The Paranormal Database

Dark Figure

Location: Portsmouth - St Ann's Church, Dockyard
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Summer 2018
Further Comments: Having worked in the building before many times without incident, a member of the chaplaincy team had two fleeting glances of a dark figure standing on the balcony, looking over the edge as if watching the witness. The figure was described as curious and unthreatening.

Looking for Child

Location: Portsmouth - St Mary's Hospital
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: 1969
Further Comments: A ghostly woman in a dressing gown was once said to wander the hospital looking for her baby, who had died of unknown complications.

Actor

Location: Portsmouth - Theatre Royal
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: 1980s
Further Comments: A brown coloured figure was once seen sitting in the empty theatre. A piano was recorded playing a single note in the building after closing time when all the doors had been closed and locked. Another story says an actor who cut his own throat here in the 1880's is said to remain earthbound.

Stirring

Location: Portsmouth - Unidentified house, St Mary's Road
Type: Poltergeist
Date / Time: Circa December 1964
Further Comments: This entity created a nuisance by ripping buttons off clothing, thumping on the staircase, and creating a rattling which resembled a shaving brush being stirred in a tin cup. One man twice witnessed a white figure on the staircase.

Victorian Barmaid

Location: Portsmouth - White Swan inn, Guildhall Walk
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: This unfortunate woman was murdered by her violent husband after he returned from sea.

Children

Location: Portsmouth - Wymering Manor
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: 2000s
Further Comments: The oldest building in the city, Wymering Manor is said to be home to several apparitions and cold spots. The sounds of children whispering have also been reported, although one former resident went on record as saying the phantoms were 'quite nice and quite friendly'.

Helen's Spirits

Location: Portsmouth - 301 Copnor Road
Type: Other
Date / Time: 1944
Further Comments: Helen Duncan, a materialisation medium famously convicted for conspiring to contravene the Witchcraft Act of 1735 in 1944, used the flat above a drug store here.

Lanky Woman

Location: Redord - Plough public house (no longer standing)
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: This grinning character would suddenly appear behind anyone new in the pub, before vanishing just as quick.

Old Woman with Grey Hair

Location: Ringwood - Four Seasons restaurant (since renamed)
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: 1973
Further Comments: Seen gently rocking on a chair, this old woman dressed in grey clothing vanished when approached by one witness. Former staff at the building also reported seeing the entity.

Alice Lisle public house, Rockford.

Alice Lisle

Location: Rockford - Area around Alice Lisle public house
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: Alice Lisle was the last woman to be executed by decapitation, at the hands of Judge Jeffreys. Her ghost rides around the area in a driverless coach, pulled by headless horses.

Charlie

Location: Romsey - Palmerston Restaurant
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Late twentieth century
Further Comments: Seen by staff in the upper parts of the building, Charlie is described as an elderly man with bright white hair.

Screams from Roundheads

Location: Romsey - Swan Inn
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: Two Roundheads were hanged from the pub's sign. They have since been heard gasping and crying for help.

Wedding Guests

Location: Ropley - Bridestone Lane
Type: legend
Date / Time: Still present?
Further Comments: A wedding party failed to invite any of the local fairies to their big day. Travelling back from church, everyone was transformed into stone; they stood by the roadside as a warning to others.

An old illustration of a cat.

Cat

Location: Ropley - Cottage along Old Chapel Lane
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Circa 1920s?
Further Comments: An old woman who lived in this cottage was convinced it was haunted by a black cat, which she believed was her mother, due to the way it walked.

Chains

Location: Ropley - Red Barn, Petersfield Road (demolished early twentieth century)
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Nineteenth century
Further Comments: A homeless family that tried to spend the night in the barn fled in the early hours of the morning after hearing clanking chains and other strange noises.

White Landlady

Location: Ropley - Watercress Inn
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: 1978
Further Comments: A former landlady of this pub mysteriously vanished at the start of the twentieth century, though on occasion her ghostly form is seen in the pub.

Shaggy Dog

Location: Selborne - Area near brook
Type: Shuck
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: This shuck comes across as quite harmless and seems to appreciate the company of living animals.

Silhouetted Figure

Location: Selborne - Hangers Way
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: 15 October 2009, around 16:00h
Further Comments: Walking along this lane with his metal detector, a witness spotted a figure standing by a gate on a hill, silhouetted against the sky. The figure wore a strange hat and a coat which came almost to the ground. The witness looked away for a few seconds during which time the figure vanished, with no obvious exit route. When the witness approached the gate, he realised the area was covered in thick mud, and there were no tracks visible.

Monk

Location: Selborne - Selborne Common
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: 14 February 2021, 13:30h
Further Comments: A brown figure was spotted standing by a fallen tree, itself resembling a monk. The figure disappeared behind the tree. The area was silent and the undergrowth in the area had not been disturbed.

Wishing Stone

Location: Selborne - Selborne Hangar
Type: Legend - Old Nick
Date / Time: Still present
Further Comments: The Devil is said to be responsible for the creation of this wishing stone.

Gilbert White

Location: Selborne - White's Church, and other parts of the village
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Monk seen 1976
Further Comments: The naturalist Gilbert White has popped up in many places in the village, despite dying in the 1700s. Monks have also been reported in the village - a priory once stood here, and though the building has long since gone, its former occupants are less reluctant to leave.

Highwaymen

Location: Setley - Filly Inn (formally Fillie Inne)
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: 2000s
Further Comments: This inn was built where a much older one once stood. The old building was demolished soon after three men were arrested for murder and highway robbery. It is said that one of the robbers tried to repent but was hanged regardless. The entity makes his presence known by throwing things around the room.

Long Faced Man

Location: Sherfield - Old Mill
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Twentieth century
Further Comments: This entity, which appeared several times at night, is believed to have been a former stone cutter in the mill.

Onion

Location: Silchester - Stone on the common, Hampshire/Berkshire Border
Type: Legend - Old Nick
Date / Time: Still present
Further Comments: A local giant named Onion tossed a stone that landed on the common, a mile away, leaving the impressions of his fingers upon it. Others have said that the stone was thrown by the Devil.

Low Flying Egg

Location: Sopley - A338 between Avon and Sopley, near bridge over the river Avon
Type: UFO
Date / Time: November 1967
Further Comments: Two separate groups of witnesses watched as this craft, around 25 meters long, passed low over the road, melting the tarmac surface. Vehicles and lights nearby were disrupted.