Rotherham, surrounded the mighty flowing River Don, has an array of spooks and spectres. CALLUM CAMPELL delves into the numerous inkblots of spooky history in this South Yorkshire city.
Haunted Objects Muesum, Rotherham
Now any building that stores and displays purportedly haunted objects must be milling with wraiths. And with the Haunted Objects Museum, or The Poltergeist House, this is exactly the case here.
One of the rooms here used to be the site of brutal abuse and neglect given to two young children, now folk sense giggling youngsters prancing about and mediums called in repeatedly keep having the name Emily brought to mind. When the house was left to be filmed for a night, a lady in a flowing white dress could be seen striding across the curtains.
People are often scratched and one gentleman how peered into a box said to contain a Jewish spirit named a dybbuk has a Christian cross craved into his back.
All this is small fry, however, compared to the most-prized item housed in the museum, the most haunted doll in Britain and fifth most haunted in the world. This doll is tethered to a spirit named Elizabeth, who uses the doll to rip at married men, leaving them covered in welts and scratches, and sets off fire alarms among other mischief. The doll is marred by a spot of blood that appears and disappears randomly.
Hoober Stand
Surronded by trees, a eerie tower appears out of the mist, The Hoober Stand. This stand was constructed in 1748 by Marquis Wentwoth to celebrate the crushing of the Jacobite insurrection. Rumours of witchcraft can be linked to Hoober Stand with several “altars” being found in the area and a crow found nailed to a tree. Folk often hear torrents of voices and the sound of people shuffling about in a circle. Many ghosts have also been seen here such as a monk and a mysterious watcher who protects the stand.
Wentworth Woodhouse
About 15 minutes from The Hoober Stand, and built by the same Marquis Woodworth, is Wentworth Woodhouse, a sprawling countryhouse with 250,000 square feet of floor space and numerous ghosts.
Children are often heard scurrying through the winding halls, the spectre of a man was seen standing completely still and a monk wanders the grounds.
Oftentimes doors swing open and closed and earsplitting bangs are often heard with the fixation of the phenomena being the library and the Geogre the 5th drawing room.
Helby Hall
In 1692, Ralph Fretwell, a prosperous sugar plantation owner, undertook the building of Helby Hall. Now this grayscale manor serves as an 89-room hotel, with at least 10 of these rooms being the site of paranormal activity.
In room 5, people’s sleep is often rudely interrupted by a ghastly hag peering at them from the end of the bed. And those staying in Room 36, despite having a TV planted in front of the bed, have the unfortunate drawback of being strangled in their sleep.
Ulley Reservoir
Ulley Reservoir was dug out in 1876 to provide healthy drinking water to the area. For the few decades of its life, the reservoir was serene, yet industrial, body of water however that changed in the early 1900s.
Nearby was Anston Hall, a lunatic asylum which was the site of barbaric and brutal experiments on patients. One patient, or inmate, managed to escape however, still of an insane, he jumped off a bridge covering Ulley Reservoir and drowned. Now at night it is said a deranged, wild wraith helter skelters all over the Ulley grounds with erratic and jerking movements.
I hope you enjoyed this selection of the most haunted and terrifying locations in Rotherham and continue to seek out the unexplained and paranormal in the world.
Have you seen a ghost in Rotherham? Tell us about it in the comments section below!
