The Paranormal Database

Floating Coffin

Location: Acaster Malbis - Hauling Lane?
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Unknown - pre nineteenth century?
Further Comments: Two men driving sheep and returning home to York spotted a coffin floating in the air ahead of them, dipped as if carried on the shoulders of invisible men. A Bishop walked behind the coffin, his mouth moving but with no sound being heard. The apparitions vanished close to a field. Both men were said to have spent several days in bed after their encounter.

Giant's Treasure

Location: Addleborough - Barrow in the area
Type: Legend
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: The giant's treasure slipped from his grasp as he crossed the area, the hoard sinking into the ground and becoming covered in rocks. The giant had to leave the treasure behind, but it was written that a mortal man could recover the wealth if a fairy in the form of a chicken or an ape appeared; the man would have to reach out and grab the treasure without making a sound, and if he failed to do so, the fairy would never appear to him again.

Banished Spirit

Location: Aldwark - Roads close to the stone known as the Conjuring Stone, close to Chapel-garth (currently on grounds of Aldwark Manor)
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: A ghost which haunted the roads around this area would terrify the locals after dark, so a holy man was dispatched to banish the entity. After a time, the ghost was tied to a large rock which was designated the Conjuring Stone.

Mr Rimmington

Location: Almondbury - Woodsome Hall golf course
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: The ghost of Rimmington reportedly takes several forms, including a man on horseback accompanied by two hounds, and the slightly less intimidating form of a robin.

Golden Men

Location: Anlaby - Anlaby school, playing ground
Type: UFO
Date / Time: 18 January 1978
Further Comments: A youngster playing in the grounds of the school watched a round craft land and three figures dressed in golden clothing climb out. The child ran off to find friends to tell, and when he returned with someone the craft was already back in the sky - it quickly flew off.

Earth-shaking Sounds

Location: Appletreewick - Low Hall
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Mid eighteenth century
Further Comments: Coming from deep underground, low unearthly groans would often knock ornaments from their stands. The cause of the disturbance was finally exorcised.

Trolls or just pareidolia?

Trolls

Location: Appletreewick - Trollers Gill (or Ghyll)
Type: Fairy
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: Living beneath the ravine, the trolls are said to emerge at night and track down their prey - humans. At least one farmer was lured to his death by their ability to trick people into straying from the road.

Barguest

Location: Appletreewick - Trollers Gill (or Ghyll)
Type: Shuck
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: Possessing glowing red eyes and a yellow tint to its fur, the dog-like barguest is a harbinger of doom.

William Nevison

Location: Ardwick le Street - Hanging Wood
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: The woods were a popular place for Nevison, a highwayman, to lurk before riding out to commit his crimes. After he was hanged in York, his shade returned to the scene of better times.

The flying nun of Arthington.

Sister Hylda

Location: Arthington - Skies over the community
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Circa 1200
Further Comments: This nun haunted the area for seven years, zooming around at low altitude and accusing a friar of murdering her. It finally grew too much for the Abbess, who summoned all the nuns from the district and, along with an Archbishop, exorcised the spirit.

Monks

Location: Askrigg - Fors Abbey
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Pre-twentieth century
Further Comments: It was once believed that any torch taken into a particular stone passage would be extinguished by the ghosts of the monks. Logic would suggest that the torch would be blown out by the winds.

Mary

Location: Askrigg - Nappa Hall
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: 1878
Further Comments: This location is another haunt of the spiritually busy Mary Queen of Scots, who has been seen here wearing a black velvet dress.

Rector

Location: Aston - High Trees house, former rectory
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: This Rector murdered his wife after he caught her having an affair with a manservant. He is doomed to walk the buildings walls, and the bloodstain that her body created cannot be removed from the bedroom.

Breaker of Everything

Location: Attercliffe - 37 Candow Street (road no longer exists)
Type: Poltergeist
Date / Time: Circa 1910
Further Comments: Every breakable item in the household was reportedly smashed by this poltergeist. Visitors had to dodge a flying basin, and one person fainted after witnessing the activity. The occupants finally moved in with neighbours.

Projectionist?

Location: Attercliffe - Adelphi theatre
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Late twentieth century?
Further Comments: Visited during the day when a nightclub, a member of the Sheffield Paranormal Society and other witnesses reported hearing a series of bangs, experiencing icy cold temperature and a twitching curtain, and feeling compression on her chest whilst in the former cinema projection room. It was said that a former projectionist loved his job and may have never left. The site was also said to have experienced several people dying in a fight in the dim and distant past. The visitors were told that cleaners in the toilets had been hit by unseen hands, while two security guards experienced something which resulted in them never returning.

White Army

Location: Attercliffe - Near the river
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: 1661
Further Comments: A local vicar, while sitting by the river, watched a line of white troops pass accompanied by white horses - he wrote that it took over an hour for the column to pass.

Murdered Man

Location: Attercliffe - Station Hotel
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: This hotel is reputedly haunted by a man knifed to death back in the days when the building was three cottages.

Halliwell Boggle

Location: Atwick - Between village and Bewholme, pool of water at the bottom of the hill where the church stands (pool may no longer be present)
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Story circa nineteenth century
Further Comments: This entity was said to terrorise anyone foolish enough to walk this area.

Headless Highwayman

Location: Atwick - Roads in the area
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: This decapitated spectral bandit remains lurking in the shadows of his old ambush area. One version of the story says he remains on his horse.

Grey Lady

Location: Auckley - Church
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Pre-twentieth century
Further Comments: This restless spirit was said to have made an appearance at many church events over a period of four hundred years, before she finally departed this plane of existence late in the nineteenth century.

Best at the Bottom

Location: Austwick - Unidentified deep pool
Type: Other
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: A man with a group of friends either jumped or fell into a deep pool in the village. The man did not return to the surface, but a series of bubbles emerged from the water, the popping forming the words 'It's best at the bottom'. The man's friends all jumped in to see whether the words spoke the truth. None returned from the pool.

Lady in Black

Location: Aysgarth - Road between Aysgarth & Woodhall
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: March 1934
Further Comments: Dressed in dark Victorian clothing with white gloves and a walking stick, this woman has been mistaken for someone living, though she never interacts with witnesses.

Crimson Lady

Location: Ayton - Crossroads in the area
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: Two phantoms were reputed to haunt this crossroads. A crimson lady (who is now likely redundant) would scare passing horses by leaping out at them. The second ghost, a pale woman on horseback, would scream at witnesses, and was said to chase passing cars.

The Forgotten

Location: Baildon - Holden Lane (was known as Boggart Loin or Lane)
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: A local legend says this lane was haunted, although the details are no longer remembered.

Webbed Footed Hound

Location: Baildon - Slaughter Lane
Type: Shuck
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: A large dog with eyes the size of saucers once haunted this area.