The Paranormal Database

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.

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.

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.

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.

Headless Bearers

Location: Great Holland - Field along Park Lane
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: At least one witness has reported seeing six headless men carrying a coffin across the field.

Kate Slough

Location: Great Holland - Pork Lane
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: The apparition of blonde-haired Kate on horseback has been observed near the area where she once drowned. Her white horse has also been observed riderless.

Woman in a Crinoline Gown

Location: Great Holland - Treasure Holt - farmhouse in marshes
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: 1990s?
Further Comments: The history of this building goes back to 1138, and several ghosts have attached themselves to it and the surrounding area. The woman dressed in a crinoline gown drifts silently through the house, while a woman with blonde hair sits in front of the fireplace. This may be the same ghost who rides a white horse down the lane outside. A cavalier has been observed in the lounge, and a phantom monk walks a foot above the ground outside in the garden. Finally, just around the corner of the building the spectre of a highwayman still hangs from a tree.

Witch Seeking Revenge

Location: Great Leighs - Scrapfaggot Green, & crossroads near old US army camp
Type: Poltergeist
Date / Time: October 1944
Further Comments: The stone that once stood on this crossroads was said to imprison the spirit of a witch. During the Second World War, the US Army moved it, and havoc was reported in every corner of the village. Villagers soon replaced the stone, and the poltergeist activity ceased.

Room that Can Not be Slept In

Location: Great Leighs - St Anne's Castle Inn
Type: Unknown Ghost Type
Date / Time: Mid-to-late-twentieth century
Further Comments: Blamed on the moving of the Witch's Stone, the inn has been subjected to multiple poltergeist acts ever since. An unknown presence has been observed in the cellar, convincing at least two people not to return. Another room was considered evil by at least one landlady, and animals have been known to react badly to it. The Witch's Stone was by the entrance of the pub's car park but was removed by persons unknown in the late twentieth century; the stone currently at the pub is much smaller than the original one.

Polly

Location: Great Maplestead - Crossroads
Type: Other
Date / Time: 31 October (reoccurring)
Further Comments: Polly Mills' body was discovered in the castle lake and, as she was believed to be a witch, was buried at a crossroads in the village. It is said every Halloween, a posse of fresh flowers appears by her grave.

Maybush Inn, Great Oakley.

Echoes of a Marble Player

Location: Great Oakley - Maybush Inn
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: As well as the sounds of someone playing with these little glass balls, there are also sightings of a young, pretty woman dressed in a kimono.

Faceless Monk

Location: Great Stanbridge - Country lane, exact location not known
Type: Unknown Ghost Type
Date / Time: 1 March 2003
Further Comments: Three people reported seeing a cowled figure slowly moving by the side of the road in this small village. The figure wore a large wooden crucifix around its neck, and when it turned towards the witnesses, they could see that there was no face beneath the hood - just a gaping hole.

Large Black Dog

Location: Great Wakering - Star Lane
Type: Shuck
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: This area lays claim to be one of the many places in East Anglia where the shuck has visited.

A Grey Cat and Old Ruffy

Location: Great Waltham - Beehive public house
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Twentieth century
Further Comments: A grey cat has been seen in the building on several occasions, running down a corridor, only to disappear into a wall in the bathroom. Old Ruffy is the affectionate name given to the pub poltergeist, which once had a habit of breaking glasses.

Little Lady bringing Warning of Death

Location: Great Waltham - Langley Manor
Type: Crisis Manifestation
Date / Time: 1623
Further Comments: The daughter of Sir Charles Lee said she had seen her dead mother, who had warned her she would die the following day. Doctors pronounced the girl to be in perfect health, but she died suddenly of unknown causes the next day. Another ghost story attached to this location says that the kidnapping of a young girl occurred, perpetrated by an apparition. However, little more is known.

Noises

Location: Great Waltham - The Great Waltham, Main Road
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: 1980
Further Comments: During the building's conversion from the Rose and Crown to the Great Waltham, a series of unexplained noises plagued workers on the site. No reports have occurred since completion of the work.

Labrador

Location: Great Warley - Thatcher's Arms
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Not known
Further Comments: The history of this doggy spirit is unknown.

Dark Fawn ABC

Location: Great Wigborough - Exact location not known
Type: ABC
Date / Time: January 1996
Further Comments: The dark fawn ABC here was believed to be a mountain lion.

Prudence

Location: Great Wigborough - The Hyde
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Twentieth century
Further Comments: Reportedly a sixteenth century witch, this ghost has hung around despite an exorcism.

Richard Hughes

Location: Great Yeldham - Spraynes Hall
Type: Unknown Ghost Type
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: Nothing is really known about this spirit.

White Lady Who Slaps

Location: Hadleigh - Castle ruins
Type: Legend
Date / Time: Late summer, 2009
Further Comments: Legend tells of the story of a milkmaid who met a ghost at the castle. The white lady requested that the milkmaid returned the following night, but the girl stayed away. The next day, the white lady hunted down the girl and slapped her for disobedience! More recently, a jogger spotted a woman in a white dress (possibly a wedding gown) standing in the path ahead him. The woman turned and started running just ahead of the jogger. The woman in white suddenly vanished on a bend on the path, and the jogger felt the hair on the back of his neck stand up.

Hostile Presence

Location: Hadleigh - The Old Schools
Type: Poltergeist
Date / Time: 1950s
Further Comments: The 'presence' would appear to be responsible for turning lights on and off, loud bangs, and phantom footfalls along the corridors.

Shop Keeper

Location: Hadleigh - The Village Stores along the High Street, and the route between the shop and the churchyard
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Twentieth century
Further Comments: The little old lady who once ran this shop around a hundred years ago has been seen both in the shop after hours and walking from the churchyard where she is buried to the building.

Georgian House

Location: Hadleigh - Wood between Leigh-on-Sea and Hadleigh
Type: Environmental Manifestation
Date / Time: 1946
Further Comments: While walking a familiar path, a brother and sister spotted a strange Georgian house that they had never seen before. A girl and a dog walked down the driveway and passed the siblings. Neither brother nor sister were later unable to locate the house, even on old maps. M H Coleman, writing in the Journal of the Society for Psychical Research (vol 63, no 853) offered compelling evidence that the house is real, and the witnesses were mistaken in their belief that what they had seen was ghostly.

Pleasant Old Man

Location: Hadstock - Church
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: 1930s onwards
Further Comments: Little is known about this ghost, but his company is said to be non-threatening.