, Fairfield
Type: Fairy
Date / Time: Early twentieth century
Further Comments: Parents warned their children to stay away from pits in the area, as Jenny Greenteeth would ensure the child would never return home.

Pretty Nun

Location: Buxton - Yhelt Cottage
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: 1951-1953
Further Comments: A pretty nun in her late twenties surrounded by light haunted this cottage for a couple of years, subjecting the occupants to poltergeist activities and infrequent visitations until exorcised.

Presence

Location: Calver - Derwentwater Arms
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: Three women intrigued to discover why guests were walking out after spending a night in a certain bedroom tried sleeping there. During the night they heard something open the door, and the room filled with an evil presence which stayed for several minutes before leaving, closing the door.

Dancing

Location: Calver - Stocking Field
Type: Fairy
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: People once believed the fairies came out at dusk and celebrated by dancing around a blindfolded midwife (also a fairy) in this field.

White Woman

Location: Castle Gresley - White Lady Springs, wooded area just outside the village
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: This small pool of water is haunted by the pale ghost of a woman who is said to have drowned in it many years ago.

No Skull

Location: Castleston - Dunscar Farm
Type: Legend
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: Writing in Memorials of old Derbyshire (1907), John Charles Cox says that he was told that a human skull was placed on a windowsill here, and that if removed crops would fail. However, when he visited the site there was no skull, and the tenant had never heard the story.

Victorian Children

Location: Castleton - Activity centre in the area
Type: Other
Date / Time: July 2002
Further Comments: A visitor staying at this centre awoke to find two Victorian children, one male and one female, standing over the bed. Both apparitions stared at the visitor while pointing to a wall on the other side of the room. When the visitor looked, upon the wall was a large, bluish wavy mass. In a trance like state, the visitor moved across the room and placed their hand on the mass, which was just above where a friend was sleeping. The friend awoke, their voice snapping the visitor out of the trance.

The Castleton Triangle

Location: Castleton - Area around the post office, Co-op and NatWest bank
Type: Other
Date / Time: 2006
Further Comments: People parking in this area experienced electrical problems with their cars - alarms would go off, engines would not turn over, and doors failed to lock or unlock. Many residents blamed the radar at nearby RAF Fylingdales, though the base Commander dismissed these claims as unlikely.

Bride in White

Location: Castleton - Castle Hotel
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: Left standing at the altar, this bride who never was now haunts the place where her reception should have been. A maid who saw her ran screaming from the building, while another witness said the ghost was cut off at the knee. A more recent ghost is that of a man in a blue pinstripe suit, seen by two different proprietors.

Petite Grey Lady

Location: Castleton - Goosehill Hall
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: 1930s
Further Comments: The little old lady in grey was frequently seen in a bedroom.

An old postcard of Peveril Castle in Derbyshire.

Black Dog

Location: Castleton - Peveril Castle
Type: Shuck
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: A shuck is said to walk the area near the castle, while a phantasmic knight stands motionless on the ramparts. Author Wayne Anthony reports that an old lady and a phantom horse have also been reported in the area.

Knight in White

Location: Castleton - Peveril Castle
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: The knight has been observed standing by the keep, while his riderless horse trots around nearby. Banging and clanking has been reported in the castle after dark, with searches revealing no apparent source.

Sitting Hound

Location: Chapel-en-le-Frith - Horderns Road area
Type: Shuck
Date / Time: Nineteenth century?
Further Comments: A phantom dog was once a common sight here, as it sat on the corner of the road near a railway bridge waiting for an owner which never came.

Aurora Borealis is rare, but not unknown, over England.

Streaming Light

Location: Chapel-en-le-Frith - Skies over village
Type: UFO
Date / Time: 30 March 1716, 21:00h - 00:00h
Further Comments: Now thought likely to be Aurora Borealis, parish records mention a bright light over the skies of the village, changing from white to the colours of the rainbow. Occasionally flashes of light and smoke could be seen.

Victorian Lady

Location: Charlesworth - Main road running out of moors
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Late twentieth century, estimated 22:00h - 00:00h
Further Comments: Four people driving into Charlesworth watched a semi-transparent lady in Victorian dress complete with ruff walk across the road and through a gate.

Bess of Hardwick

Location: Chatsworth - Chatsworth House
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Late twentieth century?
Further Comments: Wayne Anthony, in Haunted Derbyshire and the Peak District, writes that Bess, who finished constructing her home around 1560, is one of several shades to haunt this house. Mary Queen of Scots is rumoured to walk where she was once held captive, while a grey lady and a white woman haunt other parts of the building. The library is haunted by a transparent figure which drifts from shelf to shelf. The bridge on the grounds is haunted by a screaming woman who was forced to watch her baby drowned after it was thrown into the river by her partner.

Falling

Location: Chatsworth - Former Methodist Chapel, Holywell Street
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Twenty-first century
Further Comments: After the council granted planning permission for the church to be converted into residential use, Chesterfield Ghosthunters featured in the local press. The group claimed the site to be home to the sounds of someone falling down the staircase and sightings of a shadowy figure.

Bend by the Devil

Location: Chesterfield - Church - Crooked Spire
Type: Legend - Old Nick
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: The Devil, resting against the church, was so taken by the beauty of a bride that he spun around to have a better view, warping the spire in the process. Another story says the first couple to be married in the church were so innocent that they caused the spire to warp. The damage will not be undone until another innocent couple are wed on the site. More recently, people have reported the sensation of being followed as they walk around the church.

Man in Purple

Location: Chesterfield - M1, close to Junction 29
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: 10 December 2011, 22:15h
Further Comments: Travelling south along the M1, the passenger of a car spotted a tall man dressed in a purple hooded coat standing in the road ahead. Before the witness could warn the driver, the figure vanished.

The Young

Location: Chesterfield - North Wingfield Church
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Winter (reoccurring)
Further Comments: It said that apparitions are occasionally seen carrying young children in their arms.