The Paranormal Database

Locked Gate

Location: Fingest - St Bartholomew's Church
Type: Legend
Date / Time: Gate still stands
Further Comments: It is said to be a guarantee of a successful marriage if the bridegroom carries his new wife over the locked church gate.

Henry Burghersh

Location: Fingest - Woods around the town
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: Bishop Burghersh (or Burgwash) was condemned by his God to haunt the forest for stealing land from the local peasants.

Horse and Cart

Location: Fulmer - Ford running through the village
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Twentieth century
Further Comments: Heard near the ford, several people have reported the clip clop of hooves and the grind of an old cart.

Armed Rider

Location: Gerrards Cross - Area around the Bull Hotel
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: 10 February 1984
Further Comments: While walking home from the Bull Hotel, Dave Robson heard the thumping of hooves approach him. Within moments, a dark cloaked figure wearing a big hat and holding a gun dashed by on horseback before vanishing near a group of trees.

Tapping

Location: Gerrards Cross - French Horn public house (demolished 2010)
Type: Poltergeist
Date / Time: Pre 1965
Further Comments: On one occasion the landlord, while changing barrels in the cellar, felt a tap on his shoulder. Assuming it to be his wife, he turned around but found no one there. The poltergeist was considered not particularly vicious but quite memorable.

Woman in White

Location: Godley Green - Road from Gee Cross
Type: Post-Mortem Manifestation
Date / Time: 1906
Further Comments: Not a 'normal' post-mortem apparition; a woman returning to see her ill brother watched as a ghostly white woman left the building in which her brother lay. She soon discovered her brother had died seconds before her arrival.

Devil

Location: Great Kimble - Chequers Park - Cymbeline's Mount (or Castle)
Type: Legend - Old Nick
Date / Time: Still present
Further Comments: Anyone who runs around this ancient work seven times will bump into Old Nick at the end of their journey.

Sir John

Location: Great Missenden - Chiltern Hills
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: Upon his death, Sir John de Plessis reportedly requested that he be buried upright, sitting on top of his favourite steed. The executors of his will made it so, and Sir John has since been seen riding along the hillside. The same story is attributed to a Captain Backhouse, though his haunting stopped after being dug up and laid out traditionally. A female phantom rider has also been reported haunting the area, her head sitting on her lap.

Monk

Location: Great Missenden - Little Abbey Hotel
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: The monk that once haunted this building was said to have had an affair with a nun - the monk's fate is unknown, but one can assume that it was not pleasant.

Monks in Grey

Location: Great Missenden - Missenden Abbey (now absorbed into a college)
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: 1972
Further Comments: These figures have been observed around the site of the former abbey, while others believe that the ghost of a woman, dressed in Victorian clothing, who committed suicide also haunts the site.

Woman Caught on CCTV

Location: Great Missenden - Somerfield supermarket
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Late twentieth and early twenty-first century
Further Comments: A ghost that has haunted the supermarket since the 1980s was caught on CCTV during the night, though the manager refused to show the footage because it would reveal where the hidden cameras were! Staff also report that the entity pulls their hair and disrupts items on display.

Silver Vauxhall

Location: Grendon Underwood - Road linking Grendon Underwood and the A41
Type: Unknown Ghost Type
Date / Time: 28 August 2008, 07:45
Further Comments: A driver reported a slow moving Silver Vauxhall in front of him at this junction. The Vauxhall indicated left, but turned right, and its driver turned to look at the witness. The witness took his eyes off the Vauxhall for a couple of seconds, and then realised that the car had completely vanished; there were no other turning that the car could have taken.

A sketch of a large black hound with red glowing eyes, by Wayne Lowden.

Thomas Colley

Location: Gubblecote - General area
Type: Shuck
Date / Time: 1893
Further Comments: The shuck spoken about around these parts is thought to be the spirit of a particularly nasty man who drowned two people thought to be witches - he was executed for his crime and his body left on a gibbet. The large black dog with red eyes was last seen sinking into the earth by the village headmaster.

Noble Edden

Location: Haddenham - Road between village and Aylesbury
Type: Crisis Manifestation
Date / Time: Prelude to misfortune
Further Comments: Noble Edden was murdered by a couple of sheep stealers after he witnessed them removing animals from another farmer's flock. Edden's wife had a vision of the crime while at home that included a good look at the killers, though this was not accepted as evidence at their trial. The phantom now appears at a corner along this stretch of road to warn of encroaching danger.

Mrs Edden sees Murder

Location: Haddenham - Roads near the village
Type: Crisis Manifestation
Date / Time: 1828
Further Comments: Mrs Edden, in a 'vision' while at home, witnessed her husband's murder just outside the village. She was later able to identify the two men who did the deed. The ghost of her husband has since been seen along the roads near the village and is considered to act as a warning of danger.

An old postcard of Hambleden village.

Mary Blandy

Location: Hambleden - Roads within the village
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: Hanged for poisoning her father to prevent him from objecting to her marriage, Mary regretfully walks the area where she once lived.

Alex McKay

Location: Hanslope - Watts Arms public house
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: This building was haunted by bare-knuckle boxer Alex McKay - he died in the pub after being knocked unconscious during a fight nearby.

Grey Woman

Location: High Wycombe - Cock Lane
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: January 1994, and early 1980s
Further Comments: A man reported seeing this phantom woman in 1994, dressed in grey clothing as she crossed the road in front of him. Around ten years previous, another witness reported seeing the figure floating towards him from the direction of the old gypsy camp. The witness ran, and when he looked back, she had vanished.

Dog Lover

Location: High Wycombe - Healey Avenue
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: 1974
Further Comments: A grey haired man in a monk's habit was seen to glide up to a dog, pat the creature on the head, and vanish. The witness said the apparition had a kind face, and that the dog appeared to have enjoyed the encounter.

Disraeli

Location: High Wycombe - Hughenden Manor
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: Benjamin Disraeli reportedly haunts his former home, having been observed on the upper floors and the cellar stairs.

Overweight Man

Location: High Wycombe - Irish club close to train station
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: September / October 2005
Further Comments: Spotted several times by the same witness, the phantom man wore drab 1940s clothing and a bowler hat. He stood close to a park bench with a small dog. When the witness approached the apparition, it would vanish.

Shadows

Location: High Wycombe - King George V public house, London Road
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: 2000s
Further Comments: Appearing, fleetingly, on the walls, the shadows have no physical counterpart. Soft voices can be heard when everyone has gone home for the evening.

Lady on Horseback

Location: High Wycombe - Loakes Lane
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: This ghostly woman is reported to ride her mare along the lane where she fell from her horse and died.

Crunching Footsteps

Location: High Wycombe - Rail Station
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Late twentieth century
Further Comments: The sound of someone walking along the stones on which the track lies has been investigated by several staff who expected to find a trespasser - no one is ever found, but the footsteps continue.

The ghostly glimmering woman of the wood.

Spangled Lady

Location: High Wycombe - Sandage Wood
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: Wearing dozens of items of jewellery that cause her to seemingly glimmer in the moonlight, this ghostly woman stands on the outskirts of the woods for several minutes before disappearing back between the trees.