The Paranormal Database

Suicidal Man

Location: Tilehurst - Railway station waiting room
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Twentieth century
Further Comments: This ghost left the premises after a blessing from a couple of local clergymen. Popular belief is that he took his own life in the waiting room, and not that he was the first casualty of the mythical British Rail sandwich.

King's Mistress

Location: Wallingford - George Hotel
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Twentieth century
Further Comments: Room 3 was reportedly the home of a ghostly mistress of Charles I, who cried herself to death on hearing of his execution. Room 5 appears to be the haunt of two children, who stand by the wash basin.

Hannah

Location: Warfield - Leathern Bottle inn
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: Hannah was murdered by her landlord husband after he discovered she was having an affair. He was executed for the crime, and now they both haunt the building.

Depressing Atmosphere

Location: Wargrave - Bull Hotel
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Twentieth century
Further Comments: Haunted by a depressingly sad woman who is occasionally heard sobbing her heart out, her mood is supposed to rub off on people and make them cry. One story says the woman was married to the landlord but after being caught having an affair, she was forced to leave her home and child, soon dying of a broken heart.

White Woman

Location: Wargrave - Gaunt cottage
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Twentieth century
Further Comments: An owner of the cottage claimed it was haunted by this lady in white.

Rider

Location: Wargrave - Pathway known as Hyghams
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: The threat of spotting a phantom woman on horseback ensured locals would not use this route after dark.

Binjy

Location: Wargrave - River Thames near the High Street
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: The entity known as Binjy would try to lure people into the water of the river.

White Stag

Location: Wargrave - Upper Wargrave
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: A white stag, which gained protection from the king who spent a day attempting to hunt the creature, remained to run through the area after its death.

Sentry

Location: Wash Common - Biggs Cottage
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: This guard still protects the building where Parliamentarian generals once rested.

Accidents along the M4 - could ghosts be to blame?

Palmer's Post

Location: Welford - M4 Motorway near the village
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: 1970
Further Comments: Used by a local wise man as a place to banish evil spirits, the post was uprooted when the motorway was constructed; subsequent mishaps on the road have been attributed to the incident.

Lancaster Crew

Location: Welford - RAF Welford
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Late twentieth century
Further Comments: The crew of a Lancaster bomber which crashed shortly after take-off have been observed crossing the old runway. The Glenn Miller hangar is one of the last places the big band member played before being killed; one account says the place is eerily quiet with local wildlife shunning the area, while another says band music has been heard coming from the hangar.

Man in a Cap

Location: West Hendred - Road through the village
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: 1964, and summer 2010, circa 23:30h
Further Comments: This phantom man darts in front of incoming traffic - the drivers brake or swerve, always believing it to be too late to avoid an accident, but the figure is gone. He was seen by two sisters in their car in 1964, three years after the event which had killed him, and may have been seen again in 2010 by a woman who swerved to miss a figure which ran out in front of her car.

Cursed Land

Location: Whitchurch - Unidentified barrows
Type: Legend
Date / Time: Nineteenth / early twentieth century
Further Comments: Earthworks upon which a castle was once believed to have stood were said to be cursed and could never be levelled. The current state of the barrows is unknown.

Bottom Pincher

Location: Windsor - Black Horse public house
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: 1977
Further Comments: This phantom, known only as George, is blamed for pinching barmaids' bottoms when there is no one else around.

An old postcard showing Windsor Castle.

Four Royals and a Hunt

Location: Windsor - Windsor Castle
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: 26 June (Charles) (reoccurring), other entities various
Further Comments: Henry VIII, Queen Elizabeth, Charles I & George III have all reportedly been seen here after their natural lives ended. Elizabeth frequents the library, Charles the Canon's House (traditionally walking on the night of 26 June), while George haunts the rooms in which he was bound after being declared mad. Henry VIII can only be heard, moving slowly down the corridors, dragging his bad leg. The great park attached to the castle is home to Herne the Hunter, who together with his devil dogs, stalk the woodlands. In 1906 a guard was investigated after he fired five rounds at a white figure - he claimed the bullets passed straight through the figure. Finally (for the time being), the park is also haunted by the ghost of a Grenadier Guard who killed himself while on duty.

Child in Yellow Dress

Location: Windsor Forest - Callins Bridge, near Shurlock Row
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: 1970
Further Comments: This young girl with raven hair is reported to lead anyone who follows her to a mass grave of soldiers killed in the Civil War.

Old Man

Location: Winkfield Row - Private Cottage
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: 1960s-1970s
Further Comments: A phantom old man would descend the staircase and through a door at the bottom. He was said to have become upset after the door was moved.

Coach and Horses

Location: Wokingham - Bill Hill
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: 24 December (reoccurring)
Further Comments: Appearing at midnight on Christmas Eve, a phantom coach pulled by four ghostly horses travelled along this road. Another story (or a variant of the first) states a spectral horse would charge along the road dragging chains which bounced along the ground.

Lady Downshire

Location: Wokingham - Easthampstead Park
Type: Poltergeist
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: This harmless, flitting female form moves along the landing and down the staircase.

Light Brown Cat

Location: Wokingham - Forest Road and surrounding area
Type: ABC
Date / Time: June 2004
Further Comments: At least eight people in the space of a year have reported a large cat in the area. It was said by one person to have ears like a fox, though light brown in colour with a long straight tail. Another man near Woodcray Manor Golf Club stated that he watched a cat with a pair of large green eyes, fifteen centimetres apart, staring at him.

Searching Father

Location: Woodley - Road along Sandford Mill (currently an SSSI)
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: A glowing light would drift across the road and float into the trees. One local story said the light belonged to a long dead father out searching for his daughter who had drowned in the nearby lake.

Light Aircraft

Location: Woodley - Skies around Woodley Aerodrome (closed 1959)
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Weather Dependent: Foggy nights
Further Comments: A ghostly light aircraft approaches the old airfield when the weather conditions are less than ideal.

Woman in Silk

Location: Yattendon - Old Rectory
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: A phantom woman who wore a black or grey silken dress would materialise during house parties until she was exorcised.