The Paranormal Database

Sitting Airman

Location: Sawbridgeworth - Former RAF Sawbridgeworth
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Late twentieth century
Further Comments: This lonely airman sits by the side of the road, patiently waiting for a lift which has never yet arrived.

Man-Like Monster

Location: South Mimms - Bridge along Wash Lane
Type: Cryptozoology
Date / Time: Circa late nineteenth / early twentieth century
Further Comments: A man crossing the bridge watched as a human-like creature rose from the ground and leapt over the bridge, vanishing into the mist. The witness fled.

Praying Man

Location: South Mimms - Church and vicarage
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: 1920s
Further Comments: A man seen praying in the church stood up and walked through a closed door leading to the vestry. The Reverend Allen Hay also reported that he would often wake at 3am and felt a presence in the vicarage, though he was convinced the ghost was friendly.

Headless Man

Location: South Mimms - Field close to the village
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: 1930s
Further Comments: The area where a dead man was found quickly became known as being haunted by a headless man and the occasional glowing light.

Flagging Figure

Location: South Mimms - Unnamed road in the area
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Spring 1935
Further Comments: Several motorists (and a vicar on his bike) encountered a figure who stood on the roadside flagging down travellers, only to vanish seconds later. More generally, the roads in the area where once said to be haunted by the ghost of Dick Turpin.

Turpin

Location: South Mimms - Wash Lane
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Circa late nineteenth / early twentieth century
Further Comments: The ghost of Dick Turpin was said to haunt this lane.

Procession of Monks

Location: St Albans - Abbey grounds
Type: Post-Mortem Manifestation
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: A witness working on the site watched a short line of monks walk through a stone wall. It is also said that music can sometimes be heard in the early hours of the morning.

John Beckett

Location: St Albans - Batchwood Hall (currently a nightclub)
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Early 2000s
Further Comments: Killed while running into the burning building to save his wife during a fire in 1895, John's shade still searches for his wife's missing body. During a fire in 1995, witnesses escaping the fire claimed to have seen a phantom woman with a shovel, scattering burning coals over the floor.

Dragon of Wormenhert

Location: St Albans - Exact location unknown, said to have been a cave within a gorge in a nearby hill
Type: Dragon
Date / Time: Eleventh century
Further Comments: Abbot Ealdred of St Albans rebuilt his abbey using the ruins of Verulamium, a Roman city located nearby. During the course of the work the Abbot destroyed the lair of the dragon of Wormenhert.

An old woodcut of two armies engaging in hand-to-hand combat.

Sounds of Battle

Location: St Albans - Row of shops along Chequer Street
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: The location of the Battle of St Albans, fought during the War of the Roses, is said to still generate the sounds of battle.

Nell Gwynne

Location: St Albans - Salisbury Hall
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Late ninetieth century
Further Comments: Witnessed by Winston Churchill's stepfather, the ghost of Nell was seen in the dining room, wearing blue clothing. A cavalier is also reported to haunt the upper parts of the building, where he took his own life rather than fall into the hands of his Roundhead opponents.

An old woodcut of a large sailing ship.

Radiant Ship

Location: St Albans - Skies over town
Type: UFO
Date / Time: 01 January 1254
Further Comments: A brightly coloured ship passed overhead, on an otherwise clear night.

Barrel Mover

Location: St Albans - White Hart public house
Type: Poltergeist
Date / Time: Unknown, prior to 2008
Further Comments: The entity here was blamed when heavy barrels in the cellar were found moved, even though no (living) person had been down there. Another story had a guest complain that the guests in the neighbouring room had been particularly noisy, even though no one else was staying in any other room on that night.

A phantom woman on horseback dashes through trees.

Sobbing

Location: St Albans - Wicked Lady public house
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: The sound of a lady's gentle sobs has been heard diffusing through the fabric of the pub. The common outside the pub is home to a highway woman on horseback, after whom the building is named.

Betty Deacon

Location: St Paul's Walden - Area around The Valley (street)
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Pre-First World War
Further Comments: Betty Deacon drowned herself on 16 August 1860 in the village pond. For years afterwards, her ghost was said to scare choir boys returning from practice after dusk had fallen. Another version of the story says Betty's ghost would be seen standing at the site which would have been just outside her cottage.

Man in Wide Brimmed Hat

Location: Stevenage - Area behind The Fisherman
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: 03 September 2006 and October 2011
Further Comments: Two witnesses encountered an old fashioned figure wearing a wide brimmed hat as they cut across this area. They ran off after the figure took a step towards them. They heard from a friend on the same night who also said he had been chased by a shadow wearing the same kind of hat. Several years later one of the witnesses was told that the figure had been seen again, this time by a friend of their brother.

Henry Trigg

Location: Stevenage - National Westminster Bank, High Street (once Old Castle Inn)
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: 1970s
Further Comments: Trigg lived in the building in the early eighteenth century, and requested that after he died, his body to be concealed in the loft. This happened, but over the next 250 years, dozens of morbid souvenir hunters removed the bones from the coffin, leaving only a lonely shade that now looks for his remains.

Running Dog

Location: Stevenage - Saint Nick's church
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: Upset by the continued yapping of the gravedigger's dog, the bell ringer poisoned the pet pooch. The animal died an agonised death, and some people now claim the dog runs around the church, floating slightly above the ground.

Pack

Location: Stevenage - Six Hills (collection of barrows)
Type: Shuck
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: This ancient site is patrolled by a pack of large black shucks. The barrows are said to have been constructed by the devil.

Henry Trigg

Location: Stevenage - Trigg's barn and adjoining property (now 37 High Street)
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: 1964
Further Comments: Henry Trigg's body lay in a coffin in the roof of his barn for over two hundred years, during which time it served as a tourist attraction for an adjoining pub. During the building's renovation in 1964, Fred Usher claimed to have seen a shabbily dressed man walk through the wall of the barn. Trigg's ghost is reputed to walk his former home looking for his remains.

Lady Anne's Cracked Grave

Location: Tewin - St Peter's Church
Type: Legend
Date / Time: 1780 to present
Further Comments: Not believing in an afterlife, during her earthly days Lady Anne Grimston scoffed that trees would ruin her tomb if she were wrong. Sure enough, her tomb is now ruined by a large tree that has split the stone open. One legend has the Devil appear near her grave every New Year's Eve, on the stroke of midnight.

Lady Sabine

Location: Tewin - Tewin House
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: The ghostly form of Lady Sabine is reported to walk around Tewin House.

Lady Catherine

Location: Tewin - Tewin Water
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: Antony Coxe reports that a room at Tewin Water is haunted by Lady Catherine.

Romans

Location: Thundridge - Area around Cold Christmas Church
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: 1940s (soldiers), 2009 (growling)
Further Comments: Phantom Roman soldiers were spotted near the church by a female witness during the 1940s. More recently, there are local stories about phantom children, though no witnesses appear to exist. Another myth perpetuates the belief that the church is so called as most of the children buried here died around Christmas - it is more likely that the church is named after a cold Christmas that delayed its construction by several weeks. A local legend says the church brought ill-fortune to the area, as it was constructed facing the wrong direction. More recently, strange growling has been recorded in the empty church, though the sounds are most likely from a feral cat.

Lean Hound

Location: Tring - Area where gibbet once stood
Type: Shuck
Date / Time: Pre-1863
Further Comments: A black, lean dog with fiery red eyes would stand in the middle of the road in his village, sinking into the ground if approached. It was thought to be the spirit of a chimneysweep executed for murder.