The Paranormal Database

Girl in Blue

Location: Malton - Shop along Castlegate
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Winter 1999
Further Comments: Just before locking up, an employee of this shop spotted a little girl with blonde, pigtailed hair, wearing an old fashioned blue dress, standing by the pick and mix. As the employee called out to her, she moved towards the stockroom where she vanished. The employee later started to tell the story to another shop worker who immediately asked if the girl had a blue dress.

Fighting Armies

Location: Malton - Skies over the area, covering around twelve miles
Type: Environmental Manifestation
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: During a great storm, two armies marched through the sky and fought with firearms. The army which came in from the north was first to vanish, but only after the accompanying storm caused much damage on the ground, scattering and killing livestock.

Footfalls

Location: Malton - Spotted Cow, The Shambles
Type: Poltergeist
Date / Time: Circa late 1970s
Further Comments: Phantom footsteps have been heard echoing in the building and poltergeist like behaviour has also been reported.

Small Pipes

Location: Mam Tor - General area of the barrows
Type: Fairy
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: Two small clay pipes are reported to have been discovered here, thought to have been used by fairies and the local pixie folk.

Moved Materials

Location: Marrick - Church
Type: Legend
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: The church was due to be constructed upon the hill by the village, but each time construction was to begin, stones and mortar were moved a half mile out of the village. After the third time, the architect gave up and built it where the materials were left.

An old photograph showing the doorway of Marske by the Sea Church.

Reconstructing Building

Location: Marske by the Sea - Church
Type: Fairy
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: It is said that the church here was once pulled down to make way for a new building - after the last brick was removed and night fell, the church rebuilt itself; the builders took the hint, and the church has remained standing ever since. It was said that the hobman, a type of fairy, was responsible.

Troops

Location: Marston Moor - General area
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Weather dependent: Foggy nights. Last seen November 1932
Further Comments: Seen crossing the road in front of a car, these figures looked ragged and battle weary, dressed in clothing that matched that of the 1644 Battle of Marston Moor. Local reports say the battle is sometimes replayed in full, normally on foggy nights. On one occasion prior to the twentieth century, two fiery pillars were seen in the sky at midday, accompanied by the fighting armies. After some time, the northern army defeated the southern forces, after which troops and pillars vanished.

Catherine Parr

Location: Masham - Snape Castle
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Twentieth century
Further Comments: This ghost dressed in blue is believed to be a wife of Henry VIII. The former queen is said to radiate a sense of calm and peace.

White Lady

Location: Meaux - Meaux Abbey (no longer standing)
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: A woman died of exhaustion while trying to smuggle food into the abbey via an underground passage. Her white form was said to haunt the area.

Goose

Location: Melsonby - Berry Well (may no longer exist)
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: This well was haunted by a ghostly entity which had taken the form of a white goose.

Fairies

Location: Melsonby - Diddersley Hill
Type: Fairy
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: It is believed that the hill is frequented by fairies, which probably live beneath it.

Female Form

Location: Melsonby - Ladywell (aka Lady Well)
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: The area around here is haunted by a headless woman, whose history is unknown.

Headless Woman

Location: Melsonby - Lanes and church close to Lady Well (likely no longer present)
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Circa nineteenth century?
Further Comments: A local myth said the well close to the churchyard was haunted by a headless white lady.

Wave

Location: Menston - Staff canteen at High Royds Hospital
Type: Post-Mortem Manifestation
Date / Time: Early evening, early 1990s
Further Comments: A witness said hello to a long-term patient who, known for hardly ever speaking, waved back. The witness later found out the patient had died a week prior to the encounter. The patient had looked completely 'normal'.

Gentle Music

Location: Middleham - Middleham Castle
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Late twentieth century
Further Comments: Three children reported hearing a battle coming from outside the castle and seeing a knight on horseback who charged at them. Inside the castle, muffled sixteenth century music has been heard, while there are persistent rumours of buried treasure somewhere in the grounds (which can only be found after running nonstop around the fort nine time and quickly entering the mysterious door which magically opens!).

Murdered by Love

Location: Middleham - Middleham Moor
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: This woman had two lovers, and when she decided to run away with the first, the second one found out and killed her in a jealous rage. She now drifts forlornly about the site.

Kelpie

Location: Middleham - River Ure
Type: Cryptozoology
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: After the sun goes down, a water beast was said to emerge from the river and start hunting. It was said to take at least one human life per year.

Figure in Pink Nightie

Location: Middlesbrough - Former Social Services home, Thorntree (now demolished)
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: 1980s
Further Comments: Staff reportedly spotted a figure in a pink nightie with long hair and no features. Three people who spotted her took time off work to recover, while another time the entity was spotted passing through a wall. A phantom man in a green suit was also reported, while doors wedged open would close and furniture in a locked room could be heard moving around.

Bruising

Location: Middlesbrough - Private residence, Trimdon Avenue, Acklam
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: November 2021- June 2022
Further Comments: A family fled their home after enduring several months of strange events which included lights being switched on and off by an unknown agency, and spontaneous bruises appearing on one family member. Items would also move around the house and be thrown down the staircase.

Fred Nicholson

Location: Middlesbrough - Railway Station
Type: Post-Mortem Manifestation
Date / Time: Late nineteenth century
Further Comments: A young station boy reported seeing Fred, a signalman whom he knew, vanish in front of his eyes. He was told that Fred had fallen in front of a train a few hours earlier, dying instantly.

Grey Lady

Location: Middlesbrough - The Tree Bridge Hotel
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: There are reports of a grey lady who wanders through the halls.

Woman in Black

Location: Middleton - Moor
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: Buried by a former lover on the moor, it was many years before her body was accidentally discovered by peat cutters. She has appeared ever since.

Force

Location: Midgley - Two adjoining cottages, Town Gate
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: February 1955
Further Comments: Mr Quain, a water diviner, claimed to have been pushed against a wall and his rods broken by a powerful force while investigating this haunting. Quain returned with a doctor and another man a week later but could not detect anything untoward. The doctor blamed the haunting on loose floorboards.

Servant?

Location: Mirfield - Hollybank (was Roe Head School)
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: This phantom is said to be at home behind an attic door, close to the spot where a servant may have fallen to their death.

Prioress of Kirklees

Location: Mirfield - Three Nuns public house
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: 1985 onwards, investigated by GCUK in 2013
Further Comments: Doors have opened unaided and shadowy figures spotted in this building. Ghost Chasers UK reported that the building was haunted by two spirits; a nun named Katherine Grice who killed herself on site, and the Prioress of Kirklees, who bled Robin Hood to death.