Rotherham Paranormal

This area of the site is for all other haunted locations and ghosts sightings, that is outside the Rotherham, Sheffield, Barnsley and Doncaster areas.

They are closer than you think!!

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Index of listings

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1. Chesterfield: Bolsover Castle
2. Chesterfield: North Wingfield Church
3. Chesterfield: Sutton Scarsdale Hall
4. Derbyshire: Cresswell Craggs
5. Derby: Derby Goal
6. Derby: Assembly Rooms
7. Derby: Seymore's Wine Bar
8. Derby: Winnats Pass
9. Derbyshire: Hermits Wood
10. Derbyshire: Rowter Rocks
11. Driffield: Sunderlandwick Hall
12. Grimsby: Yarborough Hotel
13. Halifax: Shibden Hall
14. Halifax: Town hall
15. Halifax: Police building, Prescott Street
16. Hastings: Hastings Castle
17. Howarth: West Yorkshire
18. Huddersfield: Former Bingo Hall
19. Huddersfield: Old Assylum
20. Huddersfield: St. Mary's Church
21. Huddersfield: St. Georges Square Station
22. Huddersfield: Somerset Road
23. Keighley: Riddlestone Hall
24. Marsden: Marsden Moor
25. Matlock: Riber Castle
26. Midhopestones, Man on a bike
27. North Yorkshire: Bolton Abbey
28. North Yorkshire: Whorlton Castle
29. North Yorkshire: Fountains Abbey
30. North Yorkshire: Snaith Bridge
31. North Yorkshire: Scarborough Castle
32. Nottinghamshire: Clumber Park
33. Nottingham Gallerys of Justice
34. Nottinghamshire: Newstead Abbey
35. Retford: White Heart Hotel
36. Rochdale:Clegg Hall
37. Wakefield: Batley
38. Wakefield: East Ardsley
39. Wakefield: Heath Hall
40. Wakefield: Sandal Castle
41. Wakefield: Wakefield Bridge
42. Worksop: Blyth Road
43. York: Heworth Grave Yard

A lady in a white dress roams the grounds and the castle, many locals know of the ghost. Also it is haunted by a further lady who is seen kneeling in the kitchen area.

Apparitions of a woman carrying young children are seen during the winter months, it is unknown who the woman can be, but many sightings of her have been seen over the years.

Sutton and Scarsdale Hall has the reputation to be a very haunted house, witnesses have seen disembodied floating body parts, footfall and strange tobacco smells, sometimes unexplained screams. Moving shadows have also been captured in the cellar area by paranormal Investigators.

Floating Head

Location: Cresswell; Cresswell Crags, lake and general area.

Type: Haunting Manifestation

The head of an unknown, hooded figure has been seen, the floating head is thought to belong to a witch, and is seen among the thickets on the waters edge. The hooded figure was watched as it emerged from a cave armed with a sword - the witness ran, and was not able to pinpoint the cave on his return.

The old "Derby Gaol" can be found under numbers 50 and 51 Friargate in Derby. It is said to be one of the most haunted spots in the country

The jail ("gaol" is an old-fashioned variant of the word) was used between 1756 and 1828 and was originally (it's believed) two separate cell blocks - in fact, it's thought the facilities could continue under neighbouring properties, too).
It is now a museum and much of the jail has been restored to its former condition.
Many people were sent here for minor crimes and were kept in the same cells has hardened criminals, two of the most famous cells are known as the debtors cell and the condemned mans cell.

This is a very eerie place to be and would not recommend spending the night alone there. The building is now owned by the famous historian Richard Felix (Who appears on Most Haunted).

Seymour’s Wine Bar is situated next to St Werburgh’s Church. It is known to have an old lady dressed in grey who is said to frequently visit the upper regions of the property. There are many stories of the figure of the Grey Lady who has said to have a strong smell of lavender when present. The lady’s toilets are upstairs but the men’s are downstairs so a lot of the stories from the public are those of Ladies. Stories include cutlery been moved or disappearing then reappearing. Though all the stories are strange staff say they never feel threatened by the presence felt. Also the Church is also said to have ghostly figures.

The story is that a couple wanted to marry the parents were against this happening. The young couple decided to elope and marry. This was in the 18th century so they had to go along Winnats Pass a dark steep road on foot it was the only route. It was dangerous as it was just the 2 of them well 3 lead-miners jumped on them they robbed them both and killed them. The bodies weren’t found until years later. The miners were never caught for it but the story has it you can hear their cries and sometimes see them along that route.

Strange banging noises, feelings of being watched and/or not alone, believed to be haunted by a monk that committed suicide many centuries ago, his apparition is said to be seen standing under the arch late at night.

The Rocks have long had a reputation of being haunted. The ghost most frequently seen is that of a cloaked figure wandering around the caved areas.

The Reverend Thomas Eyre, who lived at Rowter Hall in the 17th Century, was believed to have been responsible for the conversion of the rocks to their present state.

This includes armchairs that have been carved into the rocks. Local legend tells that if you sit in the middle armchair on All Hallow's Eve, when the church clock has just struck midnight, you'll hear the name of your true love.

This is a pub in Grimsby which used to be a hotel the staff have heard and seen small children a numerous amount of times in the actual hotel and cellar area.

Anne Lister

Location: Halifax - Shibden Hall

Type: Haunting Manifestation

Date / Time: Unknown

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 walks the hall after dark. 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).

Whistles and Bells

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.

Location: Halifax - Former police building, Prescott Street

Type: Poltergeist

Date / Time: 1970s

Further Comments: When in use, a number of police officers reported strange occurrences in the building, including whistling, doors opening and closing themselves, cold spots, and ringing bells that were connected to empty cells.

This is another site I have visited, the castle dates back to 1066 when it was made of wood, but by 1070 the castle was re-built in stone. In 1339, and again in 1377 during the Hundred Years War, the town was attacked by the French and severely damaged. Many houses were burned to the ground and buildings were robbed and decimated. Throughout the next century the cliff erosion remained unchecked, and gradually more of the castle was lost to the sea. In the mid 16th century Hastings Castle received its final blow when Henry VIII dissolved the monasteries. His commissioners seized the land, lead, bells and anything else of value, leaving the now exposed buildings to decay. The land was purchased by the local Pelham family and used for farming until the sparse remains of the castle and church became so completely overgrown that they were lost from memory. In 1824 the fragmented remains were rediscovered and excavated. Finds included several coffins and well-preserved remains within a surviving vault. Repairs to the structure were carried out, a section of the north wall and a church archway rebuilt, and the site became a favourite attraction for the many Victorians visiting the revitalised seaside towns of southern England. A very good place to visit, quite an oppressive feeling in the remaining cells.

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.

Castle Hill St. Mary’s Church- people feeling apparitions of horses cantering past sounds of battle and dark hooded figure seen wondering around the graveyard. Castle Hill is a large hill which once was occupied by a Norman castle it's motte and Bailey battlements still survive.

Additional information supplied by Howard Lawton a Rotherham-ghosts visitor:

Location: Huddersfield - St George's Square Station

Type: Haunting Manifestation

Date / Time: Unknown

Further Comments: A former porter at the railway station, Jonah was hit by a train and forced to retire early due to the injuries received. His spiteful laugh can sometimes be heard when there is an accident on the site, or a narrowly avoided mishap.

Location: Huddersfield - Somerset Road

Type: Haunting Manifestation

Date / Time: Early 1980s

Further Comments: A female driver swerved and crashed into a parked car in order to avoid a young boy who stepped out in front of her car. Her description of the child matched that of a boy who had been killed in a road traffic accident years previously.

The hall at East Riddleston is said to have four ghosts.

A Grey Lady who was starved to death by her husband, rocks an ancient cradle gently. She was sealed up in a room after her husband found her in the arms of another man.

A ghost is that of a Scottish Merchant murdered by a treacherous steward for his money.

A white lady ghost who died after she drowned haunts the pond.

A Blue Lady who haunts the grounds of the Hall for an unknown reason.

This district is well-known for its unfriendly spirits!

This was the famous battle of 1644 on Marston Moor, where over 3000 men lost there lives, the battle only lasted 2 hours. Lots of reported sightings have taken place here which include solders hiding in the undergrowth waiting for battle and men charging on horse back. It is said that the most likely time of year to see a haunting is on the anniversary of the battle, the 2nd July.

THE SMEDLEY FAMILY were relieved when they sold Riber Castle back in 1892. Although barely 25 years old it was already being dismissed as a white elephant.

The building went on the market following the death of Caroline Smedley, widow of its creator, John Smedley entrepreneur and businessman, who built it as the family home and an ostentatious symbol of his success.

Rumour had it that the family gave some thought to turn it into another money-making hydro but it proved impossible to pump sufficient supplies of water eight hundred feet up Riber hillside. So, when a clergyman, the Rev John William Chippett, formerly a master at Giggleswick School in North Yorkshire, offered to buy it to open a boarding preparatory school his bid was gratefully accepted.

Riber served as a school for much longer than any other use to which it has been put until it was taken over in the 80s and turned into a zoo and nature reserve.

The castle is said to be haunted by a blue lady and a military figure that wonders the castle building and grounds….

One clear, sunny Friday afternoon, back in August this year I had occasion to turn off the main road to Manchester and drive through the hamlet of Midhopestones, up the road (Mortimer Road?) past the pub and on towards the Strines Valley.  About 3/4 mile outside Midhopestones I was approaching the junction with Gill Royd Lane.  Mortimer Road bends to the left and starts an accent up the hill at this junction.

I glimpsed a man on a bicycle coming down the hill from the left, towards me, about 200 yards away,  I judged I would meet him at the bend so slowed the car a little (almost to walking pace) so as not to run into him.  However when I reached the bend a few seconds later, the cyclist was no-where to be seen.  I then saw the other lane a few yards further up the road and drove to the junction and stopped and looked down the lane fully expecting him to have gone down there; it was the only place he could have gone!  As you might guess he was nowhere to be seen.  I sat there for a few moments looking around to see if he was in the side of the road, but nothing, he had simply vanished.  I drove off perplexed wondering if I had imagined it.

The following Monday I visited a company in Penistone and cautiously asked a group of people in the office if anyone lived in that area.  One guy said he used to live in nearby Stocksbridge some years ago and he asked why I wanted to know.  I began to recount the tale, but when I got to the bit about arriving at the bend in the road, he smiled and said "I know what you are going to say next!".  I prompted him and he said "he had disappeared!"

Now this was an obvious outcome of the tale, but he continued.....  Many years ago he used to jog around the same area around the back of the nearby reservoir and up on the hills.  He said that some of his mates asked him if he had seen the old man on his bicycle who would appear as if from nowhere and almost just as quickly disappear again.  Apparently he has been seen before.

My memory seems to indicate that man was in dark clothing and was on one of those old type bicycles that you sit up-right on.  I might add that I only saw the top half of the bicycle/man since he was behind a stone wall adjacent to the road.

Should you have any further information on this sighting, please email us at sightings@Rotherham-ghosts.com and we'll ensure that the author recieves your responce.

Many thanks to Melvyn Cobb for this submission...

King George V was one of the witnesses to the Marquis of Hartington’s account of seeing the ghost of a monk in the rectory in 1912. Since then many have seen a black-robed spectre that haunts the church accompanied by a strong smell of incense, it usually appears in July in the daytime.

This is an old ruin castle and moat with only the gatehouse and underground vaults left standing. Whorlton castle is haunted by many ghosts including a grey lady and several dark shapes that seem stand guard inside the gatehouse. This castle is very active!

Hidden away from the outside world, the beautiful remains of the Cistercian Abbey at Skelldale have been almost undisturbed for the past 500 years. But a ghostly choir has been heard chanting in the abbey’s Chapel of Nine Altars but the most interesting ghost resides in nearby Fountains Hall. Built by Sir Stephen Proctor, a blue ghost, that of his daughter who witnessed her father’s evil doings and remains at the hall for eternity. An Elizabethan man has been seen emerging from the paneling in the stone hall.

Snaiths Bridge in North Yorkshire is a notorious accident black spot, J Burton and K South, who are regular visiter to Rotherham-Ghosts submitted the picture through after doing a vidual at the site in May 2006.

Please click here to see the larger image on submitted photos.

A couple were cutting through clumber park one night and just as they passed the gate way and through a large archway the young lady saw what she can only describe as a figure of a man wearing a large black cloak with a hood up and around his head but still revealing his face. He seemed to be waving at her as if gesturing goodbye, for some unbeknown reason the male occupant missed this man but his fiance swears it was a ghost, with this they turned the car around to try and see it again. After several more drives past the location he did not appear any more. The couple stated they had not been drinking but couldn't explain what they had really seen.

The Abbey was built in the 12th century and has a lot of history. The purpose of the Abbey was for a priory for black Augustine Monks. This was the Monks home for about 400 years. But King Henry decided to change everything for them. He sold the home to the Byron family. They slowly destroyed the Home using the bricks to build their adjoining home. The Abbey now had no roof and was not a home anymore. The story goes as the Monks make sure things don’t go well for that family they don’t have many children and money is now short. And when a family member dies they turn up and laugh.

White Hart Hotel - This local pub is said to be haunted by a young girl killed by a horse drawn coach in the cobbled court yard at the rear of the building. A bust of the girl located in the building in her memory has been said to mysteriously reappear when new tenants of the pub have tried to discard of it during the years. The hotel part of the building has had many visitors reporting strange footsteps on the landing leading to passageways since disused by guests!.

It was a beautiful summers day and Brian de Clegg was ready and prepered to leave England to fight in France. He had left his evil brother Robert de Clegg to look after his two sons (I don't have the names). Robert wanted to own Clegg Hall after his brother, so to do that he had to kill the two sons. One night Robert de Clegg threw both brothers off the balcony into the moat below. Then he convinced the guard that they both fell. When Brian de Clegg got back he was furios at his brother for letting them fall. Therefore he banished his brother. In a paddy Richard rode to Stubley Hall and asked the owner of Stubley Hall, Lord John stubley, to help him murder his brother.

John showed robert a secret tunnel to Clegg from Stubley. It lead Robert right to his brothers bed chamber. Brian de Clegg was writing his diary when in the corner of the room he saw his dead son who yelled " father watch out". Straight away  Brian de Clegg thrust out his sword and killed his evil brother.

Reports have been made that people have seen two children being pushed of the balcony and have seen the ghost of a boy running about.

The village of East Ardsley grew around coal mining. The old tracks down which coal carts were dragged up to 100 years ago are still visible today, and are reportedly haunted by the souls of dead miners, on a dark night.

In her will, Mary Bolles of Heath Hall, near Wakefield, left instructions that the room in which she died was to be permanently sealed. After her death in 1661, the room was accordingly closed off. Fifty years later, however, it was opened, and after this the ghost of Mary Bolles never ceased to haunt the hall. Stone effigies were laid on her tomb in Ledsham Church in an attempt to quiet her restless spirit, but in vain. Troops stationed at the Hall in 1943 claimed to have seen the ghost. A caretaker reported also that his alsation guard dog would never walk through the death room. The house has now been demolished, but the door of the haunted bedroom has been preserved in Wakefield Museum.

Location: Wakefield - Sandal Castle

Type: Haunting Manifestation

Date / Time: Numerous

Further Comments: This small, yapping dog has attacked and scared creatures many times larger than itself - when touched the phantom pooch fades from view.

Crawling Man

Location: Wakefield - Wakefield Bridge

Type: Haunting Manifestation

Date / Time: Unknown

Further Comments: This pathetic figure reportedly crawls near the bridge, where he fell from while living, breaking his legs.

Location: Worksop, Nottinghamshire.

Date/Time: 11 May 1991

A young woman had been visiting her boyfriend in Worksop, and was on her way home when she had her unusual experience. It was a journey she had made 'thousands of times'. She wasn't particularly tired, having slept earlier in the evening. Making her way out along the Blyth Road, she soon left the comforting glow of the streetlights for the dark country roads beyond. 

After a mile or so, near to Hodsock Priory, she saw illuminated in the beam of her headlights about 150 yards ahead "two red dots". 

"She slowed right down to a crawl," she said, "as I saw a huge black dog. It looked like something from hell! It had very shiny fur and a short coat; the nearest thing I've seen to it in size was a Great Dane, but it had a good 18in over a dog of that breed. Its ears were erect and it appeared to be dragging something quite large across the road."

She had lived with dogs all her life, but had seen nothing like this creature. 

As she waited for the dog to get out of the way of her car, the headlights of another vehicle announced its approach from the opposite direction. The driver of the other car, evidently seeing her at a standstill, pulled up and wound down his window to ask if anything was wrong. The lady by now had wound her window down, asked the man if he could see the dog in front of her car. 

"At this moment he shouted 'Oh, Jesus!' and sped off into the night. She looked in front of the car again and to her joy and amazement the creature had vanished. She drove home as fast as she could. The young woman did a little research later and found a tumulus nearby, a river and an old boundary as well as the priory."

Please take a look at the other area sightings

Rotherham

Sheffield

Doncaster

Barnsley

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