Yorkshire Ghosts, Folklore and Forteana
Tall Figure
Location: Leeds - Unknown property, Fieldhead Terrace
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Circa 1932
Further Comments: The knocking sounds from the attic occurred for several nights before a phantom six foot tall man in a long coat started to appear. The owner and all her tenants moved out in November 1932.
Armoured Man
Location: Leeds - York Road close to Killingbeck
Type: Other
Date / Time: Summer, mid 1990s, around 04:30h
Further Comments: Two occupants of a car spotted an armoured figure riding a horse towards Killingbeck. The witnesses were unclear whether it was a 'real' person heading towards the Royal Armouries Museum.
Crew
Location: Leeming - Former Airfield
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: 1950s onwards
Further Comments: The crew from a bomber have been seen walking together here, and when not seen they have been heard laughing and joking.
Lelley Boggle
Location: Lelley - Crossroads in the area
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: 1930s, 1980s
Further Comments: This entity may take the form of a phantom carriage - to gaze into the headlights will bring certain doom. The entity was blamed for setting fire to two cars in a carpark in the 1930s, while in the 1980s it was said the entity caused a driver to become temporarily paralysed.
Slapper
Location: Leven - Road near White Cross
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: It is said the area was once haunted by a headless white woman who would hunt down highwaymen and give them a slap. What became of the entity is not known.
Figure in Black
Location: Leven - Unnamed brook in the area
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: Like other ghosts in this area, the ghostly figure in black is headless. The entity was seen squatting by the brook before reaching out and chasing the witness away.
Bridget
Location: Levisham - Bridestones (standing stones)
Type: Legend
Date / Time: Stones still present
Further Comments: The stones scattered across the moors are named Bridestones, not because of marriage, but after a pagan deity known as Bridget.
Auld 'Opper
Location: Leyburn - Raydale House
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Pre-nineteenth century
Further Comments: This male entity was said to normally knock on the furnishings within the property, upsetting at least one of the residents.
Pete the Pole
Location: Lindholme - Former Second World War Air Force Base
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Reputed mid-to-late-twentieth century, sightings in November 1957 and 1977
Further Comments: A Polish airman who died when he crash-landed, 'Pete the Pole', aka 'Lindholme Willie', turned up at the airbase several times in the years following his death. Even when the former airbase was replaced by a prison in later years, the pilot reportedly turned up in prisoner's cells. In 1957 a misty shape was seen walking along the runway before vanishing, while in 1977 a shuffling figure crossing the parade square was spotted by an Air Traffic Assistant. The figure disappeared into the shadows by a sealed door.
Sounds of Action
Location: Lindholme - Former Second World War Air Force Base
Type: Environmental Manifestation
Date / Time: 1962
Further Comments: A witness recalled how he and a friend were walking across the deserted airfield at night and seeing a strange light in the control tower. Both knowing that the building should have been empty, the illumination unnerved them slightly. As they passed by a hangar, they were suddenly surrounded by the sounds of activity - they could hear the hangar doors screeching open, the engines of aircraft starting up, and the patter of many pairs of feet running by them, though nothing could be seen.
Monk
Location: Linton - St Michael's Church
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: This solitary figure is occasionally seen drifting around the church.
WO Hodgson
Location: Linton on Ouse - RAF Linton
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: 1980s onwards
Further Comments: A former pilot at the base, Hodgson's ashes were scattered across the runway and a small plaque erected in the 1950s. When the memorial was moved thirty years later, a spectral pilot was seen several times around the control tower. The officer's mess is also thought to be haunted, this time by a pilot who died in 1978 when his Provost crashed.
Halifax
Location: Lissett - Former Second World War airfield
Type: Crisis Manifestation
Date / Time: 1940s
Further Comments: This phantom bomber only made itself visible to a crew once inside their aircraft, if they were all going to die together.
Madame Turner
Location: Little Busby - Busby Hall
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Nineteenth century
Further Comments: Once seen in the kitchen drinking tea, the phantom Madame Turner was also said to haunt the corridors of her former home and the road leading to the hall.
Headless Officer
Location: Long Marston - Lanes in the area
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Unknown, likely pre nineteenth century
Further Comments: As the clock struck midnight, a headless officer upon his horse emerged from the ground and rode around the village lanes looking for the battle which once took place here. After two hours of searching, the ghost would give up and ride back to the area from which he came, vanishing into the ground. It was said that once the local population were taught such an entity could not exist, the phantom never appeared again.
Victorian
Location: Longcroft - Brewery Arms public house, formerly the Masons Arms
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: 1990s
Further Comments: Former landlord of this pub, John Mitchell, reported seeing a phantom woman in Victorian clothing. She would often appear at midnight, so to avoid the ghost, he would lock up at quarter past twelve.
Young Boy
Location: Longley - Longley Old Hall
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: This building is reportedly home to two entities - the first a young boy dressed in breeches, the other an older woman wearing a black gown with a flower pattern.
Mary Revill
Location: Loxley - Loxley common
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: Murdered on New Year's Eve 1812 by persons unknown, Mary's wraith has appeared several times since. The creaking chains of a gibbet have also been reported, even though it was removed in the early nineteenth century. The gibbet contained the body of Frank Fern, executed after being found guilty of the robbery and murder of a jeweller crossing the common.
Alien Chase
Location: Loxley - Myers Lane
Type: UFO
Date / Time: 1977
Further Comments: A couple in a car were reportedly pursued by a UFO. Both people claimed to have seen the occupant of the craft and described the figure as large with frizzy hair.
Birthplace
Location: Loxley - No exact area
Type: Legend
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: Loxley has been named as the most likely birthplace of Robin Hood.
Walled Up Skull
Location: Lund - Manor house
Type: Other
Date / Time: Unknown if still present
Further Comments: Not much is known about the skull and its surrounding legend, other than to prevent the removal of the object, it was bricked up in the attic.
Knelling Woman
Location: Lydgate - St Ann's Church
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: November 2009
Further Comments: A freelance photographer caught an image of a misty woman knelling by a gravestone at this churchyard. He later returned to the location and found that the grave at which the woman was photographed belonged to a child who died in the 1800s.
Giant's Home
Location: Lythe - Mulgrave Castle
Type: Legend
Date / Time: Castle still stands
Further Comments: This castle was said to be the home of Wade, the giant. He is also held accountable for a road and two large 'graves', marked by standing stones.
Janet
Location: Malham - Janet's Foss, Gordale Beck (aka Gordale Scar)
Type: Fairy
Date / Time: Cave still present
Further Comments: Janet, or sometimes Jennet, was a fairy queen who inhabited a cave next to the waterfall found here.
Drunken Miner
Location: Maltby - Quarry near local mine
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: September 2005
Further Comments: Two lads walking by here came across a semi-naked man drinking from a cider bottle who warned the pair to be careful. The figure entered a nearby shaft and vanished. One of the witnesses later found out that a former miner with a drinking problem was found dead in the area, his body discovered in the slurry pit.
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