SecretLeeds - History, culture and architecture in Leeds

To supplement the Haunted Houses and haunted Pubs threads plus the Terror on the road one I thought we needed one on Haunted Places to cover things like woods,fields, squares etc in Leeds & district.I would mention Bushy Cliff Wood at rothwell, haunted by a hooded shape with a skull face.A friend also saw a male apparition on Tunnel Howe Hill. Any other reports from this area?

There is Mary Pannell (towards Cas)Mary Pannel or Pannell was a maid at Ledston Hall towards the end of the 16th century. Her ghost, leading a horse, is supposed to haunt the Pannell Hill and it is claimed that anybody seeing her will have a death in the family

Yes, Mary Pannal was also reputed to be a witch and this is alleged to be where she was executed. Lots of stories of cars stopping for no reason and sightings of misty shape.She is also linked with the haunting of Heath Hall and Heath Common at Wakefield as she was accused by Dame Mary Bolles of Heath Hall of killing her father by witchcraft and is supposed to have cursed Dame Mary. When Dame Mary died her ghost began to haunt Heath hall and area. There is another explanation of the Heath Hall haunting relating to the terms of Dame Mary's will not being adhered too. Her ghost was supposed to have ben laid in a pit in the river, but she still haunts the area.

When I was a student at Bretton Hall, there were many stories doing the rounds of various ghosts haunting the grounds, including IIRC your standard issue 'demon dogs' with glowing red eyes haunting the area around the lakes and ghostly children haunting an old pig sty in the grounds near the chapel. Personally I think these stories were mostly the result of shoving a load of drama students in a vaguely spooky looking location, but you never know...

Bretton Hall is supposed to have a "White Lady". I worked there in the Sculpture Park for a year and being a pagan, folklorist and general nosy person asked around about any hauntings etc.I never heard of any black dog stuff etc. Bretton does have its own folk ballad based on the odysseus legend about a former Lord going missing and only turning up on his wifes wedding day (she thinking him long dead) the only one to recognise him at first being his dog. A copy of the ballad is in the local archives of wakefield Library.

There's an article in an old edition of Northern Earth magazine that describes a haunted patch of wasteground in Adel, called the 'Devil's Fields' or something similar. I'll try and find it tonight and post more details...CheersDave

a couple of lads have told tale of a guy on the sanner(field where killingbeck hospital was)riding a big old horse.i am told he wears a tricorne hat with big buckle shoes, so i suppose he would be mid 18th centuary.he and his steed just amble along some distance from any track or path,then vanish.i've never seen anything like that up there,but certainly one of the men that told me of this is to be trusted,he's a handy bloke and told me he wet himself and ran. just noticed davey ravens i.d pic and thats the look,highway man type.could it be [edited for content],on his way to york...or the ghost of the highway man that robbed the ingram coach on it's way back to temple newsham...just a thought.

id like to know where that incident happened with the highway man and the ingram coach, because theres one spot as you head up the main road to temple newsam where i always seem to drive through a mist, only on a night even if its a nice clear night.Anyone else seen this?

Not seen anything - but do know someone that maintains they have seen an old fashioned pony and trap, (rather than a large carriage) drive past them just by the House, which looked quite solid and 'real' but disappeared as quicky as it appeared ...

I don't think I have mentioned Ken Goors excellent little book "HAUNTED LEEDS" on here. he published it last year and collected a lot of new tales (including yours truly regarding The Old Red Lion).Very useful for people looking for sites.The new "Haunted Yorkshire" by Stephen Wade published this year is not bad either.