The Paranormal Database

Quaker

Location: Hadfield - Mason's Arms public house
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: 1970-1973
Further Comments: A member of the cleaning staff would bring her young son with her while working in this pub. Several times she would hear him talking to someone, but when she looked, no one would be near the child. At home one morning, the son pointed to a box of Quaker Oats and told his mother that the man he would speak to was on the packaging. It was later discovered that the area was home to Quakers in the seventeenth century.

Navvy

Location: Hadfield - The Lamp public house
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: 1999
Further Comments: The male presence here was attributed to a worker who may have died while engaged in digging a nearby tunnel.

Turn Around

Location: Hallam Moors - Head Stone (also known as Stump John)
Type: Legend
Date / Time: Unknown, but stone still stands
Further Comments: This six metre tall stone is reputed to turn over when it hears the crowing of a cockerel.

White Child

Location: Handley - Road running through village
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: 14 March, 1960s or early 1970s
Further Comments: Four friends driving through the village all saw an off-white, child sized entity with no head. The apparition was waving its arms in such a way that one of the witnesses said it had no joints. Frightened, they drove off but returned thirty minutes later, by which time the phantom had gone.

Dancing the night away.

The Grey Ladies

Location: Harthill Moor - Stone circle
Type: Legend
Date / Time: Still present
Further Comments: It was reported that these boulders transformed into women at night, who danced until the cock crowed.

Horse

Location: Hartington - Hill (exact area not known)
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: 1962
Further Comments: Three members of the Royal Observer Corps reportedly watched a ghostly horse run up a hill.

A ghostly Cavalier at Hassop.

Cavalier

Location: Hassop - Eyre Arms public house, and road passing the pub
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: This phantom Cavalier has been seen both inside and outside the pub. He is said to have been the cause of several near accidents as drivers swerve to avoid him.

Cavalier

Location: Hassop - Road running through the hamlet
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: The road is said to be the location of two hauntings; a phantom Cavalier lurks by the roadside, while a ghostly coach and horses travels at other times.

Little John

Location: Hathersage - Churchyard
Type: Legend
Date / Time: Still present
Further Comments: The grave of one of Robin Hood's merry men, Little John, is said to be in this place of rest - the area where the body lies is three meters long. His longbow was once on display in the church but was removed in 1729.

Gabriel Hounds

Location: Hathersage - Clough Dell
Type: Shuck
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: To hear the howl of this demonic dog indicated the imminent death of a family member, although on one occasion, the howling came from a farmer's son who then eloped with a woman in a Scooby-Doo-que ruse that is too convoluted to summarise here.

Horse and Rider

Location: Hathersage - Fields around Brookfield Manor
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Weather dependent: Misty mornings in autumn (reoccurring)
Further Comments: Nothing more is known about this ghostly horse and rider which enjoy a gallop on atmospheric mornings.

Little John's Femur

Location: Hathersage - Hathersage Hall
Type: Curse
Date / Time: Circa 1784
Further Comments: James Shuttleworth reportedly dug up the nearby grave containing the remains of Little John, removing a femur measuring seventy-two centimetres in length. However, he was struck by misfortune soon after, which vanished after he reburied the bone.

White Woman

Location: Hathersage - Highlow Hall
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Early twentieth century
Further Comments: A farmer reported seeing this pale spectre on several moonlit nights crossing the stable yard - he would always tip his cap to her! The ghost was also observed entering the front door in the hall itself and drifting up the staircase. The rustling of her dress could be heard moving down corridors at night. Another phantom reported her is the ghost of a mason caught playing dice instead of working - he was executed!

Pale Woman

Location: Hathersage - Moorseats Hall
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: 1940s, 1970s
Further Comments: This white spectral woman moves around the orchard and is said to take the form of whoever is currently living in the hall. Another phantom haunts a bedroom and asks guests from the darkness whether everything is okay.

Pale Horse

Location: Hathersage - Sicklehome Hollow, between Hathersage and Bamford
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: A phantom white horse is said to roam the area but only visible to those with second sight.

Portrait of Charlotte Bronte, by George Richmond.

White Lady

Location: Hathersage - Vicarage
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: 28 February (reoccurring)
Further Comments: Even though the phantom white lady has not been observed for around one hundred years, she still opens a single door on one night per annum. A 1927 newspaper report claimed the figure to be Charlotte Bronte and that the appearance upset the family's dog, although the vicar denied the story.

Pedlar in the Well

Location: Hayfield - Highgate Hall
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: A peddler who was murdered and whose body was hidden in a well at the hall was not impressed - his ghost came back and haunted the location to such an extent many refused to go near the hall after dark. The haunting ceased after the well was sealed.

Mermaid

Location: Hayfield - Mermaid's Pool, near Kinder Reservoir
Type: Legend
Date / Time: Easter Sunday Eve at midnight (reoccurring)
Further Comments: Anyone who sees the creature is said to gain immortality. One man who came here once a year lived to be 104 (so the story goes)!

Dragging

Location: Hayfield - South Head Farm, and surrounding area
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: A woman was murdered by her lover; her body was dragged down the stairs before being dumped in a pool at Stoney Ford. Many people have reputedly heard the bumps of her body as it descends the staircase. The area around the farm is said to be haunted by a woman in white, most likely to be the murder victim in a state of unrest.

An animated corpse, from a Scottish chapbook.

Flying Corpses

Location: Hayfield - St Matthew's Church
Type: Other
Date / Time: 31 August 1754
Further Comments: On this fateful day, hundreds of bodies in the churchyard left their graves and flew into the air, singing as they headed toward the clouds (and one assumes heaven).

Strange Noises

Location: Hazelwood - The Knowle
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Pre-1953
Further Comments: After writer Edith Maud Hull's death, her former home became the headquarters to the Anglamol company. The company said in a newspaper article that they occasionally received queries whether the staff heard strange noises at night, caused by the resident ghost (they had not).

George Pole

Location: Heage - Heage House (now converted into cottages?)
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Pole unknown, Mrs Argile early twentieth century
Further Comments: Pole was an evil man who beat his wife until she slowly wasted away (some say she may have committed suicide). Even though he built the local church to atone for his sins, his ghost was seen several times after his death in various forms (including a foal and a large crow) before being laid by a Parson. Many years later, another phantom took up haunting the house - Mrs Argile died in 1927 but was seen a few years later by a serving girl who herself died six weeks later.

Mary Queen of Scots.

Mary Queen of Scots

Location: Heage - Pickard Lane
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: The ghost of Mary Queen of Scots, who visited Heage Hall whilst incarcerated at South Wingfield, manifests as a figure on a brown horse dressed in her Tudor riding clothes, although it is said she is more likely to be heard rather than seen.

Lady in Dress

Location: Heage - The Ridgeway, a private house
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Twentieth century
Further Comments: A young lady wearing a summer dress silently descended the staircase and vanished once reaching the bottom.

Sukey

Location: Heanor - Sukey's Hollow, near White Cottage (no longer standing)
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Unknown - pre 1930s?
Further Comments: Sukey was a servant murdered along this once dark footpath and refused to leave post-mortem. Her presence may have remained at a warning to others, for another woman had previously been killed along the lane.