The Paranormal Database

York Ghosts, Folklore and Forteana

Footsteps

Location: York - Windmill Hotel, Blossom Street
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: Footsteps walking across a wooden floor have been heard here, even though the floors were carpeted at the time. A mist has also mysteriously appeared and disappeared at odd times, while bottles have been known to spontaneously shatter.

Grey Lady

Location: York - York Arms public house, High Petergate
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: The phantom nun which haunts this pub was bricked up behind a wall after giving birth. The building in which this occurred no longer stands, but the pub was built on the same spot... This may be the same ghost which haunts the Theatre Royal.

Metamorphic Paper

Location: York - York Castle
Type: Unknown Ghost Type
Date / Time: 1717 (paper), Mary unknown
Further Comments: Sir John Reresby reported watching a piece of paper blowing in the wind change into a monkey before transforming into a bear. A slightly more traditional ghost was said to be Mary Bateman, who would appear during the witching hour.

Dean Gale

Location: York - York Minster
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: 1702 onwards
Further Comments: This gentleman loved the Minster so much that in death he refused to leave and has been seen sitting while listening to sermons. A crisis apparition has also manifested here; the ghost of an officer appeared to his sister as she prayed in the church in the 1820s - at the exact moment he had died on far away shores. Also reputed to haunt the building is the sound of a dog barking.

Old Searcher

Location: York - 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.