The Paranormal Database

Home Wrecker

Location: Manchester - House in Levenshulme district
Type: Poltergeist
Date / Time: 1933
Further Comments: A poltergeist outbreak caused hundreds of pounds of damage in this house, pulling taps from the wall and flooding the site, and throwing household items out of the windows. A team of people were said to have laid the entity, although their methodology is not clear.

Old Bare Footed Man

Location: Manchester - Manchester Airport
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: 1970s
Further Comments: Observed in what was once the barracks of the 613 RAF Squadron, this phantom old man has been reported by cleaners and late working staff. The occasional scream has also been heard coming from the building.

Footsteps

Location: Manchester - Mayfield Station (as of January 2013, empty)
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: 1980s onwards
Further Comments: The footsteps have been heard echoing in the building late at night - they are believed to be those of a suicide (one of several which occurred here over the years) that occurred in the mid-twentieth century.

Office Sharing

Location: Manchester - Mecca Bingo, Derby Street (no longer operating)
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Circa 1969
Further Comments: It was claimed that the team renovating the site prior to opening would stay the night. The first night the men all slept in separate rooms, but on the subsequent night, they shared, such was their fear of the resident ghost.

Headless Monk

Location: Manchester - New White Lion public house, Middleton Old Road (no longer operational)
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: It was believed that the headless monk which haunted this pub was connected to Blackley Hall, a short distance away.

Telephone

Location: Manchester - Old bank in Wythenshawe area
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: 2006
Further Comments: The Wythenshawe public library was temporarily moved into an old bankers' building while the original was being rebuilt. During the night shift with only two guards around, one of the internal downstairs phones rang, and breathing and whimpering could be heard when it was answered. When the night guards investigated, they found a handset off the hook upstairs but no one else on site.

Annabella

Location: Manchester - Old Mill, Milesplatting (now converted)
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Unknown, story around during the 1970s
Further Comments: One person recalled that they were told that this abandoned site was haunted by Annabella, although there is a possibility the story was started to keep children away from the site.

Jenny Greenteeth

Location: Manchester - Open drain at Shooters Brook (no longer present), Store Street
Type: Fairy
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: Parents would warn their children to stay away from the drain, otherwise Jenny Greenteeth would emerge and drown them.

Grabber

Location: Manchester - Outside Cross Street Chapel
Type: Unknown Ghost Type
Date / Time: 26 July 2024, 23:40h
Further Comments: A couple were passing this building while returning to their hotel from a Peter Kay show. One of the pair felt a hand grab her arm and, looking across to their partner who held a coffee with both hands, realised it was not him and no one else was around. The witness described the event as 'bizarre' and said that her partner had felt 'something strange' between the couple at the time of the phantom grab.

Girl in White

Location: Manchester - Park Road, Worsley
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: September 2010
Further Comments: A parent spotted what he assumed was his daughter dressed in white coming down the staircase, although a few minutes later he found her still in bed. Other people in the household had seen the entity, and it was described as not being threatening or frightening.

Large Black Figure

Location: Manchester - Parsonage Road, Withington
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: This entity is said to have emerged from an old disused house on the corner of Parsonage Road and Swinbourne Grove and gave chase to a couple of passers-by.

Line of Children

Location: Manchester - Pauper's Graveyard, junction of Nell Lane and Princess Parkway, Withington
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Foggy night, late twentieth century?
Further Comments: Stories of the ghostly youngsters in this area are common, and one witness saw a line of small children crossing Nell Lane and heading towards a field where it is said a workhouse once stood.

The ghostly shadow of a resurrection man.

Old Canky

Location: Middleton - Canky's Ginnel - passageway between Church Brow and Lodge Street
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: Canky was a resurrection man who, with his motley crew, stole fresh bodies from the churchyard and sold them in Manchester to doctors and medical students. His shade still lurks in the shadows of the long dark passageway.

Floating Orbs

Location: Middleton - Charmed Nightclub
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Early 2004
Further Comments: Several strange events resulted in the owner of this nightclub calling in a psychic, including a phantom scream, glowing balls of light which floated around, and reports of a ghostly human form seen in both the basement and in the upper part of the building.

Old Man

Location: Middleton - Council house in Alkrington area
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: 2000s
Further Comments: This entity is thought to belong to an old man who died in the house; his body remained undiscovered for several days after he passed away. While the child who lived in the house appeared to like the spirit, the boy's mother was not so keen.

The poet Samuel Bamford.

Burnt Flag

Location: Middleton - Old Grammar School
Type: Legend - Old Nick
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: Samuel Bamford wrote that the school flag had a hole in the shape of a burnt hoofprint. Students had summoned the Devil and had to be saved by the school's headmaster who managed to exorcise the fallen angel, although the ritual damaged some of the building.

The Thing

Location: Middleton - Private residence, Lorton Close, Langley (since redeveloped)
Type: Poltergeist
Date / Time: November - December 1968
Further Comments: Dorothy Moulton fled her home in November after a poltergeist, referred to as The Thing, ransacked a bedroom. The entity had previously been heard walking around and was blamed for moving cushions. Moulton later returned, but she, her husband, and a lodger claimed that by December the entity had started to manifest, both as a black shadow and a misty white shape. After a blessing, the activity ceased.

Cavalier

Location: Middleton - Ring O'Bells public house
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Twentieth century
Further Comments: The remains of several bodies were found under the floor of the basement, dating back to the civil war. The forlorn ghost seen lurking about the site is believed to be the spiritual echo of one of the corpses. A more contemporary shade is one of a man in a grey suit, of whom little is known.

Ghosts of the Future

Location: Middleton - St Leonard's Church
Type: Legend
Date / Time: 01 November (All Souls' Day) (Reoccurring)
Further Comments: The souls of all those who will die by the following All Souls' Day walk through the church at midnight. A former member of the clergy is also reported to haunt the church, though his appearance is not date related.

Large Dog

Location: Middleton - Stanicliffe Hall
Type: Shuck
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: This dog was thought to contain the soul of a man named Blomeley, who shot several people on the site. Accompanying poltergeist-like activities made it difficult for anyone to live in the house.

Noisy People

Location: Middleton - Tonge Hall
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: 2003?
Further Comments: Not much is known about these ghosts, other than the current owner claims that they can be a little on the loud side.

Mother

Location: Oldham - Adjoining private residences, Kingsbridge Road
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: 1996
Further Comments: One of these properties was said to be haunted by a mother upset with her children, while the next door site was home to a poltergeist who would turn electrical goods off and throw small items around.

The ghost of Birchen Bower.

Madame Hannah Beswick

Location: Oldham - Birchen Bower (building no longer stands, but replaced by Ferranti Works), Bower Lane, Hollinwood
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Weather Dependent: clear nights. Last seen 1950s
Further Comments: Though the building no longer stands, the ghost of Beswick was also said to haunt her former lands, watching over the gold that she had buried to protect it from thieves and soldiers. The shade reportedly stands tall, wearing a black silk dress and frilly cap, although sometimes she was headless. According to legend, her presence grows stronger every seventh anniversary of her death (in 1758), and she was also seen on clear nights. During the 1950s it was claimed that 35 Ferranti workers had seen her on different occasions.

Harold Norman

Location: Oldham - Colosseum Theatre
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Thursdays (reoccurring)
Further Comments: Accidentally killed in a mock sword fight while acting as Macbeth, Norham sometimes returns on a Thursday (the day he died) to try to figure out what happened.

Eliza Jane

Location: Oldham - Old Original Inn
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: Eliza was found drowned in a nearby well - no one knew for sure whether she jumped or was pushed. Either way, her ghost is now seen in and around the area of her favourite public house.