Photograph: Shane Rounce on Unsplash
Stories, places and what people found
Sheffield Ghosts
Explore Sheffield ghost stories by place and period. We show where each account came from, distinguish history from folklore, and let members keep or share their own findings.
All Sheffield ghost stories
Local folklore20th century or earlier
Colonel Bright at Carbrook Hall
Carbrook Hall
Carbrook Hall’s best-known tradition places Parliamentarian Colonel John Bright on the stairs of the surviving Jacobean building.
Local folklore19th century or earlier
Gabriel Hounds over Stannington
Stannington
Stannington tradition interpreted strange cries overhead as Gabriel Hounds whose passing foretold a death.
Reported accountModern reports
Ghost Stories from the Old West Bar Station
National Emergency Services Museum
The Victorian police, fire and ambulance station now housing the National Emergency Services Museum has accumulated staff and investigation stories.
Local folklore1859 or earlier
Mary, Queen of Scots at Manor Lodge
Sheffield Manor Lodge
A long-running Sheffield tradition places the ghost of Mary, Queen of Scots in the Turret House at Manor Lodge, where she was held during her years in captivity.
Disputed account1875
The Barker’s Pool Apprentice Ghost
Barker’s Pool
A glowing window figure attracted a huge Barker’s Pool crowd in 1875, until a police officer offered a practical explanation.
Local folklore1895 or earlier
The Boggard of Bunting Nook
Bunting Nook
Bunting Nook has a published nineteenth-century ghost tradition involving a boggard seen where roads crossed near Norton.
Reported account28 October 1933
The Burngreave Cemetery Runner
Burngreave Cemetery
Two witnesses reported a mysterious runner heading towards Burngreave Cemetery on a wet October night in 1933.
Documented history1855
The Campo Lane Ghost
Campo Lane
Newspaper reports linked a Campo Lane haunting story with the death of a Sheffield woman in 1855; later papers continued to retell and dispute the tale.
Local folklore1840
The Dusk Figure at Norton Church
Church of St James the Great, Norton
An 1840 tradition tells of a woman appearing while Norton’s parish clerk played the organ at dusk.
Reported accountVictorian era to present
The Ghost Stories of Sheffield Lyceum
Lyceum Theatre
Sheffield Theatres preserves stories of former managers, lost lovers and staff encounters inside the Lyceum.
Reported account1987 onwards
The Ghosts of Stocksbridge Bypass
Stocksbridge Bypass
Reports of children and a hooded figure during construction turned the Stocksbridge Bypass into one of Sheffield’s best-known modern legends.
Local folklore19th century or earlier
The Headless Woman of Dead Man’s Lane
Highcliffe Road and the former Dead Man’s Lane
Ecclesall folklore attached fairy rings and a headless woman to a lane remembered as Dead Man’s Lane.
Local folkloreBefore the 1880s
The Neepsend Hell Hole
Neepsend and Rutland Road
A nineteenth-century Sheffield tradition placed an entrance to the lower world somewhere between Neepsend and Rutland Road.
Local folkloreDate unknown
The Old Queen’s Head Beer Drinker
Old Queen’s Head
A pub tradition describes an elderly drinker beside the stone fireplace and a mischievous child at the Old Queen’s Head.
Documented history1873
The Park Ghost and the Cholera Monument Crowd
Cholera Monument Grounds
A ghost rumour around Clay Wood and the Cholera Monument drew large crowds in May 1873 and became part of Sheffield’s Spring-heeled Jack scare.
Local folkloreAfter 1864
The Ship Inn’s Flood Smugglers
The Ship Inn
A Shalesmoor pub tradition says two figures in the cellar were smugglers drowned during the Great Sheffield Flood.
Disputed accountAfter 1862
The Wardsend Cemetery Boy Legend
Wardsend Cemetery
A later ghost story grew around a supposed child victim of Wardsend’s 1862 “body-snatching” scandal, but the historical accusations were not proved.
Local folkloreDate unknown
The White Lady and Canon of Beauchief Abbey
Beauchief Abbey
Beauchief’s traditional white figure and spectral religious figure sit alongside the documented history of its medieval Premonstratensian community.