Washing Powder

Location: Tewkesbury (Gloucestershire) - Tewkesbury Museum, Barton Street
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: July 2007
Further Comments: Staff who claimed to detect the smell of an old fashioned washing powder and felt a presence called in Three Counties Paranormal Organisation to investigate further. It was speculated that the phantom was a woman who looked after evacuees during the World War Two.

Seat of Defeat

Location: Thirsk (Yorkshire) - Thirsk museum
Type: Curse
Date / Time: Still present
Further Comments: The museum houses a cursed wooden chair which brings death to any who sit on it, and is even said to bring misfortune if touched.

Agatha Christie

Location: Torquay (Devon) - Torquay Museum
Type: Poltergeist
Date / Time: 2020
Further Comments: An unseen hand took to throwing Agatha Christie books off the shelves in the museum giftshop, some naming the author as the guilty party (although why she would throw her own work around rather than that of another author isn't clear).

Cromwell

Location: W1 (Greater London) - Apsley House, aka the Wellington museum
Type: Unknown Ghost Type
Date / Time: 1832
Further Comments: Appearing only once, the ghost of Cromwell was seen by Wellington - the spectre warned the Iron Duke to let the 1832 Reform Bill through parliament. Wisely enough, the Iron Duke complied.

Lights Switching

Location: W8 (Greater London) - Natural History Museum
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: 2006
Further Comments: The lights have been known to switch themselves on and off in the Entomology Library, while doors are locked and unlocked by an unseen hand. The Waterhouse building is also said to be haunted, this time by a phantom woman.

Knocking

Location: Waltham Abbey (Essex) - Royal Gunpowder Mills Museum
Type: Unknown Ghost Type
Date / Time: 2010s
Further Comments: Over recent years this museum has become the haunt of ghost hunting groups which claim to have documented knocks and other strange happenings.

Thomas Oken

Location: Warwick (Warwickshire) - Doll Museum, Castle Street
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Twentieth century
Further Comments: Heard climbing the stairs of his former property, Oken's popularity with the townsfolk may have something to do with his staying on.

The Case of Amen-Ra

Location: WC1 (Greater London) - British Museum
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Twentieth century
Further Comments: Two fables can be found here. The first concerns a haunted mummy case - as well as the traditional curse, the casket in question was accompanied by acts of poltergeist like behaviour and the manifestation of a female figure. Thirteen mysterious deaths and suicides have been attributed to the sarcophagus. The second dates back to when the museum was Montague (or Montagu) House. Two brothers fought a duel in the land behind the building (known as both Long Fields and Southampton Fields). So intense was their fight that no grass ever grew again in their footprints. According to T F Thiselton Dyer (Strange Pages from Family Papers), the footprints were located 'about three-quarters of a mile north of Montague House and five hundred yards east of Tottenham Court Road'.

Egyptian Princess

Location: WC1 (Greater London) - British Museum Station (closed 1933)
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Pre 1933
Further Comments: Connected to the 'curse' of the Amen-Ra's tomb, this Egyptian Princess would return from the grave late at night and would wail and scream in the tunnels. A more recent report states that these sounds can now be heard further down the track, in Holborn station.

Dickens

Location: WC1 (Greater London) - Doughty Street, road outside Dickens's museum
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: 1971
Further Comments: Dickens' ghost, dressed in black with a top hat, has been seen pacing along the street where he once lived.

The Man in a Tricorn Hat

Location: WC2 (Greater London) - British Optical Association Museum, Craven Street
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: 13 March 2006
Further Comments: While engaging in redecoration of the building, one of the decorators encountered a crouching figure of an old man. Another ghostly figure was spotted a couple of days later, this time of a middle aged man wearing a dark blue coat with a tricorn hat, who asked the witness ‘Where's Mary? I can't find Mary.'

Screaming

Location: Weardale (Durham) - The North of England Lead Mining Museum - formally the killhope lead mine
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: 2003
Further Comments: Three ghost hunters wanting to raise money for charity tried to spend the night here, only to be scared off by screaming of a ghostly woman from a nearby wood.

Prodding

Location: West Bromwich (West Midlands) - Old Oak House Museum
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: 2012
Further Comments: This location, which doubles as a 'ghost hunting experience' by night, is claimed to feature entities which prod and push witnesses.

Three Nuns

Location: Worcester (Hereford & Worcester) - Tudor House Museum
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: A local story says that this museum is haunted by three nuns.

Sarah

Location: York (Yorkshire) - Micklegate Bar Museum
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: The museum is currently home to the ghostly Sarah, who as a young girl lost her father's keys to the city. She dedicated the rest of her life to finding them, and on completion of the task dropped dead of old age. It is reported that her shade wanders the corridors victoriously rattling the keys.

Odd Spots

Location: York (Yorkshire) - National Railway Museum
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: A sleeping car housed here is said to contain a strange presence, while the darkroom is also reportedly home to a ghostly presence.

The Black Abbot

Location: York (Yorkshire) - St Mary's Abbey, currently in the Museum Garden
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: Condemned to drift around the ruins of the abbey, the Black Abbot is only seen at night. The sounds of coins being counted can also be heard - they jangle as if tipped onto a table, before being dropped one by one into a metal box.

Victorian Man

Location: York (Yorkshire) - Tempest Anderson Hall, found in the Museum Gardens
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Mid 1969
Further Comments: A witness in the hall reported seeing a phantom man dressed in Victorian clothing reaching up to take a book from a shelf located near the stage. The ghostly form turned around and the witness saw that it had no facial features - needless to say, the viewer fled.

Old Searcher

Location: York (Yorkshire) - Yorkshire Museum Library
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: 1954
Further Comments: For several weeks one particular book in the library would be found on the floor on Sunday evening - the mystery was 'solved' when a caretaker reported seeing a ghostly old man looking through the shelves, as if trying to find reading material.