The Paranormal Database

Whistling

Location: Watford - Oxhey Police Station
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: 2008
Further Comments: Reputedly built on the site of a gallows, the empty corridors are said to be home to disembodied whistling after dark.

Mr Cooke

Location: Watford - St Mary's Church, and the nearby shopping centre
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Late twentieth century
Further Comments: This 1840's schoolteacher died in a fire that ravished the educational establishment, and his ghost is blamed for disrupting local shops (moving pictures, flicking lights on and off, etc).

Lord Doneraile

Location: Watford - The Grove
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Weather Dependent: Stormy nights
Further Comments: One piece of nineteenth century folklore, dismissed as fiction by a contemporary newspaper, says Lord Doneraile rides a horse pursuing a fox as punishment for converting a chapel into his kitchen.

Backblast

Location: Watford - Tunnel near Watford Junction railway station
Type: Unknown Ghost Type
Date / Time: Late nineteenth / early twentieth century
Further Comments: At a certain point in the tunnel, the firemen of steam driven engines reported their boilers would spit coal back at them. It was later said a pile of bodies were disturbed during the tunnel's construction, and the spirits were restless.

Grey Lady

Location: Watton-at-Stone - Church
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: A local story says the church tower is haunted by a grey lady who leapt from the top after being spurned.

Roman Coins

Location: Watton-at-Stone - Close to the River Beane
Type: Curse
Date / Time: Twentieth century
Further Comments: One story says misfortunes befell the family of a man who found a cache of Roman coins near the river and kept them for himself.

Sheppard

Location: Watton-at-Stone - George & Dragon public house
Type: Poltergeist
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: Footsteps and moving objects have been reported in this pub, where James Sheppard died on the stairs in 1833 after being shot nearby by a police officer.

Alsatian-Sized Cat

Location: Welham Green - Station Road, woodland near
Type: ABC
Date / Time: 2007
Further Comments: Andrew Hollings, out walking his dog in the evening, encountered a cat 'the size of a Labrador or Alsatian with a long tail'. The creature slowly emerged form woodland.

Beast of Brookmans Park

Location: Welwyn - General area
Type: ABC
Date / Time: 2005
Further Comments: Named the 'Beast of Brookmans Park' by the local press, this panther was spotted by several people during 2005.

Girl in Red

Location: Welwyn - Non pedestrianised bank between the two Welwyn tunnels
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Mid 2000s and late 1990s
Further Comments: In the mid-2000s, a train guard reported looking out the window of a slow moving train and spotting a young girl in an old fashioned red dress. The guard looked away for a second, during which the girl vanished. When the story was shared, it emerged a driver had seen the figure several years previous.

Young Boy

Location: Welwyn - Tewin Bury Farm
Type: Unknown Ghost Type
Date / Time: 2008
Further Comments: A photograph taken by designer Neil Sandbach of the farm appears to show a pale, blurred figure peering around a corner. A couple who were marrying at the site also reported seeing a phantom young boy dressed in white, who manifested near the barn.

Headless Horse

Location: Welwyn - White Horse Lane
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: The headless horse which runs along this road was said to have been a casualty during the civil war.

Quick Jab

Location: Welwyn Garden City - Cottage public house (now known as Doctors Tonic)
Type: Unknown Ghost Type
Date / Time: 1995
Further Comments: A former worker said that as he was leaving one night, he felt someone jab him in the ribs. He swung round to see if it was another member of staff, but there was no one there.

Tall Man in Black

Location: Welwyn Garden City - Private building, Panshanger area
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: October 2023
Further Comments: One witness spotted a phantom tall man dressed entirely in black. The witness later discovered that another person had felt their bedcovers being pulled and something had touched their fingers.

Hovering Triangle

Location: Welwyn Garden City - Sky over city
Type: UFO
Date / Time: 1992
Further Comments: Two friends spotted a triangular shaped ufo hovering over a lake. The craft tilted upwards before simply vanishing, resulting in the friends running home without looking back.

A cave filled with wealth.

Jack o'Legs

Location: Weston - Churchyard
Type: Legend
Date / Time: Still present?
Further Comments: Jack o'Legs was said to be a very tall man (perhaps fourteen foot tall!) who, armed with bow and arrow, robbed from the rich and gave to the poor. It is also said that a cave somewhere near here may still contain some of his ill-gotten gains.

Young Woman

Location: Weston - Road near Lannock Hill
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: November 1972, around 23:30h
Further Comments: The phantom figure of a woman in white was seen by a husband and wife as they drove out of Weston. It is thought that the phantom is a girl who drowned on her wedding day.

Ann

Location: Wheathampstead - Building near Marshalls Heath Lane
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: 1974, 2016
Further Comments: A girl spotted by a worker at this building vanished into thin air when approached. Doors of the building would lock and unlock unaided by human hand. The ghost was identified as Ann Noblett, murdered nearby with the crime remaining unsolved. In 2016 members of the Luton Paranormal Society observed a shadowy figure along the lane.