The Paranormal Database

Young Girl

Location: Scawsby - Private residence
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Circa 2010
Further Comments: A woman in a bedroom became aware of a girl sitting on the bed. Believing the girl to be her sister's daughter, who was staying in an adjoining room, she reached out to touch the girl, but her hand passed through the figure.

Naked Man

Location: Sheffield - Area around Burngreave Cemetery
Type: Other
Date / Time: 28 October 1933
Further Comments: Two witnesses spotted a naked man run past them in the rain, heading in the direction of the cemetery. The police were summoned but were unable to find either the man or any footprints in the mud of the cemetery, leading to a rumour that the figure may have been a ghost.

Gabriel Hounds

Location: Sheffield - Area around parish church
Type: Shuck
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: These hounds are said to have the faces of men, and have been heard passing the church on dark, still nights.

Former Maid

Location: Sheffield - Ashdell Grove house, Westbourne Road
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Late twentieth century
Further Comments: This building is reportedly haunted by a maid who committed suicide after her secret lover, a local policeman, left her. Her pacing has been heard down a corridor, and she also moves items around in the building's offices. The figure of a middle aged man has also been seen.

Pregnant Girl

Location: Sheffield - Ball Inn, Darnall (no longer operating)
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: 2000s
Further Comments: This thin, grey ghost is said to be a member of staff who committed suicide at the inn when she discovered she was with child. She walks the upstairs corridors, while in other parts of the building, strange noises are heard in the night and well secured shelves fall without warning.

Apprentice

Location: Sheffield - Barker's Pool
Type: Other
Date / Time: 1875
Further Comments: Around a thousand people assembled on the street to watch a glowing figure, named as the ghost of an apprentice, in the window of a building. A police officer pointed out that the 'entity' resembled a light being reflected in a window moving in the wind. Once the window had been secured, the ghost could no longer be seen.

White Lady

Location: Sheffield - Beauchief Abbey and Hall
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: This traditional white figure supposedly haunts the grounds of both the hall and the abbey. The latter location is also the home to a spectral monk.

Black Figure

Location: Sheffield - Birley Woods and Golf Course
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Circa 2011
Further Comments: A local lad's grandfather told him that a wispy black figure in a cloak and hood was trapped in the wood and had been for hundreds of years. After the grandfather died, one of the lad's friends confided that he had encountered the figure while out in the woods.

Not a Ghost

Location: Sheffield - Hill between Solly Street and Allen Street
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Circa 1820s
Further Comments: A Barghast was said by children to have taken up residence on this hill, which at the time was common land. It later emerged that the ghost was a hoax.

White Figure

Location: Sheffield - House along Campo Lane
Type: Unknown Ghost Type
Date / Time: March 1855
Further Comments: After a lodger spotted a ghostly white figure in the kitchen, this house was visited by many people hoping to see the entity. One of these visitors, a Mrs Rollinson, collapsed after witnessing a white female form dash past her. After briefly regaining consciousness and sharing her encounter, Rollinson once again fell unconscious and died soon after. It is worth noting that other people were with Rollinson at the time of the encounter, but they did not see the reported ghost.

Peering Face

Location: Sheffield - Industry public house, Darnall
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: 1997
Further Comments: When the Sheffield Paranormal Society carried out a vigil of this property, photographs were taken inside the back room. When they came back from being developed, a face could be seen peering through a window, even though nothing was seen at the time.

Highwayman

Location: Sheffield - Mail Coach public house, 149 West Street
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: 1984
Further Comments: Wearing the clothing of a robber, this figure was seen lurking in the shadows prior to mysteriously disappearing.

White Figure

Location: Sheffield - Manor Castle public house
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: 1983
Further Comments: The landlord of this public house moved out after only three weeks, claiming that his child and pets had been constantly upset by a white human form.

Mary Queen of Scots

Location: Sheffield - Manor Lodge (aka Manor Castle)
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: 2015
Further Comments: Folklore says that Mary, wearing a long black dress, appears in the Turret House and glides along corridors and passes through walls. In 2015, a visitor to the site watched a glowing white figure of a woman wearing a long dress run towards and vanish behind a building.

Old Lady

Location: Sheffield - Middlewood Hospital
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Twentieth century
Further Comments: This old lady has been seen wandering around the former Ward Eight, where she disappears when she walks through a wall. There are also stories of disembodied footsteps running on the stairs.

Governess

Location: Sheffield - Mosborough Hall
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: Now returning to the hall in the form of a white lady, the governess had her throat slit by the hall's Squire after she threatened to tell his wife of their affair. The sounds of their final argument can also be heard drifting around the hall at night. A man staying here also reported a phantom hound which awoke him at night.

Cain

Location: Sheffield - National Emergency Services Museum
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: 2020s?
Further Comments: A former police and fire station, the building is now a museum and used by ghost hunting groups. The site is home to a former prisoner named Cain,

Illustration by Arthur Hughes

Devil or Other

Location: Sheffield - Nicker Wood
Type: Legend - Old Nick
Date / Time: Pre-1880s
Further Comments: Sidney Oldall Addy, in a book about the local area, assumed that the woods took the name from a monster, water sprite, a goblin or the Devil.

Matron

Location: Sheffield - Northern General Hospital, Vickers Corridor
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: 2003 ('dream'), October 2012 Victorian man
Further Comments: At least two members of staff have reported the same 'dream' while sleeping in the staff room - they have awoken to see an angry matron-styled nurse with one hand over the witnesses' mouth and the other hand around their neck, trying to strangle them. One witness kicked and screamed before the apparition vanished in the blink of an eye. In 2012 two witnesses spotted a man in Victorian clothing drift past them while on the bell tower staircase.

Tunnel

Location: Sheffield - Norton Church
Type: Other
Date / Time: Treasure unknown, woman in 1840
Further Comments: A secret tunnel containing a box of treasure was said to connect the church to Beauchief Abbey. The box could only be removed by a white horse wearing shoes which faced the wrong way. The horse would have to approach the treasure tail first and could only drag the box out using rope tied around its head. In 1840 a ghostly woman was spotted watching the parish clerk play the organ at dusk - the clerk and his apprentice fled and vowed never to play the organ in the evening again.

Fireman

Location: Sheffield - Old Fire Station
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: Perhaps unsurprisingly, the male entity said to haunt this building is named as a former fireman.

Beer Drinker

Location: Sheffield - Old Queen's Head public house
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: Seen and felt sitting by the stone fireplace, the phantom of an aging patron firmly holding his jugs of beer still returns to the oldest pub in Sheffield. A ghostly child is also said to pull people's hair.

Crossing the Road

Location: Sheffield - Packman Lane
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: 2000s?
Further Comments: A local story says that a figure or ball of light can be seen crossing the road, although some believe that it is an optical illusion caused by environmental effects.

Smoker

Location: Sheffield - Private house in Swallownest area
Type: Poltergeist
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: This poltergeist would hide and move objects, blow light bulbs, stack cigarette butts, and create the smell of pipe smoke. A phantom black dog was also seen by a child on the site.

No Head

Location: Sheffield - Private residence along Townhead Road, Dore
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: 1960s?
Further Comments: A 23 year old woman encountered a phantom woman floating slightly above the floor of her home. The witness said that the entity wore a green Elizabethan style dress, had beautiful hands, and while the base of the neck appeared solid, the top had faded to nothing and the entity had no head. When Dore stood as a village, rather than a Sheffield suburb, the area was believed to be haunted by a young girl upon a white horse.