A6 Stocksbridge Bypass Phantom Children
During construction of the Stocksbridge Bypass, security guards and workers encountered phantom children dancing on a bridge and a hooded monk, leading to police investigations.
The Stocksbridge Bypass, part of the A616 route in South Yorkshire, gained notoriety as one of Britain’s most haunted roads even before it opened to traffic. During its construction in 1987-1988, security guards, construction workers, and even police officers reported a series of disturbing paranormal encounters that were documented in official police reports and local media. The incidents centered around two main phenomena: phantom children seen dancing on an unfinished bridge, and a mysterious hooded figure resembling a monk.
In September 1987, two security guards patrolling the construction site reported seeing children in old-fashioned clothing dancing and playing on a partially built bridge. When they investigated, the children had vanished, but both men felt an overwhelming sense of being watched and heard childish laughter echoing across the site. They reported the incident, and South Yorkshire Police were dispatched to investigate. The officers sent to the scene experienced their own paranormal encounter—their patrol car’s instruments malfunctioned, they felt an oppressive presence, and glimpsed a hooded figure standing in the road ahead before it disappeared. The encounter was so disturbing that it was officially logged in police records.
Construction workers reported additional phenomena: tools moved or disappeared, unexplained lights in areas with no power supply, and the feeling of invisible presences walking among them at night. The hooded monk figure was seen multiple times, usually standing motionless on the roadside or walking slowly across the construction site. Some researchers have linked the hauntings to the land’s history—the bypass was built over the site of a medieval monastery and passed near ancient burial grounds. Others suggest the massive earthworks and disruption awakened residual energies. Despite the road’s completion and decades of normal use, occasional sightings of the phantom children and the monk continue to be reported by motorists, particularly near the bridge where the original encounter occurred.