The Paranormal Database

Figure in White

Location: Toft Hill (Durham) - Churchyard (and general area)
Type: Other
Date / Time: 1880
Further Comments: For a period of 'some months' a figure in a white sheet upset and scared locals until encountering a policeman who gave chase. The phantom was caught and revealed to be a drunken miner in a nightshirt, who had to pay a fine of 7s 6d (around a day's wages).

Scared to Death

Location: SE4 (Greater London) - Brockley Cemetery (aka Deptford Cemetery)
Type: Other
Date / Time: 21 March 1888
Further Comments: The British Medical Journal reported that an eighteen-year-old girl had been 'frightened to death' by a man dressed as a ghost.

Singing Lady

Location: SE4 (Greater London) - Brockley Jack public house
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: 2000s
Further Comments: The building appeared on the television programme 'Whines and Spirits', where it was said the pub ghosts included a small child on the back stairs, a singing lady in the attic, and a figure in the cellar. Objects moved and a front door reportedly locked and bolted itself.

Percy

Location: SE4 (Greater London) - Private residence, Brockley Road
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Circa 1900
Further Comments: The occupants of this property claimed to have seen a figure wearing a chimneypot hat behind the front door - he vanished as they opened it. Disembodied footsteps that ran up the staircase were also reported. Elliot O'Donnell identified the ghost as Percy Stephens.

Grabbing

Location: SE4 (Greater London) - Private residence, Endwell Road
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: Situated in an area hit by a V1 rocket during the Second World War, residents and visitors at this property had the feeling of something grabbing for their feet on the staircase. Another person reported an eerie 'trapped' sensation around the cellar entrance.

Boy

Location: SE4 (Greater London) - Rivoli Ballroom
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: Staff have reported footsteps in an empty bar after closing, and the shadow of a young boy against a projection screen.

Floating Face

Location: SE4 (Greater London) - Unidentified house, Brockley Road
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Summer evening, nineteenth century
Further Comments: A woman encountered a floating green/yellow face with matted hair in an upstairs corridor, which vanished when she exclaimed 'In the name of Christ, be gone!'

The Devil of Deptford

Location: SE8 (Greater London) - Back Lane (now site of Gilbert House), Deptford
Type: Poltergeist
Date / Time: 25 April - end May, 1699
Further Comments: Over a thousand stones were thrown in and around this home over a five-week period, breaking windows and a wooden shutter. Other objects were also thrown and moved, including pewter plates, china cups and an iron heater which hit the side of a woman's head, drawing blood. The activity appears to be associated with an unidentified visitor to the property - the events started ten days after their arrival and ceased when they departed.

Vanishing Boy

Location: Stoke-on-Trent (Staffordshire) - King's Hall
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Music/boy unknown, 'Abigail' 2023
Further Comments: Musical performances from many years ago are occasionally heard in the empty hall, while another story says a young boy approaches witnesses and requests help before vanishing. A ghost hunt was attended by journalist Flora Hyatt, who described an unsettling feeling and, when asking 'Is there anybody here', a spirit box replied 'Abigail'.

Coinneach Odhar's Stone

Location: Allanfearn (Highland) - Petty Bay
Type: Legend - Old Nick
Date / Time: 20 February 1799, (and still present?)
Further Comments: This eight-tonne rock is also known as the Abban Stone. It moved almost 240 metres from its original position unaided, leaving a large hole where it had stood. Some people blamed the Devil, while others believed a combination of ice and strong wind carried it to the new position. The stone also appeared in a prophecy issued by the Brahan Seer, who said the stone would advance as far into the sea as it was inland.

Accident

Location: Allanfearn (Highland) - Small bridge off Ardersier Road
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Unfunny
Further Comments: The bridge was said to be haunted, although the exact details are not known. A local story claimed that a practical joker once placed a sheet over his head and tried to scare a ploughman passing through the area. The joke fell flat when the ploughman struck the 'ghost' with a piece of iron, killing him.

Monk

Location: Cannock Chase (Staffordshire) - Site of monastery (exact location not known)
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Winter, mid twentieth century?
Further Comments: While walking across the Chase in the snow, a man watched a figure wearing a habit picking up firewood. The man approached the figure, only to watch him vanish, leaving no footprints in the snow.

Lady in Grey

Location: Little Haywood (Staffordshire) - Weetman's Bridge
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: A driver spotted a woman in grey standing by the roadside. Assuming she wanted a lift, the driver pulled over but the woman had vanished. A local story says this has happened on more than one occasion.

Robed Woman

Location: Ascot (Berkshire) - Ex-Service Men's Club
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: This phantom woman, complete with flowing robes, would be blamed for turning off gas pumps, opening doors, and flushing toilets.

Shaggy Dog

Location: Ascot (Berkshire) - Old Huntsman's House
Type: Shuck
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: It has been reported that this house is haunted by a sheepdog-looking entity, which has also been heard barking. Folklore said a man in a red coat also haunted the site, likely Charles Davies, a head huntsman for Queen Anne. Any tampering with his portrait which hung in the main hall was said to result in the manifestation of a fiery huntsman.

Crowd

Location: Ascot (Berkshire) - Racetrack
Type: Environmental Manifestation
Date / Time: 1930 (?)
Further Comments: Actor Wilfrid Hyde-White, while walking the empty, off-season track with a friend, heard a crowd, a voice mentioning the queen, and the names of horses which had won. The sounds lasted for a couple of minutes before ending. Wilfrid initially thought the noise to be a phantasmal racing event from the past, but after attempting and failing to find the names of the winning horses in old documents, concluded the audible scene was from the future.

Moving Car

Location: Ascot (Berkshire) - Unidentified property
Type: Poltergeist
Date / Time: 1975
Further Comments: Over a period of several weeks, the family car would be found moved in the mornings, pushed sideways between two to three metres in distance overnight. The car doors would be locked, and nightly observers would not see any movement.

Trotting Horse

Location: Sunninghill (Berkshire) - Sunninghill Park
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Mid twentieth century
Further Comments: During the Second World War, a soldier on patrol heard a horse pass him by, even though nothing could be seen.

Torn Skirts

Location: Sawston (Cambridgeshire) - Unidentified Farm
Type: Other
Date / Time: October 1804
Further Comments: Family members and servants found the lower parts of their clothing torn. When repaired, the apparel would soon become damaged again. Visitors to the home also found their coats, gowns and skirts inexplicably torn. Chemical damage was ruled out.

Waving Woman

Location: Ballachulish (Highland) - A82, south of Ballachulish bridge
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Late 2006, after dark
Further Comments: A worker and their apprentice driving home in dark, wet, snowy conditions passed an older woman standing on the side of a steep embankment waving a white cloth. The driver braked, performed a three-point turn and returned to the spot, but the woman had vanished without trace.

Reputed

Location: Evanton (Highland) - Larch Bridge, between Evanton and Dingwall
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: The bridge was locally known as the haunted bridge, with locals said to avoid the area after dark, although the nature of the haunting is not known.

Not Known

Location: Evanton (Highland) - Novar House garden
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: The Evanton Oral History Project recorded that two members of the family had seen a ghost in the garden during daylight hours.

Dunvegan Castle (public domain).

Fairy Flag

Location: Sligachan, Isle of Skye (Highland) - Dunvegan Castle
Type: Fairy
Date / Time: Flag story unknown, cats seen circa 2002
Further Comments: The Flag of the MacLeod's was given to them by a fairy that changed herself into a mortal and married into the family - it can only be used three times, but each time it is waved, it grants the MacLeods victory over a foe. Used twice before (1490 & 1580), the flag remained true to the fairy's words. The Fairy Bridge near the castle is considered inherently evil, upsets animals, and is reputedly haunted by a clowder of cats once owned by a witch.

Lady Derwentwater

Location: Dilston (Northumberland) - Dilston Hall, nearby woods, and Earls Bridge over Devils Water
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: Waiting for the return of her husband, Lady Derwentwater gazes out of one of the windows (or on occasion, her lamp has been spotted flickering in the distance). Lady Derwentwater's spirit is also said to stalk the nearby woods, and both her and the Earl of Derwentwater reputedly haunt the bridge. A legend says that when Lord Derwentwater was executed at the Tower of London in 1716, the stream running by the hall turned red with blood.

Reluctant Horses

Location: Hughley (Shropshire) - Harnage ford
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: 2002
Further Comments: Horses approaching the ford would stop and be reluctant to cross. A local farmer speculated the horses could pick up the psychic echo of a local tragedy, where a coach accident at the ford killed a horse and a bride on route to her wedding.

Black Cloud

Location: Mumbles Head (West Glamorgan) - Direction of Pwlldu bay
Type: UFO
Date / Time: Late December 1908 / early January 1909
Further Comments: The crew of the pilot cutter Beaufort watched a large black cloud pass by, creating noise resembling bursts from a Maxim gun, which lasted twenty minutes. One witness said they had never observed anything like the phenomenon.

Dazzling Car

Location: Oldberrow (Warwickshire) - Humpbacked bridge
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: A car with blazing headlights reputedly haunted the road just outside the village, vanishing as it crossed the bridge. A local woman who lived close to the bridge for eighteen years said that she had never seen the vehicle.

Figures

Location: Crowthorne (Berkshire) - Crowthorne Station
Type: Poltergeist
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: A local story says that the bodies of fallen Second World War soldiers would be temporarily stored at the station during their transport home. Phantom figures are occasionally seen on the platform, and mild poltergeist activity reported around the area.

Walking Figures

Location: Finchampstead (Berkshire) - Bell barrow and surrounding woodland
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: One story says figures walk around the barrow and along the treeline at night, perhaps relating to the tall folkloric guardian which stands upon the barrow to protect it. Some dogs are supposed to refuse to go near the barrow.

Young Girl

Location: Finchampstead (Berkshire) - Heath Pool (aka Heath Pond), Simons Woods, and Devil's Highway
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: A young girl who drowned while holidaying in the early twentieth century is said to remain in the area. A highwayman who used the woods is also reputed to haunt the woods, with people either feeling his presence or hearing his horse.

Thrown Bricks

Location: Finchampstead (Berkshire) - Old Forge
Type: Poltergeist
Date / Time: February - August 1926
Further Comments: Items would be turned over or relocated, including a heavy carpenter's bench, and bricks removed from the walls. Messages would also be found, some instructing the family living here to leave, while others said 'stay'. Harry Price and other investigators visited the site, and the events proved popular with the press.

Woman

Location: Finchampstead (Berkshire) - Queen's Oak public house
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: A phantom elderly woman is said to sit by the bar, always on the same stall. The pub appeared on the TV entertainment show 'Help! My House is Haunted', in which a demonic spirit is encountered before being removed.

Strange Lights

Location: Sandhurst (Berkshire) - Ambarrow Court (currently a nature reserve)
Type: Other
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: Used by the Royal Aircraft Establishment before becoming a local nature reserve, lights are said to be seen moving amongst the trees on this site.

Exploding Blobs

Location: Slough (Berkshire) - Skies over the town
Type: UFO
Date / Time: Mid-May 1973
Further Comments: Witnesses observed a black, pear-shaped balloon-like blob in the sky before it exploded into smoke and flame, falling to the ground (although no wreckage was reported). Another object was reported a few days later. Local research stations and their use of balloons were blamed for the UFO, although all the organisations denied knowledge.

Like a Cheetah

Location: Bowburn (Durham) - Outside private residence
Type: ABC
Date / Time: July/August 1986
Further Comments: A couple from the village spotted a cat as large as a Labrador with a face like a cheetah and a tail about seventy-five centimetres long near their home. Police said it may have been a wildcat.

Passerby

Location: Skidby (East Riding of Yorkshire) - Skidby Mill Museum
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: 2023
Further Comments: Whilst washing their hands in the bathroom, this witness noticed, in the bathroom mirror, someone walk past and enter a toilet cubicle. They thought nothing of it, until turning round to leave and noticing all the toilet doors were open and none occupied.

Strange Lights

Location: Folkestone (Kent) - 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.

Stone Throwing

Location: St Helens (Merseyside) - Kirkland Street
Type: Poltergeist
Date / Time: Late April - Early May 1905
Further Comments: Stones, bricks, and potatoes would be thrown along this street after the sun went down. A projectile knocked off a police constable's helmet and other people suffered near misses. Although the local press played up the supernatural aspect of the incidents, the police believed they were looking for 'someone in the flesh'.

Broad Shouldered Man

Location: Glen Shee (Perth and Kinross) - A93 between Blairgowrie and Glen Shee, near the Devil's Elbow
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: 15 November 2025, 18:15h
Further Comments: The driver of a car and their partner spotted a broad-shouldered man wearing light clothes walking ahead on the dark road. As the fog lights illuminated the figure, it stepped in front of the car. The driver slammed on their brakes, anticipating an impact but the figure vanished, causing both driver and passenger to scream.

Three People and their Dog

Location: Barnsley (South Yorkshire) - Private residence, Worsbrough
Type: Unknown Ghost Type
Date / Time: 1985
Further Comments: While at home, a fourteen-year-old boy encountered two men, a woman, and an Alsatian dog which he walked through before they disappeared. The following day, the boy's father noticed a change in the child's demeanour and asked if he had seen 'them', describing the four entities.

Lights

Location: Monks Eleigh (Suffolk) - Cottage on Swingleton Hill
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: April 1923
Further Comments: Lights were seen moving around this empty cottage by different witnesses at differing times, although debate sprang up on whether passing cars' lights reflected on the windows caused the illumination.

Egg Layers

Location: Wilstead (Bedfordshire) - Private land, four-hundred-year-old oak
Type: Fairy
Date / Time: Spring (reoccurring)
Further Comments: The former owner of the land claimed that on spring evenings, fairies danced around the tree and would lay pink eggs.

Lady

Location: Ockbrook (Derbyshire) - Churchyard and surrounding area
Type: Other
Date / Time: October / November 1889
Further Comments: A female figure would pop up on lonely spots, upsetting some of the locals. She appeared in the churchyard before running off; a villager and a policeman gave chase, catching up with the 'ghost' who was revealed to be a local woman who claimed she had been searching for her father's grave.

Calico Jack

Location: Lympstone (Devon) - Exact area not known
Type: Other
Date / Time: 1859
Further Comments: Two women observed a strange apparition which was given the name 'Calico Jack', although it is worth noting that the pirate known by that name (John Rackham) had no connection to the village. A man was later arrested.

Orange Sphere

Location: Aberystwyth (Dyfed) - Sky and off coast
Type: UFO
Date / Time: 04 June 1959
Further Comments: A witness watched an orange sphere in the sky moving towards Clarach. On the same morning, coastguards in north Wales were called after people spotted an object in the sky.

Winged Snake

Location: Cwmamman (Dyfed) - Colliery
Type: Cryptozoology
Date / Time: 19 June 1852
Further Comments: A three-foot (ninety centimetre) long winged snake was spotted by men leaving a colliery. It disappeared into a pile of coal and could not be found.

The beam, from Philosophical Magazine, May 1883.

Torpedo Shape

Location: SE10 (Greater London) - Greenwich Observatory
Type: UFO
Date / Time: 17 November 1882
Further Comments: Walter Maunder, the Royal Astronomer, observed an 'auroral beam' moving rapidly across the sky, which he also described as cigar-shaped and like a torpedo.

Saucer

Location: Thurlaston (Leicestershire) - Skies over the area
Type: UFO
Date / Time: 19 October 1959, 19:00h
Further Comments: Four men working in a timber yard witnessed a flying saucer, with eight white lights and one red light in the centre, pass slowly over the village. The UFO changed its form several times, transforming from spherical to a more elongated oval shape.

Kaiser

Location: Knaresborough (North Yorkshire) - Unidentified homes in the area
Type: Other
Date / Time: April 1917
Further Comments: Manifesting in several homes, a light would appear which contained the face of the Kaiser accompanied by an old woman who was either warning or scolding the German Emperor. Police investigations were unable to establish a cause.

Tall Black Shape

Location: Groesffordd (Powys) - Manor house (now holiday lets)
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: September 2021
Further Comments: While holidaying at the site, one witness watched a tall black shape cross from the open doorway and through the windows. Another guest occasionally spotted a similar shape, mistaking it for a real person until attempting to find the figure. Footsteps were also heard on squeaky floorboards and stone chips on the driveway.