The Paranormal Database

Grey Light

Location: Torquay (Devon) - Castel a Mere, Middle Warberry Road (no longer standing)
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: 1920s
Further Comments: This misty light transformed into a man sized shadow and attacked a visitor to the house, forcing him to flee. A neighbour penned a letter to the local newspaper in 1956 and claimed that owls were probably responsible for the haunting.

Old Knobbley.

Glowing Light

Location: Mistley (Essex) - Old Knobbley (tree), Furze Hill
Type: Fairy
Date / Time: 14 January 2022, 15:30h
Further Comments: The eight hundred year old tree known as Old Knobbley is supposed to have been a refuse for witches hiding from Matthew Hopkins. In 2022, a glowing ball of light was seen and recorded as it flew around a person swinging on a tree rope.

Smith on Horseback

Location: Nether Lypiatt (estate) (Gloucestershire) - Nether Lypiatt Manor
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: 25 January (reoccurring)
Further Comments: An owner of the horse once hanged a blacksmith for failing to complete a piece of work within a tight time limit - the date of the death is marked by the appearance of a large white horse carrying the dead smith (or the phantom smith opening the gates, depending on the source). Another report says that the ghost of the smith does not actually appear but unlocks and opens the gates. A spirit in the house itself, that of a grey lady, has been seen several times, and there are unsubstantiated reports that it has been exorcised.

Queen Margaret of Anjou

Location: Owlpen (Gloucestershire) - Owlpen Manor
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: 1940s
Further Comments: Last seen by a group of children during the Second World War (who mistook the phantom for someone in fancy dress), the wife of Henry VI is said to pine for her dead son Edward. More recently, poltergeist like effects and the sounds of phantom footsteps have been reported, as have the sounds of phantom children.

Miss Flemming

Location: SW6 (Greater London) - Fulham House
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Circa 1956
Further Comments: A visitor to the site in 1956 watched a phantom woman cross the drill hall. A member of the cleaning staff told the local press that while alone on the site, she would hear footsteps on the staircase. The building had previously been the Fulham House School for Girls, run by a Miss Flemming, who became allocated blame for the haunting. In the late nineteenth century, a guest spotted a figure later thought to be Oliver Cromwell, who would visit the site when owned by his family.

Banging

Location: Livingston (Lothian) - Private residence, Howden
Type: Poltergeist
Date / Time: January 1969
Further Comments: A family moved from their property after experiencing unexplained bangs, thumps, and strange marks appearing on windows and floors.

Button Cap

Location: Barnack (Northamptonshire) - Former rectory, Kingsley House
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Pre twentieth century
Further Comments: Named after a former vicar who would walk around wearing slippers, a dressing gown, and a night cap with a large button sown on, this ghost could be heard pacing throughout the building, turning the pages of a book, and occasionally creating the sound of rolling barrels in the basement.

Woman in Satin

Location: Sudbury (Suffolk) - Brundon Hall, near Sudbury
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Late eighteenth / early nineteenth centuries
Further Comments: This ghost could often seen knocking (or stamping) on a blue slab on the floor in the house before disappearing. Curious owners removed the stone - it led to a vault containing two skeletons laying side-by-side, the remains of several children, and gold artifacts, though no one could explain why the site existed.

Mrs Stout

Location: Cootehill (County Cavan) - Unknown property
Type: SHC
Date / Time: Circa 1785
Further Comments: Mrs Stout was seen going to bed, apparently fine, but found dead the following morning. Her body was heavily burnt, with parts not altered by fire crumbling when touched. Her nightdress remained undamaged by the fire. An inquest determined she had 'died by the visitation of God'.

Thomas Williams

Location: Aberporth (Dyfed) - Unidentified cottage
Type: SHC
Date / Time: November 1808
Further Comments: Human combustion, but in this case not so spontaneous. A sailor who liked his rum, Thomas Williams fell unconscious after a drinking session. His friend summoned a doctor who arrived after dark. The attending physician held a candle close to Thomas, who promptly caught light, bathed in blue flame. A bucket of water thrown over the fire only made the flames larger. The witnesses all left (for reasons not fully explained) and returned the following morning to find Thomas's torso completely consumed, but his shirt only charred. Thomas's friends said that he had been wicked and that the devil had come for him.

Monkey

Location: Cheuchbrae (Dumfries and Galloway) - Rockhall Tower
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: This primate was killed after the death of its master, Sir Robert Grierson, as no one could be found to look after the little critter.

Alice

Location: Havant (Hampshire) - Private residence, North Street
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: 1981
Further Comments: Alice froze to death while in front of her empty fireplace at the start of the twentieth century. Eighty years later, a hypnotherapist working on the site reported Alice's ghost walked the house and would make herself known to his patients by chilling them during their sessions.

Blackened Remains

Location: Nairn (Highland) - Area close to Hardmuir Wood
Type: SHC
Date / Time: 29 July 1852
Further Comments: The charred remains of John Anderson could only be recognised by the horses and cart found by his body. One witness said that John had fallen from his cart while burning, his horses remaining still, and that the fire had been extinguish with buckets of water within fifteen minutes of starting. The doctor who performed the autopsy believed the fire to be 'no ordinary combustion'.

Said to Be

Location: Corvedale (Shropshire) - Thornlands
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Circa 1956
Further Comments: A moated house received a brief mention in the local press that referred to the site as haunted, although no other details were given.

Shadowy Man

Location: Swindon (Wiltshire) - Private residence, Penhill Drive
Type: Poltergeist
Date / Time: 1964-1966
Further Comments: After occupants moved away having endured several elements of a classic haunting (including ornaments moving unaided, rattling door handles, and a shadowy male figure), the council received several requests from people wanting to move in.

Friendly Presence

Location: Aberdeen (Aberdeenshire) - Private residence, Chaplains' Court, Chanonry
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: 1970 - 1994
Further Comments: Author Agnes Short claimed to have seen a ghostly woman in her home, both gliding along a corridor and sewing while sitting. A small group of phantom men were also spotted sitting around a table. Latter owners said they could feel a friendly presence on the site but had never encountered a ghost.

Lady Helena Stanhope

Location: Amersham (Buckinghamshire) - Woodrow High House (aka Elmodesham House)
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: 2000s?
Further Comments: After Lady Helena Stanhope's lover, Sir Peter Bostock, was executed for treason, she committed suicide in the grounds of her house. Stanhope's green ghost is now reported to walk the building, her footsteps occasionally heard, or her presence felt while creating mild poltergeist activity.

Moving Toys

Location: Galway (County Galway) - Private residence, Corrib Park
Type: Poltergeist
Date / Time: May 1997
Further Comments: A haunting presence made itself known in this house shortly after the birth of a girl. Unexplained footsteps and crying could be heard, toys rearranged, items would fall from the walls, and a jug shattered after being thrown on the staircase. Although frightening, family members believed the entity was protecting the newborn. The family eventually moved out and a priest visited to bless the rooms.

Joyous Footsteps

Location: Kirkconnell (Dumfries and Galloway) - Kirkconnell House
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: 1980s
Further Comments: According to the current owners (2023), phantom footsteps are heard running around after the birth of a child, as if celebrating the new arrival. In another incident, a ghostly former nanny, perhaps displaying concern, manifested over a grieving woman.

Heavy Breathing

Location: Outer London: Heathrow Airport (Greater London) - General area
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: 1980s
Further Comments: This ghost was heard several times, breathing heavily around female members of staff, but never being seen. A second entity wears a bowler hat and has been known to ask about the whereabouts of his briefcase - both case and man were in an aircraft that crashed in the late 1940s, killing all on board. A phantom Dick Turpin rides a brown horse across the runways (or cargo sheds), while cleaning staff during the 1970s reported a presence which held them down, applying pressure around their throats. Finally, prior to the airport being built, a phantom Saxon prince reputedly haunted the area close to a pond where he drowned.

Child

Location: W14 (Greater London) - Tower House, Melbury Road
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: 1960s
Further Comments: During an interview, Richard Harris claimed the ghost of an eight year old child haunted his London home. The entity would keep Harris up at night, until the actor asked the entity to leave him alone.

Wrong House

Location: Wigtoft (Lincolnshire) - Sparrows Hall (?)
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Pre 1967
Further Comments: Supposedly haunted by a woman bricked up in a room after she died, this house developed the reputation as one of the most haunted in England. When psychical researchers tried to find the house in 1967, they decided the property called Sparrows Hall that they found could not be the correct house, leaving them searching for a different (and possibly now lost) site.

Screaming Woman

Location: Liverpool (Merseyside) - Private flat, West Derby
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: 1994
Further Comments: Two students sought help from a medium after enduring a phantom woman in her fifties who would scream during the night and call out the name 'Shelley Jones'. On one occasion the students returned to find the message 'get out' written out on the floor using their socks.

Eight

Location: Downham West (Norfolk) - Bridge Stores
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: 1977
Further Comments: A ghost hunter claimed to have detected eight ghosts at the shop and attached house (although only tracked down five or six of them).

Heavy Dragging Upstairs

Location: Great Cornard (Suffolk) - Abbas Hall
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: 02 March 1952
Further Comments: Sounds of something being dragged in the upper part of the building, together with footsteps, have been reported, as have sightings of an old woman looking through the windows of the house. One story claims the ghost of a hooded nun walks through the area. In 1952, seven American servicemen from Lakenheath spent the night on the site and reported the temperature fluctuating from stifling hot to freezing cold, and hearing bells pealing through the building.

Strange Sounds

Location: Solihull (West Midlands) - Park Hall (demolished 1970), Castle Bromwich
Type: Other
Date / Time: Pre 1970 (or 1930)
Further Comments: A family living in the hall left in 1930 after being driven out by the ghost (or, at least, stories about the ghost). Tales of a phantom being seen or strange noises heard persisted for a few more decades, although a 1958 newspaper article featured a local Alderman who claimed any haunting on the site to be a myth.

Bill

Location: Grappenhall (Cheshire) - Rams Head Inn
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: A former landlord of the pub, Bill, is reputed to haunt the building.

Henry and Elizabeth

Location: Westward Ho! (Devon) - Pier House Restaurant
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: 2023
Further Comments: The restaurant and its resident ghosts appeared in the national press after a fire broke out in the basement, destroying wo tumble dryers and a washing machine. Two days prior to the fire, the ghosts of Henry and Elizabeth had featured in the television programme 'Help! My House is Haunted'.

White Lady

Location: Kingham (Oxfordshire) - Langston Arms Hotel
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: 1964
Further Comments: Her appearance preluded by coughing and shuffling sounds, staff and customers in the building spotted the apparition of an old woman as she passed down the corridors. A later story would emerge that the owner, Jack Bond, created the ghostly tale, asking a friend to wear a white sheet and pass by the building's windows.

Dave

Location: Nuneaton (Warwickshire) - Coniston Tavern
Type: Poltergeist
Date / Time: April 2023
Further Comments: A ghost named Dave found himself blamed when a pint of lager exploded on a table, covering the customers with liquid. A few months previous on the same table, another pint glass had slid on to the floor unaided by human hand.

Lady Carew in a Coach Pulled by Four Black Horses

Location: Potter Heigham (Norfolk) - Arched Bridge
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: 31 May, Midnight (reoccurring)
Further Comments: Occurring on the stroke of midnight, the phantom coach driven by a skeleton is seen to crash into the side of the bridge and fall into the river below. After selling her soul to the Devil, Lady Carew was taken away by two skeletons driving a coach pulled by four black horses on her wedding day. The coach disappeared on the bridge over the River Thurne, and the scene is repeated every 31 May. Another version of the story says the phantom is Lady Evelyn, who died when her coach crashed in 1741.

Gliding Woman

Location: Cranford (Surrey) - Cranford Park House (no longer standing (demolished 1946) - currently The Berkeley Arms)
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Pre 1946
Further Comments: Two men with the intent of going out with the gamekeepers followed what they thought was a maid around the corridors of the building - until the figure disappeared at a dead end. The ghost of Sir Roger Aston, barber to James I, also wandered the site.

Maid

Location: Cranford (Surrey) - River Crane
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: A mother and son walking along the river spotted a maid wearing white perched upon a stone seat by the water's edge. On their return journey they noticed that the maid, perhaps unsurprisingly, had gone, but the stone seat had also vanished without trace.

Small Missiles

Location: Islandmagee (County Antrim) - Unidentified former clergyman's house
Type: Poltergeist
Date / Time: 1711
Further Comments: The widow living on this property had small stones and other missiles thrown at her as she sat alone. On another occasion, a book in her hands was snatched by an unseen force and promptly vanished. While we would attribute this to a poltergeist outbreak today, the events led to a witch hunt, and while the women accused were found not guilty, they were assaulted by an angry mob.

OD

Location: Newtownabbey (County Antrim) - House near Tynan Drive
Type: Poltergeist
Date / Time: January 1993
Further Comments: A local minister prayed in this house after a resident claimed to have had their throat grabbed by an unseen force. Furniture also moved across the floor. While local folklore said a former occupant had died of an overdose in the house, no evidence existed of the event. Workmen boarded up the property after the residents permanently left.

Shredded Clothing

Location: Scunthorpe (Lincolnshire) - Unnamed house in Farthing Avenue
Type: Poltergeist
Date / Time: October - November 1977
Further Comments: The occupant of this house claimed that heavy ornaments had been thrown around, clocks moved, doors slammed unaided and clothing in a cupboard had been torn and shredded. A doctor attended the scene after the occupant ran into the road after feeling something attempt to strangle them. A local vicar visited the site and prayed in every room.

Moving Objects

Location: Balderton (Nottinghamshire) - House close to Bullpit Road
Type: Poltergeist
Date / Time: 1993
Further Comments: A family moved their young child to live with a grandparent after he refused to stay in the house. Objects moved on their own accord and strange noises reported. A psychic claimed to have removed three spirits from the property, although the family were determined to leave.

Not Known

Location: Leek (Warwickshire) - Well Street Gallery
Type: Unknown Ghost Type
Date / Time: 1992
Further Comments: A passing mention that the gallery had a reputation as a haunted site appeared in the local press, in an article about an exhibition launching on Friday the thirteenth.

Spontaneous Curtain Combustion

Location: Coventry (West Midlands) - Unnamed house, Treherne Road area
Type: Poltergeist
Date / Time: October 1968
Further Comments: A minister blessed his property after a curtain and window frame mysteriously burst into flame. Fire officers were unable to find the cause. On a previous occasion, a lamp had also caught fire.

Raining Soot

Location: Hull (Yorkshire) - Private flats along Hessle Road
Type: Poltergeist
Date / Time: Circa October 1997
Further Comments: Two couples living in the same building started sleeping in a car at night to avoid the strange happenings in their flats. Events included one man grabbed by an unseen presence, soot raining down in a kitchen, cold spots, and screeching and banging.

Emily

Location: Ashprington (Devon) - Waterman's Arms public house
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: Two ghosts haunt this site. The first, Emily, is said to be young, and died after being hit by a cart outside the pub. The second phantom is a former landlady with grey hair, and may have manifested to an old landlord.

Strange Noises

Location: Hazelwood (Derbyshire) - The Knowle
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Pre 1953
Further Comments: After writer Edith Maud Hull's death, her former home became the headquarters to the Anglamol company. The company said in a newspaper article that they occasionally received queries whether the staff heard strange noises at night, caused by the resident ghost (they had not).

House Swop

Location: Lanchester (Durham) - House off Newbiggen Lane
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: December 1970 - April 1971
Further Comments: The Wilson family and the Dent family, who both lived along the same street, exchanged properties after the Dents twice fled their home due to a haunting. Exorcisms performed by local vicars were claimed to have failed. A member of the Wilson family said they needed a bigger home and that they did not believe in ghosts.

White Dog

Location: Mistley (Essex) - Mistley Hill
Type: Shuck
Date / Time: 1938
Further Comments: Folklore says the white dog's appearance is a prelude to a death in the Norman family.

Dr Mafsen

Location: Stafford (Staffordshire) - High House
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Circa 1973
Further Comments: Mafsen was keeper of the local asylum and reputed to haunt High House, manifesting during the daytime on one occasion. The ghost featured in the local press in 1973, after Ian Tavernor volunteered to spend a week in the house, armed with a cutlass. Just in case.

Acting Ghosts Only?

Location: Bolney (Sussex) - Wykehurst Place
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: The site doubled as Belasco House in the 1973 film The Legend of Hell House, with one contemporary review claiming the site to be really haunted, although any stories supporting the assertion are lacking.

Dummy Thief

Location: Hull (Yorkshire) - Private house, Orchard Park Estate
Type: Poltergeist
Date / Time: 1973
Further Comments: Items would vanish, including a shaving kit and baby's dummies, while light bulbs fell from their sockets and disembodied footsteps heard on the staircase and on the roof. A local vicar who investigated the haunted claimed other properties on the estate had similar paranormal problems.

The Palace of Westminster, London.

Mrs Milman

Location: SW1 (Greater London) - Palace of Westminster
Type: Manifestation of the Living
Date / Time: 1899 (Milman), 1989 other)
Further Comments: A ghost seen around the palace was identified as (the still living) Mrs Milman, and although she worked at the site as Assistant Clerk, she was not present at the time of the sightings. In a contemporary newspaper report, Milman said that she was constantly being seen in places in which she was not present. In 1999, a lift operator claimed to have been picked up by an unseen force and thrown fifteen feet down a corridor.

Grey Lady

Location: Baginton (West Midlands) - Old Mill House hotel
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: 1950s
Further Comments: This phantom is said to be more likely heard than seen, her voice has been detected in the restaurant. The ghost was reputedly that of a woman murdered by her husband, and remained on this mortal plane looking for her child. Another story says the site became home to the ghost of a man murdered over a debt and would occasionally manifest on the staircase.

Chair

Location: Coventry (West Midlands) - Private residence, Kenilworth Road
Type: Curse
Date / Time: Unknown if still present
Further Comments: The artist John Heritage-peters lived at this site and threatened to haunt anyone who removed a chair from the gallery. The artist died in 1965 and subsequent house owners honoured his wish. When offered for sale in 1988, the house featured in the local press, complete with chair and associated folklore.