Essex Ghosts, Folklore and Forteana
Schoolmaster John Cook
Location: Steeple Bumpstead - Steeple Bumpstead school
Type: Post-Mortem Manifestation
Date / Time: 1832
Further Comments: A pupil watched his recently deceased schoolmaster pass through the closed school gates.
First added: 2001-09-07 | Last updated: 2001-09-07 | ID #876
Breathing
Location: Stock - Broomwood Lane
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Mid 1980s
Further Comments: A lad cycling along Broomwood Lane could hear extremely loud heavy breathing very close to him. Looking around for the source of the sound, none could be found, so he quickly peddled away.
First added: 2006-08-13 | Last updated: 2006-08-13 | ID #6934
Charlie 'Spider' Marshell
Location: Stock - The Bear, The Square. In the Chimney?!
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Nineteenth century onwards
Further Comments: A popular local legend, Charlie Marshell's favourite trick was to climb the chimney in the bar, to reappear in a fireplace in another part of the pub. One day he never reappeared, and now only his ghost remains.
First added: 2000-08-17 | Last updated: 2000-08-17 | ID #427
Young Girl on a Clandestine Mission
Location: Stondon Massey - Back gate of the Rectory
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: 1935 onwards
Further Comments: Banned by her father from seeing a local lad, the ghost of a young girl re-enacts her escape; leaving the back gate of the rectory, she goes down Canons Walk and disappears into the woods.
First added: 2000-08-17 | Last updated: 2000-08-17 | ID #207
Richard Jorden
Location: Stondon Massey - Church and churchyard
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Eighteenth century onwards
Further Comments: After Richard Jorden died, his body was found outside his coffin so often that his friends decided to wrap the casket in chains to prevent Jorden from climbing out again. His ghost walks the church grounds in protest.
First added: 2000-08-17 | Last updated: 2026-09-05 | ID #68
Gothic House
Location: Tendring - Exact area unknown
Type: Environmental Manifestation
Date / Time: Winter 1974, around 19:00h
Further Comments: Two cyclists passing through the village on a winter's evening spotted a large gothic-style manor house where they knew a bungalow should have been. Speaking later to a local, they were told no house had ever stood on the site.
First added: 2015-04-11 | Last updated: 2015-04-11 | ID #11796
Lights
Location: Thaxted - Churchyard, Almshouse Cottages
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: Corpse lights have been seen floating around an empty set of cottages which sit in the churchyard.
First added: 2000-08-17 | Last updated: 2000-08-17 | ID #203
Headless Horseman
Location: Thaxted - Gibbets Cross, crossroads
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Twentieth century
Further Comments: A local farmer told his friends that he watched a headless horseman sitting upon a white steed pass by this crossroads.
First added: 2002-11-07 | Last updated: 2002-11-07 | ID #3060
Elderly Couple
Location: Thaxted - Road leading into town from Saffron Walden
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: March or April 2010
Further Comments: While driving into the town, one witness slowed to let an elderly couple cross the road. They vanished in front of her.
First added: 2010-12-31 | Last updated: 2010-12-31 | ID #10098
Headless Monk
Location: Thaxted - Tilty Abbey (between Thaxted & Dunmow) Cherry/Chawneth Lane
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: 1215 onwards
Further Comments: Though no reports have been made for many years, the headless ghost story is supposed to date back to 1215 after a monk was beheaded by men of King John. A decapitated skeleton was discovered in the grounds during the 1940s.
First added: 2000-08-17 | Last updated: 2000-08-17 | ID #206
Flitting Grey Haired Woman
Location: Theydon Bois - Hill Hall
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: 1960s
Further Comments: Having seven brothers fall in love with her, a local beauty convinced them all to fight a duel for her hand in marriage. All seven died because of the fight, and now the woman's ghost walks in remorse of her actions. Another version of this tale states that the local beauty was the sister of the seven brothers, and they died fighting her fiance.
First added: 2000-08-17 | Last updated: 2000-08-17 | ID #760
Black Dog Lies near Bed
Location: Theydon Bois - Hill Hall
Type: Shuck
Date / Time: 1920s
Further Comments: Never returning since the destruction of the building, a large black dog was seen on several occasions, lying across the beds.
First added: 2000-08-17 | Last updated: 2000-08-17 | ID #764
Mustard Coloured Coach
Location: Theydon Bois - Hill Hall
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: 31 May, Midnight (reoccurring)
Further Comments: On the stroke of midnight, a mustard coloured coach is believed to drive down the driveway of the ruined building. Its owner is thought to be Duke de Morrow, who lived in the building at the beginning of the twentieth century.
First added: 2000-08-17 | Last updated: 2000-08-17 | ID #763
Kitty with a Rose at her Bosom
Location: Thorpe-le-Soken - Bell Inn, High Street
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: 1972
Further Comments: A colourful local historical character, Kitty Canham lived over 250 years ago. Her spirit walks the Bell Inn, playing minor pranks and scaring animals - she has been seen walking through closed doors, and is also blamed for moving large wardrobes across bedrooms. A fire that ravaged the building in 2001 (though it is now reopened) failed to damage a painting of Kitty that hung on the wall.
First added: 2000-08-17 | Last updated: 2000-08-17 | ID #482
Man in Chains
Location: Thorpe-le-Soken - Cottage near War Memorial
Type: Unknown Ghost Type
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: Two children living in the cottage reported seeing a man standing in their bedroom, with chains around his arms and legs.
First added: 2000-08-17 | Last updated: 2000-08-17 | ID #744
Bouncing Cloud
Location: Thorpe-le-Soken - Landermere Road
Type: Other
Date / Time: 1930s
Further Comments: Two teenagers waiting for a bus watched as a large misty ball quickly bounced down Landermere Road, passing straight through them before continuing down Walton Road.
First added: 2005-07-05 | Last updated: 2005-07-05 | ID #6393
Officer
Location: Thorpe-le-Soken - Police Station
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: Dressed in an old fashioned uniform, this ex-officer is said to haunt his former station. It is also said that whispering voices can be heard in the cells when they are empty.
First added: 2005-07-05 | Last updated: 2005-07-05 | ID #6392
Bearded Man
Location: Thorpe-le-Soken - Tan Lane turning into Holland Road, Thorpe-le-Soken to Clacton
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: Several road users have narrowly avoided running over this bearded man who carries a stick and wears a tall black hat. Drivers brake sharply, only to find he has disappeared. A few witnesses have also reported seeing him with a lady, though no one knows who they are.
First added: 2000-08-17 | Last updated: 2000-08-17 | ID #467
Fading Car
Location: Thorrington - Filling Station
Type: Unknown Ghost Type
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: Visible only on a video surveillance camera, witnesses in a garage watched a car and a driver disappear slowly into thin air over a period of twenty minutes.
First added: 2000-08-17 | Last updated: 2000-08-17 | ID #466
Green Lady
Location: Thundersley - Bread and Cheese Hill
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: 1970s
Further Comments: This phantom green lady was said to cross the road while travelling up the hill, oblivious to the traffic which would serve to avoid her (by often driving off the road).
First added: 2011-04-24 | Last updated: 2011-04-24 | ID #10260
Hobnail Boots
Location: Thundersley - House along Selbourne Road
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: 1940s
Further Comments: A mother and daughter are said to have been driven from the house just after the Second World War, terrified by the footfalls of someone in hobnail boots. The ghost became louder as time went on, banging on walls and eventually screaming.
First added: 2001-09-06 | Last updated: 2001-09-06 | ID #845
Drenched Dead Woman
Location: Thundersley - Second stile leading from Dawes Heath Road to London Road
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: 1917
Further Comments: A group of five people came across this ghost while walking home in the evening. The ghost stared blankly at them. She is believed to be the heartbroken daughter of a local farmer who, many years previous, drowned herself in a pond after being denied the right to marry the man she loved.
First added: 2001-09-08 | Last updated: 2001-09-08 | ID #881
Wild Dogs?
Location: Thundersley - Wensley Road
Type: Cryptozoology
Date / Time: 2001
Further Comments: A pair of large dog-like creatures have been observed in this area and are thought to live in the nearby woodland. The disappearance of neighbourhood cats has been blamed on the creatures.
First added: 2004-07-11 | Last updated: 2004-07-11 | ID #5226
Sound of Bugles
Location: Thundersley - Wheel Cottage, Church Road
Type: Unknown Ghost Type
Date / Time: Late twentieth century
Further Comments: A former owner of the cottage lost two sons in the Crimean War - she tried to summon their spirits by blowing a trumpet. It is unclear whether the bugle calls belong to her or her sons replying.
First added: 2001-09-08 | Last updated: 2001-09-08 | ID #885
Swift Nick
Location: Tilbury - The World's End inn
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: 1980s
Further Comments: An old highwayman, Swift Nick has a habit of relighting fires which have gone out hours beforehand.
First added: 2001-09-06 | Last updated: 2001-09-06 | ID #859
Records 451 - 475 of 520
Quick Links
Contribute
Greater London
Calendar
East Midlands
