The Paranormal Database

Giggly Meg

Location: South Shields - Alum Ale House
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: Several spooky entities have been reported as haunting this site, including Giggly Meg, a Grey Lady, a Victorian gentleman, and a former barman.

Knocking

Location: South Shields - Barr Porter / Thai Udon Kitchen (restaurant), Dean Road
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: 2020s
Further Comments: Warned by a former owner that the place was haunted, Alex Barr and Lee Porter opened their new restaurant and soon heard strange knocking coming from the upper part of the building. A visiting psychic claimed the site was home to three entities - Margaret, a young boy named James, and a monk. A photograph taken in a venue room purports to show a ghostly figure.

Barmaid

Location: South Shields - Beacon public house (no longer operating)
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Pre 2016
Further Comments: A local newspaper claimed the Beacon was haunted by a barmaid who fell into the cellar.

Old Lady with Gold

Location: South Shields - House along Thrift Street (no longer standing)
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Unknown - likely to be pre twentieth century
Further Comments: A maid venturing into the basement at night encountered a phantom elderly lady who instructed her to reach into an opening in the cellar wall. The maid did as instructed and pulled out a bag of gold and the deeds to the house. The maid, unsurprising, retired.

Cloud

Location: South Shields - Jazz hairdressers, Frederick Street
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: December 2008
Further Comments: Footsteps, whistling, knocking, and a solid, hovering cloud have all been reported by staff at the salon. Customers have reported seeing people dressed in old fashioned clothing in the upper part of the building. A barman is said to have died falling down the basement stairs when the building was a club during the 1950s.

Roman

Location: South Shields - Look Out public house
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: A ghostly Roman soldier who reputedly appears in the basement is said to be connected to the nearby Roman Fort.

Jack the Hammer

Location: South Shields - Riverside, and general area
Type: Crisis Manifestation
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: This figure is said to appear by the river when someone is lost at sea, and sometimes knocks on the door of a family that is due a tragedy.

Tommy

Location: South Shields - Scotia public house
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: A local story says the cellar is home to a phantom named Tommy who can be heard moving around using his walking stick.

A ghostly lighthouse keeper.

Woman

Location: South Shields - Souter Lighthouse
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: Three phantoms are thought to haunt this locale - an unknown woman, a miner from a nearby pit, and an old lighthouse keeper. One or all of them could be responsible for the bangs and the ghostly footsteps heard around the site.

Sailor

Location: South Shields - Steamboat public house
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: The resident spook in this pub was identified as a sailor who lost his footing and fell into the cellar.

Tomb Violator

Location: South Shields - Westoe Cemetery
Type: Other
Date / Time: Early March 1965
Further Comments: After several tombs were violated at the cemetery, a local councillor suggested a black magic group or a poltergeist could have been responsible. A police investigation failed to find those responsible.

Boiler Suited Man

Location: Springwell - Bowes Railway Museum
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: Thought to have been killed in an accident, a phantom man wearing a boiler suit and flat cap is said to lurk in the area. Stones are occasionally thrown by unseen hands.

Ghoul

Location: Sunderland - Area known as The Swallow, was at the end of Westheath Avenue
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Pre-1945
Further Comments: Local children avoided this old open area of land in fear of encountering the ghoul-like phantom man who haunted the area.

Meeting Place

Location: Sunderland - Building Hill, Mowbray Park
Type: Unknown Ghost Type
Date / Time: Circa 1767
Further Comments: The hill once had an evil reputation, with a belief that evil spirits would gather there after the sun went down.

Ada Holmes

Location: Sunderland - Crowtree public house, Crowtree Street
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: 1960s onwards
Further Comments: A very popular landlady, Ada died in 1965, though her ghost wearing a colourful dress has been seen since.

General Beckwith

Location: Sunderland - Doxford House
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: 2013
Further Comments: The Ghost Hauntings Overnight Surveillance Team claimed to have encountered a couple of phantoms on this site - General Beckwith, a former owner, and a girl named Emily who died in a fire.

Mrs Johnstone

Location: Sunderland - Empire Theatre
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: 1970s
Further Comments: A violinist who died on the site, Johnstone has been seen by the manager, drifting along the dress circle before vanishing. There are also rumours that Sid James haunts the Empire, and that Barbara Windsor (and several others) refused to work there.

Older Woman

Location: Sunderland - Greggs, Sea Road
Type: Poltergeist
Date / Time: 2000s
Further Comments: Staff would hear banging coming from empty parts of the shop, detect the whiff of lavender, and would find electrical items which were switched off turned back on. The activity was blamed on the spirit of a woman who once lived above the shop.

Cauld Lad

Location: Sunderland - Hylton (or Hilton) Castle
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: 1400s, 1969
Further Comments: This little brownie caused havoc in the kitchen after hours - the staff disposed of it by creating a distraction until the sun came up, the light of dawn dismissing the creature. Another story blames the kitchen disturbances on the ghost of a groom murdered by his master. More recently, one witness who lived nearby reported seeing the cauld lad in 1969, when he was a child.

Green Lady

Location: Sunderland - Jolly Sailor Inn, Whitburn
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: 2000s
Further Comments: The ghostly green lady that walks the hallways is said to have pined away after failing to impress her suitor. There may also be a smoke-like grey lady on the site, and a pink lady. A piece of folklore says there is a secret passage from this inn leading to the Marsden Grotto, a little over two miles to the north.

Pilot

Location: Sunderland - Manufacturing Plant (name withheld)
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: 1990s
Further Comments: Underground tunnels at this plant are said to be haunted by a Second World War pilot, while a pale man wearing a British Coal Board jacket has been seen by a crane driver.

George & Co

Location: Sunderland - North East Aircraft Museum
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: Several entities are reputed to haunt this museum. The bottom half of a man has been seen walking around the hangars, wearing black trousers but no shoes. A phantom hound reputedly remains here, and poltergeist activity has also been reported - one witness watched an old fashioned gramophone, part of a static display, start to play unaided.

Cold Water

Location: Sunderland - Private residence, General Havelock Road
Type: Poltergeist
Date / Time: February - April 1957
Further Comments: Adults living at this property were subjected to prodding and the sensation of icy water being poured over them. Doors would also open and close unaided, footsteps heard on the staircase, and a strange zig-zag line would appear on the living room wall. The Bishop of Jarrow was summoned to bless the house and for a while the haunting ceased before restarting. The family eventually moved away.

A smoky, ghostly warning.

Pungent Cigars

Location: Sunderland - Royal Infirmary Hospital (Ward F62, no longer standing)
Type: Crisis Manifestation
Date / Time: 1980s
Further Comments: This was a palliative care ward. A doctor who worked there would smoke very pungent cigars. After he died the smell of cigars would fill the air a few minutes before a serious medical event occurred. So many staff experienced the smoke that it became unofficial procedure to check every patient and call in resuscitation staff if anyone detected the smell.

Groaning

Location: Sunderland - Royalty Theatre
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: 2020s?
Further Comments: Used as a hospital during the Second World War, this theatre is home to disembodied footsteps, groaning, vanishing personal belongings, slamming doors, and shadowy figures.