The Paranormal Database

Figures in Jumpsuits

Location: Manchester - Banks of the River Mersey, south Manchester
Type: UFO
Date / Time: 19 August 1979, 21:00h
Further Comments: Walking home with her two daughters, Lynda Jones and the children watched a twenty metre long orange/pink oval craft drop into a field. When they approached to take a better look, the ufo had changed to a grey colour and was hovering sixty centimetres above the ground. They all ran away after one daughter started screaming, and in later hypnotherapy Lynda recalled being abducted by almost human figures in jumpsuits.

Saint Ambrose Barlow.

Barlow and Others

Location: Manchester - Barlow Hall, Chorlton-cum-Hardy
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Mostly unknown, but servant on clear moonless nights (reoccurring)
Further Comments: Several ghosts were reputed to haunt the hall. Saint Ambrose Barlow is said to walk the upper part of the hall, as is a (sometimes headless) woman. A servant who drowned in the lake after a poorly executed practical joke went wrong sometimes returns to run towards the Mersey. A poltergeist-like entity carries coal and moves other items between rooms.

Footsteps

Location: Manchester - Bootle Street Police Station
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Twenty-first century
Further Comments: Footsteps have been heard by officers on the nightshift and an old timecard machine occasionally clangs as people walk past. A former female prisoner is said to haunt the corridor outside her cell.

Brannigans nightclub, Manchester.

Pusher

Location: Manchester - Brannigans nightclub, Peter's Street
Type: Poltergeist
Date / Time: 2000s
Further Comments: This invisible phantom causes trouble behind the bar, while other staff say that the force has tried to push them down staircases within the building.

Fanny

Location: Manchester - Cathedral
Type: Crisis Manifestation
Date / Time: Late 1840s?
Further Comments: A man spotted his sister Fanny standing in the nave of the building - he was quite surprised, as he thought his sister to be many miles away. He called out to the woman, who started to walk but vanished suddenly. The following day, the man received word that Fanny had died in an accident, the timing of which matched his sighting of her in the cathedral.

Headless Hound

Location: Manchester - Cathedral area, & bridge over the Irwell towards Salford
Type: Shuck
Date / Time: 1825
Further Comments: A tradesman spotted the spectral dog outside the cathedral and the creature jumped up at him. The phantom creature was finally exorcised under the bridge over the Irwell.

Murdered Baby

Location: Manchester - Cheetham, private house (no longer standing)
Type: Unknown Ghost Type
Date / Time: 1964
Further Comments: The house was briefly home to phantom cries, sounding like those of a child, and the apparitions of an older lady and a more sinister black figure.

John Dee

Location: Manchester - Chetham School, Audit Room
Type: Other
Date / Time: Circa 1595
Further Comments: Doctor Dee worked from this room, and a scorch mark on a piece of wood is reputed to have been left after Dee was visited by the Devil.

Monk

Location: Manchester - Church Inn, Prestwich
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Mid twentieth century
Further Comments: The phantom monk who haunts the cellar under this public house occasionally cries out 'Hello!' to gain attention.

Bill Benny

Location: Manchester - Cloisters Nightclub, Oxford Street
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: 1970s
Further Comments: The former owner of the club, Bill Benny was said to have appeared on CCTV a few years after his death.

Two Children

Location: Manchester - Entrance alleyway to Chorlton Park, Chorlton-Cum-Hardy
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Circa March, 1979
Further Comments: A witness sitting near the entrance to the park with their cousin watched two young twins in old fashioned school uniforms whistling and walking towards them. One of the twins smiled at the witness just prior to both siblings walking through the railings and disappearing. The witness screamed and fled the scene, although the cousin did not see the apparitions.

Green Train

Location: Manchester - Fairfield Railway Station, Audenshaw
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Varies: Autumn and winter (reoccurring)
Further Comments: Said to appear around sunset and visible from Booth Road, an old-looking green train with several carriages vanishes if anyone moves too close. A tunnel that has been filled in is said to be home to a disembodied voice that calls out the name Mary.

Boggart Hole Clough, Manchester.

Hair Puller

Location: Manchester - Farm (no longer standing) located at Boggart Hole Clough (was also known as Blackley Dell)
Type: Poltergeist
Date / Time: Likely pre-twentieth century
Further Comments: This entity possessed a split personality - it would sometimes help with the washing and cleaning, while other times throw items around, pull bedcovers from people's beds as they slept, and laugh loudly while banging around at night. When the family threatened to move out, the spirit told them it would go with them, so they stayed.

Bells

Location: Manchester - Feathers Hotel (no longer standing, was near the station)
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Circa June 1869
Further Comments: Over a five week period, the internal bell system would be triggered by an unseen hand, the ringing of fourteen bells waking staff. Replacing the wiring failed to stop the noise. A black figure also manifested on the staircase, unnerving a policeman and two boys.

Manchester's General Hospital.

Shadowy Figure

Location: Manchester - General Hospital
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Late twentieth century
Further Comments: Once seen standing by a television set, this shade is more likely to be blamed for flushing toilets in empty cubicles and throwing bed pans around.

Yellow Dog

Location: Manchester - Godley Green
Type: Shuck
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: This large hound of ill fortune is yellow in colour - one story states it was once mistaken for a lion.

White Lady

Location: Manchester - Golborne, Castle Hill
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: August 1960
Further Comments: This female form causes trouble on the roads as she drifts out in front of oncoming traffic. Some witnesses say the entity is more like a monk than a woman and a cyclist who spotted the figure in the road in 1960 said the phantom figure was twice the height of a normal person.

Young Employee

Location: Manchester - Great Western Hotel, Moss Side
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: This figure dressed in grey is often reported in the basement.

Woman

Location: Manchester - Harpurhey Cemetery
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Late 1920s
Further Comments: Hundreds of people apparently came to the site to see the phantom woman who appeared here, said to have been a murder or suicide victim. One person who visited the cemetery (but did not see the ghost) speculated the ghost was really a statue and a passing cloud, combined with moonlight, created a spooky illusion.

Heaton Hall, from Country Seats by Francis Orpen Morris.

Lady Alice

Location: Manchester - Heaton Hall
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: A former resident of the hall, Alice still clings on to the last reminisce of her former life.

Peter Street, Manchester.

Pipe Music

Location: Manchester - Peter Street
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: 1960s
Further Comments: The sound of loud yet gentle pipe music was reported several times coming from an empty office along this street.

White Lady

Location: Manchester - Picnic Corner, Broadoak Road
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: The white (or grey) lady is the ghost of a woman who escaped from a nearby castle but drowned in the pond which once stood here. Another story identifies the woman as a Victorian girl. Either way, her ghost could be heard after the sun went down. At the time of writing (August 2019), there is a planning application to build housing on the site.

Footsteps

Location: Manchester - Private house along Atherley Grove
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: 2001-2008
Further Comments: Manifestations during this haunting included disembodied footsteps, and a toy and coins thrown by unseen hands.

Headless Cat

Location: Manchester - Private house along Lower Seedley Road, Seedley
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Circa late nineteenth century
Further Comments: For a two month period, until they finally moved out, a family endured the sounds of a cat in terrible pain. During the haunting, the lady of the house was found unconscious - she said she had encountered a headless cat which pawed at her legs.

Man at the Window

Location: Manchester - Private house, Abergele Road, Fallowfield
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: 1970s
Further Comments: A grandson to the woman who once lived here recalled that when he stayed over, he would often see a ghostly man standing at the foot of the bed. The apparition would do nothing but stare out of the window.