The Paranormal Database

Grey Lady

Location: Chesterfield - Pomegranate Theatre
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: The strange movement of objects by no human hand is attributed to a grey lady who is occasionally spotted. Another phantom thought to be George Stevenson has been seen walking across the stage and taking a seat.

Abuser

Location: Chesterfield - Private residence along Goytside Road
Type: Poltergeist
Date / Time: 1990s - 2000s
Further Comments: A woman living here was the target of a prolonged poltergeist attack which lasted over 20 years. The entity would move and throw items around the property, and on occasion threw the woman into a wall. The woman would later discover the house was previously occupied by a man who had murdered his wife in the early twentieth century.

Older Woman

Location: Chesterfield - Private residence along Holme Road
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: 1991-1998
Further Comments: Neighbours would ask the resident of this property whether he had a guest staying, as they would spot an older woman wearing a dark dress and white lace collar standing by a window. The resident had no guest, and even though he would hear footsteps ascending the staircase at night, never felt threatened by the presence.

A phantom grey shape begins to manifest.

Grey Figure

Location: Chesterfield - Private residence, Sheffield Road, Stonegravels (house likely to no longer stand)
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: 1952 or 1953
Further Comments: The ghostly grey figure seen in the upper part of the building may have also been the presence felt by the cellar door.

Mist

Location: Chesterfield - Private residence, St Augustines Avenue
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: 1970s, 2017
Further Comments: The local paper in the 1970s reported that there was a strange grey mist creeping from the corners of bedrooms, along with sudden chills and unusual burning smells. More recently, a paranormal investigator claimed to have recorded a human-like shape in a room.

Daphne

Location: Chesterfield - Private residence, Tennyson Avenue
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Mid-late twentieth century
Further Comments: It was claimed that the phantom known as Daphne was the daughter of the person who built the house.

Clanging

Location: Chesterfield - Rosehill House (since demolished and replaced by the town hall)
Type: Poltergeist
Date / Time: 1830s
Further Comments: This large house was subjected to the continuous ringing of any bell on site. The occupier eventually tired of the strange phenomenon, and no one would take up residence after his departure.

Coachman

Location: Chesterfield - Sun Inn
Type: Poltergeist
Date / Time: November 1957
Further Comments: During one November night, bottles were smashed and barrels moved around the locked cellar. The vandalism was blamed on a ghostly coachman whose murdered body was thrown down a well in the cellar during the eighteenth century. The ghost could also be heard walking around the inn.

George Stephenson

Location: Chesterfield - Tapton House
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: Inventor of 'The Rocket', Stephenson retired in later life to this house. Many years after his death, Stephenson was seen by a caretaker's wife who mistook him for a 'real' person after he demanded a glass of water.

Small Child

Location: Chesterfield - The Old Manor House, New Square (currently a bank?)
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: The building was once haunted by a small phantom child. One visitor mistook the entity as corporeal, reaching down to pick up the infant, only for her arms to pass straight through its body. Clanking chains were also reported to haunt the site.

French Prisoner

Location: Chesterfield - Unidentified residence close to Market Place
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Nineteenth century
Further Comments: A French prisoner took to haunting the home where he once lived.

Marren

Location: Chesterfield - Williamthorpe Colliery
Type: Post-Mortem Manifestation
Date / Time: Early 1960s
Further Comments: A road man spotted a figure walking along a shaft in the dark. Throwing his light up to illuminate the figure, the road man recognised the figure as a person named Marren, who had died a few days previous. The witness ran screaming from the site and terminated his employment. Another story from the mine concerns two senior electrical apprentices working on a pump. The men forced themselves through cobwebs which completely covered the tunnel for hundreds of yards to reach the pump. On completion of the tests, one man asked, 'is the pump running right?'. Before the other man could reply, they both heard a voice say, 'yes it is'. They searched the area to ensure that they were not victims of a joke but were totally alone.

Unidentified Snowy Object

Location: Chinley - Skies over the village
Type: UFO
Date / Time: January 2018
Further Comments: A witness here watched a bright object for around twenty seconds before it disappeared into a dark and heavy snow cloud.

Failed Suicide

Location: Chrome Hill - Devil's Parlour
Type: Legend - Old Nick
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: The Devil is said to have once tried to take his own life on Chrome Hill but failed.

Silent Bomber

Location: Church Broughton - Skies over old air force base
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Late 1970s
Further Comments: A bomber thought to be from the Second World War has been observed moving silently over the skies in this area.

Moved Building

Location: Clowne - Church
Type: Legend
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: The church was said to have once been located on the opposite side of the road, but unseen hands moved a few dozen metres.

Three Women and Their Friends

Location: Coal Ashon - Common
Type: Crisis Manifestation
Date / Time: Nineteenth century
Further Comments: A piece of folklore says that a man once spotted a series of entities on this common land. Three tall, thin women each held an hourglass, a tall man stood carrying an oak tree, and another man stood holding a scythe. The sighting was a potent that someone would die within three hours, with the age of the oak tree denoting the age of the deceased.

Multi-Winged Bird

Location: Coal Ashon - Exact area not known
Type: Cryptozoology
Date / Time: Nineteenth century?
Further Comments: More paranormal than a physical cryptid, a large white bird the size of a goose but with multiple wings appeared before a girl in the village. She circled the creature nine times and it vanished.

Older Woman

Location: Coal Ashon - Unidentified wall
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Nineteenth century?
Further Comments: A small, older woman was seen sitting against a wall. When engaged in conversation, she vanished.

Cromwellian Troop

Location: Codnor - Codnor Castle
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Twentieth century
Further Comments: A stray soldier from Cromwell's army was seen in the ruins of this castle, appearing tired and in need of a shave.

Not a Spider

Location: Codnor - Private residence, Wood Street
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: 1989-2011
Further Comments: Over 22 years residents of this house experienced strong smells, taps which turned themselves on, footsteps, vanishing and reappearing items, and poltergeist activities. Apparitions and strange spider-like creatures were also seen.

Small Black Dog

Location: Combs - Road between Combs and Cockyard
Type: Shuck
Date / Time: Early twentieth century?
Further Comments: Smaller than the average shuck, this phantom dog was reported to silently follow people down a hill before vanishing.

Fred

Location: Cotmanhay - Private residence
Type: Poltergeist
Date / Time: 1986
Further Comments: The Padgett family appeared in the press and spoke about their poltergeist which they had named Fred. The entity would move items, create thuds on the staircase, and ring the doorbell.

The Devil's Shovel Full

Location: Coxbench - Circular earthworks
Type: Legend - Old Nick
Date / Time: Still present
Further Comments: This barrow was created by Old Nick after he lost his shoe and was forced to drop a shovel full of earth with which he intended to dam the Derwent in Derby.

Protection Symbols

Location: Creswell - Creswell Crags
Type: Other
Date / Time: Still present
Further Comments: In 2019, dozens of witches' marks were (re)discovered in the caves. The apotropaic marks are likely to date back hundreds of years and used to trap evil forces and protect people nearby.