INTRODUCTION Leeds, West Yorkshire, is a city of rich history. It lies just twenty-two miles from York, which is referred to as ‘The City of a Thousand Ghosts’. York is an intriguing, historical place and it’s stories have been popularised by ghost walks and tours. Every city has its tales, but with Leeds being so close to York, it surely must have a number of ghost stories of its own. Could Leeds also house a thousand ghosts? Could it be haunted by its previous inhabitants? Have the people of Leeds witnessed the strange or supernatural? This book contains a series of tales and accounts of ordinary folk who have had extraordinary encounters. It brings forward those who have experienced unusual, unexplainable and paranormal happenings in the city of Leeds.
THE HAUNTED STREETS
THE VALLEY “I was driving home along the A64. The fog was rolling in off the fields in large thick patches, which would suddenly clear. I was wide awake and I didn’t feel in the least bit tired, although I did have a rather nagging feeling of unease, which I just couldn’t explain. I wondered if it was because the roads were lonely, I had no-one to chat to, as my husband was fast asleep in the passenger seat so I only had the radio on for some company. The time was approaching 2-30am. The feeling of unease had lifted a bit as I knew we were nearly home. I felt slightly relieved until I got to Horsforth roundabout. As I started the approach down the hill to Rodley, I began to feel overwhelmingly terrified. The nearer I got to the dip in the valley, the more the panic was rising. There was no logical reason for this at all. I tried to wake my husband, with no success. I tried to get a grip of myself, to no avail. There were no cars around at all; in fact, when I thought back, I hadn’t seen another car on the road in either direction for at least three-quarters of an hour. With the sheer terror escalating, I was almost at the bridge when I ‘saw’ it. (I say ‘saw’ because I didn’t dare look at it directly; I had the overwhelming feeling that if I looked at it, I would die). Stood at the side of the road and staring directly at me was a very tall, shaggy, brown or black, fur covered shape. It must have stood over 2m tall, around 1.2m wide, with no visible limbs or eyes, but I sensed that the eyes were there somewhere, as I could feel them boring into the car. Needless to say, I had to get away from this ‘thing’, so I accelerated away from it. As I passed, I stared straight ahead, not daring to look left. I looked back in the rearview mirror, to see ‘it’ step off the kerb and into the road where I had just driven. By the time I reached our house, I was panic stricken, I needed to get in and lock the door. I reached out to others online to see if anyone had seen something to my description, I learnt that many had! The thing that I saw that night was, in fact, a monk in a winter attire wrapped in fur pelt.”
LADY LANE “In the summer of 1991, I was a serving police officer at Millgarth street police station in Leeds. I was just finishing a night shift with one of my colleagues and we were parked in our police car (ford Fiesta then) on Lady Lane, having turned left from Vicar Lane. The time was about 05:30 and it was a lovely, sunny, bright morning; very still with no wind. We had parked up to complete our pocket books before we returned to the station for dismissal. As it was a warm morning both the vehicle’s driver and passenger windows were open and the engine was switched off. I was in the passenger seat and the other officer (who we’ll call John) was driving. As I was writing up my pocket book, I heard footsteps walking along the pavement at the side of me, approaching from behind our car. I looked up to say good morning to the pedestrian, as there hadn’t been another soul in sight and it was the polite thing to do. As I looked up, I saw a man, aged about 55, wearing a green tweed three-piece suit and brogues. He was also wearing a trilby hat and a pocket watch. Under his right arm, he was carrying a newspaper. I said “good morning” but he never even looked up. He just carried on walking down Lady Lane. I think I commented to my colleague something like “blimey he must be warm in that suit!” Anyway, we watched him as he walked and saw him stop at the entrance to an old warehouse on the left of the road. The doorway jutted out and had a brick porch around it. He took out a bunch of keys and then walked into the doorway, so we just assumed he had been the caretaker. After about 5 minutes we drove off towards Millgarth, as we reached the doorway where we had seen the man enter, I automatically looked to my left. To my total shock and amazement, the doorway we had seen him enter was, in fact, bricked up! We stopped the car and were both totally perplexed. We spent the next hour trying to find the man. We even called out the keyholders to the building and one of the supervisory officers arrived. We never found the man and all three of us had to make an official pocket book entry. This is the ONLY unexplainable thing that has ever happened to me in my life.”
DOCK STREET “I’ve heard loads of stories of the spirits of dogs roaming in packs in the streets of Leeds, nicked named ‘Hell Hounds of Leeds’. I always presumed the people who believed they had seen these packs had actually seen foxes, until one night. It was an evening in late October. My mate and I were walking down dock street, left of the Tetley pub, after visiting my dad’s house to watch the footy. We’d walked about 15 yards down the cobbled path when we both saw 5, maybe 6, dog-like figures at the end of the street. They had tall front legs, and short hind legs, low to the ground. We could just make out fur on their necks and shoulders. They were all weirdly transparent, some more than others. They were scampering and scurrying about, almost jittering when they moved. We could see a low orange reflection in their eyes, but could never see the detail of the hound’s heads to describe fully. My mate and I both started to take steps backwards swearing in disbelief. A couple darted further up the street gradually fading away, before the rest of them
CALL LANE “I was walking down Call Lane alone, late in the evening when a horrible smell suddenly appeared. It smelt like rotten veg and damp. I presumed it was sewerage and covered my face to stop me retching. Then out of nowhere, it sounded as if the street had just filled with people. I heard chatting and footsteps. Having just walked down the street and not seen a soul, I turned around to check out the crowd that I thought was now behind me, but no one was there. My hands still covering my face from the smell, I turned back around to a see a glowing mist ahead, and in it were the shapes of three men. They seemed to be dressed like working men from the early 90s: flat caps, waistcoats, cotton trousers. They were talking to each other, pointing up Call Lane as the spoke. I ran back up the street, looking over my shoulder once to see them still there. When I got to the top, the smell seemed to go, the sounds drifted out and the figures in the mist faded away.
THE HAUNTED HOMES
EAST GRANGE GARTH
BODMIN ROAD
Definitely, know that 17 east Grange garth belle isle Leeds is or was haunted back in the mid 1980’s!. My Aunty and her partner lived there. They were offered the house from the council.When my Aunty moved in there must have been foul play going on with ouija boards.In the smallest bedroom, there were crosses drawn on the walls and there was a bible with the lord’s prayer written backwards at the back of the book in a cupboard in the smallest bedroom. My Aunty started getting experiences of loud banging on the door only to find no one was there and I can vouch for this as I was 13 yrs old and I was there one night with my mum and we was in the sitting room with my Aunty and her partner and there was a massive loud bang bang bang on the door.It was very frightening at that time because my Aunty told of when she slept upstairs in the main big bedroom facing the front she would wake up feeling that someone was pulling the covers off her! She also said her partner was asleep in the bedroom and he heard someone come thumping up the stairs clapping their hands shouting “Come on, Get up” He thought it was my cousin who visited his mum and there was no one there at all! Eventually, my Aunty and her partner stopped sleeping upstairs and slept downstairs in the sitting room! They had a big dog that had to be locked in the kitchen all the time as it was so scared of the place and literally used to shake and bark crazily! My mum once walked up the stairs only to feel two cold hands grab her ankles and her skirt blew upwards! My aunty started to see a youngish man with blondish hair constantly peering at her through the bannister going up the stairs.
I used to visit my uncle, who lived Bodmin Road in Middleton, Leeds, nearly every night. I used to live with him so we are really close, hence why I was up there most nights. It was one night when we were sat in the living room watching tv and talking that, the hallway door slammed violently! His dogs went mental with their fur sticking up there spines, and when we went and inspected, nobody was in the house and the front door was locked! We had to screw the door back to the frame as it was ragged off the hinges. my uncle was packing up his tools and glanced to the top of the stairs and saw a man at the top crouching down, staring at him, the man was baring his teeth at my uncle.
BOGGART HILL Boggart Hill Drive, in Seacroft, is apparently built on an old battleground. The houses were built around the 1960’s I believe. My grandma and grandad both used to live in the house we’re in now. When my mum, uncle and auntie lived in the house as kids, my grandma heard banging and went to tell them to quieten down but as she got to the stairs she was shocked to see a young girl in a white gown walk to the top of the stairs and disappear. She told this to my grandad who never believed her until he went to go upstairs one night and saw her looking at him at the top of the stairs and then disappeared once more.
My grandmother was suffering from early stages of dementia, Not all the time but now and then we would find her in a confused state of mind, and then suddenly snap out of it in more confusion. she said on a few occasions that at night whilst watching the soaps a man was staring at her from the fireplace. there was a photo of my dad in his younger days on the fireplace top, so we assumed in her confused state she was seeing my dad’s photo and thinking t was a man. on one occasion she freaked out and said the man started to move towards her. My grandparents loved their five day holidays in bed, or in flamborough they would go once a year and would ask me to watch over the dogs, I would have the dogs at my house for the week, there was the room for them and it would be easier for me as I worked from home. My grandparents asked me to watch the dogs this year, I accepted but told them I would have to stay at their house this time as I was having the new kitchen put in and the dogs would get in the way or maybe hurt. I did my work in the kitchen at their house and in the evenings I would put my feet up in front of the TV. One morning After I took the dogs for their walk I started working...not long into working the dogs started whimpering from the living room I checked on them and they was both sat by the door quivering. I put it down to them missing my grandparents. around noon I left the kitchen and came back to find the clock from the living room on the table I was working, this freaked me out...BIG TIME. I made my self-belive that it was always there and I hadn’t noticed. it was finally time to get my feet up...in front of the TV I sat and watched the tennis highlights. The dogs started to whimper, then one started to grin its teeth and growl...I tried to calm him down but he was fixated on something by the fire place. ‘what you looking at diesel?’ i looked to the fire place and a man’s head was looking back at me ...no expression, just eyes wide open looking at me. it wasn’t resting on the fireplace but floating on it. I pinned my self back to the sofa. one dog ran to the kitchen the other laid across me barking at this head! I ran out of the room watching the head in case this thing darted towards me. it never took its eyes from me, I ran out of the house with the dogs and down the yard path.
THE HAUNTED PUBS
one sunday morning when everyone had woken up to start on the sunday dinners. the landlady walked into the function room through the archway behind the bar and noticed a helium balloon floating steadily between 2 tables, the balloon itself was about 3 feet above the tables but the string attached to it didnt touch the floor but dropped between the 2 tables. it was a little odd that a balloon would float in mid air but still remain static, not touching anything and no breeze to move the string, the landlady called to my sister to come and have a look, she thought it starnge and called her boyfriend over, eventually everyone in there was looking at this balloon. my sister's boyfriend decided he had enough of watching this wierd balloon and so did 2 of the others leaving my sister and the landlady to do whatever, before he could leave my sister clenched her hands around his arm and wouldn't let go. the ballon had started to move (did i mention there was no breeze) the string was pulled forward as if it was being guided and it was dodging between all the tables and chairs, everyone turned drip white as no one could explain it and after about 3 minutes of this balloon dancing between the furniture it stopped, straightened up and rose
Many years ago I worked in the Manston Hotel, in Crossgates [now called the Barnbow]. At the time, the place was still a real hotel, all 9 rooms of it, and had a regular trade from ROF Leeds and Howson Alagraphy. It was also reputedly haunted. One of the regular guests from Howson’s, stayed Monday to Friday every week and always had the same single room.One particular weekend, he was staying instead of going home because Leeds were playing Newcastle at home and his wife was coming down to see the game too. Thus, he got a different, bigger, room.Saturday night and all of us staff stayed for a lock-in. This was still in the days of the 10.30 closing time so it wouldn’t have been a particularly late lock-in.We were probably only on our second pint when from one of the rooms above came a hell of a thud, then another. Jokes were made about jumping from wardrobes etc but were then interrupted by the door at the top of the stares crashing open and much falling downstairs.Into the bar arrives Barrie, the guest, [in a state of undress and rapidly lessening arousal] followed by his semi naked wife.It turns out that they were doing what married people occasionally do when somebody had touched the sloe of Barry’s foot. His wife had looked over his shoulder to see a woman standing there. Barry to had turned around and looked at her only for the woman to vanish before their very eyes!
first- the first night the new managers stayed upstairs in the pub they were woken up early in the morning by the sound of a baby crying from downstairs, they went and woke my sister and her boyfriend (their son) and they were surprised they could sleep through it as it was very noticable even upstairs, the tried finding where the noise was coming from and eventually they traced it to the back room of the stage, they opened the door, the crying stopped and there was nothing but a few old band posters and some carpet offcuts. the crying baby could be heard every night for the next week after which they never heard it again. second- one of the old barstaff (one from the previous employer but stayed on after because she loved working there) told me of a stranger that came to the pub one night to see a few old friends (one was a regular and one didnt show up) after a few rounds the stranger came up to the bar and asked who was singing in the function room, the bartender told him no one was in there, the stranger sat down again and after a couple more rounds he approached the bar again and asked about the singing in the other room, he got a little angry when she told him no one was in there because he was adamant there was someone singing, the regular then came up and asked about it as well saying he could hear it as well at which point the bartender could hear it too, all of them went to find out and couldn't find anything. nothing was playing and the only way in or out was by the bar, which no one saw anyone walk by that hadn't been in the tap room all night.
The Old Red Lion. I was lucky enough to get up to the disused 3rd floor when a previous tenant was leaving and let members of Leeds Pagan Moot which I was running at the time look around. The end gable room (where the clock is on the outside) has a very strange atmosphere. This is where a barmaid is supposed to have hanged herself.The departing tenant told me that he had been advised to keep the door to the top section locked to "keep the ghost in".They must have unlocked it at some stage as the pub is haunted.I personally witnessed one of the weirdest things i have ever seen there. At a Pagan Moot a woman sat opposite myself let out a scream. We could all see a large splash of blood on her hand and thought she had cut herself,she said she felt it drip on her from above. Wiping it off she had no cut on her hand, nor was there anything on the ceiling and no one next to her had any drink remotely resembling blood that could have splashed. it certainly appeared to be blood on the handkerchief. She didn't have a nose bleed either.
one night i was serving a customer and when i turned round to serve someone else i heard a scream from the ladies toilet everyone turned their heads to the door and watched one of the regulars walk very slowly towards the bar and asked "did you turn the lights off in the toilets". i didnt and tried to explain i was serving the customers and 3 other people confirmed this to her (i was the closest person to the light switches for the entire pub the whole time as well so i know no one was anywhere near them) she then went on to say when the lights went out she panicked and tried opening the door and it felt like someone was pushing back against the door when she tried opening it. no one else was in there with her and all 6 people who were in the pub all night were accounted for. later that night, a slow clack and a crackling laugh came from the ladys toilets, again everyone was accounted for and everyone witness the clappping, laughing ghost.
THE HAUNTED CEMEETARIES
This story might surprise you as it was 5.30 am and most stories of this nature happen at night. I was making my way to the Bus station at around 5.30am a trip I make every morning Monday to Friday. This morning I had set of pretty early and had time to kill before my bus arrived. the morning was pretty nice so I sat on the benches that look across to the graves on the banking, I sat here for about 10 minutes smoking a cig when something caught my eye, were the graves stood was bags blowing in the wind, elevated up but being brushed round in the air, it was the light that was reflecting off them that caught my attention. I thought this was odd as there was no breeze, no what so ever. I watched them for a few seconds and it was until the bags stopped moving and started to change shapes that I realised they are not bags at all, the floating objects manifested into the upper half of a human body, They was still now but getting clearer by the second. I could recognise 2 men and 1 female forms, the lower body was never clear, from the thighs down it was transparent, kind of diluted. I’m not good with history but I could tell the clothes was before the victorian times. after about 1 minute they vanish. they turned towards the banking and walked through it. I was on a train into Leeds, the train was stood still on the tracks for a while waiting for a signal change. I was sat at a table with an elderly lady sat opposite me. the train overlooked to the Chapple and looked down on a banking. as the train started up its engines and slowly started to move, the old lady gasped and said look quick, I looked out of the window down onto the banking and there stood 2 figures as clear as day, looking down on the verge of the banking. they looked to have been wearing long leather coats they looked old and almost hand made, with the thick stitching on the sleeves. people I’ve told, said that they were living people, but living people are not grey, these...people looked like they were out of a black and white photo! with a slight neon green or blue about them, hard to explain...but that’s how I know that what I saw wasn’t alive, it was a ghost.
Lawnswood Cemetry At the time I was working at Lawnswood cemetery in 2001. It was early morning spring, and at that time of year, the moisture from the ground creates a thick mist that blankets the graveyard so all ready this place was spooky but things like that never bother me. I was going to mark a couple of graves that would be dug out later that day ready for a burial the following day. I was doing my job, and mapping out the next grave, head down walking carefully so I didn’t trip in the mist...when everything seemed to just change, it got silent, so silent! I suddenly felt anxious, I tried to brush it off and told myself to stop being stupid and get on with my job. I looked over to the next plot that I had to mark and I swear that I saw a shadow just moving out of my vision behind a grave as if it had been watching me. I told my self it was because I had shaken my self up...I carried on. I walked to the next plot. I felt a push on the back of my shoulder, I quickly turned around ..freaked out I stared to walk away to find the path to leave. I found the path and started to walk with some pace...I could hear foot steps behind following me, I stopped and turned around and no one was there but the steps were getting closer, I made a run for it...the steps seemed to slow down but I wasn’t, I made it back to the gates and leant against the pillow to catch my breath. I lent there looking into the grave yard, trying to look for what basically chased me out...I couldn’t see anything. I was sure that I saw something by that grave. I know something pushed me...but nothing was in that grave yard but me.
WOODHOUSE SQUARE
I would like to keep my place of work and my name confidential for business reasons. I work in one of the buildings on woodhouse square. I was just packing up to finish for the day when I heard a lady’s voice call out “come here” from outside my office door, I opened the door looked down the corridor and there was no one there, as I was about to shut the door its shouted again ‘come here’ but this time it was coming from around the corner of the corridor...I followed the voice presuming it was a college but still hesitant as I didn’t recognise the voice. I turned around the corner and I watched a shadow walking into a room....I stood there for a few seconds hoping that one of my colleges would poke their head from the door. another voice came from the room come here, come look. I slowly walked to the door and poked my head around the corner. There was a lady in a long dress, victorian, elevated from the ground the tips of her toes, inches away from the ground, she was stood staring at a painting, I froze, couldn’t speak nor move...the lady turned her head slowly to me and said, Come here, come look. I scream out load and the woman faded away, my colleges ran from downstairs to find me trying to find the strength to walk away from the doorway. I explained all this to them, this wasn’t the first time that someone had been asked to follow this ghost, but I was the first to follow it...
I was sat in the park of the square one summers morning before my class started at college, Looking in the directions of the buildings acroos...the row of buildings that has the dentist surgery on the end. I watched a pale grey figure, the late 50s walk through the closed door, the entrance of one of the buildings, walk into the middle of the road and turn into a mist and it looked as if it was been carried by the wind and floated away.
My brother in law is a police officer, He says that woodhouse square is the most haunted place in Leeds in his opinion. they get called out to the officers late at night because bright lights are coming from the windows like people are walking around with a torch. But when investigated there is no evidence of anyone being there. One time he was called out to a home that the neighbours reported loud screaming and crying coming from the house next door. but the property wasn’t let, no one should be there. when him and his partner got there, they could hear the screaming and crying them selfs coming through the neighbours wall, they got in touch with the landlord so that they could let them in, when they got access to the property, they had a look around but didn’t find anyone, they put it down to the noises coming from someone’s tv from one of the houses that were attached to the row terrist. when the officers returned to the police car his partner was very silent, and he noticed that he was shaking whilst trying to right documentation of the event...he asked him what have you seen? and he replied. It wasn’t the t.v...I saw a woman, the ghost of a woman run behind you and sat crying in the corner of the living room. the screams of a woman have been reported several times since then. He told me that when he drives through woodhouse square that he’s seen ghosts stood by the road, he’s encountered a male that walks across into the road and vanishes, a woman looking frantic running down the path towards the bridge. He claims to have seen something that wasn’t even human looking, but he gets so scared to talk about it that we can not get any detail about that apparition. A witness walking through this park reported seeing three ghostly figures; one similar to Oliver Twist's Bill Sikes, and a man and woman wearing what could have been well-to-do Victorian clothing. The witness said there were no feelings of ill ease.
At the times I lived at 2 woodhouse square. one evening I heard kids playing, screaming laughing. I wasn’t bothered by the noise, kids got to play right? the noises got louder and it appeared they were playing right outside my door that opens to a small plot of concrete that opens to the road. I walked to the back door to tell them to move on or to be more quite, I could see their figures through the frosted glass, I swung open the door and there stood 3 children, small, grey like children. they stopped looked right at me and one started to giggle. I slammed the door, and they started to make noise again, but only for a few seconds then the sounds started to fade away. they were dressed in early 90s clothing, around 4 or 5 I would say. No one would believe me. until we sold the house and a few months later I got a phone call from people who bought the house and asked me if I ever had anything strange go on in the property? he said he had seen shadows of children run through the house and can hear the play early hours in the morning.
I was a young man and went to bed, I could hear the faint sound of a brass band. Within five minutes the band sounded like it was outside my house so he climbed out of bed and looked out the window, but could see nothing. Ten minutes later the sound of the band was so loud it was as if it was in the house. Once again I looked out of the window - there was nothing there and the sound stopped. Thinking the incident could have been a dream I didn’t mention it, although several years later I started to tell my brother the story, who finished the story as he had also heard the sounds.
Two witnesses in the back of a camper van heard the sound of horse's hooves outside their vehicle (even though they did not hear the creature approach). They heard the creature depart before it returned soon after, this time brushing against the rear window. The witnesses drove away, unable to see anything in the darkness. The driver turned the van around a few hundred metres down the road and returned to see what had been harassing them, but nothing was found.
THE SCREAMING GHOST OF MIDDLETON TRAIN TRACKS
BECKETT UNIVERCITY
I was working for a market research company a few years ago and we had hired three rooms out in the university for research purposes.i believe these were on the 3rd floor on a glorious saturday afternoon with no students around. did notice a dicectual unit as I entered the car-park thinking there might be something eerie in there. 1st incident- was speaking to our exec in the kitchen when after putting the kettle on he noticed the cups started to move as he was chatting to me.he looked stunned and stuttered the cups were moving. 2nd -was coming out of kitchen into venue, was walking down the corridor when noticed slim young lady in floral skirt and long dark curly hair (thinking respondent coming early)followed her through the swing doors and turned left. when i turned left she disappeared. when asked manageress if had seen some-one come through she replied no. had strange feeling and shuddered but didnt say anything as thought i must be seeing things. 3rd -went to ladies toilet there was a waste bin holding the door open. whilst washing hands a powerful gust of wind came blowing all over the room and slammed the door shut with the bin on the inside. this was a beautiful saturday afternoon with no wind knew something was not right.i rushed for the door madly trying to open it in panic. still didnt say anything in case my work colleages thought i was mad. 4th- going home time.one lady from leeds said she would direct me out of the place as she knew it well. we got lost.couldnt find our way out on the corridors.was like maze with doors locking behind us. we eventually found ourselves in the staircase and i suggested we may have to stay night there.she was so distraught. we then went back up to the 3d floor and luckily the door into the corridoor wasnt quite shut.fraction of an inch.phew sigh of relief! 5th- went back to our hired rooms luckily work colleagues not left for home so all went down together.as approached the entrance as we were all chatting suddenly my right leg caught up in a lasso rope.hopping with my leg i shouted somethings not right here and that wasnt possible to catch my foot in such height and a lasso rope hanging round my leg.god knows where this came from showed it everyone. by this time i was stressed out.. one of my work colleage did tell me later that papers had been moved and flicked about and there was something in there that didnt want me to go ..really scary and was still shaking driving home..
the building right at the bottom of the central car park closest to Beckett Park was once a hall of residence. One of our security guards reports opening up the empty building one morning by the back entrance and hearing the sound of somebody exhaling sharply as if they were standing right behind him. Could it have been the ghost of a former lecturer, rumoured to have died in Bronte around 1920? Of all the buildings on campus, The Grange (the old grey stone building at the bottom right of The Acre if you stand with your back to James Graham) is legendary for its supernatural incidents, with many of our cleaners refusing to enter the building alone. Professional ghost hunters have investigated the premises and there have been late night sit-ins for staff and students to get to the bottom of its spooky mysteries. The back stairs in the old servants’ quarters have also seen their fair share of spectres. Our head porter reports seeing a woman in white descending the stairs who vanished once he looked up. The bell at the foot of the stairs has no ringer, yet it has been heard to ring out loud and clear late at night. I have only told my best friend this story because I know how ridiculous this sounds...I was working late and I was on my own in the classroom, surrounded by tables. I was working hard, head down and concentrating when all of a sudden the table started to vibrate, I stood up knocking my chair back, the table started to rock subtlely....I leant over and grabbed my phone I was going to record what was happening but then each and every table started to rock from leg to leg violently, I left my papers the only thing of value was my phone so I was safe to get the hell out of there...I ran out the room down the corridor and I could still hear the tables beating together and into the ground. A male’s voice screamed NO so load, the voice came from the room I swear on it. I got back to my room and told my best friend, she gave me the courage to go back and collet my thing so I can work from hoe and not have to work in that room ever agin...we went back to the classroom, to find all the tables was pushed against the walls, my work was was neatly piled a table.
LEEDS GENERIL INFERMORY
I was employee at this hospital I heard five voices and footsteps rushing down a corridor, but could see nothing - there was a gust of wind as the invisible people passed.
My father was a porter there for years. he has 3 stories. the first- In the Brotherton wing he watched three nuns walk from inside a wall across the corridor and through the opposite wall, he said that they were in mid conversation and was talking about a someone loosing both their legs. the second- he was walking down the corridor when behind him he heard a trolly bed squeaking as if it was moving fast, with sound of Drs and nurses in a panic, he jumped to the wall of the corridor so the team could pass, pressed against the wall, he saw nothing, no one was there. the third- My dad sometimes had to enter the lowest level of the hospital, we would call it the basement. my dad said the ceiling was lined with pipes and wires, he heard that in its day this level was for autopsy and one section of it was the morgue. the level isn’t used today for anything but storage, boxes, old equipment. he said the stainless steal operation set up is still down there, with the odd box sat on top...he was down there looking for a labelled box. he saw the back of a naked man, stood staring across the room of junk, it slowly stepped, turning to my dad...when it turned fully around the ghost’s face was injured, its right cheek bone and all its forehead was battered and broken...my dad in panic through a large box at it and started to run. he mentioned it to some of the other colleges and they laughed and said ‘weve heard stories of ghost and some of us have seen the odd thing...but that’s too much’ they mocked him for weeks until a group of trainees saw the naked injured ghost them selfs in the entrance of the lowest level. My dad said that this ghost visited him one more time whilst he was working there...he was up a ladder replacing a tail in the ceiling, the ghost appeared by his ladder looking at the tale my dad was holding, my dad jumped from the ladder and the ghost staired at my dad as he started to fade away...
I am a nurse at LGI and I had this patient, she was on no medication, she was a sound of mind and always relaxed. I came to her bed and told her that I’m going to take your blood pressure and see how you’re getting on... she told me that a nurse has already been and chatted with her. I looked through media records and no one had signed that she had not been seen by any other staff member. she told me the nurse asked how she was feeling today? if I was in any discomfort? and assured her that no further tests will be needed and that she was doing just fine. and she walked away. The thing is, There were only 2 nurses on that word that day and the other was on the desk signing forms all morning...I asked her patient what she looked like. hair tied up...tight. very young early 20s. we didn’t even have anyone that young on our word, I started to get worried as I felt that there was an imposter in the building...she described the uniform, it didn’t fit the description of the uniform we were wearing. I never showed the patient that I was getting creeped out I just said that fine and walked to the desk to update my college. I told her everything my patient said. my colleague went white and told me that she just described uniform from the 50s... And apparently, this wasn’t the first time this nurse as interfered with our practice.
Many years ago I was waiting for my girlfriend at the junction of St Annes Lane/ Kirkstall Lane. At the opposite side of Kirkstall Lane, corner of Queenswood Drive, a young woman was standing by a telephone kiosk.Hearing some footsteps behind me, thinking it was my date, I glanced around, seeing it wasn’t her, I looked back across the road but the waiting woman was no longer there. The kiosk was isolated, there were no houses or any type of cover for at least 20-30 yards around, no one could have disappeared in the second or two it took me to glance around. I thought it strange so to satisfy myself that I wasn’t dreaming I walked across the road to check behind the kiosk. There was no-one there. When my girl finally arrived I told her, she agreed with me that it was very strange. Sometime later I was told that a young woman, who had been waiting for a telephone call at this kiosk, had been knocked down and killed by a car as she was crossing Kirkstall lane. This happened in the 1960s and I still think I saw this young woman’s ghost.
I was coming home from work in the early hours of the morning about half 4, I was in a taxi with a friend and we were driving up Kirkstall road and then turned at the traffic lights to go 2 Bramley (sorry I don’t know the names of the roads very well) wen i looked out of the window and saw the ghost of a young to middle-aged woman all in white walking along the path at the side of the road next to an old wall that runs all the way along the road, she was coming from the phone box and walking away from it with her head down the only other person who saw her was the taxi driver and he didn’t believe in them until now. I have seen this lady a number off times now and she always seems to be around the phone box..... I have also seen a strange mist on the pelican crossing, what looks like a little boy or girl running across the road just a bit further up from where the lady has been seen and at the traffic lights at the end of Kirkstall lane.
My business was contracted to make construction to the abbey property. My night guard that I had there whos job was to make sure the equipment and materials were safe and to prevent trespasser to the property rung me after his first night shift there, he told me that he will not work another night on this site. I asked why, and he said. I was on my routine check at 3.15am I heard a low humming sound coming from the great hall of the abbey, when I investigated there was no one there and the sound had stopped I sat in my cabin when the humming started again but this time much loader, I walked to the hall once more, I walked through to the center to see if there was someone in there, the humming got louder and clearer, it was chanting, like monk chants. The chants echoed around me and showed no signs of stopping I made my way back to my cabin and sat there the rest of the night listening to the chants start and stop the rest of my shift. I had no choice but to swap my night guard with another from a different site I was constructing on. after his shift the following morning I made a visit subtlety see if he had witnessed anything. When I asked how was the shift, he laughed nervously and replied, This place is creepy, on my checks of the property I could hear the foots steps of someone running through the hall...not only that I heard voices through out the night echoing. I thought it was some youths or a gang in the streets or camped out drinking toward the west trees. but The voices was definitely coming from the hall, I stood in there twice and could hear it clear as day coming from the far corner under the huge window. he didn’t seem to bothered by it all and was happy to stay working on the site until a few weeks later my night guard reported he was chased by two spirits to his cabin. the spirits were claimed to be wearing old gentleman clothing. It was the only night he didn’t hear the chants from the hall. At kirkstall abbey museum i was going to the abbey when i looked through the the window and a white figure flow past me it was scary
It was a summer evening and the sky was beautiful from the sun setting. There was a cool breeze that complimented what seemed to be the hottest day ever. I decided to take my dog on another walk to make the most of the breeze. Now walking my dog down abbey road, ground walls to my right. I saw a woman stood in the tree line that runs parallel to the shop. she was stood staring across with her back towards me. I could make out long dark hair and a long white dress. I took my eyes of the lady for a few seconds and when I looked she had moved from the trees to the entrance of the abbey staring at the huge iron gates. the time that I wasn’t looking at this woman wasn’t enough to be able to run that distance. confused, I walked closer. The trees and grass were blowing with the breeze, I noticed this woman’s clothing wasn’t moving. This made me realise her clothes was from another age, I’m not quite sure what age but they was very old looking...I stood still pulling my dog back on his lead and watched the woman speed across the fields back to the tree line with no movement what so ever, no running motion, no movent in her hair or clothing...she seemed to glide stiff as she neared the trees she started to vanish, following her was a shape low to the ground, like a rectangle shaped mist...a foot high and two 2 in length, this did have motion, but wasn’t clear to what it was...its lower side of the shape was moving, like something was messaging through it that also vanished as it got to the line of trees.
Me and my brother would visit the abbey once a year, it was one of our family days out on a Saturday during a hot weekend in summer. Me and my little brother would play hide and seek in the ruins. This one time I was running, looking for my brother. I ran into what I think is the kitchen area of the ruins. I took a sharp felt and make face to face with something horrible.I slammed the brakes on to be a couple of feet away from a tall man in a brown gown, he was facing the wall, had his chin on his chest and was holding something, his forehead was inches away from the stone wall. I fell back I stopped so hard, the ghost turned its head sharp and looked at me, he was just as surprised to see me as I was him. His mouth opened abnormally wide, its mouth and eyes grew black and its stepped forward into the wall.
(2006) near YTV. My wife, daughter and myself were on our way home from watching Leeds playing at Headingley. The time would be between 9.30 and 10.00 pm on a Friday. Very light cloud. Being a summer evening it was still quite light. We were travelling along Willow road towards Kirkstall road, when I noticed a black object in the sky above the Willow road/Kirkstall road traffic lights. My wife was driving so I got a good look at it. The object was a black humanoid, solid and had a black glow around it, It was quite a way up but I wouldn’t like to say how far up or how big it was. It was much larger than any human figure I’ve seen for sure. The object didn’t seem to move but just hung in the air. there was a sense of confusion whilst looking at it, yes we were confused to what this thing could be but there was an overwhelming felling that the thing in the sky was also confused. Lots of other people were looking at it too. It was there for a long time, then the police showed up and white van with orange flashing lights and made all the graphics move, they seemed to be in a hurry about it too. all these witnesses and not once was in brought up on TV in the paper nor was it online.
Abbey road - the traffic light that crosses the road from the abbey to the museum. I was stood waiting for the red man to go green, there was no traffic but I am one of those who is never too careful. as I stood there I noticed a white mist crossing the road to the right of the traffic lights in the mist I could see a woman, she was stunning! scary but stunning, long dark hair and a long dress, by her feet, walked a dog. it made as far as the kerb and faded away. I Just giggled to my self nervously as I was in disbelief to what I had seen, I dint start running until I was walking past the museum when it finally hit me that I just saw the spirit of a woman and her dead dog. I was taking a photo of the stone walls of the abbey I was taking close up shots of the textures and rot on the stone when a pair of eyes opened and looked up my lense as I snapped the photo...I developed the photo but it came out as if the film of that photo had been burnt.
TEMPLE NEWSAM
We were staying at a B&B in Leeds as we were bike riding through Yorkshire was the summer of 2007. on the ride back from our ride that day, we were aware we were losing light but wanted to be out on our bikes a little longer so we took a detour and decided to ride through temple Newsam. it was dark now and we were coming down the road ( sorry I don’t remember the roads) the road was long and on an incline, tress and bushes at either side of us. all our lights went dim at once, then they started to flicker and change settings. we pulled over to try and sort them out but we couldn’t stop them blinking or going dim, we pushed on up the hill, the lights on the bikes went out! my friend who was riding behind me and in front of my other friend shouted, peddle faster go, go, go. we bolted, he took the lead and we were shouting what’s wrong, I turned around to see if there was something chasing us like a dog or a deer or something...I couldn’t see a thing, I started to shout slow down tell us what you have seen, but he was determined to ride as fast as he could home...I took one more look behind and there it was...a ghost of a man, in ragged clothes, didn’t look old in features or clothing, he looked like he was from the 80s. he was running up the hill but it appeared he was running in slow motion, his clothes were bouncing very slow and his hair also, almost looked like he was under water. We darted away...we didn’t stop until we got to a well lite area, we stood with our bikes and took our helmets of terrified... we told each other what we had saw, mike, who had first seen something said he saw a man step from the bushes and reach out for him, Dom the rider from the back told us that he saw nothing...but was acting weird. later that night at the B&B Dom started to well up and told us that he did see something, when mike shouted go go go he looked and saw a woman holding a child rocking back and forth with a screaming expression on her face, the child was limp and appeared dead even in ghost form. he said the woman and the boy looked as if they was wet through, and was dressed pretty normal, jeans, denim top...there clothes were pretty beaten up. as he started to peddle away, the woman reached out to him...he said in desperation.
I have was looking around the home when I saw my first ghost. I was looking at the grand paintings with my husband. we noticed a woman was looking at painting on the other side of the room. she left out a scream and shouted someone just squeezed my arm! as we watched her say that, my husband and I saw a ghost of a woman step back from her into nothingness, she just faded to mist then nothing. Saturday, April 1995. I was on my bike enjoying a rest and a drink of water, it was boiling that day, I watched an orange glow come from the Newsam house walls it was moving slowly but man it was bright... it started to move faster to the direction of the tree lines across the fields, I chased after it on my bike, but was moving quicker and quicker. A man was on the field and he watched it pass over his head into the tree, I stopped to have a chat with the guy as I couldn’t see the light in the trees anymore, I asked you saw that yeah? what was it? he said, it was a face, a face in a glowing orange mist...it was crying. I laid on the grass in the fields by the mansion with my girlfriend both saw a little boy sat by our feet just looking at our backpacks smiling when we sat up he rolled over to get up, whilst he was in the motion he started to fade away. Old clothing, waistcoat, murky blue shirt, shorts high socks, brown shoes... after we looked around to see if anyone behind us saw what we saw but no one was in facing our direction. believe it or not, I saw the ghost of a cow at temple Newsome. it started when I could hear the sound of a cattle bell, and the sounds of grass being pulled from the ground. then I saw the front half of a cow, its head neck and shoulders and up front legs was clear. the rest was see through. It was grazing.
THE LOST SUOL IN THE DARK ARCHES