Ulley Reservoir was dug out in 1876 to provide drinking water for the area, according to Spooky Isles. It sits among fields and woods south of Rotherham and is now a popular spot for walkers and anglers.
The ghost story is one of a handful that Spooky Isles collected for Rotherham. It says an asylum named Anston Hall stood nearby, that one of its patients escaped in the early 1900s, and that he jumped from a bridge over the reservoir and drowned. At night his wild figure is said to dash around the grounds with erratic, jerking movements. Hello Rayo repeats the story with the asylum spelled Aston Hall and says the man fell rather than jumped.
The two accounts do not agree on the asylum's name and no source gives the patient's name, a date, or a newspaper report of the drowning. No institution of that name was identified near Ulley while checking. The tale is also told under the title the Lunatic of Ulley Reservoir in a published local ghost book, which was not read. It is recorded here as a traditional story with no verified incident behind it.
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