Blog

I have always been intrigued by ghosts that reputedly haunt hospitals. With the tens of thousands of people dying in wards across the UK each year, one could easily come to the logical conclusion that hospitals are replete with restless souls manifesting, demanding justice or just not understanding their predicament, and causing havoc for staff, patient and visitor alike. Unsurprisingly, logic rarely plays a part in attempting to understand the paranormal.

On Friday 30 January, the Telegraph and several other newspapers reported that the new Derby City General Hospital, was home to a black cloaked man who rushed between rooms and disappeared through walls. This ghostly figure appeared to be most active around the morgue. While it was initially reported that an exorcism would take place, later stories stated that the Trust's chaplain would visit and talk to staff about their concerns.

Returning briefly to logic, would it not be reasonable to believe that this phantom was a former patient? Okay, I acknowledge that the City General is new, but it was built on the site of the old hospital, which had been in operation since the 1920s. That is a great many years and a great number of deaths in one location. But the phantom in the cloak is thought to be a Roman soldier, connected to the ancient Roman road that the original hospital was built upon. I have no answers to why this two thousand year old ghost is prevalent while other, more recent, tragedies remain silent, but I am not surprised.

Graylingwell Hospital in Sussex is reportedly haunted not by one-time inmates but by the sounds of a monk walking around the grounds in his sandals. The former David Lewis Northern Hospital in Liverpool was haunted by a gin smuggler who died close by. The ex-Wath Wood Hospital was another NHS location home to a ghostly Roman soldier.

Former staff appear to be more likely to haunt hospitals or former hospitals then their patients. The studios where Trent FM broadcast (which were on the site of an old hospital) until January 2007, were reputedly haunted by a female apparition that resembled a matron. At Scunthorpe, local legends say that a phantom nurse will occasionally stand by sick beds, her presence is an assurance that the ill will fully recover. During the 1960s, the hospital at Hyde Park Corner had a phantom grey lady who was said to be a former nurse, who spoke to patients in very poor health.

Despite what I have said above, occasionally phantom patients are encountered. The final story was sent to me in 2006, and is said to have occurred in a Scottish infirmary in 2002...

Whilst answering an arrest call, a young doctor was stopped in the corridor by a man asking the way out. The doctor quickly pointed to the exit over his shoulder and continued running down the corridor. When the doctor arrived on the ward, he saw that the patient who had arrested and died was the same man who he had seen in the corridor. The doctor was so unnerved, he took time off work to recover. His colleagues checked the security tapes, and they saw the doctor running down the corridor, stopping and pointing to the door and continue running down the corridor but there was no one else on the tape!

The Paranormal Diary:

Throughout February

River Thurne, Potter Heigham (Norfolk)
In love with a rich man's daughter, a drummer boy would skate across the frozen river to secretly rendezvous with his forbidden girlfriend. However, one winter night the ice cracked and the boy drowned - leaving his ghost to continue the drumming. A phantom female rower has also been seen on the river.

Millhams Lane and surrounding Longham area, Bournemouth (Dorset)
Last reported during the 1970s, the area around the A348 Bridge is reportedly haunted by a ghostly white (or grey) woman, who was killed when hit by a horse and trap along the road in the dim and distant past. One story says she tries to entice men to jump off the bridge.

Darren Mann
www.paranormaldatabase.com