The Paranormal Database

Cellar Dweller

Location: Otley - Old Cock public house
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: January 2022
Further Comments: Even though this ghost is said to be friendly in nature and at home in the kitchen, a plasterer refused to enter the cellar during renovation work.

ID #14382, last updated 2022-01-30

Dummies

Location: Otley - Shop at the corner of Kirkgate and Market Place (currently British Heart Foundation)
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Twentieth century
Further Comments: Tailor's dummies have moved by themselves, pictures have fallen from their hooks, the smell of pipe tobacco fills the air, and strange noises can be heard at night at this haunted charity shop.

ID #3631, last updated 2003-01-18

Weeping Lady

Location: Otley - Unidentified House
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: While the owners (Colonel Morton and his wife) never encountered the ghost, other family members claimed to see a weeping woman and to have heard disembodied footsteps. One witness placed cotton across the staircase through which the ghostly woman passed without breaking the threads. Over a four-year period the haunting slowly faded away before disappearing completely.

ID #15052, last updated 2023-08-28

Fred

Location: Pontefract - 30 East Drive
Type: Poltergeist
Date / Time: August 1966 onwards
Further Comments: This site, the location of a famous 1960s poltergeist outbreak where people were slapped, pushed and scratched, is now owned by the producer who made a film about the experiences there.

ID #12282, last updated 2016-09-24

Heavy Breather

Location: Pontefract - Friarwood Valley Gardens
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: This invisible entity walks the park, poking young women and girls who are alerted to his presence by his loud breathing and rasping.

ID #2652, last updated 2002-10-16

Tall Man

Location: Pontefract - Pontefract Castle
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: Holding a large axe, this figure walks around the ruins of the castle. There are also reports of phantom monks in the area, and two ghostly children who play near the dungeon.

ID #2651, last updated 2002-10-16

Footsteps

Location: Pontefract - Red Lion public house
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: 2007
Further Comments: Phantom figures have been reported standing behind the bar, and one manager watched a ghostly young boy walk past in the same area. Loud footsteps have been heard, while poltergeist-like activities include bangs, crashes and glasses which fly off tables.

ID #10817, last updated 2012-04-08

White Woman

Location: Pontefract - Town Hall
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: A phantom woman who has been spotted on the staircase is reputed to be a bride killed in the hall.

ID #6904, last updated 2006-07-30

Woman and Girl

Location: Rastrick - Junction of Thornhill Road and Lillands Lane
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: July 2018, around midday
Further Comments: While walking along Thornhill Road, a witness spotted a dark-haired woman (aged late 30s-40s) and a dark-haired girl (aged around 8 or 9) waving towards a house. Both wore modern looking clothing. The couple started to walk and were slightly ahead of the witness when they turned down Lillands Lane. Only a few seconds behind, the witness turned down the same road only to find the couple had vanished; there was nowhere else they could have gone.

ID #14256, last updated 2021-08-25

Grey Lady

Location: Rastrick - Private house along Thornhill Road
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: 1970s
Further Comments: This grey lady was seen drifting around a house along this road, the bottom of her legs missing. Another report from the same property gave an account of a ghostly monk also seen there.

ID #2625, last updated 2002-10-13

Shadow

Location: Rastrick - Private residence, southwest of village
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: 27 December 2025, 10 February 2026
Further Comments: The owner and two visitors spotted a shadowy figure in the house and heard footsteps on the staircase. A couple of months later, a figure was seen walking up the staircase by a witness outside the house.

ID #16372, last updated 2026-02-21

Stocky Man

Location: Rastrick - Scotty Bank
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Mid 2000s
Further Comments: After spotting the dark shape of a stocky man walking up the hill, this witness stood to one side to let the figure pass. The witness looked down for a couple of seconds, during which time the figure vanished, with no possible other routes to go.

ID #12237, last updated 2016-08-19

Knocking

Location: Rawdon - Rawdon Baptist College
Type: Poltergeist
Date / Time: August 1909
Further Comments: The handful of summertime residents were disturbed during the day and night by knocking from within the walls. Items such as potted plants were moved without explanation.

ID #14740, last updated 2022-12-29

Priscilla Rawdon

Location: Rawdon - Rawdon Hall
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Last heard mid twentieth century
Further Comments: The seventeenth century Priscilla is now said to manifest as a grey lady, though she is more likely to be heard walking around with a rustling of her dress and gentle ringing of small bells. Her voice, speaking in little more than a whisper, is also heard coming from the priest hole.

ID #7910, last updated 2007-08-28

Silent Woman

Location: Slaithwaite - Silent Woman public house
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: The pub is named after the headless ghost that resides between the canal and a viaduct that carries the railway.

ID #3043, last updated 2002-11-07

Faith

Location: Soyland - Bluebell (or Blue Ball) Inn
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: Drowned after an affair with the landlord resulted in an unwanted pregnancy, Faith is heard running along the corridors of the public house after hours; protesting that while all knew her death was murder, no one questioned the official finding that called it a suicide.

ID #2637, last updated 2002-10-16

Cat Lover

Location: Stanbury - The Old Silent Inn
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: The rear of this public house is reportedly frequented by a spectral old lady who fed all the local stray cats. The ringing of phantom bells has been heard coming from nearby moorland.

ID #2727, last updated 2002-10-18

The Maid Did It

Location: Storrs - Hall
Type: Other
Date / Time: 1878
Further Comments: The police were called to investigate a poltergeist outbreak which consisted of rapping and windows being broken. While servants armed with pitchforks failed to solve the mystery, a fourteen year old serving girl confessed her guilt to the police. As an aside, the site was traditionally home to a ghost, but the entity was purportedly laid in the first half of the eighteenth century.

ID #12078, last updated 2016-03-27

Wealthy Weaver

Location: Swinsty Hall - Swinsty Hall
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: It is said the hall was built by a weaver who travelled to London during the plague. He raided the homes of the dead before returning and constructing his new home, but the man felt so guilty afterwards that he has not been able to rest since dying.

ID #2868, last updated 2002-10-27

Bloody Tongue

Location: Thornton, Bradford - Jim Craven Well
Type: Shuck
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: Though the exact location of the well has now been lost, it was guarded by a large black hound with glowing red eyes, known as 'Bloody Tongue'. The beast was sometimes accompanied by the ghost of an old hag with a storm lantern.

ID #4110, last updated 2003-04-13

Pack of Hounds

Location: Todmorden - Area between Todmorden and Mankinholes
Type: Shuck
Date / Time: 31 October (reoccurring)
Further Comments: Wailing at the moon, this pack of devil dogs, known locally as Gabriel Ratchets' run over both land and water looking for people to terrify.

ID #5683, last updated 2004-12-01

Light Brown Cat

Location: Todmorden - Bacup Road
Type: ABC
Date / Time: February 2011
Further Comments: Licensee of the Masons Arms Lynne Goldfield reported observing a brown cat with high hind legs as she walked her dog along this road.

ID #10580, last updated 2011-09-24

Hob of the Hurst

Location: Todmorden - Barcroft Hall, Walk Mill
Type: Curse
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: This entity helped the family with their chores, until given a gift - this freed the spirit, and it became hostile and antagonistic. As if this was not bad enough, the Barcroft family was once cursed by one of their sons who was imprisoned in the basement, who declared that the family name should die out.

ID #4648, last updated 2003-10-06

Abducted Policeman

Location: Todmorden - Burnley Road
Type: UFO
Date / Time: 28 November 1980
Further Comments: Alan Godfrey, a policeman on the Yorkshire force, reported seeing a large UFO along the road, and experiencing missing time. He was later hypnotised and 'discovered' that he had been taken inside the alien craft and subjected to experiments.

ID #2628, last updated 2002-10-16

Lucky sculpture

Location: Todmorden - Centre Vale Park
Type: Other
Date / Time: 2010
Further Comments: The sculpture of a dog in the park gained a reputation to bestow luck on anyone who patted it after a family who did so won the lottery. It was later announced that the story was fictious, created by Derren Brown as part of his Experiments series, investigating whether we create our own luck.

ID #10579, last updated 2011-09-24