The Paranormal Database

Watcher

Location: Wolverton (Buckinghamshire) - Private residence, Victoria Street
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Late twentieth century
Further Comments: One of the contributors in the book 'I Grew up in Wolverton Too' recalled the ghost of a previous inhabitant of their childhood home would enter her room and watch her sleep.

Cwm Idwal, copyright Micha Richardson.

Prince Idwal

Location: Cwm Idwal (Clwyd) - Waters of the lake
Type: Legend
Date / Time: Weather Dependent: Stormy weather
Further Comments: While the exact details vary from storyteller to storyteller, the legends agree that a young man named Idwal was murdered at the lake and that birds now avoid flying over the water as a mark of respect. Some variations say Idwal can be heard calling during stormy weather. As a side note, a giant is said to be buried on the nearby mountain.

Suited Figure

Location: Chesterfield (Derbyshire) - Private residence, Somersall area
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: 2014
Further Comments: A witness watched a large figure with a suit jacket and top hat walk through their garage door.

Melting Hand

Location: Exeter (Devon) - Private residence, Blackboy Road
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: 1993
Further Comments: A couple who moved into this building felt a presence in their box room. When one of the residents confronted the presence, they felt a hand on their shoulder which melted through their body. The couple moved out, and in the process discovered someone had recently died in that room.

Victorian Lady

Location: Loughborough (Leicestershire) - Epinal Way
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Early 2000s, morning
Further Comments: A passenger in a car spotted a woman with large hair wearing a fancy Victorian dress. The figure disappeared seconds after first being seen.

Triangle

Location: Ashdown Forest (Sussex) - Gills Lap area
Type: UFO
Date / Time: October 2024
Further Comments: Three large orange lights which formed triangular patterns were observed in the sky to the north-east.

Ladies!

Location: Dublin (County Dublin) - Madigan's Public house, O'Connell Street
Type: Other
Date / Time: 12 September 2025
Further Comments: While exiting a bathroom stall, a woman heard a loud voice say 'Ladies'. Both the room and the hallway outside were clear of other people. When asked, a member of staff told the witness the site was not haunted.

Knocking

Location: Chesterfield (Derbyshire) - House in Newbold Moor district
Type: Poltergeist
Date / Time: June - July 1906
Further Comments: A couple living in this house were subjected to strange sounds, including a knocking within the wall which travelled around the building. Neighbours also heard the noises. Locals said the house was once occupied by a man who would knock on the walls to summon his neighbours.

Sad Man

Location: Derby (Derbyshire) - 2 Brick Street (original building no longer standing)
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: October 1936?
Further Comments: Reportedly as only appearing during the day, this phantom was described as a sad-looking man wearing a black cape and wide-brimmed hat. Just before the demolition of the building, locals descended on the site, throwing stones and fireworks through the windows, perhaps trying to motivate the ghost to manifest (it did not work).

Scraping

Location: Derby (Derbyshire) - Private residence, Spondon
Type: Poltergeist
Date / Time: February - March 1987
Further Comments: An occupier and her two children moved out of this property after three weeks, having been subjected to scraping sounds which emerged from the kitchen, and unexplained footsteps walking upstairs. One witness watched a stool move unaided across the kitchen floor.

Hare Fox

Location: Chelmsford (Essex) - Outside of town, exact area not known
Type: Cryptozoology
Date / Time: 18 April 1886, morning
Further Comments: A father and daughter spotted a grey creature which resembled a fox, although it had long brown ears with white tips which were hare-like. They watched it jumping across a field until it disappeared into a hedge.

Voices

Location: St Peter Port (Guernsey) - Private flat
Type: Poltergeist
Date / Time: 2010 - 2025
Further Comments: Described as a male entity, this poltergeist has created voices and unexplained sounds, as well as the typical polt activity. In later years, the activity focused more on the occupant, which they found quite frightening.

Strange Dog

Location: Preston (Lancashire) - Exact area not known
Type: Cryptozoology
Date / Time: December 1847
Further Comments: Following the death of sheep in the area, a large number of people hunted and killed a strange dog of 'unusual size and very strongly made'. The creature also had forelegs as thick as a man's wrist.

Fertility Tree

Location: Milton Keynes (Buckinghamshire) - Elm tree near the Swan public house
Type: Legend
Date / Time: New tree now present
Further Comments: Tradition said that if this elm tree died, no one would give birth in the village. When the tree caught Dutch Elm Disease in 1974 it was cut down to a stump and then, in 1989, a car crash destroyed the remains. The following year a resident planted a replacement elm.

Abstinent Fairies

Location: Llandudno (Clwyd) - Blacksmiths in Craig-y-Don
Type: Fairy
Date / Time: Possibly early nineteenth century?
Further Comments: Fairies told a drunken blacksmith if he ceased his drinking, he would benefit. The smith sobered up, and a few months later, was visited by a strange man who needed new shoes for his horse. After being tied to the smith's building, the horse bolted, pulling down masonry as it fled. The horse's owner also vanished. While repairing the damage, the blacksmith discovered three brass kettles filled with money.

Pump

Location: Glasgow (Lanarkshire) - Water pump near Tron Church
Type: Other
Date / Time: Circa 1819
Further Comments: Superstition associated with a public water pump with two sprouts resulted in people only ever using the front spigot.

Lady Louisa

Location: Warminster (Somerset) - Longleat House, corridor known as Green Lady's Walk, and Safari Park
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Late twentieth century (Louisa), 09 September 2025 (shadow)
Further Comments: The Lady Louisa, caught inside an unhappy marriage, engaged herself in an affair of the heart with another man. Her husband, on discovering this, was less than happy and killed her lover. Louisa now walks the aptly named corridor in regret. In 2025, Dr Tom Lewis recorded a shadowy figure within the Safari Park, although the image is quite grainy.

Edwardian Woman

Location: Rosewell (Lothian) - Rosewell and Hawthornden railway station (no longer operating)
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: This disused station was reported as being haunted by an Edwardian woman in a long black dress.

Edwardian Woman

Location: Birkenhead (Merseyside) - Private residence near Borough Road
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: 2008 - 2012
Further Comments: A witness reported repeatedly seeing a woman wearing Edwardian clothing in their home, although the encounters were not fearful.

Blame the Skeletons

Location: Godalming (Surrey) - Church Street, Mint Street and Station Road areas, including Priory Orchard (demolished)
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: 2014 and prior years
Further Comments: Almost four hundred skeletons were discovered buried in the area during archaeological work. In the local press, the Rev Canon Mervyn Roberts said that they had received many reports of paranormal activities in properties in the roads above. The former occupant of Priory Orchard, the demolition of which triggered the dig, had also claimed the property as haunted.

Rockets

Location: Crawley (Sussex) - Skies from railway station
Type: UFO
Date / Time: Late November 1947
Further Comments: Witnesses outside Crawley railway station watched two rockets heading west, with other reports coming from across Sussex during the same week.

Fairies

Location: Glynneath (West Glamorgan) - Aberpergwm
Type: Fairy
Date / Time: Nineteenth century
Further Comments: A letter in the press mentioned that six people had seen fairies in the area.

Mystery Rockets

Location: Birmingham (West Midlands) - Skies above the area
Type: UFO
Date / Time: 25 November.1947
Further Comments: Fast moving objects seen during the day at low altitude and moving from east to west leaving a trail of sparks were identified as 'probably' shooting stars by the Edgbaston Observatory. One witness said that he thought the object he witnessed resembled a rocket.

Silver Saucer

Location: Birmingham (West Midlands) - Skies over the area
Type: UFO
Date / Time: 16 July 1947
Further Comments: Four witnesses watched a silver object in the sky during a storm. One of the witnesses claimed the object would periodically pause in its movements before continuing.

Black Orb

Location: Soham (Cambridgeshire) - Private residence
Type: Fairy
Date / Time: 2017, summer
Further Comments: On a warm summer's evening, a witness heard flapping in their ears, like the sound of dragonfly wings. Turning their head, the witness spotted a black orb hovering in the room. As they approached, the orb darted into the garden through an open door.

Executioner

Location: Caxton (Cambridgeshire) - A428 near Caxton Gibbet
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: 2002, evening
Further Comments: A driver heading towards Cambridge from St Neots spotted what looked like a classic executioner, wearing a black hooded cloak, with its head bent down. Visible for only a few seconds, the figure then vanished.

Vampire Birds

Location: Driffield (East Riding of Yorkshire) - Kester Farm
Type: Cryptozoology
Date / Time: 09 March 1947
Further Comments: The People newspaper reported that a farmer lost three sheep to 'vampire' birds during the harsh winter conditions. Other newspapers were a little less dramatic, blaming starving crows and foxes.

White Robe

Location: Outer London: Brentford (Greater London) - New Brentford National School (rebuilt 1905)
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: 28 September 1835
Further Comments: A schoolmaster, soon after discovering writing slates scattered around the floor, found himself questioning ten children who reported seeing a tall white shape in a robe which may have disappeared into the cellar. Volunteers ventured into the cellar but found nothing, not even footprints in the wet mud contained within.

Hatless Man

Location: Llanmadoc (West Glamorgan) - Church and surrounding area
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: 27 January 1868
Further Comments: During choir practice, Rev John David Davies was disturbed by a scream coming from the graveyard. A young man said he had seen 'a man without a hat' look through his window. Eighteen ships had been wrecked in Broughton Bay, and it was thought the hatless figure to be one of the many sailors who had died.

Ball of Fire

Location: Swansea (West Glamorgan) - Mumbles, exact area not known
Type: Fairy
Date / Time: Early nineteenth century
Further Comments: A man pursued a ball of fire that morphed into a shapeshifting 'horrid black thing'. Despite outrunning him, the shape settled near the exhausted man and started to shrink, so the man caught the entity in his hat. Intending to ask the entity where he could find buried treasure, the man began to daydream about what to do with his newfound wealth, which included leaving his wife for another woman; the creature disappeared.

Shadowy Figure

Location: Corsham (Wiltshire) - Private residence north of town
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: 2014 - 2015
Further Comments: A shadowy figure would occasionally be seen, as tall as the doorframe under which it stood. The family also felt a horrible presence in the living room which felt like it was observing the people within, and they would also avoid spending time by the staircase for the same reason.

Black Lady

Location: Burton (near Neston) (Cheshire) - Marshland between Burton and Harp Inn in Neston
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: The story of a phantom black lady with a black dog which would cross the marshland was possibly a story manufactured so smugglers could work uninterrupted.

Grey Lady

Location: Kendal (Cumbria) - A6 on the Levens Bridge
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: The phantom grey lady is said to have been a traveller with whom a former Lord of Levens had a child. When the Lord grew tired with her, she was denied access to the hall; in retaliation, she cursed the family (although the curse has now lifted).

Door Opener

Location: Wilmslow (Cheshire) - George and Dragon public house (no longer operating)
Type: Poltergeist
Date / Time: 1966 - 1976
Further Comments: As they were leaving, the publicans spoke to the press about their poltergeist, who opened doors, shook tables and moved pictures. One member of staff had fled the cellar after believing he had seen a ghost.

Piping

Location: Lydiate (Merseyside) - Scotch Piper Inn
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: While phantom piping was mentioned in a 1976 newspaper article, no one seems to agree what, if anything, haunts the site.

Levitating Egg

Location: Sandbach (Cheshire) - Caravan (no longer there), Fields Farm
Type: Poltergeist
Date / Time: May - June 1976
Further Comments: Reported in the local press, a caravan housing the Bebbington family also became home for a poltergeist who smashed windows and levitated an egg from the fridge. Even though the family believed the activity had calmed after an exorcism, they moved to a house three miles away. It was later claimed that the entity was Henry Scragg, born at the farm in 1840.

Suffocation

Location: SE4 (Greater London) - Unknown residence, Brockley
Type: Poltergeist
Date / Time: December 1920
Further Comments: A few weeks after moving in, the Trent family experienced shaking beds, flashing light bulbs, and an invisible entity which tried to suffocate Mrs Trent with a pillow. After several more nights of smashing mirrors and ornaments, and the manifestation of a figure made of black smoke, the family moved out.

Stone Shower

Location: Oakham (Rutland) - Oakham School
Type: Poltergeist
Date / Time: Circa 1971
Further Comments: Matthew Manning claimed in his book The Link that the school had a poltergeist outbreak which focused on him, resulting in moving bunkbeds and showers of stones and pieces of concrete manifesting from nowhere.

John Pigott

Location: Brockley (Somerset) - Brockley Court (aka Brockley Manor)
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Pigott early 20 century, old woman every 26 years, due either 2032 or 2042
Further Comments: Pigott's shade was frequently seen by members of the family, wearing a frilly collar and carrying a rapier - on several occasions the entity picked up or dragged people out of bed. The apparition of the old woman is said to be so horrific that anyone who sees her is driven mad, although she missed her first scheduled appearance of the twenty-first decade.

Fires

Location: Studley (Warwickshire) - Private residence, Monks Drive
Type: Other
Date / Time: 1976
Further Comments: A father became convinced his home had a poltergeist after waking to find his bed on fire. He found his son fighting another fire in the living room. Crockery and windows would also be broken, although the son later admitted to police that he had caused the damage and the fires.

Diving Dog

Location: Birmingham (West Midlands) - Canal near Moor Lane
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Circa 1970s
Further Comments: A phantom dog would be seen leaping into the canal, but no splash could be heard - the hound would just disappear.

Hit and Vanish

Location: Birmingham (West Midlands) - Witton Cemetery, Moor Lane
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: 1995, and 1974
Further Comments: A driver was convinced that he had run over a figure outside the cemetery (he felt and heard the 'bump' of the body on the car's bonnet), but the 'victim' vanished without trace. A police search of the area also failed to find any evidence of the accident. Twenty years previous, a driver reported seeing a ghostly airman drifting along the road.

Vanishing Items

Location: Derby (Derbyshire) - Dental laboratory, Reginald Street
Type: Poltergeist
Date / Time: November 1975
Further Comments: Items would teleport around the site, with a denture vanishing and reappearing on one man's shoulder, a teapot moving itself to a different room, and the cat's collar found wrapped around a Bunsen burner. On one occasion, two dental casts vanished from a work bench only to be delivered, carefully wrapped, by the postman a brief time later.

Sir Rowland.

Sir Rowland Hill

Location: Kidderminster (Hereford & Worcester) - Telephone exchange
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Circa February 1976
Further Comments: Described as a friendly phantom, the ghost of Sir Rowland would open locked doors and could be heard walking along empty corridors. One witness answered the phone to an internal call, the voice sounding old-fashioned, 'weird and eerie'. A shadowy figure would also be seen at the switchboard. It is not clear why Rowland Hill was identified as the ghost.

Pillion Rider

Location: Epping Forest (Essex) - Unknown road through the forest
Type: Other
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: A motorcyclist picked up a female hitchhiker who, after telling the biker her address in a nearby village, rode pillion. A mile further along, the biker realised the woman had vanished but decided to continue the journey to her home regardless. When the biker arrived and knocked on the door, he was told she had died a few years previous. The story is a well-known urban legend and its basis in reality taken lightly.

Long Necked Creature

Location: Tenby (Clackmannanshire) - Bottom of a cliff / off coast
Type: Cryptozoology
Date / Time: June 1876
Further Comments: A witness spotted a creature with a three-foot (ninety centimetre) long neck at the base of a cliff. The creature swam off at tremendous speed. The witness was familiar with the usual objects mistaken for sea serpents.

Hybrid

Location: Rhyl (Clwyd) - Llewerllyd Farm
Type: Other
Date / Time: 1893
Further Comments: A half lamb half deer (leer?) was born to a sheep. The young ewe had the head and hind legs of a deer. The creature was healthy and ran with the rest of the flock. The farmer refused to sell the animal.

Wolf?

Location: Vale of Lorton (Cumbria) - Low Fell range
Type: Cryptozoology
Date / Time: March 1936
Further Comments: Two witnesses encountered a 'strange animal' on multiple occasions. It was described as larger than a foxhound, with a big head, long jaw, and a very long tail that was bushy at the tip. and long black legs. One witness said it resembled wolves he had seen at the zoo.

Blue Spinner

Location: Hartlepool (Durham) - Brierton Lane
Type: UFO
Date / Time: October 1959
Further Comments: A witness watched a bright blue object 'like a spinning top' cross the sky and quickly fade into space.

Fairy Circle

Location: Cwm (Carmarthenshire) (Dyfed) - Unknown meadow in the area
Type: Fairy
Date / Time: Unknown, likely pre-nineteenth century
Further Comments: A child was warned to stay away from a meadow containing three rings made with grass that looked like 'weaved around the edges', as fairies had created them. Anyone foolish enough to enter the rings could never escape.