The Paranormal Database

Green Light

Location: Rickmansworth - Skies over the town
Type: UFO
Date / Time: February 2010
Further Comments: Two police officers watched a bright green light quickly pass over the town and disappear over the horizon.

Thin Man

Location: Royston - Banyers House Hotel
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Twenty-first century
Further Comments: A ghost by the name of Henry haunts this site, and may have been the tall thin man wearing a brown suit seen briefly by both the manager and the owner standing by the bar. Room 4 is visited by strange sounds and a soldier in a peaked cap. Other ghosts reportedly frequenting the area are a monk, a caped man, and a woman in a bonnet.

B-17 Crew?

Location: Royston - Former RAF Bassingbourne
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: 1960s, 1994, and 2004
Further Comments: There were a handful of reports of a phantom aircrew made during the 1960s, at this base once used by the USAAF. The B-17 may have been seen in 1994, moving silently overhead. More recently, a man who lived on the site of the former airfield reported seeing a pair of legs in dress uniform which manifested in his home, and the sounds of aircraft starting up.

Shattering Mirrors

Location: Royston - Henrick's Hairdressing salon
Type: Poltergeist
Date / Time: 2004
Further Comments: Mirrors have been known to fly from the walls and the radio changes stations at will, in this haunted salon. A psychic blamed the former owner of the building who slit his own throat.

Shadows

Location: Royston - Royston Cave
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: Shadowy figures have been briefly spotted in this cave.

Caretaker

Location: Royston - Royston Museum
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Late twentieth century
Further Comments: A former schoolhouse, the museum is said to be haunted by the wife of a Victorian caretaker, who was found dead in the building's cellar.

William Blake's Satan, circa 1795.

The Old Brick Mover

Location: Sarratt - Church
Type: Legend - Old Nick
Date / Time: Eleventh century
Further Comments: The Devil was said to have moved the bricks from the church's original build site just as quick as the builders could lay them. The builders finally gave up and constructed the church where it stands today.

Well Dressed Man

Location: Sarratt - Rose Hall
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: A figure seen in a bedroom had a good quality blue coat, but sadly missed his head.

Sitting Airman

Location: Sawbridgeworth - Former RAF Sawbridgeworth
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Late twentieth century
Further Comments: This lonely airman sits by the side of the road, patiently waiting for a lift which has never yet arrived.

Man-Like Monster

Location: South Mimms - Bridge along Wash Lane
Type: Cryptozoology
Date / Time: Circa late nineteenth / early twentieth century
Further Comments: A man crossing the bridge watched as a human-like creature rose from the ground and leapt over the bridge, vanishing into the mist. The witness fled.

Praying Man

Location: South Mimms - Church and vicarage
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: 1920s
Further Comments: A man seen praying in the church stood up and walked through a closed door leading to the vestry. The Reverend Allen Hay also reported that he would often wake at 3am and felt a presence in the vicarage, though he was convinced the ghost was friendly.

Headless Man

Location: South Mimms - Field close to the village
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: 1930s
Further Comments: The area where a dead man was found quickly became known as being haunted by a headless man and the occasional glowing light.

Flagging Figure

Location: South Mimms - Unnamed road in the area
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Spring 1935
Further Comments: Several motorists (and a vicar on his bike) encountered a figure who stood on the roadside flagging down travellers, only to vanish seconds later. More generally, the roads in the area where once said to be haunted by the ghost of Dick Turpin.

Turpin

Location: South Mimms - Wash Lane
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Circa late nineteenth / early twentieth century
Further Comments: The ghost of Dick Turpin was said to haunt this lane.

Procession of Monks

Location: St Albans - Abbey grounds
Type: Post-Mortem Manifestation
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: A witness working on the site watched a short line of monks walk through a stone wall. It is also said that music can sometimes be heard in the early hours of the morning.

John Beckett

Location: St Albans - Batchwood Hall (currently a nightclub)
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Early 2000s
Further Comments: Killed while running into the burning building to save his wife during a fire in 1895, John's shade still searches for his wife's missing body. During a fire in 1995, witnesses escaping the fire claimed to have seen a phantom woman with a shovel, scattering burning coals over the floor.

Dragon of Wormenhert

Location: St Albans - Exact location unknown, said to have been a cave within a gorge in a nearby hill
Type: Dragon
Date / Time: Eleventh century
Further Comments: Abbot Ealdred of St Albans rebuilt his abbey using the ruins of Verulamium, a Roman city located nearby. During the course of the work the Abbot destroyed the lair of the dragon of Wormenhert.

An old woodcut of two armies engaging in hand-to-hand combat.

Sounds of Battle

Location: St Albans - Row of shops along Chequer Street
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: The location of the Battle of St Albans, fought during the War of the Roses, is said to still generate the sounds of battle.

Nell Gwynne

Location: St Albans - Salisbury Hall
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Late ninetieth century
Further Comments: Witnessed by Winston Churchill's stepfather, the ghost of Nell was seen in the dining room, wearing blue clothing. A cavalier is also reported to haunt the upper parts of the building, where he took his own life rather than fall into the hands of his Roundhead opponents.

An old woodcut of a large sailing ship.

Radiant Ship

Location: St Albans - Skies over town
Type: UFO
Date / Time: 01 January 1254
Further Comments: A brightly coloured ship passed overhead, on an otherwise clear night.

The Departed

Location: St Albans - Tree at Sumpter Yard (close to the Cathedral)
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Midnight (reoccurring)
Further Comments: One story says that the departed materialise at midnight under the tree. Another local legend says if you speak under this tree, you will experience bad luck unless you return at midnight and circle it three times (which this author guesses means you will bump into the aforementioned departed).

Barrel Mover

Location: St Albans - White Hart public house
Type: Poltergeist
Date / Time: Unknown, prior to 2008
Further Comments: The entity here was blamed when heavy barrels in the cellar were found moved, even though no (living) person had been down there. Another story had a guest complain that the guests in the neighbouring room had been particularly noisy, even though no one else was staying in any other room on that night.

A phantom woman on horseback dashes through trees.

Sobbing

Location: St Albans - Wicked Lady public house
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: The sound of a lady's gentle sobs has been heard diffusing through the fabric of the pub. The common outside the pub is home to a highway woman on horseback, after whom the building is named.

Betty Deacon

Location: St Paul's Walden - Area around The Valley (street)
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Pre-First World War
Further Comments: Betty Deacon drowned herself on 16 August 1860 in the village pond. For years afterwards, her ghost was said to scare choir boys returning from practice after dusk had fallen. Another version of the story says Betty's ghost would be seen standing at the site which would have been just outside her cottage.

Man in Wide Brimmed Hat

Location: Stevenage - Area behind The Fisherman
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: 03 September 2006 and October 2011
Further Comments: Two witnesses encountered an old fashioned figure wearing a wide brimmed hat as they cut across this area. They ran off after the figure took a step towards them. They heard from a friend on the same night who also said he had been chased by a shadow wearing the same kind of hat. Several years later one of the witnesses was told that the figure had been seen again, this time by a friend of their brother.