The Paranormal Database

Knocker

Location: Sauchie (Ayrshire) - Unknown private house, and school
Type: Poltergeist
Date / Time: Early 1960s
Further Comments: An eleven year old girl became to focus of this poltergeist, who accompanied her everywhere. Knocks and taps were heard both at home and at school, while furnishings would move untouched by human hands around her.

Slamming Doors

Location: SE1 (Greater London) - Site of Waterloo Necropolis Railway, now a training school
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: 1990 onwards
Further Comments: Some staff at this railway training school allegedly now refuse to work at night in 'A' block, due to classroom and other doors slamming shut by themselves.

Nun

Location: SE26 (Greater London) - Sydenham High School for Girls
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: Once the site of a convent, this phantom nun is the only thing that remains. She is blamed for the mild poltergeist activity which occurs here.

Norah the Maid

Location: Sheffield (South Yorkshire) - Firth Park Brushes (former school), Barnsley Road
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Twentieth century
Further Comments: The maid, who committed suicide on the site two hundred years ago, is still said to wander the area. When the high school stood on the area, cleaning staff reported lights that would turn themselves on, amongst other strange phenomena. A priest was called to exorcise the land in 2003; there have been no reported incidents since.

Life Saver

Location: Sheffield (South Yorkshire) - Flat, School Street
Type: Poltergeist
Date / Time: 1981/82
Further Comments: The family that tolerated a poltergeist in their home for almost a year were eventually thankful for the entity - one night it banged so loudly the whole family awoke only to find their rooms full of smoke. They managed to escape as the fire engulfed their building.

Old School Boy

Location: Sheffield (South Yorkshire) - Rowlinson Comprehensive School
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: It is claimed that a boy dressed in old fashioned clothing has been observed by students and teachers, standing on the playing fields.

Child's Footsteps

Location: Shepton Mallet (Somerset) - Former grammar school, Peter Street
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: 1960s
Further Comments: Heard in various parts of the building, the sounds of footfalls crossing empty areas were reported many times.

Gartham's Revenge

Location: Skipton (North Yorkshire) - Grammar school
Type: Post-Mortem Manifestation
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: The school's master, Reverend Robert Thomlinson, was found dead at the school - a rumour quickly sprung up that he had been scared to death by the ghost of his predecessor, whom Thomlinson had tried to remove from office by using a dirty tricks campaign.

Person Holding Lantern

Location: Southend-on-Sea (Essex) - Southchurch Lawn (was also Eton House School before closing in 1993)
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: Possibly the ghost of a smuggler, this spirit takes credit in saving the life of Princess Charlotte in 1801.

Rain of Stones

Location: St Helens (Merseyside) - Beecham's Pill Manufactory (now part of St Helens College)
Type: Poltergeist
Date / Time: Circa 1880s
Further Comments: A poltergeist-like outbreak of stones that would rain down on floor workers resulted in police being deployed to find the source. A newspaper later reported that one officer spotted a man acting suspiciously, and when challenged, showed the policeman a mechanism that would catapult stones into the air. However, Mr Beecham disagreed with report and said the mystery had never really been solved.

Soldier

Location: St Peter Port (Guernsey) - Elizabeth College
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: Local legend says this college is home to a phantom Nazi soldier and, perhaps more tongue in cheek, to a student accidently locked in the library over the summer holidays who starved to death.

Schoolmaster John Cook

Location: Steeple Bumpstead (Essex) - Steeple Bumpstead school
Type: Post-Mortem Manifestation
Date / Time: 1832
Further Comments: A pupil watched his recently deceased schoolmaster pass through the closed school gates.

Figure in Hat

Location: Stockport (Greater Manchester) - Stockport Grammar School, Victorian convent house
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: 1964 and onwards
Further Comments: A group photograph taken at the school in 1964 shows a figure in a hat standing at the rear of the group, at an angle otherwise impossible to be caught on film. Witnesses say that the convent house is haunted by footsteps coming from empty parts of the building.

Jack?

Location: Stoneleigh (Surrey) - Road by Nescot College on the Ewell bypass
Type: Other
Date / Time: 14 February 2012
Further Comments: A taxi driver and his three passengers watched a dark figure with no features dart across the road in front of them before leaping four and a half metres into the air to clear an embankment. The passengers compared the entity to Spring Heeled Jack.

Young Girl

Location: Sutton in Ashfield (Nottinghamshire) - Forest Glade (former school, now industrial units)
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: 1985
Further Comments: Owners of a textile unit reported encountering a young girl wearing Wellington boots. One member of staff who spotted the ghost reported that the entity said, 'I do not want to go', before vanishing.

Drummer

Location: Sutton Valence (Kent) - Sutton Valence Boarding School
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: The local press reported a phantom drummer boy would stand on the lawn, having been seen several times over a three hundred year period. A lady in white also haunted the site, as did a former master and his dog.

Matron

Location: SW1 (Greater London) - Grey Coat School (Hospital)
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: Stories are still told today about the murdered nurse, and how her ghost walks various parts of the building, scaring the young students.

Keighley Mill Girl

Location: SW7 (Greater London) - British College of Psychic Science (closed 1947), 15 Queen's Gate
Type: Poltergeist
Date / Time: Mid 1925
Further Comments: The so-called 'Keighley Mill Girl' (see Keighley, Yorkshire) stayed here as part of her poltergeist removal treatment. Initially the poltergeist stayed active, moving tables and chairs and breaking dishes in the presence of the woman, but over several weeks the activity slowed and eventually ceased.

Harry Price, from a contemporary newspaper.

Douglas Drew

Location: SW7 (Greater London) - National Laboratory of Psychical Research, 16 Queensberry Place (now College of Psychic Studies)
Type: Poltergeist
Date / Time: February 1928 (Drew), 1926 (Zugun)
Further Comments: Harry Price brought Drew, an eight year old child who apparently had an attached poltergeist which would move chairs, to the centre in an attempt to use the power to induct an electrical current that would shatter glass jars. The test failed. Eleonore Zugun was also tested on the site a year prior; she created apports and demonstrated stigmata-like injuries.

Henry Newman

Location: Torquay (Devon) - Montpellier House (former school)
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: 1885 onwards
Further Comments: At the funeral of Newman, the church organ played itself; since then, his shade has been reported in the vicarage.

Lady Barrington

Location: W1G (Greater London) - Royal College of Nursing, 20 Cavendish Square
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: Manifesting as a grey lady, the college's ghost is named as Lady Barrington who fell on the main staircase and died of her injuries.

Sarah

Location: W2 (Greater London) - Sarah Siddons School, North Wharf Road
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: The namesake of the building is still around after her death in the 1830s - Sarah has been seen wearing a blue dress and a small hat.

Working Children

Location: W7 (Greater London) - Hanwell Community Centre (previously the Old London Work House School), Hanwell
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: The phantom sounds of youngsters laughing and crying can be heard from time to time, but only by other children.

Mr McGraw

Location: Wallasey (Cheshire) - Oldershaw Grammar School
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Mid twentieth century
Further Comments: Dressed in his headmaster's gown, this figure has been both seen and heard on different occasions - when seen by a cleaner, she convinced the caretaker to arm himself with a pistol and search the area!

Scarred Figure

Location: Ware (Hertfordshire) - Presdlaes School woods
Type: Other
Date / Time: Seen 2003?
Further Comments: A locally told story is that of a hooded character wearing a black cape that runs around this wooded area. The ghost's skin is covered with scar marks, and its bright yellow-green eyes have black slit pupils. The entity chases after anyone it meets.