Dark shadowy figures, the jangling of keys, a woman dressed in Victorian clothing and a phantom monk are just some of the sightings reportedly spotted by locals in this city.
A disembodied left hand on a field near the railway line at Werrington was logged as recently as 2009, and in 2007 at Sutton Heath Road, one man reportedly watched a figure driving a horse and carriage emerge from a bush on the right hand side and cross the road ahead of him.
Poltergeist activity tells of broken cups and plates scattered across the kitchen of an Eastfield guest house in 1960, and from 1891-92 at a house in Mayor’s Walk “bedsheets would be thrown on to the floor, doors violently shaken and crashing so loud it was if parts of the house were falling (although nothing would be found out of place).
"Neighbours tried to stay the night to discover the source of the activity but would flee before dawn.”
Even the former RAF Peterborough airbase at Westwood – now covered in housing and HMP Peterborough – is still said to be haunted by “the sound of old engines flying overhead and airmen dressed in old uniforms.”
The website, Paranormal Database, is described as “a serious ongoing project to document locations with folkloric, paranormal and cryptozoological connections with more than 13,400 entries” – including this collection in Peterborough:
1. Haunted Peterborough
A number of buildings in Peterborough are said to be haunted Photo: BENGT_JACOBSSON
2. Haunting Manifestation
The former Tourist Information Centre in Peterborough Cathedral precincts which is reputed to be haunted by a phantom monk. Photo: PT
3. Haunting Manifestation
In 1995, on the A1 north of Peterborough, a driver and his wife overtaking a lorry at 70mph watched a woman in 1950s clothing, carrying a bag, dash in front of their car to the central reservation. The driver had no time to slow down but did not hit the woman. Photo: PT
4. Paranormal activity
Haunting Manifestation: Queensgate Shopping Centre - Sometimes heard once the shopping centre is closed to the public, the sound of a young child giggling and disembodied footsteps have been reported. Photo: David Lowndes