The Paranormal Database

Old Soldiers

Location: Folkestone - Caesar's Fort, house on site of. Once known as Lord Beechborough House
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: A handful of suicides occurred here when it was used as a barracks by the army - these military figures have been seen drifting around the site and are blamed for the odd poltergeist outbreak.

A phantom figure haunting a kitchen.

Disappearing Woman

Location: Folkestone - Cheriton Grange (no longer standing)
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: First World War
Further Comments: Troops based at the grange had to be moved as dozens reported a phantom woman who moved about after lights out. After the building was knocked down in 1918, she was still seen drifting around the ruins. It is not clear whether this was the same entity which haunted the kitchen - a lady dressed in black clothing, rather like a maid.

Cheriton

Location: Folkestone - Enbrook Manor
Type: Poltergeist
Date / Time: November / December (?) 1917
Further Comments: Poltergeist activity broke out around the site of an excavation, with one man hit multiple times by rocks. Another witness claimed to have seen stones rise and fall from the ground. A hammer, chairs and a pickaxe were all seen to move unaided. Sir Arthur Conan Doyle visited the area but did not offer an explanation to the events.

Barry Soudaine

Location: Folkestone - Flat along Canterbury Road
Type: SHC
Date / Time: 27 December 1987
Further Comments: Barry Soudaine was found his kitchen, only a foot and a trainer remaining amongst a pile of ash. Some plastic fittings in the kitchen had melted, but there was not serious fire damage. The coroner recorded an open verdict regarding the death.

Strange Lights

Location: Folkestone - Skies over the area
Type: UFO
Date / Time: 23 October 1920, 22:00h
Further Comments: A witness reported seeing two bright lights, with a blurred light between them, moving rapidly through the sky. No sound accompanied the lights as they moved north-east on a horizontal plane.

Southcliff Hotel in Folkestone, Kent.

Former Occupant

Location: Folkestone - Southcliff Hotel
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: The hotel claims to be haunted by the ghost of a former owner of the building, a soldier, who now frequents the right hand side of the site.

Father

Location: Gillingham - Gillingham Football Club
Type: Post-Mortem Manifestation
Date / Time: July 1960
Further Comments: Dan, the physio of Gillingham FC, passed the station and bumped into a man who asked him the way to the football ground. The man explained that his son was a striker for the team - when Dan heard this, the man was invited to sit in the directors' box, which he did to watch the game. When the striker discovered that his father had visited him, he was outraged, as the two men were estranged. However, the striker soon discovered his father had died a year earlier. Witnesses who had encountered the man in the box said that he bore a striking resemblance to the striker and shared the same northern accent.

Nurse

Location: Gillingham - Great Lines (grassland / park)
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: A phantom nurse wearing clothing from the First World War fades from view when approached.

Furniture Mover

Location: Gillingham - Private house along Beechings Way
Type: Poltergeist
Date / Time: 1974
Further Comments: A widow and her two children endured two years of poltergeist activity (including furniture and paintings relocating themselves around the house, and the sound of footsteps in empty parts of the building) before an exorcism cleansed the property.

Bearded Man

Location: Gillingham - Private house along Imperial Road
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Late 1960s, early 1970s
Further Comments: This spook, taking the form of a cloaked eighteenth century gentleman with a beard, opened doors, threw items around, and switched lights on and off.

Young Girl in Black

Location: Gillingham - Railway bridge along Woodlands Road, and Ferndale Road
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: 1980s-1990s
Further Comments: A witness who asked this young girl in black clothing where she was going was told 'I'm going to church'. As the witness continued to watch the girl, she vanished. Later at work the witness mentioned the sighting to a couple who said they had also engaged the figure in conversation, who at the time had been sitting on a wall close to the railway bridge. A year later the witness briefly spotted the girl again, as he appeared and disappeared along Ferndale Road.

Small Group of People

Location: Godmersham - Court Lodge Farm (no longer standing)
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: 1940s
Further Comments: Witnesses said that this building was once haunted by a small group of people who could be heard moving and talking on the ground floor.

Headless Coachman

Location: Grafty Green - Road past King's Head public house and old rectory
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: A driver lost control of his coach and crashed into a large tree near the old rectory, killing all the passengers. The coachman lost his head in the accident. Legends say the scene repeats itself, though now it tends to be heard and not seen. A twist to this tale is that the ghost of 'Dover Bill', a local smuggler who turned King's Evidence, was said to have appeared and caused the accident in the first place.

M

Location: Gravesend - Council owned flat in St Patrick's Gardens
Type: Poltergeist
Date / Time: January / February 2004
Further Comments: A family were virtually driven out if the property after a spate of strange incidents, including diving room temperatures, patterns appearing in freshly made beds, and the writing of the letter 'M' on a child's blackboard.

Dark Figure

Location: Gravesend - Fort Gardens
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: May 2016
Further Comments: A visitor to these tunnels felt the presence of an authoritative man and had the sensation of being pushed back into the entry room. The site is reportedly home to a ghostly dark figure.

Two Lads

Location: Gravesend - Hearts of Oak public house (no longer standing)
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Early twentieth century
Further Comments: A couple of young boys were said to haunt this pub, playing tricks and making fleeting appearances until finally disappearing once the building was taken down.

Falling Coal

Location: Gravesend - House along Wrotham Road (no longer standing)
Type: Poltergeist
Date / Time: 1897
Further Comments: Cinders and lumps of coal were seen to fall in various parts of the house by both the residents and neighbours. One person was knocked unconscious after being hit by a high speed piece of coal.

German Pilot

Location: Gravesend - Private house on the River View Park estate
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Late twentieth century
Further Comments: The site of a former RAF base, investigators belief that the pilot was shot down whilst on a bombing run over the area.

Black Shape

Location: Gravesend - Rochester Road near Chalk Church
Type: Unknown Ghost Type
Date / Time: 19 April 2006, 15:00h, 2009
Further Comments: In 2006, a large black shape was seen by at least one driver as it crossed the road over a small traffic island prior to disappearing into the field opposite. A similar shape was spotted in 2009, with the witness stating that the movement was like that of a deer, although it vanished in front of the path of the car.

Presence

Location: Gravesend - Three Daws inn
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: 2025
Further Comments: The inn is used by ghost hunters who have detected presences, although the finer points of the haunting are not detailed. The inn also has a reputation as a former smugglers' haunt, complete with secret tunnels.

Child

Location: Great Buckland - Lost village of Dode
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: The Black Death decimated the village of Dode's population, and now only the church remains. One piece of more modern folklore says the church and surrounding area is haunted by a child.

An old woodcut of a bull's head.

Great Bull

Location: Great Chart - Church
Type: Legend
Date / Time: 1600s?
Further Comments: A large phantom bull appeared within the building during a thunderstorm, stampeding and killing or injuring several people. As the creature left, it knocked down a part of a wall.

The Ostler

Location: Groombridge - Groombridge Place
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: Having drowned in 1808, the Ostler has been spotted since wearing a rusty coloured smock. The phantom has been reported standing by the doorway of a cottage near the moat.

Stable Hand

Location: Hadlow - Parker's Green (private house), Cuckoo Lane
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: This young boy was killed in a blaze that once engulfed parts of the building - he is now seen running from the site.

Something Terrifying

Location: Halling - Quarry in the area
Type: Unknown Ghost Type
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: A few weeks after a driver lost his life in the quarry, another lorry driver working late encountered something that terrified him to such a degree that he refused to work at the site again.