From a sobbing nobleman hung for overthrowing a king, to the groaning corpse which walks High Pavement, Nottingham has a rich paranormal history.
With the help of the Galleries of Justice and local tour guides, Notts TV News has been to some of the city’s most haunted spots in search of ghosts old and new.
Here’s our run-down of the city’s most spine-tingling stories. If you’ve seen any of these ghosts or have heard tales you think are better, get in touch.
The High Pavement Zombie
Hundreds of years ago Nottingham County Goal on High Pavement was famed for its heinous prisoners and even more despicable prison guards.
The guards were infamous for their greed and were known to pull the inmates’ teeth out to sell on the black market.
However there was only a limited supply of prisoners’ teeth so the guards had to devise another money-making scheme.
They found it underneath St Mary’s church.
They gathered prisoners together to dig up the graves and cart the bodies off to be sold.
Until one day a corpse they were carrying jerked awake, causing the prisoners to flee the scene. When they returned in the morning the body was gone.
Video: Hear how Nottingham bodysnatchers got a nasty surprise
Narrow Marsh: The thousand hauntings
Broad Marsh and Narrow Marsh were created in the 11th century when the Normans diverted the River Leen.
This created a marshy area of the city in which orphans, outlaws and the poor lived in squalid conditions.
The area was a cesspit for disease and crime with more than 2,000 people estimated to have perished there. Rogue doctors roamed the street looking for vulnerable orphans that they could capture and harvest their organs for medical research.
It is rumoured that if you listen closely around Castle Gate you can still hear the singing of the orphan children.
Video: A resident of Narrow Marsh recalls its grisly history
Roger de Mortimer: The sobbing nobleman
One of the oldest and most chilling stories begins in 1287 with the birth of Roger De Mortimer, a rich and influential nobleman.
He joined an unsuccessful rebellion to overthrow King Edward II and was imprisoned in the Tower of London. Not only did he escape and flee to France, but he managed to take the King’s wife with him.
While abroad Queen Isabella and De Mortimer became lovers and started plotting to overthrow Edward.
In 1326 Mortimer, accompanied by other noblemen, crossed the Channel and forced the king into abdication and the signing over of powers to his son, Edward III.
A year later Mortimer organised the murder of Edward. For the next three years he and Isabella ruled the country by proxy, bestowing great powers upon themselves and annoying many nobles in the process.
The couple visited Nottingham Castle in October 1330 while on a tour of the country.
Picture: How Nottingham Castle looked in the time of Roger de Mortimer
One night and Edward his noblemen sneaked up a secret tunnel, now known as Mortimer’s hole, and seized the couple, almost killing de Mortimer as they threw him down a set of stairs.
Mortimer was found guilty of assuming royal powers and was hanged on November 29 1330. Since then there have been numerous sightings and hearings of Mortimer in the secret passage from which he was extracted from the castle.
The most common hauntings of Mortimer’s Hole are Isabella’s plea: “Fair son, have pity on the gentle Mortimer”, the sobbing of Mortimer as he is led away and the banging sound of Mortimer being chucked down the stairs.
The ghosts of the Roundhouse
While the Roundhouse off Maid Marian Way is now known as a place to have a drink in, it hasn’t always been that way. Less than a century ago it was the Jubilee wing of the old Nottingham General Hospital.
This means it has seen its fair share of tragedies and raw human emotion. The perfect ingredients for a ghost to become trapped in the human realm.
It is not uncommon for bar staff to see people walking through the pub when it’s closed before swiftly disappearing through walls or patrons to feel a cold breeze pass right through them.
Video: Historian and tour guide David Cross tells Notts TV’s Christian Hewgill about the mysterious Roundhouse
But the best bet for a ghostly sighting this Halloween looks to be back at the castle and the infamous Mortimer’s Hole.
A guide who gives tours of the castle, who did not want to be named, said: “People definitely hear stuff, doors have been slammed and people hear Isabella’s sobbing.”
He said he has experienced paranormal activity in Mortimer’s Hole.
“I was doing a tour and heard footsteps coming from behind me getting louder and louder, everyone assumed it was another tour so we waited so they could overtake us… but no one ever appeared.”
When asked if he thought a haunting was overdue he said: “Who knows, it was around this time of year that Roger was dragged down Mortimer’s Hole, so it would be fitting.”
