The Paranormal Database

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.

Floating Head

Location: Creswell - Creswell Crags, lake and general area
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Head unknown, hooded figure seen in 1821
Further Comments: The floating head is thought to belong to a witch and is seen among the thickets on the water's edge. The hooded figure was watched as it emerged from a cave armed with a sword - the witness ran. Returning to the site later, the witness was not able to find the cave.

An evil tree in Derbyshire.

Crooker

Location: Cromford - Bridge over River Derwent
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: Crooker was an evil spirit which took the form of an Ash tree by the Derwent. It would attack travellers as they crossed the nearby bridge, until one man managed to thrust a stick of St John's Wort into the spirit as it tried to kill him. Crooker was never heard of again.

Turning Stone

Location: Curbar - Eagle Stone
Type: Legend
Date / Time: Still present
Further Comments: When the cockerel crows, this stone was said to rotate. A local custom says that men must climb to the top of the rock before being married.

Prior Henry

Location: Dale Abbey - Area around the ruined abbey
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: Wayne Anthony, in Haunted Derbyshire and the Peak District, writes that after it was discovered Prior Henry was involved in counterfeiting money, he committed suicide and was doomed to haunt the former abbey grounds. Plainchant has also been reported from the area.

Peddler

Location: Darley Dale - Ghost Lane, runs past the churchyard
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: A phantom peddler who haunts this lane is said to have been murdered on the spot during the Seventeenth Century.

Some people just want to see the pub burn.

Pyromaniac

Location: Darley Dale - Quiet Woman Inn (no longer standing)
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Pre-1966
Further Comments: An aging legend says that the inn was haunted by a woman with a taste for fire - the inn burnt down several times over the years, and after the final blaze in 1966, no one rebuilt the structure.

Fireman

Location: Darley Dale - Rail station - area around the sheds
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: The ghost of a fireman reportedly haunts the sheds at this aging station.

Hob Hurst

Location: Deepdale - Thirst House - cave below Topley Pike
Type: Legend
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: Hob Hurst, the generic name for a helpful yet sometimes mischievous entity in this region, is said to have watched over a healing spring here.

Sad Man

Location: Derby - 2 Brick Street (original building no longer standing)
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: October 1936?
Further Comments: Reportedly as only appearing during the day, this phantom was described as a sad-looking man wearing a black cape and wide-brimmed hat. Just before the demolition of the building, locals descended on the site, throwing stones and fireworks through the windows, perhaps trying to motivate the ghost to manifest (it did not work).

Chained Man

Location: Derby - Agard Street (Court Four?)
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: Thought to be the shade of Richard Thorley who murdered a woman here, his victim's ghost is also seen around the area, dressed in blue.

Sounds of a Running Battle

Location: Derby - Alvaston area, near the castle
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Twentieth century and 2009
Further Comments: Three girls reported listening to the sounds of a small battle here in the early twentieth century - gunfire, galloping horses, and men shouting. Four people also heard the sounds while out late at night during the 1980s, and two brothers passing through the area in 2009.

Decapitated Man

Location: Derby - Ascot Drive
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: A headless gentleman walks around this road.

Children Playing

Location: Derby - Assembly Rooms, the Darwin Suite
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Twentieth century
Further Comments: This suite is reportedly haunted by a group of spectral children, singing and dancing. Elsewhere in the same building, a Victorian woman has been seen walking.

Maid in Derby

Location: Derby - Bell Hotel, Sadler Gate
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: A former employee at the hotel, the maid dressed in eighteenth century clothing continues to work post-mortem. A Victorian woman has also been reported as she slowly fades away before witnesses.

Lady in Blue

Location: Derby - Bell Inn
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Late twentieth century
Further Comments: One of three entities purported to lurk within these walls, the lady in blue is dressed in Victorian clothing, while a phantom maid wears a uniform which dates her back to the eighteenth century. The third presence takes the form of a poltergeist that throws small items around when distressed.

A legion of Romans.

Roman Centurion

Location: Derby - Chester Green
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: Though only one has been seen, many believe this area to be haunted by a division of Roman troops who can be heard matching late at night.

Unknown

Location: Derby - Dagenham's department store
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Twentieth century
Further Comments: A brief article from the Ghosts_UK Newsgroup only mentioned this shop was allegedly haunted.

Vanishing Items

Location: Derby - Dental laboratory, Reginald Street
Type: Poltergeist
Date / Time: November 1975
Further Comments: Items would teleport around the site, with a denture vanishing and reappearing on one man's shoulder, a teapot moving itself to a different room, and the cat's collar found wrapped around a Bunsen burner. On one occasion, two dental casts vanished from a work bench only to be delivered, carefully wrapped, by the postman a brief time later.

Classic illustration of a woman in white (public domain).

White Lady

Location: Derby - Derby Cathedral
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: Seen on the steps behind the structure, this white lady is known to make brief appearances. A woman in tears has also been seen near the cathedral, carrying a young child. The same location is home to a man wearing old fashioned clothing, not forgetting the former executioner who killed his father and brother who jointly haunts the area.

Joseph Moss

Location: Derby - Derby Fish Market
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: In 1859 PC Moss became the first police officer to be shot and murdered in Derby. His ghost haunted the police station, and when it was demolished and replaced by the fish market, Moss remained in the area.

The Condemned

Location: Derby - Derby Gaol (former prison), Friargate
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: 2002
Further Comments: An Australian tourist who decided to spend the night in this haunted building, a former jail, reported hearing strange sounds during the night. She also reported that her pillow moved by itself.

Ghostly Presences

Location: Derby - Eagle Centre (no longer operating under that name)
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: 1970s onwards (peaked late 1970s)
Further Comments: Members of the council and local clergy were called in the help after a few paranormal occurrences occurred in the centre. It was said that three exorcisms or blessings were carried out in various shops - one in December 1983, another during the Summer of 1984 and finally during August 1992. Other people who did not experience any paranormal phenomena directly reported the site, prior to renovation, had a strange and uncomfortable atmosphere.

Figure

Location: Derby - Etches Park Rail Depot
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Circa 2014
Further Comments: A certain Class 222 train was reputed by workers to be haunted by a shadowy figure which would move around on board, though the engine was known to be empty. The 222 was said to have been involved in several incidents that had resulted in deaths.