The Paranormal Database

A phantom rabbit.

The White Rabbit of Etruria

Location: Stoke on Trent - Etruria suburb
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Circa late eighteenth century
Further Comments: This ghostly white rabbit appeared after the phantom cries and scream of a young boy. It was thought that the rabbit was the ghost of a fourteen year old lad murdered by another teenager while arguing over a wager.

Running on the Stairs

Location: Stoke on Trent - Former Aquatics Shop (no longer open)
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: 2005
Further Comments: People could be heard running on the staircase here, although no one could be seen. While cleaning the glass on a fish tank, one worker in the shop spotted the reflection of someone behind them - the only other person on the site was upstairs.

A medieval cat.

Piano Cat

Location: Stoke on Trent - New Inn, Basford (no longer open)
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Twentieth century
Further Comments: When the piano keys could be heard striking without human intervention, a ghost cat would be blamed. The phantom feline was said to be appeased when a small amount of beer would be left out for him.

Hiding from Vampires

Location: Stoke on Trent - Number 3, The Villas
Type: Vampire
Date / Time: 1973
Further Comments: A body found in the building was surrounded by garlic, salt, crucifixes, and other items reported to scare off vampires - tragically, the dead man was found to have choked to death on a clove of garlic that lodged in his throat as he slept.

Old Man

Location: Stoke on Trent - Potteries Shopping Centre
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Twenty-first century
Further Comments: The ghost of an old man wearing a cloth cap and a walking stick is said to haunt the shopping centre and has reportedly been seen by two members of staff on separate occasions. Staff are also said to have heard disembodied footsteps and someone crying out from empty corridors.

Stoned Man

Location: Stoke on Trent - Shelton Churchyard
Type: Other
Date / Time: 1886
Further Comments: A crowd gathered to what a ghostly figure in white moving amongst the gravestones. A couple of braver members in the crowd lobbed stones at the ghost before grabbing the figure, who turned out to be a corporal in the Hanley Volunteers. The man was handed over to the police and issued a caution.

Saucer Landing

Location: Stoke-on-Trent - Bentilee estate
Type: UFO
Date / Time: September 1967
Further Comments: A saucer that changed colour from red to green to blue landed in an empty field on this estate, glowing brightly and seen by at least six people. The object took off, spinning, and headed off over the horizon.

Vanishing Boy

Location: Stoke-on-Trent - King's Hall
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Music/boy unknown, 'Abigail' 2023
Further Comments: Musical performances from many years ago are occasionally heard in the empty hall, while another story says a young boy approaches witnesses and requests help before vanishing. A ghost hunt was attended by journalist Flora Hyatt, who described an unsettling feeling and, when asking 'Is there anybody here', a spirit box replied 'Abigail'.

Wheezing

Location: Stoke-on-Trent - Private residence, Light Oaks area
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: 1994-2018
Further Comments: Many strange occurrences befell the occupants of this home, including one witness hearing his name called and crying, the sound of wheezing, the feeling of a hand touching another witness's back, and the glimpse of quickly vanishing shadows. Over time, the events became less frequent until they ceased.

Guard Dog

Location: Swinscoe - Leek to Ashbourne road
Type: Shuck
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: The site where three Jacobites are buried is haunted by a large black hound that ensures their graves are not disturbed.

Horse

Location: Talke - Road just outside the village
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Pre 1932
Further Comments: Drivers reported hearing the sound like a hammer striking an anvil before seeing a phantom horse being led across the road, both man and beast cut off at the knees as if walking a much older track since built upon.

Pit Master's Wife

Location: Tamworth - Kettlebrook Linear Park
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: November 1988
Further Comments: Three friends witnessed a short figure in a black cloak with a screwed up old face. As they approached, they could see transparent silhouettes close by which caused the friends to run off. Years later, one of the witnesses spoke to another friend who had also spotted the entity a few years previous. Local folklore says the ghost is a former pit master's wife.

Grey Lady

Location: Tamworth - Middleton Hall
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: 2018
Further Comments: Sightings of this grey lady go back to the 1800s when the phantom was spotted sitting in a chair in the library. More recently she was spotted by a volunteer on the site, although remained unseen by the two other people that the volunteer walked alongside.

Rotting mummy.

Mummy

Location: Tamworth - Palace Cinema, now a McDonald's
Type: Other
Date / Time: 1930s-present
Further Comments: A local yarn says that Reverend William MacGregor brought two Egyptian mummies back to the town. When they started to rot, the Reverend had them entombed in the foundations of the cinema, which was then being reconstructed.

Tamworth Castle (public domain).

Black Lady of Tamworth

Location: Tamworth - Tamworth Castle
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: Said to be the ghost of St Editha, this phantom nun has a room named after her within the building - she once appeared here and bullied a greedy landlord into returning stolen church lands. Another female, a white lady, also haunts the castle grounds.

Fragmented Soldier

Location: Tamworth - Unknown road in Fazeley area
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: March 1972
Further Comments: A witness driving along the road slowed down to offer a lift to a tall man dressed in a soldier's uniform that was walking along the verge. However, the soldier appeared to shimmer and fragment like a broken reflection on water as the witness approached closer.

Blue & White Ladies

Location: Tanworth - Tanworth Castle
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: The blue lady took her own life after watching her lover die during a jousting contest outside the castle - she now patrols the battlements. The white lady is thought to be a nun from a priory which once stood nearby.

Spits out Bones

Location: Tean - Well in the Wall (aka Willy Wall's Well, aka Willy Waugh's Well)
Type: Legend
Date / Time: Well still present
Further Comments: This well was once said to spit out small bones, most likely belonging to birds, most of the year, but never in July and August.

Teenage Boy

Location: Tipton - Noah's Ark Inn
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Late twentieth century
Further Comments: This phantom teenager stood at the foot of the bed of a new landlord. The ghost vanished when the landlord, a former boxer, took a swing at it. Patrons of the pub said the description of the spook matched that of a former landlord's son, who died some years previous.

Lady May

Location: Tipton - The Park public house
Type: Poltergeist
Date / Time: Twentieth century
Further Comments: Lady May was the young daughter of a squire who suffered a major haemorrhage and died in the attic. Since then, the loft has been home to bangs, crashes, and a light switch which insists on turning itself on.

Cowboy

Location: Tunstall - Ancient Briton Public House (no longer operational)
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Circa 2006
Further Comments: A video recorded on a mobile phone was said to contain the image of a ghostly cowboy, though the 'ghost' resembles light flare. A previous landlord claimed his child spoke to the phantom cowboy, who would move the child's socks.

Person in Cloak

Location: Tutbury - Duke Street
Type: Unknown Ghost Type
Date / Time: March 1993
Further Comments: A photograph that was printed in Fortean Times issue 157 appears to show a cloaked figure moving down the street.

Gregorian Chant

Location: Tutbury - Former priory (only the church remains)
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: February 2012, 22:00h (singing), 1970s (monk)
Further Comments: While at this site, two witnesses heard chanting coming from the church. The singing faded after a couple of minutes. A ghostly monk was seen by members of the church choir and bell ringers in the 1970s, standing on the crossing above the main doors.

Ghost Hunt

Location: Tutbury - Tutbury Castle
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: 2003
Further Comments: This building broke the record for having the world's largest ghost hunt, with 700 people looking for the phantom monk, a grey lady, a drummer boy and Mary Queen of Scots, amongst other shades...

Little Boy with Red Piggy Eyes

Location: Upper Mayfield - Lowes Cottage
Type: Other
Date / Time: 1997 / 98
Further Comments: This cottage hit the news when the owners refused to finish paying for the property, due to the ill effects they claimed to have suffered caused by the supernatural entity that took the form of a small boy. They were sued by the former owners over non-payment of the forty-four thousand pounds, and lost the case, with the judge stating, 'this house is not haunted and it never has been haunted'.