Essex Ghosts, Folklore and Forteana
Suicide Girl
Location: Epping - Waltham Abbey
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: 1909, and 1950s
Further Comments: Committing suicide to escape the unwanted attentions of a man of the cloth, the girl has returned, and during the 1950s was blamed for the sinister atmosphere in the place. Plainchant has also been heard and phantom lights seen in the building. Forty years earlier, after the abbey had been locked up for the night, a small crowd gathered after hearing tapping on the window and doors rattling. The caretaker opened the building and several people searched for an intruder, but none were found.
First added: 2001-09-07 | Last updated: 2001-09-07 | ID #372
Boudica
Location: Epping Forest - Hill Fort, Ambresbury Banks
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: Claimed by some to be her grave (and others, her final battlefield), Boudica has been reported loitering in the area.
First added: 2002-11-14 | Last updated: 2002-11-14 | ID #3185
Pillion Rider
Location: Epping Forest - Unknown road through the forest
Type: Other
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: A motorcyclist picked up a female hitchhiker who, after telling the biker her address in a nearby village, rode pillion. A mile further along, the biker realised the woman had vanished but decided to continue the journey to her home regardless. When the biker arrived and knocked on the door, he was told she had died a few years previous. The story is a well-known urban legend and its basis in reality is taken lightly.
First added: 2025-09-24 | Last updated: 2025-09-24 | ID #16099
John Hardman, Bleeding
Location: Feering - Feering Church, wall near pulpit
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: 1890s
Further Comments: Seen frequently during the 19th century, John Hardman was killed during the Zulu War, and buried at Feering church. John's bloody ghost was seen often, his hands trying to cover a stomach wound.
First added: 2000-08-17 | Last updated: 2000-08-17 | ID #741
Old Lady Staring Out of Window
Location: Finchingfield - Pump House
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: More of a local legend than a haunting, the pump house is rumoured to be haunted by an unknown old lady, who watches out of one of the building's windows.
First added: 2000-08-17 | Last updated: 2000-08-17 | ID #213
Woman in White
Location: Fingringhoe - Abberton Road
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: November 2009, 02:00h
Further Comments: A motorcyclist and their passenger watched a distressed woman in white stumble across the road while holding a blanket over her head. The figure disappeared into a hedgerow as the witnesses approached her.
First added: 2015-07-05 | Last updated: 2015-07-05 | ID #11871
Jangling Chains
Location: Fobbing - Vineyards near the church
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: Chains and other weird sounds have been reported here.
First added: 2001-09-08 | Last updated: 2001-09-08 | ID #899
Cat the Size of an Alsatian
Location: Fobbing - Waterworks Depot
Type: ABC
Date / Time: 12 & 25 August 1982
Further Comments: Seen twice by different people in the same area, this cat possessed a thick coat and left a strong smell of urine from one place where it had lain.
First added: 2000-08-17 | Last updated: 2000-08-17 | ID #698
Children
Location: Fordham - Shoulder of Mutton public house (currently an antiques shop)
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Twenty-first century
Further Comments: A priest hole within this former pub is said to be haunted by two children. The same area is subject to poltergeist activity.
First added: 2025-04-20 | Last updated: 2025-04-20 | ID #15872
Fallen Spire
Location: Foxearth - Church
Type: Other
Date / Time: 02 July 1947
Further Comments: One 1948 newspaper claimed that Harry Price had attributed the fall of the church spire during a freak storm to a poltergeist, although it is difficult to tell whether or not the reference is sarcastic.
First added: 2023-10-22 | Last updated: 2023-10-22 | ID #15125
Figure
Location: Frinton-on-Sea - Radio Mellow 1557, studio B
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Late twentieth century
Further Comments: Alleged to have been murdered in a house that was knocked down to make space for the radio station, the figure believed to be male has been seen by various staff around the building.
First added: 2000-08-17 | Last updated: 2000-08-17 | ID #739
Drowning Man and Witch
Location: Fryerning - Pond
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: Both a local man and a witch are believed to have died here at different times, and both now haunt the pond.
First added: 2001-09-06 | Last updated: 2001-09-06 | ID #302
Old Lady with Basket
Location: Fyfield - Clatterford House
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: 1940s / 1950s
Further Comments: Seen crossing one of the rooms in the building, this ghost's history is unknown.
First added: 2001-09-06 | Last updated: 2001-09-06 | ID #842
Lavina
Location: Fyfield - Gypsy Mead
Type: Fairy
Date / Time: Dawn (reoccurring)
Further Comments: Lavina, a female elf, can be heard singing on the site at sunrise.
First added: 2002-05-05 | Last updated: 2002-05-05 | ID #664
Brownish ABC
Location: Galleywood - Exact location not known
Type: ABC
Date / Time: Late 1996
Further Comments: A couple of reports claim ABC sightings in this region, both of brownish cats.
First added: 2000-08-17 | Last updated: 2000-08-17 | ID #253
Officer Jones
Location: Grays - Fire Station
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Twentieth century
Further Comments: A former Divisional Officer, Jones appears sporadically in the dorm of the building.
First added: 2001-09-07 | Last updated: 2001-09-07 | ID #877
Mollie Ram
Location: Great Baddow - Molram's Lane
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: A landowner from several hundred years ago, Mollie Ram now haunts this area.
First added: 2001-09-08 | Last updated: 2001-09-08 | ID #893
Victorian Man
Location: Great Baddow - Private house in Meadgate shops area
Type: Other
Date / Time: Circa 2005/06
Further Comments: A child taking a drink to his mother in her bedroom narrowly avoided being hit by a hacksaw falling from a wardrobe. As the child reached the bed, he turned and watched a shadowy Victorian man wearing a top hat dash across the room, pass through the closed window, and move across the night sky.
First added: 2024-01-07 | Last updated: 2024-01-07 | ID #15213
Monk Slides
Location: Great Baddow - St. Mary's Church
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: The monk who has been seen sliding down the aisles and leaving through the door on the west side is supposed to be connected to the secret tunnels beneath the building. In addition to this ghost, soldiers from the English Civil War have been seen standing outside the church watching the building.
First added: 2000-09-02 | Last updated: 2000-09-02 | ID #281
Footfalls Down the Stairs
Location: Great Baddow - White Horse Inn
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: 20 December (reoccurring)
Further Comments: The site of a murder on a distant December day has resulted in ghostly footsteps coming down the attic stairs once a year.
First added: 2001-09-06 | Last updated: 2001-09-06 | ID #856
Upset Lady
Location: Great Bardfield - The Place (old house)
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Twentieth century
Further Comments: Since an exorcism, nothing has been heard from the sad female spirit that haunted the spare room.
First added: 2001-09-07 | Last updated: 2001-09-07 | ID #872
Moving Items
Location: Great Bromley - Old Court House Inn
Type: Poltergeist
Date / Time: 2000s
Further Comments: The poltergeist here is said to move things around the pub.
First added: 2009-12-31 | Last updated: 2009-12-31 | ID #9774
Poltergeist
Location: Great Bromley - Seven Rivers Cheshire Home
Type: Poltergeist
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: Little is known about the poltergeist outbreak which once occurred here.
First added: 2001-09-06 | Last updated: 2001-09-06 | ID #174
Self-Playing Piano
Location: Great Burstead - Hope House, aka Tower House School
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: 1950s
Further Comments: As well as the piano, phantom footsteps have been heard outside the building.
First added: 2001-09-06 | Last updated: 2001-09-06 | ID #843
Jumping Stone
Location: Great Dunmow - Stone close to Beaumont Hill
Type: Legend
Date / Time: Stone still present
Further Comments: Said to be able to jump over walls, the stone also has the power to make any woman who touches it pregnant.
First added: 2019-06-06 | Last updated: 2019-06-06 | ID #13256
Records 201 - 225 of 520
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