The Paranormal Database

Dame Hoby

Location: Bisham - Bisham Abbey
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: 1609 onwards
Further Comments: Dame Hoby, being a great academic, was disappointed that only son was not so gifted. She would constantly push him to study harder, and if he failed then a sound beating would follow. During one punishment, he died, and now Dame Hoby walks the abbey grounds weeping and washing the blood from her hands from a basin that follows her around.

Footsteps

Location: Bracknell - Caesar's Camp (hillfort)
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Second World War (marching), 2010s (footsteps)
Further Comments: Two women who lived near the camp (in a house no longer standing) heard disembodied marching and voices, though nothing could be seen. A phantom man with red hair was also seen by one of these witnesses, though this was a separate experience to the first. More recently, a witness recalled being followed by things falling from trees, always slightly behind but never ahead, and hearing something moving up and down the path, although nothing could be seen.

Murderous Landlord

Location: Bracknell - Hind's Head Inn (no longer standing)
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Eighteenth century
Further Comments: The landlord would kill wealthy travellers in their sleep, until one man escaped and summoned help. The landlord was executed for his crimes, and his angry ghost haunted the inn until it was pulled down.

Cleaning Lady

Location: Bracknell - Horse and Groom public house
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: This pub is haunted by a phantom old woman who goes around silently cleaning.

Old Fred and Bert

Location: Bracknell - Old Manor public house
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Fred unknown, Bert late twentieth century
Further Comments: Old Fred is said to be a hooded priest, who once hid within the building. Bert is thought to be an old regular of the pub and can be recognised by his red face and handlebar moustache.

A sketch of the headless policeman, by Wayne Lowden.

Policeman with No Face

Location: Bracknell - Railway Arch between Martins Lane & Whistley Close (other sources say A329 between town and Ascot)
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: This poor police officer in an old uniform lost half his face in an incident here - he remains trying to find it.

Major Rickman

Location: Bracknell - South Hill Park theatre
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Twentieth century
Further Comments: Major Rickman lived in the building until he shot himself in 1940. His ghost is sometimes heard jangling keys or seen standing at the top of the staircase with a worried look on his face. Two children are also said to haunt the site. They died in a fire which consumed the nursery in the late nineteenth century.

Monks

Location: Bradfield - St Andrew's Church
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Late twentieth century / 2000s
Further Comments: It has been reported that a previous vicar spotted a ghostly monk in the church, while a local woman heard monks' singing while sitting at home.

Horse and Rider

Location: Bradfield Southend - Cock Lane
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: 2000s
Further Comments: A father and daughter driving home from school watched as an image of a horse and rider emerged from a hedge and crossed the road before disappearing.

White Lady

Location: Bray - Braywick House
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Said to occur every seven years, but exact date unknown
Further Comments: A ghostly, upset white lady is said to enter the house from the front door, drift up the stairs to the east window in the attic and throw herself out. The building is also reputedly haunted by an Elizabethan gentleman.

Hooded Figures

Location: Bray - Oakley Court
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: 1970s
Further Comments: The court has a very bad reputation for being 'evil', and several accidental drownings both in the building and outside of it (in the passing Thames) have occurred over the past thirty years. Ghostly hooded figures have been seen in the neighbourhood.

Headless Figure

Location: Brightwalton - Field near the Marquis of Granby pub
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: This entity is reputed to just stand motionless in the field. Just like a scarecrow.

Victorian Lady

Location: Brightwalton - Marquis of Granby public house
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: The woman in Victorian dress walks through a bricked up doorway within the pub. A hovering face of a man is also reported to haunt the site.

Coach

Location: Brimpton - Lane running through village, leading to Able Bridge
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: January (exact date not known)
Further Comments: Carrying its occupants to a ball, the coach was caught up in a storm that washed away Able Bridge - the coach plunged into the water, killing all the passengers. The event is heard once a year after sunset, marking the anniversary of the tragedy.

Woman in White

Location: Bucklebury - Avenue at Beenham junction
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: A lady in white is said to drift along this stretch of road.

Repellent Figure

Location: Bucklebury - Bushnell's Green
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Unknown, but said to appear in broad daylight
Further Comments: Not much is known about this phantom, other than its love of sunlight and gruesome appearance.

Chaser

Location: Bucklebury - Devil's Steps (meadow)
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: Travellers in the area were once believed to risk coming across an evil entity which would chase them across this meadow.

Ghostly monks standing by a pond.

Monks

Location: Bucklebury - Fishponds on the common
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: Bucklebury was once used as a monks' retreat, perhaps explaining the reports that two phantom figures in habits haunt the edge of the fishponds.

Lady Bolingbroke

Location: Bucklebury - Manor House, and general area
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: After her husband escaped to France with another woman, Lady Bolingbroke (nee Frances Winchcombe) died of a broken heart. Her ghost has been reported at the manor house, while the streets of the village are home to her coach.

Distort Girl

Location: Chieveley - Village well
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: This girl killed herself in the well after she discovered both her lover and her father had been killed in a Civil War battle. The shade can still be heard crying.

Nun

Location: Clewer - Church of England's Childrens Society (no longer standing)
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: A ghostly nun was said to haunt this building, having hanged herself in the dim and distant past. Since demolition of the building, there have been no reports of her in the area.

Knocking

Location: Clewer - Want's Cottage
Type: Poltergeist
Date / Time: 1841
Further Comments: Unidentified knocking plagued this house, with policeman, locals, and a scientist on site unable to track the source, even after furnishings were removed and flooring dug up. When the family living at the property left, the sounds ceased.

Horse in Chains

Location: Cockpole Green - Area around Putters Farm
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: An old work horse still draped in the chains it used to drag a plough around the fields still manifests and scares the unwary.

The Landlord Jarman

Location: Colnbrook - The Ostrich Inn
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: This fourteenth century Landlord murdered fifteen (or sixty, depending on the source) of his rich guests by cooking them in a vat of boiling fat. Hanged for his crimes, his ghost is now held accountable for the creaks, bumps, and whisperings around the inn.

Golden Calf

Location: Compton - Perborough Castle
Type: Legend
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: Buried under this Iron Age hillfort is reputed to be a golden calf.