The Paranormal Database

Strange Figure

Location: Halifax - Halifax's Square Church spire
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: March 2005
Further Comments: A photograph taken by Anthony Finnigan, part of the team working on repairing the spire, revealed a strange figure hovering in the tower. Foreman Barry Done said that his team were now to scared to work in the area alone.

Headless Man

Location: Halifax - Parish Church
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: This church is said to be haunted by a decapitated figure, most likely a priest.

Handprints

Location: Halifax - Piece Hall
Type: Legend
Date / Time: Still present
Further Comments: To the right of the Westgate entrance a pair of handprints can be seen. A legend says that the marks can never be removed, one story saying that they belonged to a murderer, another stating that a witch was responsible for leaving the prints. A more recent tale says that a boy dipped his hands in acid used to clean stone and left the prints.

Banging

Location: Halifax - Radio Station, D Mill, Dean Clough Mills
Type: Poltergeist
Date / Time: 2008 - 2010
Further Comments: Two presenters heard loud bangs reminiscent of heavy doors being slammed coming from an empty studio. On another occasion, toilet doors were heard opening and the sound of taps being turned on followed. Two people investigated and found the hot water taps gushing water, but nobody else was present.

The Priestly Family

Location: Halifax - Ring O'Bells public house
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: 2007
Further Comments: An elderly man seen sitting near the fireplace is thought to be connected to the discovery of an old gravestone in the basement that mentions a family named Priestly. The old man is said to be behind mild poltergeist activities, such as flicking light switches and turning taps on. Also reported is a lady in old fashioned clothing who smells of lavender.

John Lacy

Location: Halifax - Running Man public house
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: The pub is named after the man who managed to escape the town's guillotine, though he was later caught and beheaded anyway. The decapitated criminal is sometimes reported at the inn.

Anne Lister

Location: Halifax - Shibden Hall
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Mostly unknown, Scout Leader sighting circa 1970
Further Comments: Anne tried to take her life in the building, covering at least one room in blood after slitting her wrists. She may have died in an asylum, but her shade in the form of a grey lady walks the hall after dark. Another story says the entity is Ann Walker who tried to starve herself to death after barricading herself in a room. There are also stories of a headless coachman driving a yellow coach around the grounds, and a little girl who materialises during the summer months (she drowned in a nearby pond). A local newspaper reported that a Scout Patrol Leader encountered a hooded figure which drifted several centimetres above the grass path close to the lake. The Leader claimed the entity had no eyes, only dark holes.

Sounds of Partying

Location: Halifax - Stretchgate Lane area
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Circa 1967
Further Comments: Every night at 22.30h, one witness would be awoken by the sounds of many people talking and laughing outside their house, although no one could be seen outside. Another occupant in the same room could not hear the noise. When the witness asked an elderly neighbour if she could hear the sounds, they were told the noise came from a ghostly wedding party who were killed by a truck.

Former Mayor

Location: Halifax - Town Hall
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: 1950s
Further Comments: This figure, dressed in his formal robes, appeared several times during the mid-twentieth century.

Crying Woman

Location: Halifax - Wainhouse's Tower
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: 1990s
Further Comments: Seen sitting by the tower crying into her hands, no amount of talking can convince this figure to cease her wailing.

Haworth, seen from the moor (public domain).

Monk

Location: Haworth - Haworth Moor
Type: Unknown Ghost Type
Date / Time: February 2004
Further Comments: A student photographing the moor was surprised to find a monk-like figure appear on her landscapes, that she did not spot while taking the image.

Emily

Location: Haworth - Haworth Parsonage, surrounding moor land, the path to Bronte waterfall, and former Weaver's Restaurant
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: 19 December (reoccurring)
Further Comments: The famous abode of the Bronte Sisters, it is Emily who now haunts the grounds, her head bowed as in deep thought and meditation. She suddenly vanishes of anyone who comes too close. The apparition may appear several days either side of the date given.

Lily Cove

Location: Haworth - Old White Lion public house, Main Street
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: 10 June (reoccurring)
Further Comments: A local celebrity, Lily fell to her death from a hot air balloon in the early part of the twentieth century, and now returns to the pub on the day she died.

Dame Mary Bolles

Location: Heath - Dame Mary Bolles Water Tower, Heath
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: Local folklore claims Mary to have been involved in witchcraft and, after her death, she took to haunting the tower and surrounding area.

Grey Figure

Location: Hebden Bridge - Private residence
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: 1977-1987
Further Comments: Over a ten year period, the residents of this house experienced many strange happenings, including watching a grey figure who would walk up to the door (but never enter), a white face which would appear at a window, pictures and other objects would fall to the ground without reason, and the sound of children could be heard running around the landing.

Not a Horse

Location: Holmfirth - Pool at the Black Syke (aka Blacksike and Black Sike)
Type: Other
Date / Time: 1930
Further Comments: After nighttime bathers were scared away by a phantom horse, two teenage ghosthunters investigated the area and found a white sheet carefully placed by the edge of the water.

Boggart

Location: Horbury - General area around the village
Type: Fairy
Date / Time: Early twentieth century
Further Comments: Two people were attacked within weeks of each other by a creature they reported as being ice cold, hairy, with glowing eyes. The area is said to have reports going back hundreds of years of a Boggart creeping around, trying to kill the unwary. This creature should not be confused with the white shuck-like dog, which also haunts the neighbourhood.

Padfoot

Location: Horbury - Jenkin Road area
Type: Shuck
Date / Time: Nineteenth century
Further Comments: A man returning home spotted a white dog in the hedgerow and hit out at it with a stick. The stick passed straight through the creature, which then turned and stared at its attacker. The man ran home, fell ill and died soon after. The shuck is said to sometimes run around on two legs and is considered a harbinger of death.

Short Fellow

Location: Horbury - Unstated lane
Type: Fairy
Date / Time: Nineteenth century
Further Comments: Sabine Baring-Gould's wife encountered a two foot (sixty centimetre) tall figure dressed in green sitting on a hedge. The woman ran away after the figure began to make strange faces at her.

Knocking

Location: Horsforth - Private cottage in Woodside area
Type: Poltergeist
Date / Time: Circa November 1945
Further Comments: A woman, together with her daughter and mother, became subjected to loud raps which haunted their home for a three-week period. Police officers spent the evening on the site but were unable to track down the source of the noise. After a spiritualist medium visited the cottage, the rapping ceased.

Teapot

Location: Huddersfield - Albert Yard
Type: Other
Date / Time: 10 January 1946
Further Comments: A brown teapot fell from the sky at night and broke close to two girls. Police were summoned and searched the nearby Woolworth's store in case of break in, but no one could be found. The newspaper, perhaps on a slow news day, queried whether a poltergeist could be blamed.

Figure in Toilet

Location: Huddersfield - David Brown building, Park Works, Lockwood
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: 2017
Further Comments: Owner of Colne Valley Auctions, Collin Hufton, claimed to have seen a ghostly figure in the toilets in this building. Another man reported watching a tap in the same room turn itself on.

Phantom Player

Location: Huddersfield - Former Bingo Hall
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Twentieth century
Further Comments: The building is thought to be haunted by a bingo player who won the jackpot, only to collapse with a heart attack caused by the shock; she later died in hospital.

Boggart

Location: Huddersfield - Lascells Hall
Type: Fairy
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: A nature spirit has been reported haunting the hall.

Black and Stocky Cat

Location: Huddersfield - Meltham
Type: ABC
Date / Time: Spring 2005
Further Comments: The local newspaper offered five hundred pounds to the first person to photograph the large black cat which has been spotted locally dozens of times over the past ten years.