The Paranormal Database

Roos Hall, Beccles, Suffolk.

Headless Horseman

Location: Beccles (Suffolk) - Roos Hall
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: 24 December (reoccurring)
Further Comments: Christmas Eve is marked by the arrival of a coach driven by a headless horseman and pulled by headless horses, which travel down the driveway and vanish as they arrive by the front door. Close by, an oak known as Nelson's Tree is reputed to have been used as gallows and is haunted by a woman in white, although it is not clear whether she was one of the tree's victims or mourns the loss of a loved one. In the hall itself, on a wall within in a bedroom cupboard, there is the imprint of the Devil's hoof branded into solid brick. Finally, another tale says there is a window at the hall which always opens itself, even if locked shut.

Screaming Horses

Location: Wythall (West Midlands) - Black Greve Farm
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: 24 December (reoccurring)
Further Comments: Locals say that the horses belonged to a Roman chariot; the driver lost control in the ice and snow, and the entire team fell into a deep ditch and died.

Red Eared Pigs

Location: Calcutt (Wiltshire) - A419?
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: 24 December (reoccurring)
Further Comments: Several small white swine with red ears cross the road once a year on Christmas Eve.

A ghostly coach for Christmas.

Coach

Location: Calcutt (Wiltshire) - Bridge in the area (A419?)
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: 24 December (reoccurring)
Further Comments: This coach, pulled by a team of four horses, crosses a bridge close to Calcutt.

Black Tom of Scothill

Location: Dewsbury (Yorkshire) - Dewsbury Parish Church
Type: Legend - Old Nick
Date / Time: 24 December (reoccurring)
Further Comments: Black Tom is the name of the bell in the church and is tolled the number of the year (ie, in 2007 it was tolled 2007 times) to ensure Old Nick does not visit the village during the following twelve months. The last peal must occur on the stroke of midnight to ensure success.

Heavy Trampling

Location: Saffron Walden (Essex) - Cross Keys public house, corner of King Street and High Street
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: 24 December (reoccurring), 23:00h-Midnight
Further Comments: Any listener here is said to hear footsteps marching up and down a passageway. They are rumoured to belong to a soldier of Cromwell. A ghostly woman is said to haunt one of the bedrooms, and it is alleged she was Cromwell's mistress.

White lady

Location: Worstead (Norfolk) - Church
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: 24 December (reoccurring), photographed 1975
Further Comments: Legend says this lady has scared to death at least one young bell ringer, although she is now said to have a healing effect. Poltergeist activity has also been reported, around the 1950's. A photograph taken in 1975 by Peter Berthelot appears to show a misty white lady sitting behind his wife on a pew.

Sir Geoffrey de Mandeville

Location: Outer London: East Barnet (Greater London) - Oak Hill Park
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: 24 December 2026, midnight, next due, then every sixth year (reoccurring)
Further Comments: Sir Geoffrey, complete with red cloak and jangling spurs, appears here on horseback and heads towards the church to disappear through its wall. Even though the ghost is said to appear on Christmas Eve, the last verified sighting of Sir Geoffrey was on 17 December 1932.

Horse and Carriage

Location: Camborne (Cornwall) - Polstrong House
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: 24 December, midnight (reoccurring) every ten years, last seen 1912
Further Comments: A spectral horse and carriage are said to pull up in front of this house. A phantom couple exit the vehicle then disappear upon reaching the doorstep.

The sea between Cornwall and Scilly Isles.

Lyonesse

Location: Land's End (Cornwall) - Between Cornwall and Scilly Isles
Type: Other
Date / Time: 25 December (bells) (reoccurring)
Further Comments: This mythical land was once said to connect Cornwall to the Scilly Isles - as recently as the early twentieth century, people claimed to be able to see flooded woodland between the two land masses. Some legends say that Merlin sank Lyonesse as Mordred's men tried to escape across it, while others say it sank after a judgement from Heaven. On Christmas day, 149 submerged bells are said to ring and in days gone by, Cornish fishermen would sail out and listen to the undersea music.

Theatre Royal, Bath.

Grey Lady

Location: Bath (Somerset) - Theatre Royal & Garrick's Head Hotel
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: 25 December (butterfly) (reoccurring), Grey Lady last seen 1975
Further Comments: An actress killed herself in the hotel in the 1880s after discovering her husband had murdered her secret lover. The actress's last performance at the theatre occurred a few hours before her death, a role which required her to wear a grey feather dress - the same clothing her ghost still wears as it patrols the theatre and hotel. Her phantom may have last been seen in 1975. A dainty butterfly is also reported to haunt the theatre, manifesting briefly once a year on Christmas Day.

Sunken Church

Location: Kirksanton (Cumbria) - Village Green
Type: Legend
Date / Time: 25 December (reoccurring)
Further Comments: The church of the village sunk beneath the ground - whether God's hand or earthquake is unknown. One is said to be able to hear the bells if an ear is placed on the earth, while another version of the story says the ringing only occurs on Christmas Day.

Little Girl with Rag Doll

Location: Exeter (Devon) - Prospect Inn
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: 25 December (reoccurring)
Further Comments: This young child only appears once a year in the upper part of the building. She is said to smile sweetly at any witnesses, before quickly fading away.

Kids

Location: WC2 (Greater London) - Courtts Bank
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: 25 December (reoccurring)
Further Comments: Once a Mecca for toy sellers and buyers, the sounds of joyous children can be heard briefly once a year. Another entity, claiming to be an Elizabethan nobleman, was exorcised during the early 1990s - he was thought to be either the Earl of Essex (executed in 1601) or Thomas Howard, Duke of Norfolk.

Monk

Location: Pontrhydfendigaid (Dyfed) - Strata Florida - former site of abbey
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: 25 December (reoccurring)
Further Comments: This phantom devotee of God returns to his old home once a year and tries to rebuild the altar. At other times of the year, legends say that one may observe candles and hear music from the ruins.

Discarded Bells

Location: Firth of Forth (Fife) - Under the estuary
Type: Other
Date / Time: 25 December (reoccurring)
Further Comments: After the bells were looted from churches across Edinburgh and tossed into the estuary, they continued to ring at Christmas.

Chained Monk

Location: SW1 (Greater London) - Buckingham Palace
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: 25 December (reoccurring)
Further Comments: Said to predate the construction of the palace, this monk appears bound in chains once a year on Christmas Day. The sound of a suicide (the single shot of a pistol) is occasionally heard on the first floor - the private secretary to King Edward VII ended his life here.

Lillie Langtry

Location: SW1 (Greater London) - Cadogan Hotel, Sloane Street
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: 25 December (reoccurring)
Further Comments: This quiet little spook is said only to come out when the hotel is nearly empty. During life, Lillie was the mistress of the Prince of Wales, who later became Edward VII.

Middle Aged Man

Location: Oldham (Greater Manchester) - Temperance Hall, next to the Colosseum Theatre
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: 25 December (reoccurring)
Further Comments: This grey figure has been seen standing in doorways always around the Christmas period, and is believed to be the ghost of a suicide.

Lucette

Location: Clayton le Moors (Lancashire) - Dunkenhalgh Hall (currently a hotel) and nearby bridge
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: 25 December (reoccurring)
Further Comments: A former maid at the hall, Lucette fell pregnant after a torrid affair with the master - he was not interested in her long term future, so Lucette took her own life. The maid's misty white form now comes back around Christmas to remind others of her fate.

An old photograph of Sandringham Country House.

Breathing & Hollow Footsteps

Location: Sandringham (Norfolk) - Country House
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: 25 December (Reoccurring)
Further Comments: Becoming active during Yuletide, the ghostly presence creates echoing footfalls in empty corridors and heavy breathing in a room on the second floor. Christmas cards are also moved by the spirit, and lights are turned on and off. The entity is thought to be a nun who seduced a monk on the site; those who have seen her say she has hollow eye sockets. Others blame a young lamplighter who died many years ago while on his rounds.

Shadowy Figure

Location: Boughton Green (Northamptonshire) - St John the Baptist church ruins
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: 25 December (reoccurring)
Further Comments: This figure, also heard moaning around the same time of year, is thought to be a criminal hanged in 1826. Others speak of a darker tale - that the ghost takes the form of a beautiful man or woman, depending on the gender of the witness, and asks them for a kiss. If it is given, the kisser is doomed to die within a month. This is said to have last happened to a man called William Parker on Christmas Eve 1875; after meeting a red headed girl at the church who faded away shortly after engaging with her, William died exactly one month later.

Moaning

Location: Broughton (Northamptonshire) - Church of St John
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: 25 December (reoccurring)
Further Comments: A criminal once held here has returned as an indistinct shadow, softly moaning in pain and regret, always around the Christmas period.

Raleigh

Location: Southwell (Nottinghamshire) - Road between Southwell and Oxton
Type: Legend
Date / Time: 25 December (reoccurring)
Further Comments: Beneath a small valley located between these two places is the lost town of Raleigh, swallowed up by an earthquake in 1185. A local legend says the church bells can sometimes still be heard on Christmas Day.

Jolly Monk

Location: Wonersh (Surrey) - Grantley Arms public house
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: 25 December (reoccurring)
Further Comments: This figure once appeared every Christmastime, though has kept his head down over recent years (perhaps the exorcised performed by a Roman Catholic barmaid succeeded).